Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

establishments in and near Paris. According to one declaration, all foreigners were to furrender them felves at a place appointed, on pain of being inftantly put to death; according to another, they were to be mu dered without that previous formality. The foldiers from the neighbouring camp were to be in vited to come into the town in fmall bands, without officers, and without colours, and were to be paid, upon their arrival, the price of their horfes, &c. The perfons who were to compofe the new le gillative body, were fixty-eight of the ex-conventional members, who had not been re-elected, a deputy from each department, and probably a few mountaineers of the prefent legislative body.

The fignal for the infurrection would have been involuntarily given through the whole extent of the city by the police itfelf; being the found of the bell which is every morning rung in each fection at the time appointed for cleaning the freets. At that found the confpirators were to form themselves into bands of four or five perfons, to enter the houfes which they had marked, and ftab thofe whom they had deftined to perifh; then join ing their forces at a place of general rendezvous, they were to march in confiderable numbers upon the directory, who had no other defence than the conftitutional guard, reinforced by one battalion of in fantry, and a fmall body of horfe.

The aim of the confpiracy was to overthrow the government altogether; but it appears that there were two plans, one known to all the confpirators, and the other only to a fmall number; and thofe latter had formed what they called an infurrectional fecret directory of public fafety, confifting of four perfons,

who intended, when the infurrec tion was over, to facrifice many of their affociates who were not initiated in their fecret projects, and to fpare fome perfons who now ap. pear to have been involved in the common profcription. This vaft machine of confpiracy was organized with fo much ingenuity, that the agents were not to know each other; fo that if one was unfaithful, or difcovered and feized, it was only neceffary to affaffinate his immediate fuperior in order to conceal effectually all traces of the confpiracy from the government. The names of the fecret directory were to remain unknown; and they were to iffue their orders by means of a feal, without any fignatures. Many of their papers, which were read in general committees of the council of five hundred, were found hid in a wall.

There is no doubt, but, had the confpirators prevailed, Paris would have become a fene of horrors be. yond any which it has yet experienced in the course of a fanguinary revolution. But there are many reafons to believe that thefe affatfins might have failed in their enferprize, even if they had been fuffered to make the attempt. They had not, as in the infurrection of the 31ft of May, 1793, the conftituted authorities on their fide; and though they might have committed many murders, it is not probable that they would have been able to accomplish the maffacre of all the perfons in power, refiding in dif ferent quarters of a great city; and every good citizen would have inftantly rallied around thofe who furvived. Some of the foldiers had been feduced; but it is believed that the greater part would have refifted the confpirators; and all the field-officers were faithful to

the

the government. Incalculable mifchiefs, however, were prevented by the failure of this exe, crable plan of ferocious madnefs, which, had it fucceeded, would have completed the ruin of the Country, would have deftroyed all that is left of eftimable citizens, and all that it still poffeffes of wealth and of refouces. For although they certainly would not have fucceeded in eftablishing the conftitution of 1793, a few hours of fuccefs would have fufficed for pillage and maffacre. This defperate enterprise appears indeed to have been lefs a project of revolution or of conqueft, than of exter. mination; and one idea published in the papers of the confpirators, that of engaging the people to commit fuch crimes as would make it impoffible for them to retrograde, feems worthy of the infernal regions. Had the defigns of thefe mifcreants indeed not been baffled, there would have been the war of pillage against property; of famine, which would have been without remedy, against fubfiftence; and of the most hideous and bloody tyranny against freedom.

Babeuf, one of the most active leaders of this confpiracy, acknowledged himself to be the writer of the treasonable papers found in his apartment. When interrogated by the minifter of the police, he replied with the most undaunted firmness; and when asked who were his accomplices, he answered, that they little knew him who believed he was capable of denouncing his friends. Babeuf from his dungeon continued for fome time to treat with the executive directory as one fovereign power with another. He addreffed to them a letter of four pages, in which he tells them that the holy infurrection pro

jected would not be prevented, me naces them with death if they did not retract all they had published refpecting it, and promiles them, if they behaved in a becoming man. ner, five places in the future executive council.

The trial of thefe confpirators was delayed for a confiderable time, partly through the flow and lenient forms which the conftitution had prefcribed in fuch cafes, and partly, we fufpect, through motives of policy. In the mean time Drouet (through fome connivance of the executive power or its agents, as is generally fuppofed) effected his efcape; but Babeuf and Darthe have been condemned to death by the high criminal court at Vendome, appointed to try the confpirators.

The difcovery of this confpiracy produced, as might be expected, the moft general fatisfaction throughout France, except among the royalifts and the jacobins. When the point in queftion is that of overthrowing the republican government, thofe two extremes axe found to meet, this being alike the aim of both parties. After the difcovery of the plot, the jacobins endeavoured to circulate the opinion that it was framed by the royalists; but this affertion gained no credit, fince the perfons arrefted were renowned chiefs of the terrorift faction, whofe fanguinary principles are but too well afcertained. It is not, however, improbable that fome emiflaries of foreign powers might infinuate themfelves into the councils of the jacobins, and impe! them' to thofe ferocious outrages, which, after producing a fcene of the most horrible carnage, and destroying confiderable numbers of the repub. licans, might probably end by the wearied people feeking for relief in monarchy from fuch intolerable

that fea of blood on which the veffel of the ftate had been nearly fhipwrecked at the very moment when it reached an harbour.

This jacobinical confpiracy bes ing discovered, 'the partial infurrections which took place in fome of the fouthern departments and one of the newly-acquired departments in the north, which were fomented by the fanatical clergy and returned emigrants, were like wife diffipated. The influence of the refractory priests had been fuccefsfully exercifed in checking the operations of government in various modes; but in none more than in preventing the fale of national lands, by preaching that the purchafers would incur, by that act, the pains of eternal damnation. The legislature had been in frequent deliberation refpecting the divifion of that portion of the paternal inheritance of which the na

evils? But although the royalifts are ready to take advantage of that hideous anarchy which the jacobins would renew, there is certainly not, as fome would infinuate, any coalition between the two parties. On the contrary, in one of the papers of the late confpiracy, is found an exprefs order to put all the royalifts to death. The jacobins act only for themfelves, and feek only to eftablish their own execrable fyftem. It is the general obfervation, that the failure of a plot adds weight to the established power; their laft projected infurrection, therefore, real ly ferved to give new ftrength to the government, by infpiring new confidence in its adminiftration. The die was then caft. The executive directory found it neceffary to declare open hoftilities against that daring faction which threw its gauntlet at the government from which it received not only protection became the heir by the emition but favour; and the directory is now bound by every motive of felf-prefervation, as well as by every principle of public virtue, to crufli that exterminating band, whofe dangerous exceffes was all the res public had to fear amidst the in creafing glories of its victorious arms. From the royalifts, enaided by jacobin infurrections, there is little to apprehend. The people of France are fo wearied of a ftate of revolution, they long fo ardent ly for repofe, that if the prefent form of government be tolerably well administered, if it affords them fafety and tranquillity, nothing will excite them to infurrection. The republicans wish to maintain the conftitution from principle and choice; and even the royalifts themfelves, in general, feel, that to attempt now the restoration of mos narchy, would be to repafs again

gration of the natural fucceffors. The council of elders had already rejected a refolution fent up by the council of five hundred, which propofed the immediate divifion of the property during the life of the poffeffor. The difcuffion on this queftion had been conducted with much heat on either fide; one party confidering the divifion of the paternal eftate during the life-time of the parent, as unconftitutional and tyrannical; while the other af ferted it to be conformable to the rules of perfe& justice and equity. On the rejection of the refolution for a forced divifion, the council of five hundred formed another refolution (May 9th), which left the removal of the fequeftration upon all eftates belonging to parents whofe children had emigrated, at the will of fuch as chofe to affent to the immediate furrender of that

part

part to which the nation was entitled by law. Those who did not confent to the immediate divifion, were to remain under the weight of the fequeftration. This regula

tion, though effentially the fame in principle with the former, was oppofed with great vigour, but was at length approved by the council of elders, and paffed into a law.

CHA P. IX. .

Opening of the Campaign on the Rhine. Object of the Campaign. Battle of the Sieg. Victories of the French at Altenkirchen. Paffage of the Lahn. Attack of the French by Prince Charles. Retreat of the French to their former Pofitions. Paffage of the Rhine by the Army under Moreau. Rehl taken. Aufirian Army in Italy take Refuge in Mantua. French take Poffeffion of Leghorn. Entrance of the French Army on the Territories of the Pope. Surrender of Bologna, Ferrara, and Urbino. Armiftice concluded with Naples and the Pope. Conditions of the Armistice. Petition of the French Artifts against the Removal to Paris of the Monuments of the Arts from Italy. Refusal of the Directory. Operations of the French Army in the Brifgaw. Return of Prince Charles from the Lower Rhine to the Affiftance of General Wurmfer. Battle of Reuchen. Battle of Radftadi. General Fourdan advances to Frankfort. Battle of Ettingen. Retreat of the Imperial Army into Germany. Paffage of the Rhine at Huningue. French in Poffeffion of the Courfe of the Rhine. Trial of the Murderers of September 1792. Acquittal of the Infurgents in the Affair of Vendemiaire Caufes and Confequences of that Infurrection. Affairs of Finance. Extinction of the Affignats and Referiptions. Creation of Mandats. Loans inforcing their Circulation. Great Depreciation of this Paper. Forced Loans. State of the Public Revenue. Various Modes of granting the Supplies. Suppreffion of religious Houfes in the Low Countries. Expulfion of the Pope's Envoys from Paris. Difmiffion of the Sardinian Ambafador. Difmillion of the Plenipotentiary from the Duke of Tuscany. Expulfion of the Swedish Envoy.

URING the events which have

of the latter army was intrenched

related, the Auftrian at Duffeldorf, on the right fide

commander in chief announced to the French general the termination of the armistice on the Rhine (May 31ft). The imperial troops were in poffeffion of the larger portion of the palatinate from Landau to Bingen. The army of the Rhine and Mofelle, and the right wing of the army of the Sambre and Meuse, prevented them from penetrating to the banks of the Mofelle and to Luxembourg; while the left wing

the Rhine.

The poffeffion of the city Mentz, which was the only poft of importance held by the Auftrians on the weft of the river, feem ed to be the great object of the campaign to the French, as the capture of this place would make them abfolute mafters of the whole of the country on the left fide of the Rhine. Several armies had al ready melted away before Mentz

and

and fe formidable were the additions made to its original ftrength on the fide which was oppofed to the French, that no hope of fuccefs was entertained until the communication could be cut off on the German fide.

the Hundfdruck, where he had held in check the army of the Rhine and Mofelle, under Moreau; and leaving Mertz and Manheim, which he had hitherto covered with the moft confiderable part of his forces, with a fufficient number to repel any fudden attacks, marched across the Rhine with fuch reinforcements as rendered the Auftrian ar.

The first operations of the French were fuccefsful: while the army of the Rhine and Mofelle, and the right wing of the army of the Sammy on the right fide, which had bre and Meufe, attacked the Auftrians in the Palatinate, the left wing of this laft army, pofted at Duffeldorf, afcending the right fide of the Rhine, attacked the Auftri ans who were pofted on the banks of the Sieg (June 1ft), a river which empties itfelf into the Rhine, nearly oppofite to Cologne. The victory gained at the paffage of the Sieg was followed by another fill more decifive at Altenkirchen (June 4th), a village a few miles diflant from the Sieg on the road to Mentz; where the imperial troops, under the prince of Wirtemberg, were ftrongly pofted to prevent the dangerous progrefs of the republicans in that direction.

The imperial troops, after having fuffered confiderable lofs, were compelled to retreat across the Lahn, a river emptying itself into the Rhine, above the fortrefs of Ehrenbreitftein; and ftill further on the road to Mentz. The French had croffed this river in purfuit of the retreating army, and had inyefted this fortrefs, which was a place of uncommon ftrength; when the archduke, perceiving the danger of fuffering the republicans to advance further in the rear of the army, found it neceffary to change his mode of defence, and concert another plan of operations.

For this purpofe, about the 8th of June, he withdrew the greater part of the imperial troops from

been hitherto retreating, greatly fuperior to the affailants. This well-concerted fcheme was conftrued, by the French generals and commiffioners belonging to the ar my in the Palatinate, into a flight. But the army on the right fide, which had hitherto been purfuing the Auftrians towards Mentz, and which were now advanced within a fhort distance of this town, foon felt the effects of thefe operations; fiuce, before Jourdan, who had forefeen this manoeuvre, could gain time, from the badnefs of the roads, and the length of the march, to ftrengthen the army, the Auftrians attacked it with great fury, and compelled it, with confiderable lofs, to take its former pofition, whence they had begun their operations. The army of the Sambre and Meufe retired within the lines of Duffeldorf, and that of the Rhine and Mofelle repaffed the Rhine at Neuwied. The evacuation of the Palatinate by the Auftrians, who were now employed in purfuit of the retreating armies of the French on the right fide of the river, left the army of the Rhine and the Mofelle, which had taken poffetion of the territory abandoned by the imperialifts, once more in prefence of Mentz and Manheim, without the poffibility of gaining any advantage by its pofition.

This fecond defeat before Mentz, though lefs fatal than the lofs fuf

« ForrigeFortsett »