reckon on employing the produce of their exchange. Would it be juft to deprive them of the advantage of purchafing on the terms of the law of the 28th Ventofe?

You will maintain that law in all the difpofitions made for the alienation of the national domains, but you will reform that, and thofe which followed it, refpecting the difpofitions that refer to the nominal value of mandats.

Do not be afraid that this measure will be prejudicial to the public treafury. It takes away nothing from the value of the national domains, which are your principal refource. It will aid, inftead of injuring, every branch of political economy, and every fource of wealth. In a word, it will fix public opinion, and conciliate for you that confidence fo neceflary for confolidating the public credit.

I confefs that I waited with impatience the adoption of the law refpecting landed contribution, by the council of Elders. All the wretched proprietors, to whom reimbursements were promifed, addreffed their complaints to me, because it was I who made the report on the law of the 15th Germinal.

I attempted in vain to confole them, by fhewing that they may place their reimbursements in national domains. The fmall reimbursements, fuch as belong to the most miferable, are fcarcely fufceptible of being employed in funds of landed property, and the difcredit of the mandats brought on the ruin of those who received them.

Put an end to their uneafinefs, but, while you do them justice, do not be unmindful of the duty you owe to the debtors. The fearcity of money in France has confiderably enhanced its value, as will appear by the flightest reflection on thofe circumstances to which we are daily witness.

It therefore requires a deep and ferious examination to discover the best means of doing justice to every one, in order to prefent you with a refolution to regulate the interefts of all the citizens.

But you need not wait the termination of that labour to announce to the whole Republic, that the law of the 15th Germinal is no longer permitted to be abused; and that, as in all tranfactions between individuals, mandats are not allowed to be refused, fo neither can they be forced for more than their relative value, according to the law upon the landed contribution.

Official Letter from Cadiz to the Minifter of the Marine. 10th Thermidor, (August 5.)

YESTERDAY the two Spanish fquadrons, under the command of Admirals Langara and Solano, with that of the Republic, commanded by Admiral Richery, failed together from this port.

L 2

They

They made their way with a favourable wind, and are now out of fight.

The departure of these three fquadrons, at the fame time, all well armed and well commanded, has thrown a confternation amongst the enemies of the Republic. The people here are loft in conjecture; but they look forward to great events. Time will fix all these uncertainties.

Official Note from the Minifter for Foreign Affairs to the Ambassa dor (Barthelemy) in Switzerland.

THE

HE French government is informed that the English, after having flopped, during the war, under the most frivolous pretexts, every neutral veffel, have just given the most positive orders to the commanders of their fhips of war, to feize, indifcriminately, all the cargoes which they may suppose to be destined for the French.

Whatever injury France may have sustained from this conduct, fhe has, nevertheless, continued to give the only example of the most inviolable refpect for the law of nations, which constitutes the pledge and fecurity of their civilization. But, after having long tolerated the offence of this Machiavelian fyftem of policy, fhe at length finds herfelf compelled, by the most urgent motives, to have recourse to reprisals against England.

The Executive Directory, therefore, orders all the political agents of the French Republic to inform the different governments, that the fquadrons and privateers of the Republic will act against the ships of every country, in the fame manner in which thofe governments fuffer the English to act against them.

This meafure ought not to furprise them, fince it would be very eafy to demonftrate that it is imperiously prescribed by neceffity, and is only the effect of a lawful defence. If these powers had known how to make their commerce refpected by the English, we fhould have had no occafion to have recourfe to this afflicting extremity.

They will recollect, that the French Republic, ever generous, propofed to all the belligerent powers to refpect commerce; but that this propofition, honourable to the government which made it, and dictated by the most perfect philanthropy, was rejected with pride, by a government accustomed to treat with contempt the moft facred laws of humanity, &c.

20th Thermidor, (Auguft 7.)

Speech

Speech of M. Vincent Spinola, Envoy Extraordinary of the Republic of Genoa, with the French Republic, to the Executive Directory, August 7.

HONOURED with the confidence of my Republic, I had

been charged fucceffively, during four years, on the frontiers of the two ftates, with a care very grateful to my heart, that of contributing to keep up the good understanding which has hitherto fubfifted between the two nations, and I have had the good fortune of being fuccefsful.

It was in that interval I faw the aftonishing fpectacle of the French Republic, ftruggling almost against all coalefced Europe, pafs from the most cruel reverfes to the moft fplendid victories, and terminate by vanquishing all her enemies. My fecret wishes had anticipated her fublime deftinies; and I was the more fatisfied of feeing them accomplished, as my sentiments were in unifon with the wife refolutions which the firm government of Genoa had adopted, in proclaiming a neutrality so advantageous to both Republics.

I must add, for the honour of my country, that, notwithstand-, ing the dangers which threatened it from all fides, it gave a great proof of courage, and at the fame time an example of the attachment which is due to one's friends. Thofe events will not escape hiftory. The French government applauded them, and I have been more than once the organ by which it was pleased to express its entire fatisfaction to my government.

Events, which are the unavoidable confequence of the war, have not altered the harmony between the two ftates. It is invariable, like the principles of juftice, and of reciprocal intereft, on which they are founded. It will be as lafting as the sentiments of esteem and conftant friendship, with which the Republic of Genoa is penetrated for the French Republic, and of which a minister, who juftly enjoys the confidence of both Republics, has been the interpreter near you.

The government of Genoa, ever eager to testify to the French Republic the most ardent defire of foftering and cementing ftill more the good harmony between the two nations, was willing to repeat to you its folemn affurance of the fame by an extraordinary million. My fellow-citizens have pitched upon me; they were of opinion, that he, to whom the reprefentatives and the generals of the French Republic had fo frequently fhewn their confidence, would likewife, Citizens Directors, have a title to your own. To continue to merit it fhall be the chief end of my endeavours; happy if I fucceed in realizing the fweet hope of being as agreeable to the Directory as useful to my country.

Anfwer

Anfwer of the Prefident of the Executive Directory to M. Spinola.

Mr. Envoy Extraordinary of the Republic of Genoa,

THE Executive Directory, actuated by the fpirit which animates the French nation, love to find friends in all their neighbours, but they dread the enmity of none of them. If the fentiments which you tettify to our Republic on the part of the Republic of Genoa be fincere, as we have no doubt they are, it may depend on the conftant friendship of the French government.

Strong in the power of the nation, directed by its will, it will be faithful to its friends, and always ready to ferve them. But it will at the fame time know how to compel to filence the malevolence of an impotent enemy, and to fruitrate the efforts of the moft formidable, and the moft dexterously coalefced foes. It will know the way how to force them all to refpect the French Republic, and requite confideration with confideration.

No, France and thofe fhe has chofen to govern her, are not afraid of war; you may inform your government and all Europe of it; the love of liberty fecures to our republican foldiers victories fufficiently glorious. But you can, you must alfo tell them, that we cherish peace, and that, were our moft ardent wishes attended to, already would that confoling peace make Europe forget the difafters of a war, the whole odium of which must henceforth fall upon enemies, whom an inconceivable folly, or the blindest rage, ought to hurl into the abyfs which they thought they had dug for us!

The Executive Directory fee with fatisfaction that the Genoefe government has chofen to reprefent it, with the French Republic, a citizen who has acquired the reputation of a friend of humanity, of liberty, and the French Republicans.

Proclamation of the General in Chief of the Army of Italy.

Head-quarters at Caftigliona, 19 Thermidor, (August 6,) fourth Year.

SOLDIERS, you OU have conquered Italy a fecond time! In five days you have gained two pitched battles, and five inferior actions; you have taken fifteen thousand prifoners, three generals, eighty pieces of cannon, two hundred waggons, and fix ftand of colours. Those fierce Hungarians, triumphant last year on the Rhine, are now in your chains, or fly before you. You have crushed in an inflant the principal enemy of the Republic. So many high exploits ought not to make you proud, but to infpire you with confidence; they ought to teach you never to count your enemies, however numerous they may be. The conquerors of Lodi, of Lonado, of Caftigliona, ought to attack and deftroy them. You renew the boafted examples of Marathon and Platea: like the brave

Greek

Greek phalanxes, the brigades of the army of Italy fhall be immortal.

Receive then, foldiers, the mark of the fatisfaction of your general; it only precedes that of the whole country, and of rifing pofterity.

Brave foldiers, be always impetuous in combats, and vigilant on your posts. Death fhrinks trembling from the agile and refolutely brave: how often have you marched to meet it, how often have you feen it fly before you and enter the hostile ranks? It often overtakes the daftard, but never ftrikes the brave till his hour is come.

Addrefs tranfmitted by the French Ambassador at the Hague to the Dutch Convention, the 20th Thermidor, (7th Auguft).

BURGHERS REPRESENTATIVES!

THE underfigned minifter plenipotentiary of the French Republic has the honour to intimate, that occafions do not offer fo frequently as he could with of giving you publicly a repetition of thofe affurances of efteem and regard which he daily receives from the Executive Directory, as well towards your affembly as the people which you reprefent. This efteem is not limited to hofe public atteftations which France has given to all Europe; nor to thofe lefs generally known, to which your commiffion for the management of foreign affairs can alfo teftify.

The Executive Directory is fteadily vigilant, is unceasingly bufy; and the maxim applied to great undertakings-that all which is done must be efteemed trivial, while any thing remains to be accomplished, feems to have been adopted by the French government in the ratification of her engagements with the Batavian Republic. In that moment, when, during the winter, it maturely and wifely regulated the operations of war, and removed hoftilities far from your dominions, it neglected in no manner to do away your flightest apprehenfions; and the powerful intervention of the French government banished a remaining, but infignificant fhadow of counter-revolutionary defigns, which, being fanned in your vicinity, afforded fome caufe of difquietude. That government now directs its most ardent and zealous endeavours to fecure the political existence of Batavia, and to procure it again a place among potentates, with the rank to which it can with juftice afpire.

But it views a government wifely and folidly formed, as one of the most certain means of attaining fpeedily this defired end; and the Executive Directory cannot conceal its opinion, that it is time, by a powerful and lafting band, to faften together again the bundle which runs the risk of being difperfed, and loft for want of the properties.