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in any manner. The important truft confided to me, requires,. for my own fecurity, other affurances than writings; for the enemy, warmed by the enthufiafm of its fucceffes in Italy, will think itself juftified if circumftances require to violate the neutrality, if bound to the contrary by indeterminate words only.

I defire then, Gentlemen, for the last time, that you affemble on the frontiers of the canton of Bafle, troops fufficient for repelling force by force; in failure of which I will take all the meafures that the urgency of the circumftances may command.

Bafle, May 28.

OUR Magiftrates, for fatisfying the request of General Wurmfer, deputed an envoy to the French general, begging him not to pafs the limits of their frontier, and to avoid hoftilities, as the Swifs would oppofe the moft vigorous refiftance to the leaft infult. The French general made a very candid anfwer, by affuring the Helvetic Body, that they might depend on the strict obfervation of the line of neutrality; that the affemblies of troops had no other object than to detect fmugglers, and to cause the imposts to be regularly paid on that frontier.

Proclamation of the Executive Directory to the Armies of the Sambre and Meufe.

NEW cries of war are heard on the banks of the Rhine. What rage is it thus goads on our cruel enemy, who, amidit his difafters and our triumphs, has the temerity of breaking an armiftice which he himfelf demanded, and you granted him, in hopes of a fpeedy peace?-Guided by the ferocious English, he receives their gold and contempt as the price of his fubmiffion, and of the blood of his braveft warriors. Let then the republican bayonet reach the tottering thrones of the monsters coalefced against the human race, and ftrike terror into their bofoms! let your irresistible valour within a few days put a period to that fruggle of the liberty of the people againft tyranny, which has lafted but too long; and let the haughty defpots, who ftill dare to fight against that liberty, at last bow fubmiffive at the afpect of the republican banners!

May 29.

3

Speech

Speech of Carnot, Prefident of the Executive Directory, in the Champ de Mars, on the 26th May, the Day of the Celebration of the Féte in Honour of the Victories gained in Italy.

IT is at this moment that nature appears to be re-animated; that the earth, the parent of flowers and of verdure, holds out to our view new harvests; that all mankind publifh the gratifying intelligence which revives the univerfe; that the French people, at this folemn feftival, render a diftinguifhed homage to the talents and the virtues of the friends of humanity and of their country. Oh! what day can be better calculated to unite every heart, what citizen, what man can be a stranger to the fentiment of gratitude! we exift only by a long train of generous actions, and our life is nothing more than a continual interchange of fervices. Scarce do our eyes look up to heaven than they recognize the Supreme Benefactor. Weak without fupport, the love of our parents watches over our infancy, and provides for our wants; in this period of our exiftence, they guide our first steps, their patient folicitude affifts in developing our organs, and from them we receive those firft ideas.

Other acts of kindness familiarize our hearts to affection, our minds to knowledge, and our bodies to ufeful labour. 'Tis for our happiness that the philofopher meditates on the duties of man, that the learned penetrate into the receffes of nature, that the magiftrate watches over the public fafety, and that the legiflator prepares himfelf in collecting the laws for our protection. It is foon, however, allowed us to become useful; grateful children, we scatter flowers on the old age of our parents, and their trembling voice pours bleffings on us at the hour of their diffolution. Become fathers in our turn, we prepare for the education of our children, the happinefs of our older days, and we thus continue, in a hew generation, the chain of kindness and of gratitude.

This fenfibility is not contracted to the circle of a family; it is employed in fearching out indigence in the cottage, and in adminiftering fuccour and confolation, and at length pays good offices on the fentiments of kindness itfelf. Humanity! how delightful is your practice, and how deplorable is the mind which is unacquainted with your excellence!

He who is a good son and a good father is also a good citizen; he loves his country, and with joy renders to it the tribute of his fervices; he is delighted to give to his brother the protection which he himself hath received. Magiftrate or warrior, artift or cultivator, in the temple of the arts, in the fenate, in the field of glory, in the fhops of induftry, he demonftrates his folicitude to contribute to the profperity of his country, and one day or other to merit her acknowledgment, for there is alfo an acknowledgment from nations to individuals. At this moment a great people is afVOL. V.

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fembled

fembled for the purpose of expreffing her gratitude to those virtuous citizens who had merited her admiration. How delightful is it to discharge this tafk? How grateful is it to us to render you this homage-you to whom your country is indebted for its fafety, its glory, and its profperity?

You courageous philofophers, to whom France owes its political regeneration, whofe writings have prepared the revolution, have filed the irons of flavery, and removed the furies of fanaticism.

You citizens, whofe intrepidity has effected this happy revolution, founded the Republic, and wreftled for feven years against the crimes and the ambition of royalifm and anarchy.

You, in fine, who exert yourselves to make France happy and flourishing, who immortalize her by your talents, and who enrich her by your difcoveries, receive this folemn mark of national gratitude!

Receive it above all, you republican armies, you whofe glory and whofe fuccefs every one bears in his recollection. It is you who have defended us against ten combined tyrants, who have chafed them from our territory, and who have hurled back on them the fcourges of war; you have not only conquered men, but you have furmounted all the obftacles which nature placed in your way; you have triumphed over the fatigues of famine and of winter. What a spectacle for a people, and what a terrible leffon for the enemies of liberty! A new-born Republic arms its children for the defence of its independence, nothing can restrain their impetuofity; croffing rivers, forcing intrenchments, clambering rocks, now, after a world of victories, they establish our boundaries at the barriers which nature has given us, and pursuing on the ice the wreck of three armies, they have made an oppreffed and an inimical nation a free and an allied people; they have exterminated the hordes of traitors of brigands, vomited forth by England, punished the guilty chiefs, and have established a Republic of brothers who have too long been mifled; now enfranchifing the Pyronnees, they precipitate themfelves from their fum. mit, and overturning every obstacle which oppofes itself to their force, are ftopped by nothing but by an honourable peace; fcaling the Alps and Appennines, they fhoot across the Po! and the Adda!

The ardour of the foldier, feconded by the genius and valour of the chief, they conceive with wifdom, they execute with energy, fometimes they arrange their forces with calmnefs, fometimes they precipitate themselves on dangers at the head of their brothers in arms. Oh! that I cannot here enrol the immenfe and glorieus tablet of their victories! that I cannot name our intrepid defenders! what a crowd of fublime images, and of the deareft names present themselves to my memory!! Immortal warriors,

pofterity

posterity will refufe to add at once the multitude of your triumphs, but to us hiftory cannot fhew any thing that bears a refemblance.

But do we not fee even in this enclofure a portion of our brave defenders? Vanquishers of the exterior enemies of the flate, they, are come to reprefs its interior enemies, and to maintain within that Republic which they made to be refpected without. Do you not see these venerable warriors who have grown grey under arms, thofe whom honourable wounds have forced to a premature repofe, and who find here an afylum! With what pleasure do our eyes contemplate this interefting union, with what fweet emotion do we behold these victorious foreheads!

Why should we not call to our recollection thofe heroes who have died for liberty? You live, at least, for ever in our hearts; your children fhall be dear to us, the Republic will require itself on them of that debt which it owes to you; we come here to pay them that first acknowledgment in proclaiming your glory, and its remembrance of your service.

Republican armies, confpicuous in this enclosure by a portion of yourselves; invincible phalanxes, on every fide of whom I perceive trophies, from which I anticipate new fucceffes, advance and receive the triumphal crown that the French people have ordered me to place on your colours.

And you, Frenchmen, whom fome wifh to mislead, be fenfible of this touching fpectacle. Is it in vain that cur defenders fhall triumph? Do you with that divifions and inteftine broils fhould. deftroy all the fruit of their achievements? It becomes you, by my voice this day, to abandon your crimes, it is for all that their blood has flowed; do not fhew yourselves ungrateful in this day of retribution,

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Speech of the French Minifter Noel, at the Military Feaft celebrated at the Hague on the 29th of May, in Honour of the Success of the French in Italy.

VALIANT FRENCHMEN,

WHEN the voice of your country in danger collected you under its banners, committing to your care the invaluable treasure of our facred liberty, you fwore to preferve it inviolate, and to fecure the foundations of the Republic with your blood. You have been faithful to your oath. First, round France, placed as a brazen wall, you faw with a calm eye the impotent endeavours of the Coloffus which the coalition had raifed, and you faw that Coloffus bruised at your feet. Shortly, with the rapidity of lightning, you flew to all fides, and the moft obstinate oppofition, with the oldeft commanders and the oldest warriors

of Europe, anfwered no other purpofe than to kindle the fame of our young fons of liberty. The fword of our heroes has divided the extended net, with which ambitious confpirators conceived they fhould furround France. Thefe treacherous enemies, who had foolishly promifed the divifion of your native country, have been unable to defend their own dominions.

Kings and princes, able commanders and well-difciplined foldiers, have all fled before unconquerable Frenchmen. They are gone to far-diftant courts, meanly cringing for affiftance, and carrying with them proofs of your unreftrainable courage; the forrowful remnants of their power, and a prophetic register of their approaching deftruction. The Sambre and the Meule, the Mofelle and the Rhine, the Var, the Po, and the Adda, have, after each other, and alike, witneffed the wants, the facrifices, the battles, and the triumphs of our republican armies. Conquerors of the feafons and the elements, as examples of all virtues, and every defcription of communicative valour; invincible in the field, and in our cities obedient to the laws, always ready to defend them against the machinations of difaffection; you have given to aftonifhed Europe the unheard-of fpectacle of a five years war, which muft afford a dreadful leffon and continual memento to thofe arrogant cabinets, who have hitherto relied on their Machiavelian power. In a word, your arms have eftablished the Republic. That Republic to-day confecrates and hands to pofterity your illuftrious achievements. The conftitutional act is fortified under the fhield of your triumphs. The feaft, which calls this to our remembrance, brings you now together a folemnity, at this moment, obferved by your brothers in arms. It is, befides, a fpur to the conquerors of Italy, and a pledge for new fucceffes, that the heroes of Jemappe and Fleurus already contemplate. At these words I fee the fparks of bravery glitter in your eyes. Your noble impatience impels you to the borders of the Rhine, like as it lately called you under the walls of Plaisanza and Pavia.

But, valiant foldiers! be comforted: your prefent ftation is not lefs worthy of the fame you have acquired. Stationed through the confidence of a faithful ally to guard its boundaries, and to preferve the internal peace of a people who are worthy of the Jiberty which your victories have given them; you add to the luftre of your arms a more affecting enjoyment; giving felf-evident proofs that, if your enemies have found you terrible, you have to your friends been generous, juft, and aiding.

You approach the end of your labours and your difficulties, Peace, which is the refulting fruit, prepared by a powerful and wife government, in poffeffion of the love and confidence of the people; an honourable and lafting peace will fhortly crown your magnanimous exertions, your laudable perfeverance.

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