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To return you thanks, and to inform you of these matters, I have written this letter, in the middle of the moon of Rebiniltani.

(Signed)

HAMUDA,

Pacha, Dey, Prince of Princes, and Lord of the well-guarded town of Tunis.

[The Dey added to this letter a lift of eighteen Frenchmen, who had been taken by Tunisian cruifers in foreign veffels without paffports, and made flaves of. He gave them their liberty, and fent them to France.]

Proceedings at the Sitting of the Executive Directory on the ft Nivofe (Dec. 21), 1797.

THE minifter of the interior informed the Directory, that a deputation of the merchants of Paris folicited the honour of being admitted to an audience, and afked leave to make fome patriotic propofitions relative to the means of procuring the neceffary funds for a defcent on England, and to affure the vengeance of France against the tyrannic government of that island.

The prefident ordered the minifter to introduce the deputation. The Directory, accompanied by the fecretary general and the minifters, and preceded by the fergeants at arms and metfengers of ftate, proceeded into the hall of public audience.

The deputation was introduced by the minifter of the interior. It confifted of citizens Lecouteulx, Fulchiron fenior, Fulchiron junior, Jubie, Enfantin, Saillard, Recamier, Hupais, Marnet, Doyen, Decretot, Charlemagne, Defprez, and Barillon.

The deputation was prefented by the minifter of finances, who ftated the object of the million in the following terms:

"Citizens Directors-After having fecured the repofe of the continent, you have confidered, fince it belongs to the destiny of the republic to make peace with her enemies only at the gates of their capitals, that you ought to fend to England thofe invincible columns which have confined victory to their ftandards, and that general who is as diftinguished by his profound knowledge of the general policy of nations as by his military talents.

"The merchants of Paris fee, in this determination, a favourable profpect of the liberty of the feas, and the restoration of commerce. They are convinced that the moment is come to prove to an enemy, who always gives way when clofely preffed, that the French are at last prepared to terminate a war which is only prolonged because a handful of pirates have the barbarity to calculate upon its events as fpeculations, as chances favourable to their

interefts.

"The merchants of Paris have become the organ of the public opinion. Each citizen wishes to give a proof of the confidence he

places

places in the fuccefs of your measures; they intend to propofe to you to invite the legislative body to open a loan, the fhares of which fhall be mortgaged upon our victories.

"The Romans fold the ground on which Hannibal was encamped: but history has not informed us if this celebrated people ever declared to their obftinate enemies that the war fhould be carried on at their expenfe. This trait fhall be added to our'anmals. The loan proposed to be borrowed fhall be called the loan upon England. It will foon be completed. The Great Nation' speedily executes whatever it plans.

"The deputies of the merchants reoeft an opportunity of ftating their views upon this fubject. beg that the Executive Directory will liften to them."

Citizen Fulchiron, the elder, spoke thus, in the name of the deputation:

"Citizens Directors-At the moment in which the French nation prepares to attack, with all her ftrength; her eternal and implacable enemy-at the moment in which our invincible legions are about to cross the almost infurmountable barrier which nature has placed between us and the haughty tyrants of the fea, all who poffefs hearts truly French and republican are feized with that profound and irrefiftible enthufiafm which is ufually the forerunner of important events and brilliant fucceffes.

"The merchants of this great city, and thofe of all France, cannot diffemble, that it is particularly their caufe which the conquerors of Italy and of the Rhine prepare to fupport and to avenge. All the merchants of the continent of Europe ought to unite in arming against this perfidious government.

"But the French merchants do not want a particular and perfonal motive, to make them partake in the facred fentiment which at this moment animates all republican fouls.

"We have seen the three-coloured ftandard planted on the banks of the Texel, and waving on the islands of the Ægean fea. On the continent we see no longer any but republican friends, or monarchs who are compelled to fupplicate our alliance. Shall, then, the ocean, the common mother of the riches of the universe, which ought to carry our glory, our arts, and our industry into every part of the globe, be interdicted to us? Shall the ocean be enflaved by a handful of proud iflanders?

"Great and intrepid conquerors of Lodi, of Rivoli, of Tagli amento, of Fleurus, of Kehl, and of Neuwied!-you whofe path is marked by triumphs, and by the emancipation of nations! -you cannot endure this horrible idea! We see you prefs in crowds to the fhores of the ocean, offering your services to your country-We fee you haftening, from the banks of the Rhine and the fummits of the Alps, to restore to the French nation her VOL. VII: maritime

H

maritime power, and to the national commere its ancient fplendour

"Bearing in our breafts the impatience of a noble vengeance, we ask you, in common with all republicans, why the French nation is not refpected on the feas as fhe is on the continent? Shall our laurels wither even in the midst of our triumphs?

"But in vain fhall England, after having fown in our country, crimes and evils of every kind by the gold of which the defpoils the nations fubjected to her deceits, shelter herself by her numerous veffels! In vain fhall fhe flatter herself with efcaping the juft punishment which awaits her! We fhall fend back to that island the fcourges with which its government defolated our provinces; but, more generous and more brave, we will know how to moderate and how to reftrain the most legitimate refentment, from the moment in which it fhall have expiated its long and perni

cious errors.

"Could the merchants of this great city, of all the republic, remain filent fpectators of fo great a movement? No, Citizens Directors! All commercial men, all who give life and fpirit to our national industry, befeech you to open to them a civic career, by which they may concur in promoting the great and generous enterprise which you have in view.

"Is French commerce uninterested in the great national armament which is preparing? Are not all the fortunate chances of this expedition in its favour? and is it not certain that they will reftore it to its ancient dominion, and to all the profperity which belongs to the commerce of a great nation? Can, then, the merchants of France balance for a moment between the temporary privation of a barren enjoyment, and the profpect of so much future profperity?

"This is the most favourable moment for the emancipation of the feas, for us and for our pofterity; and this fortunate crifis has been created by our victories. The commerce of France cannot endure that it should have been wafted in vain. The peace of Europe would have but a precarious exiftence, the continent would remain humbled before thefe haughty iflanders, if the most powerful efforts, Citizens Directors, did not concur in the exe cution of your plans.

"The ardent wifhes of all Frenchmen, the undaunted courage of our warriors, are fo many pledges of fuccefs; but there is one on which we found, as well as you, Citizens Directors, a hope which cannot be difappointed. It is the fublime and almost incredible valour of the young hero, who, during two years of uninterrupted triumphs, has filled the univerfe with the report of his fame, whofe prudence is the admiration of the old, whofe generofity is the model of the young, whose wisdom and genius xcite the wonder of the philofopher, whofe name will hence

forth

forth for ever be infeparable from victory, and always recall the idea of every virtue by which glory can be embellished.

"Citizens Directors, the merchants of Paris, of whom we are the organ, anxiously beg of you to fend a meffage to the legislative body, inviting them to open a loan, which may give you the means, as prompt as certain, of effecting a descent upon England, and of transporting thither our hero, those whom he fhall conduct, and all their glory. This loan may be mortgaged upon an indirect impoft. The public opinion declares itself for a measure of this kind. The duration of this impoft ought to be limited to the period of the repayment of the loan, which fhould be borrowed upon that principle. It would be defirable, also, that the loan fhould be made in fuch a manner as to manifeft, with new force, a wish to confolidate the arrears of the national debt, and to re-establish, or rather to create anew, the public credit, which must always be attached to the engagements of the republic."

Citizen Barras, the prefident of the Directory, thus replied to the deputation:

Citizens-The Executive Directory, witneffing every day the virtues of the French people, is not astonished at the patriotic devotion which has produced the propofitions fo truly republican as those you have now made to your country; but it applauds with emotion that fentiment of liberty which has at this moment conducted you hither.

"The infolent pride of the English government, which flatters itfelf with the chimera that there exifts no longer any national fpirit in France, may mark this day as the epoch of its approaching humiliation. Your conduct predicts what the valour of republican arms will execute; and Europe, attentive to this great event, cannot fail to be ftruck with that contraft which the people of the two nations prefent-the one funk under the fifcal oppreffion of a tyrannic government-the other, after eight years of revolution, and at the end of an ever memorable war, offering fpontaneously to the country their wealth, the tributes of their induftry, and thus difplaying the extent of their refources. If the armies of France have already proved that the republic is invincible, her merchants now prove that her means are inexhaustible, and that, in this generous ftruggle, warriors and citizens have alike acquired inconteftable claims on the national gratitude.

"It was worthy of you, citizens, to impofe filence, by this great act of civifm, on thofe malevolent perfons who tax our commercial citizens with indifference, as if the just and legitimate war, which France maintains, had not for one of its principal objects the preservation and the extenfion of commerce. This frivolous reproach is ftill one of the crimes of England, and one of the means of her exclufive ambition; but the perfidious defigns

of the defpots of the ocean are penetrated. They would confent, perhaps, to acknowledge the fovereignty of the French people, if the French people would confent to allow them to exercise their tyranny on the feas. The establishment of the French republic is the continual fubject of their wild declamations; but in their powerlefs rage they tremble at the opening of the Scheldt, and the free navigation of the Rhine: they are enraged to fee all the ports of the Mediterranean open to our fhips and fleets.

"Citizens, doubt not that all republicans, will haften to fecond your patriotic efforts. All hearts jealous of the national glory, rejoice at your propofition in every corner of France. Every town whofe commerce has been fufpended, and whofe manufac tures have ceased in confequence of the war, will haften to imitate you. Like you, they are animated by the love of the country. Like you, they have long and cruel injuries to avenge; and in the enthusiasm with which you will infpire them, they will be inflamed with the defire of having it in their power to fay, We alfa have given a blow to our implacable enemy!

"Thus we appear to proceed rapidly towards the perfection of republican manners, fince they have already produced among us fuch great examples of devotion, as would have been fufficient to have illuftrated the best times of the ancient republics. But what do I fay? We furpass them in magnanimity. Imminent dangers prefcribed the efforts of their patriotifm; but in the French republic the whole defire of emancipating Europe from a shameful domination is fufficient to inflame your hearts.

"The Executive Directory will haften, citizens, to tranfmit your addrefs to the legislative body. Anticipated already by fame, the faithful reprefentatives of the people burn with the noble impatience of welcoming it with the applaufe which it fo justly deferves. They are convinced with the members of the Directory, that the fplendour of the republic depends upon the fplendour of commerce. Rely, then, upon the invariable protection of the legiflators and of the Directory, as well as upon the admiration and the gratitude of France."

Shouts of Live the republic! Live the liberty of the feas! refounded from every part of the hall; and the military mufic played Ca Ira.

The prefident gave the fpeaker of the deputation the fraternal embrace, amidst univerfal plaudits, and the most lively demonftrations of public approbation.

The Directory retired fome time into the hall of the minifters, and held a private conference with the deputation.

On the return of the Directory, the deliberations recommenced upon the important addrefs of the merchants of Paris; and a meilage was fent to both Councils, inviting them to take the propofed measure into their immediate confideration.

Meffage

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