XIX. 1795. CHAP. experience, France reversed its former judgment on the union of the orders in 1789, which had brought about the Revolution. The legislative power, therefore, was divided between two Councils, that of the Five Hundred and that of the Ancients. The Council of Five Hundred was intrusted with the sole right of originating laws; that of the Ancients with the power of passing or rejecting them; and, to insure the prudent discharge of this v. 404. Th. duty, no person could be a member of it till he had Hist. Parl. reached the age of forty years. No bill could pass till after it had been three times read, with an interval between each reading of at least five days.1 1 Mig. ii. 385. Toul. viii. 13. xxxvi. 485, 500. 50. The executive power, instead of being vested as heretoThe consti- fore in two committees, was lodged in the hands of Five Directory. Directors, nominated by the Council of Five Hundred, tution of the approved by that of the Ancients. They were liable to be impeached for their misconduct by the Councils. Each individual was by rotation to be president during three months; and every year a fifth new Director was to be chosen, in lieu of one who was bound to retire. The Directory thus constituted had the entire disposal of the army and finances, the appointment of public functionaries, and the management of all public negotiations. They were lodged during the period of their official duty in the palace of the Luxembourg, and attended by a guard of honour. The privilege of electing members for the legislature was taken away from the great body of the people, and confined to the colleges of delegates. Their meetings were called the Primary Assemblies; and, in order to 2 Hist. Parl. insure the influence of the middle ranks, the persons xxxvii. 485, ii. 385, 387. 494. Mig elected by the Primary Assemblies were themselves the Th. vii. 14, electors of the members of the legislature. All popular societies were interdicted, and the press declared absolutely free.2 15. Toul. v. 399. It is of importance to recollect that this constitution, so cautiously framed to exclude the direct influence of the people, and curb the excess of popular licentiousness, was XIX. 1795. 51. on this con the voluntary work of the very Convention which had CHAP. come into power under the democratic constitution of 1793, and immediately after the 10th August; which had voted the death of the king, the condemnation of the Reflections Girondists, and the execution of Danton; which had stitution. supported the bloody excesses of the Decemvirs, and survived the horrors of the reign of Robespierre. Let it no longer be said, therefore, that the evils of popular rule are imaginery dangers, contradicted by the experience of mankind. The checks thus imposed upon the power of the people were the work of their own delegates, chosen by universal suffrage during a period of unexampled public excitation, whose proceedings had been marked by a more violent love of freedom than any that ever existed from the beginning of the world. Nothing can speak so strongly in favour of the necessity of controlling the people as the work of the representatives whom they had themselves chosen, without exception, under the influence of the most vehement excitement, to confirm their power. 52. Great agi tation in throughout France, at changes. The formation of this constitution, and its discussion in the assemblies of the people, to which it was submitted for consideration, excited the most violent agitation Paris, and throughout France. Paris, as usual, took the lead. forty-eight sections were incessantly assembled, and the these public effervescence resembled that of 1789. This was brought to its height by a decree of the Convention, declaring that two-thirds of the present legislature should form a part of the new legislature, and that the electors Delib. de should only fill up the remaining part. The citizens Prim. de beheld with horror so large a proportion of a body, whose 7. Sept. proceedings had deluged France with blood, still destined Hist. Parl. to reign over them. To accept the constitution, and 21. Toul. reject this decree, seemed the only way of getting free 330. Th from their domination.1 The Thermidorian party had Mig. ii. 388, been entirely excluded from the Committee of Eleven, to xii.402,403. whom the formation of the new constitution was intrusted, l'Assemblée Lepelletier, xxxvii. 20, v. 327, 328, viii. 16, 19. 389. Lac. XIX. 1795. CHAP. and in revenge they joined the assemblies of those who sought to counteract the ambition of the Convention. The focus of the effervescence was the section Lepelletier, formerly known by the name of that of the Filles-StThomas, the richest and most powerful in Paris, which, through all the changes of the Revolution, had steadily adhered to Royalist principles. 53. Royalists with sections of national guard. The Royalist committee of Paris, of which le Maître Coalition of was the known agent, which had still existed through all the horrors of the Revolution, finding matters brought to this crisis, coalesced with the journals and the leaders of the sections. They openly accused the Convention of attempting to perpetuate its power, and of aiming at usurping the sovereignty of the people. The orators of the sections said at its bar, "Deserve our choice, do not seek to command it; you have exercised an authority without bounds; you have united in yourselves all the powers those of making laws, of revising them, of changing them, of executing them. Recollect how fatal military despotism was to the Roman republic." The press of Paris teemed with pamphlets, inveighing against 1 Hist. Parl, the ambitious views of the legislature; and the efforts xxxvii. 23 of the sections were incessant to defeat their projects. 404. Toul. The agitation of 1789 was renewed, but it was all now Th. viii. 20, on the other side; the object now was, not to restrain the tyranny of the court, but to repress the ambition of the delegates of the people 1 27. Lac.xii. v. 331, 333. 22,23. Mig. ii. 389. 54. Vehement Royalist declama sections. 66 Will the Convention," said the Royalist orators, never be satisfied? Is a reign of three years, fraught with more crimes than the whole annals of twenty other tions at the nations, not sufficient for those who rose into power under the auspices of the 10th August and the 2d September? Is that power fit to repose under the shadow of the laws, which has only lived in tempests? Let us not be deceived by the 9th Thermidor; the bay of Quiberon, where Tallien bore so conspicuous a part, may show us that the thirst for blood is not extinguished, even among CHAP. XIX. 1795. those who overthrew Robespierre. The Convention has done nothing but destroy: shall we now intrust it with the work of conservation? What reliance can be placed on the monstrous coalition between the proscribers and the proscribed? Irreconcilable enemies to each other, they have only entered into this semblance of alliance in order to resist those who hate them-that is, every man in France. It is we ourselves who have forced upon. them those acts of tardy humanity on which they now rely as a veil to their monstrous proceedings. But for our warm representations, the members hors la loi would still have been wandering in exile, the seventy-three deputies still languishing in prison. Who but ourselves formed the faithful guard which saved them from the terrible faubourgs, to whom they had basely yielded their best members on the 31st May? They now call upon us to select among its ranks those who should continue members, and form the two-thirds of the new Assembly. Can two-thirds of the Convention be found who are not stained with blood? Can we ever forget that many of its basest acts passed unanimously, and that a majority of three hundred and sixty-one concurred in a vote which will be an eternal subject of mourning to France? Shall we admit a majority of regicides into the new Assembly, intrust our liberty to cowards, our fortunes to the authors of so many acts of rapine, our lives to murderers? The Convention is only strong because it mixes up its crimes with the glories of our armies. Let us separate them; let us leave the Convention its sins, and our soldiers their triumphs, and the world will 406, 409. speedily do justice to both."1 1 Lac. xii. agitation Such discourses, incessantly repeated from the tribunes 55. of forty-eight sections, violently shook the public mind in Extreme the capital. To give greater publicity to their opinions, the at Paris. orators repeated the same sentiments in addresses at the bar of the Convention, which were immediately circulated with rapidity through the departments. The effervescence XIX. 1795. CHAP. in the south was at its height; many important cities and departments seemed already disposed to imitate the sections of the metropolis. The towns of Dreux and Chartres warmly seconded their wishes; the sections of Orleans sent the following message:-"Primary assemblies of Paris, Orleans is at your side; it advances on the same line; let your cry be resistance to oppression, hatred to usurpers, and we will second you." The national guard of Paris shared in the general excitement. The bands of the Jeunesse Dorée had inspired its members with part of their own exultation of feeling, and diminished much of their wonted timidity. Resistance to the tyrants was xxxvii. 14, openly spoken of; the Convention compared to the Long Parliament which shed the blood of Charles I.; and the assistance of a Monk ardently looked for, to consummate the work of restoration.1 Hist. Parl. 34. Lac. xii. 414. Th. viii. 22, 23. 56. The Convention Surrounded by so many dangers, the Convention did not abate of its former energy. They had lost the throw them- Jacobins by their proscriptions, the Royalists by their selves on the ambition. What remained? THE ARMY: and this ter army. rible engine they resolved to employ, as the only means of prolonging their power. They lost no time in submitting the constitution to the soldiers, and by them it was unanimously adopted. Military men, accustomed to obey, and to take the lead from others, usually, except in periods of uncommon excitement, adopt any constitution which is recommended to them by their officers. The officers, all raised during the fervour of 1793, and in great part strangers to the horrors which had alienated so large a part of the population of Paris from the Revolution, eagerly supported a constitution which promised to continue the régime under which they had risen to the stations they now occupied. A body of five Lac. xii. thousand regular troops was assembled in the neighbourTh. viii. 35, hood of Paris, and their adhesion to the constitution 36. Mig. ii. eagerly announced to the citizens.2 The Convention called to their support the Prætorian guards; they 414, 415. 390. |