no other free election to the people, but merely to fill the vacan cies in that body. At that moment a flagrant breach of the conftitution was committed, and a direct violation of the inalienable rights of the people perpetrated.

No difgraceful pretexts, no contemptible perverfion of the words of the conftitution, will ever be found fufficient to justify this act of violence in the opinion of any nation in Europe.

These things, Batavians, you have all feen; they could escape the obfervation of no perfon. But we, whofe different fituations have placed us around the intermediary adminiftration, have been able to view the whole of thefe tranfactions, and difcover their motives and confequences. Numerous complaints of the inhabitants, which would not have existed, had it not been for the violent event of the 22d of January, have inceffantly diverted the attention of the intermediary adminiftration from the great interests of the country, and fixed it on matters of lefs importance. The negligence of the ruling powers has fpread from commune to commune through the country; and had not we, and some others, exerted ourselves to ftem the torrent, a general liftleffnefs and inactivity must have pervaded the whole land, and difaffection and alarm feized on all.

And will you then, Batavians, any longer fuffer in filence the injuftice done you? Do you not feel, like your ancestors, the value of civil freedom? Can you not diftinguith reality from appearance, and the fubftance from the name? Have you not long wifhed and expected that we, who have fworn fidelity to our country, who, from our fituation, muft be moft capable to deliver you, fhould attempt your deliverance? The refiftance of the people must be fatal to oppreffion, and each Batavian who feels his worth, muft at this moment be transformed into another Brutus. Batavians! you have wrefted the authority from your tyrants, who have ftolen it from you under the pretence of being your friends.

But think not, Batavians, that we will never restore to you that which is your inalienable property, or that, in the mean time, we will deliver it into unworthy hands. We here declare, that we are refponfible for it to you, and each of you, to our own confciences, and to the eternal Caufe of all things.

The event will fhow whether we have delivered you from ufurpation, or feized the authority as ufurpers ourselves. Let the firft conftitutional legislative body that thall meet, decide upon this fact; and, as we have already obferved, fince the majority of our former reprefentatives, legally elected, who, on the 22d of January laft, formed themfelves into a conflituent affembly,, and now have declared themselves a conflitutional legislative body, by which they have been guilty of an open attack on your fovereign power; and as your other reprefentatives, who acted as the heads of the federative or ariftocratic administration, now annulled, have

fcrupled

fcrupled to take their feats in the affembly: we, compelled by the urgency of circumftances, and obferving what is directed in the 31ft article of the regulation annexed to the conftitution, in cafe of a vacancy in the Executive Directory, have decreed, and hereby do decree,

1. That all fuch legislative authority of the Batavian people as fhall require to be exercised for the daily and neceffary interefts of the country, fhall, as foon as poffible, be committed to citizens whofe honour and integrity cannot be suspected.

2. That the late intermediary adminiftration of the Batavian republic shall be required, as bound by their refponfibility, to carry into effect the conftitution of the Batavian people, in a fpeedy and regular manner, for the restoration and establishment of the conftitutional legiflative body.

3. That all authority of legiflation, or in general of fovereignty, exercifed by the intermediary adminiftration, fhall, immediately after the establishment of the legislative body of the Batavian people, pafs to that body; and after the election by the latter of a legal Executive Directory of the Batavian republic, all the executive authority which we now neceffarily exert for the deliverance of our country, fhall be refigned to that Directory.

4. That we engage to be anfwerable for the juft and faithful ufe of our authority, and the refignation of it at the time we have mentioned, to the legislative body that fhall be elected, or by delegation from it, to the high national tribunal hereafter to be chofen.

Perfectly convinced that what we have done will be approved by the majority and most enlightened of the Batavian people, we hereby command, in their name, all conftituted authorities, provincial adminiftrations, or administrations of communes, all juftices of peace, civil officers, and commanders of the military, and all and each of the inhabitants of the Batavian republic, to obey our commands, and acknowledge no other authority than ours, until the intermediary adminiftration fhall have met; which notification hall be made public, and be affixed up in fuch places as fimilar Lotices ufually are.

Done at the Hague the 12th of June, the 4th year of Batayian freedom.

J. SPOORS, Agent of Marine.

G. J. PYMAN, Agent for the War Department,

J. G. A. GOZEL, Minifter of Finance.

R. W. TADAMAR, Minifter of Juftice.

A. J. LA PIERRE, Minifter of the Interior.

VOL. VII.

N

Meffage

Meffage from the Executive Directory to the Council of Five Hundred, fent on the ft July 1798.

FOR a long time the government of Malta has shown itself hoftile to France. It afforded protection to emigrants, as alfo to the foldiers of Condé's army. Her conftitution ought to have obliged her to obferve a ftrict neutrality, but he always acted in favour of the enemies of France. The French, who were friends to liberty at Malta, were ill treated and confined. In a manifefto of the 10th October 1793, the Grand Mafter declared that the ports of the island fhould be fhut against French veffels, and that he fhould recognise the ambaffador but as a chargé d'affaires of the King, without faying any thing of the republic; he declared he could not, nor would not, recognise it. On the 9th of June of the present year, a request was made by the French general for water, which was refufed by the Grand Mafter, who declared ironically, that he could not admit but two fhips into the port. Dared he thus infult a French army, commanded by Buonaparte? The 10th of June, the French were on fhore early in the morning, and Malta was invested, and the town cannonaded on all fides. The befieged made a fally, in which General Marmont, at the head of the 19th brigade, took the standard of the order. On the 11th the knights furrendered the town and port, and renounced their property in the island to the French republic. We found at Malta two veffels, one frigate, four gallies, 1200 pieces of cannon, 40,000 muskets, 1,500,000 rounds of powder and other ammunition, of which the Directory have not received the particular details.

Speech made by Citizen Sieyes, upon prefenting his Credentials to the King of Pruffia.

THE credentials which I have the honour of delivering to your Majefty, exprefs the fentiments which animate the Directory of the French republic towards your perfon. They announce also the motives which have induced the Directory to confide to me the important and honourable miffion which I am come to fulfil.

I accepted this miffion, because in my country I have constantly declared, to whatever function I was called, in favour of the fyftem which tends to unite by intimate bonds the interests of France and of Pruffia; because the inftructions I have received being conformable to my political opinions, my miniftry will be frank, loyal, and every way fuitable to the morality of my character; because this fyftem of union, on which the proper pofition of Europe, and perhaps the falvation of a part of Germany depends,

was

was that of Frederick the Second, great among kings, immortal among men! because this fyftem is worthy of the wifdom and good intentions which marked the commencement of your reign.

May the hopes of my government not be difappointed, and my well-known fentiments be regarded by your Majefty as one title more to the confidence of your minifters.

Difcourfe addressed by Guillemardet, Ambafador from the French Republic to the Court of Spain, on prefenting his Credentials, on the 12th July 1798.

Sire,

CHARGED by the Executive Directory of the French republic to maintain, in the prefence of your Majefty, the intimate connexion commanded by nature, as well as by the most found policy, between the two countries, I haften to renew the affurances of the esteem and affection of the government to which I have the honour to belong. A citizen of the republic which has acquired the refpect and admiration of Europe, my foul is penetrated with a fenfe of the dignity to which the man is exalted who speaks in its name. Allied to a nation brave and generous, I am not lefs proud of the auguft functions which I am to fulfil with the authority which reprefents it. The exercife of the miniftry of peace is that which is moft congenial to my natural difpofition. Thus you will find in me loyalty, franknefs, and inviolable respect for the facred engagements which unite the two nations. It gives me pleasure, Sire, to give you this guarantee with that affurance which fincerity infpires, with that full conviction of the duties which the honourable character with which I am invefted, neceffarily impofes. I thould efteem myfelf truly happy, if, in acquiring fome claims to the confidence and efteem of your Majesty, I could also acquire that of the two countries, which their mutual intereft, and a fenfe of their glory, invite to the most intimate connexion.

Madam,

Speech to the Queen, fame Day.

I HAVE affured the King, your husband, of the fincere defire I feel to draw clofer than ever thofe bonds which unite the two nations. Such is the wifh of the government which has fent me to your Majefty. My own engagements are conformable to it. I fhall adhere to them. The ties which bind you to the King have entitled you to his entire confidence: thus you may enjoy the invaluable advantage of being able to contribute to the profperity of

N 2

the

the Spanish nation: and if it be its intereft, as it is that of the French nation, to maintain between them that intimate connexion which, by reciprocal confidence, may revive industry, commerce, and arts in their bofoms, it is worthy of you, Madam, to participate in those acts which attach the people to those who govern them. Confide, in this refpect, to the fincerity of the envoy of a republic, which knows how to join the love of liberty to the refpect which its conftitution promifes to the governments of those nations with whom it is in friendship.

Letter from the Prefident of the Executive Directory of the Cifalpine Republic to General Brune.

Citizen General,

WHEN, by the treaty of alliance between the French and Cifalpine republics, the government of both confided to the commander in chief of the French army in Italy the entire difpofition of the Cifalpine troops, it was done in the firm conviction, that fuch general would fo difpofe of them as not only to fecure the frontiers of the republic from all invafion, but also to cause the Cifalpine name to be refpected by all its neighbours. It is in the fame confidence, Citizen General, that the Executive Directory haftens to acquaint you, that the court of Turin, daily forgetting the most facred laws of good neighbourhood, and that refpec which friendly nations fhould never lofe fight of, has fuffered in its capital a Cifalpine foldier to be taken by conftables and kept bound in a dungeon. This injury, joined to many others, too long to be detailed to you, makes us hope, Citizen General, that you will make fuch difpofitions as will enable us to claim vigorously reparation from the court of Turin, and fecure from any attack the frontiers of our republic. Its conduct towards our friend, the Ligurian republic, whofe territory it has violated, and its evil difpofitions in regard to ourselves, give us reafon to distrust the good faith of the proteftations it has made to maintain good harmony between us.

(Signed) COSTABILI,

The Prefident of the Executive Directory.

PROCLAMA