1795

The evils that might be expected to arise from this part of the new constitution, and which are indeed in a great degree inherent in the republican system under whatever form, were immediately evinced.Tallien, Louvet, Legendre, Freron, and Cambaceres, had distinguished themselves by their services to the republic on many emergencies. But the same talents which qualified them to fill the highest departments of the state being united with a spirit of enterprise, and those principles of terrorism which they had discovered under the late administration, rendered them dangerous, and made the council unwilling to invest them with the power to which they aspired. These persons, therefore, so formidable from their abilities and popular influence, and at this time exasperated by disappointment, were prepared to disturb the established government by every engine that they could put in motion.

The directors soon afforded them and their subordinate agents an opportunity to begin their machinations to deprive them of the national goodwill. When the ceremony of installation was to be performed, they appeared in the utmost pomp, and on all occasions they affected that parade and magnificence which was calculated to gratify their own vanity and raise the admiration of the populace.-In this they shewed a want of judgment which their opponents instantly made advantage of. The French nation are known to be fond of shew: they had departed from their proper character when, with a change of government, they assumed the simplicity and severity of republicans. But, although their natural disposition might still be the same, an aversion to the trappings and splendour of monarchy had been studiously instilled into them. They professed republicanism; they valued themselves on supporting their new character in their appellations, external appearance, manners and practices; and they had experienced the good effects of economy in the government.-The terrorists, therefore, inveighed against the sumptuousness of the directors as a profusion of the public money, and as inconsistent with the republican principle; which, rejecting all parade, all needless expence, requires those who have the management of the state to inculcate that frugality in the nation which the present circumstances of the republic demanded, by laying aside all outward shew, and devoting the national revenue to the public service. -These sentiments were heard with avidity by the lower orders: the

jacobins

jacobins and terrorists grew daily more popular in the capital: they held their meetings publicly, and, from their place of rendezvous near the pantheon, they were called the society of the pantheon: and they carried on a correspondence with their subordinate societies throughout the kingdom."

The directors and their adherents in the convention, perceiving the danger which threatened them from this powerful faction, had recourse to prudential methods to avoid it. Knowing the strength of their adversary, they preferred artifice to force, and endeavoured to win those whom they despaired of overcoming, by promoting them to such offices in the state as were most suitable to their views: to give greater effect to their own weight, they endeavoured to balance the different parties; thus to prevent any one of them from preponderating. They courted popularity by prevailing on the terrorists, whom they deemed it advisable to promote, to relax from their severe and violent maxims of government, and by cautiously avoiding any unjustifiable stretch of authority in the administration of justice. And when, by this popular system of conduct, they had conciliated the national attachment, they boldly ventured to suppress that nest of disaffected, turbulent persons, the pantheon society.

While the malecontents had employed the expedients which this society afforded them to render the nation, and especially the Parisians, devoted to them, an association was formed by the heads of the terrorists, who had been members of the legislature; and who hoped, like the jacobins, to govern the convention by means of their influence in the other societies, and, through them, with the body of the people. But they were soon convinced that it was in vain to endeavour to molest a government which acts upon popular principles; and they themselves contributed to its popularity by betraying their own disposition to tyranny.

The liberty of the press had ever been esteemed one of the choicest fruits of the revolution. When it was found necessary for the destruction of monarchy and to render the aristocrats and royalists odious to the people, it was represented as essential to a free constitution. But when the terrorists, who had professed themselves the champions of freedom, saw that this engine was turned against themselves, they immediately proposed

to

1795

· Annual Register. 120. 4.

b

Idem. 123.

i

Idem. 124.

1795

to lay a restraint on it. This exposed their true principles: and the moderatists, whom they had before vilified as concealed friends to monarchy, now shewed themselves to the nation in their true light, as the sincerest friends to liberty, by their firm resistance to this measure. *

k

Under the auspices of such a government the French nation flattered themselves that they were at last rescued from those evils which they had so long endured from the tyranny of successive factions, and entertained hopes of enjoying that liberty of which their false patriots had defrauded them; of reposing themselves under the protection of a constitution, better adapted to the circumstances of the people, and a government more rationally administered. As a pledge of their good intentions towards the national happiness, the ruling powers gave the nation the real enjoyment of religious liberty. They only debarred the professors of the roman catholic faith of any correspondence with the court of Rome; a privilege which, if granted, might, it was apprehended, create disunion between the government and the nation.

And, as if the arts and sciences were destined to be the companions and handmaids of freedom, the directory did honour to themselves and the constitution in which they filled the most conspicuous department by the establishment of the celebrated national institute for the advancement of arts, sciences, and letters, consisting of a hundred and forty-four members, who had apartments assigned them in the louvre.-Moreover, that knowledge might be diffused through every part of the republican dominions, a college was established in each department; with such ample salaries for the professors as might enable them to instruct such youth as might be recommended to them gratuitously.'

4

1796

GERMANY AND PRUSSIA.

THE history of the German states is now interesting only as it is connected with that of France to which the reader is referred The emperor, become the subsidiary of Great Britain, continued to maintain the contest with a

k Annual Register. 125.

Idem. 127.

vast

vast military force; and his arms were, in general, successful in the course. of this campaign.-The Prussian monarch, with more regard to the dictates of policy than virtue, or integrity, after accomplishing his views in Poland, and concluding a treaty of peace with France, thus ruining the cause of monarchy, of which he had declared himself the zealous supporter, devoted himself to a life of criminal dissipation, and patiently heard the reproaches of those confederates, whom he had first drawn into the war, and afterwards basely deserted.*-The coalition, thus broken up, may, from this instant, be considered as inadequate to the purpose for which it was formed.

1795

RUSSIA, SWEDEN, AND DENMARK.

CATHARINE was actuated by the most profound policy in her conduct relative to the present war in Europe. She was desirous to regain her influence at the court of Stockholm, which she had lost by the late revolution in Sweden. She was also desirous to check the progress of the democratic faction in France, and to have the merit of supporting the common cause of monarchy in the eyes of the world. To answer this double purpose, she encouraged her rival, GUSTAVUS THE THIRD, in his chivalrous enterprise for the restoration of Lewis the Sixteenth, by a promise of

April 5.

* "The king of Prussia," says the historian of his Reign, "contented with his new acqui"sitions in Poland, and disgusted with the war, forgot in the arms of his mistresses his former "objects, his recent defeats, the danger of the empire, the dispute of kings, and the interests of his sister the princess of Orange.

"England had in vain attempted to re-animate his zeal by subsidies; he was determined no "longer to expose himself (not to dangers, for these he did not fear) but to the fatigues and " tedium of a third campaign. Despairing to be able to reinstate a Bourbon on the throne of "France, he saw without inquietude his rival Austria weakened; and although he had not yet "made peace, he had quitted arms, and sent to the committee of public safety a counsellor named "d'Harnier, whose pacific instructions evinced his intention of no longer being a party in

"the war.

"Abandoning the stadtholder, renouncing his possessions on the west bank of the Rhine, he "hoped to render his repose honourable, by assuring the tranquillity of the north of Germany, "and reserving to himself the office of a mediator."-Segur. 3. 206.

1795

1795

a

of 12,000 men, and a subsidy of 300,000 rubles; expecting that, in the event of such an adventure, the king might bring his state into embarrassment and himself into discredit with his subjects.-This enterprise being prevented by the murder of Gustavus, she still encouraged the confederation of princes, by every other expedient except that of taking an active part in the war; by that means to weaken the confederates, as well as the power against which they were leagued, while she was restoring her own finances from the embarrassed condition into which the late war had brought them.

The French revolution appears to have influenced the councils of Catharine towards Great Britain.-We have seen her paying court to France by placing herself at the head of the armed neutrality; and afterwards forming commercial arrangements with that country, to the prejudice of the British merchants. But, in 1793, the empress renewed her treaty of commerce with Great Britain, and promised to send a squadron to join the English fleet; and this year she entered into a defensive alliance with that crown. Moreover, in order to express her enmity to the ruling powers in France by every unexpensive means, she published an edict prohibiting the importation of French merchandise into her dominions."— Conformably with the same line of policy, Catharine, on information of the treaty of peace between France and Spain, warmly interposed, by letter to the catholic king, † to prevent him from becoming the enemy of his former confederates, and especially of his Britannic majesty, who had signalized himself by his exertions for the preservation of the independency of Europe; and plainly signified that she deemed herself obliged to become an active partisan in the war, should don Ferdinand engage in it as the ally of France.

In the mean-time, the empress gave the most unequivocal testimonies of her abhorrence to the French republicans and their principles. She ordered her ambassador to withdraw from Paris on the triumph of their party; and refused to admit their chargé d'affairs at her court. She afforded protection to the French emigrants, and received them with marks of her esteem. She called on all the French in her dominions to take the oath of allegiance to Lewis the Seventeenth; and ordered all who