council of elders had been joined by a majority in that of five hundred, in a calm and regular manner, it is by no means certain that the foldiers would have caft the balance in favour of the former council and their general. The general was admirably feconded throughout the whole by his brother, the prefident: had it not been for his feafonable appearar ce and addrefs to the troops, they might have hei tated which party to obey, divided by their respect for the general, and that authority which always at tends every fhew of eftablished government. Time would have been afforded for the council to mufier

a force, though fmall perhaps, vet not undecided; and this might have brought the events of the day to a quite different iffue. But, after all, there arifes, in the courfe of ages, men of fuch force of mind as in fome measure controls fortune. The council of five hundred was not permitted to carry on their proceedings in a calm and regular man-. ner any longer than it fuited the general and his party that they should be thrown into confufion; and, on the whole, it may be faid, that on the prefent great occafion, the ge nius of Buonaparte carried all before it,

CHAP,

THE

HE confular government were anxious, above all things, and, in the first place, to confirm their authority by the confidence and attachment of the French nation; and these they endeavoured to gain by good words and good actions, with out, however, relaxing from that vigour, or even from fuch a degree of feverity as might be neceilary to maintain order and fubordination among fo numerous and inflammable a people. Proclamations explaining the caufes of the recent revolution were published and fent to the armies, the departments, and all the principal divifions or claffes of the citizens. The moment that the provifional government was agreed on, an addrefs was published from the legiflative body, dated at St. Cloud, the tenth of November, 1799, to the French people, briefly ftating the reafons which had determined them to feek an afylum from the revolutionary government, in the arms of a confiitution which promifed, at leaft, fome repofe. For the purpofe of arriving more speedily at

this end, a provifional government had been inftituted; and they exhorted all Frenchmen to rally around their magiftrates, and the foldiers of liberty to pursue the courfe of their victories, which would be followed by peace, and thofe honours and rewards referved for their glorious labours. Buonaparte, in the character of commander-in-chief, ilued a proclamation on the fame day, dated eleven o'clock at night, in which he gave an account of the ftate of parties and public affairs, and of his own conduct, from the time of his return to Paris to the prefent moment. In the conclufion, he fays, "the factious were intimidated, and difperfed themfelves. The majority, relcafed from their blows, entered freely and peaceably into the hall of fitting, heard the propofitions which were made to them for the public fafety, deliberated and prepared the falutary refolution, which is to become the new and provifional law of the republic. Frenchmen! you will recognize, without doubt, in this

conduct,

conduct, the zeal of a foldier of liberty, and of a citizen devoted to the republic. The ideas of prefervation, protection, and freedom, immediately refumed their places on the difpertion of the faction, who withed to opprefs the councils, and who, in making themfelves the moft odious of men, never cealed to be the most contemptible." The three confuls met together, on the next day, for tranfacting public bufinefs, in the palace of the Luxembourg. Some changes were made in the adminiftration; and the new minifters were generally approved, with the exception of Fouché, minifter of police, formerly a great terrorift, as unexceptionable characters, in refpect of both talents and morals. -On the twelfth, a fhort proclamation was published by the confuls to the French, ftating that the patriots had made themfelves to be heard; that every thing that could injure them had been removed, and that every thing that remained pure in the national reprefentation, was now united under the banners of liberty. Still, amidit fo many changes and violations of oaths, we hear of new vows! "Take with us," faid the confuls in conclufion, "the oath which we have made, to be faithful to the republic, one and indivisible, founded on equality, liberty, and the reprefentative fyftem." The fertility of French genius was not able to fubftinte any thing in the room of an oath, though it favoured fo much of the altar! Honour again would have recalled the great principle of the monarchy. On the thirteenth of November, a letter was fent from the minifter for foreign affairs, Reinhard, to the foreign ministers, intorming them, that the confuls of the French republic had taken into their hands the reins

of government, with orders to notify the fame intelligence to the governments at which they refided. The political relations of France with other nations, and the diplomatic relations of its government with other governments were to remain the fame, only that the public force would derive new energy from the public unanimity. Other proclamations were publifhed to the fame effect with thefe now noticed; and various defences of the revolution of St. Cloud, and the provi fional government appeared," from time to time, in newspapers and pamphlets. Nor did Buonaparte, on his acceffion to the government, forget to write a letter to his army in Egypt. In this letter, he fays,

"the confuls of the republic have frequently their minds taken up with what regards the army of Egypt; the eyes of all Eu rope are fixed on you; I myself am frequently, in thought, among you. Whatever may be the fituation in which the chances of war may throw you, fhew yourfelves always the foldiers of Rivoli and of Aboukir, and you will be invincible. Repofe in Kleber that unlimited confidence, which you was wont to place in me, it is only what he deferves." Two deputies, one from the commiflion of elders, and another from that of five hundred, were fent with pacific overtures to the western departments, with a very agreeable pledge of mildnefs on the part of government, prefently to be stated. It has already been mentioned, that Buonaparte had been joined by general Augereau, a violent and outrageous jacobin. As an inflance of the conciliation, yet prudence, with which Buonaparte conducted himself, it may not be improper to notice the manner

in which he treated this man, whofe courage and entire devotion to the party he belonged to, pointed him out as a valuable partifan not to be rejected, but by all means to be attached to his caufe and perfon. He accepted his friendship, but with propriety and dignity. He appointed him to the chief command of the French army in Holland. In the letter which conveyed this appointment, there was a friendly rebuke for his connection with the jacobin clubs, and a reprobation of part of their principles and actions; yet the turn of the whole expreffed great confidence in his intentions. The conful, in that letter, allo stated, that, if neceffary, he was to take the command of the army in perfon, in which cafe, Augereau, would again be one of his principal officers. The manner in which Buonaparte expreffed his gratitude to the grenadier who had faved his life, is characteristic of the fentiments and manners at this time prevalent in France, and particularly marks the great revolution, in the way of thinking, on the fubject of diftinction of rank. On the twelfth of November, the conful entertained the grenadier, Thomé, at his own table at dinner, and after dinner, his wife made him a present of a diamond worth two thousand crowns. It is certainly not in this manner that a fenator of Hamburgh would have expreffed his gratitude to a private foldier, who fhould have laid him under fuch an obligation; nor even a lord mayor of London. The legiflative commiffions of twenty-five members, on the twelfth of November, also entered on their functions; and they divided themfelves each into five committees, of five members each, for the purpose of preparing laws of police, legiflation,

finance, a civil code, and a 'conftitution. Lucian Buonaparte was chofen prefident of the commiffion of the five hundred, and Le Brune that of the commiffion of the elders. In thefe commiffions, a new oath was drawn up and agreed to, to be taken by all public functionaries. It was conceived in thefe terms: "I fwear fidelity to the French republic, one and indivifible, and to maintain with all my power the rights of the fovereignty of the people, a reprefentative government, liberty, equality, and the fecurity of perfons and property."

The commiffioners began their operations with the abolition of bad laws. A propofition made by the first conful, of a very gracious na ture, was the first subject that came under their confideration, and formed a very pleafing prefage of the fpirit that was to animate the new government. This was the repeal of two odious and oppressive laws: the law of the forced loan, and the law of hoftages. The repeal of this law was no fooner promulgated in the western departments, by the two commiffioners of peace juft mentioned, than thofe who had taken up arms in their own defence against it, immediately proposed a fufpenfion, which was acceded to by the republican general, Hedouville. But others of the infurgents, who were actuated by motives more hoftile to the republic, continaed their depredations, avowing, by proclamations, that their object was the reitoration of the throne and the altar, and that directors and confuls were alike traitors and ufurpers: but thefe things will be more particularly related in a fubfequent chapter.

The confuls and the legislative, commiffioners profeTed to have no

thing elle in view than, by the inftitution of a new republican fyftem, to guard more effectually, than had been done hitherto, against the intrigues of faction, and the corruption and treachery of rulers. By the promifes of peace, they endeavoured to restore the confidence of men of property, because peace alone could enable them to restore a regular lyftem of finance, which the violent and temporary expedients required by war muft deftroy. But the derangement of the finances, and the general corruption of the country, made it a very difficult task for the confuls to raife the fupplies by ordinary means. It was not an eafy matter to preferve the promised refpect for property, to give contentment to the French in this refpect, and, at the fame time, not to relax from that militery energy which was neceffary to render the republic refpectable and formidable in the eyes of foreign nations. The financial expedients adopted by the new government were principally thefe:

In lieu of the forced loan of one hundred millions, a war aid was fubftituted, of a fourth part added to all contributions or impofts on property, territorial, moveable, perfonal, and fumptuary. Forty millions of what they called bous, payable to bearer, of the nature of our treasury-warrants, were flued for fatisfying, for the laft half year of the 7th year, the demands of the public annuitants. For a prefent fupply, for the immediate exigences of government, Buonaparte allembled about fixty or feventy of the bankers and principal merchants of Paris, and hav.

ing addreffed them in a fhort but very animated fpeech on the glorious deftinies and approaching profperity of France, obtained, without difficulty, a loan of five hundred thousand pounds fterling, And feven commiflaries, or fyndics were immediately appointed by the fubfcribers for making it good. The promiflory notes they received from the new government were called billets du fyndicat. The repayment of this loan was charged on the firft two payments, which were made at the rate of twenty per cent. per month, of the war tax, in the different departments of the republic. It was ordained that thefe bills, to whatever difcount they fhould have fallen, fhould be received, not only in payment of the war aid, but even in that of the taxes of the year 7, by exchanging them for their amount in cash. Contributors to the forced loan, who had paid a part of their contribution, were entitled to a discharge, fo far as it went, from the new war aid: and if there fhould be any balance in their favour, after an examination by the minifter of finance, they were to be re-imbursed out of the national treasury.

The whole of the financial plan of the year 8, and which was expected to pour into the national treafury fix hundred and fifteen millions one hundred and feventytwo thousand of livres, unfolded by Arnold, in the commiffion of the council of five hundred, on the eighteenth of December.

was

This project he prefaced by obferving that it was dilorder in the fyftem of finance that undermined

the