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fied for their painful labours, the long sufferings of the creditors and pensioners of the state will be at an end, the melancholy lot of our intrepid brethren in arms will be ameliorated, and the national felicity, which a diabolical spirit had thought to be able to separate from public probity and the social virtues, will revive and assume new life in those immortal and fruitful sources of all prosperity. (Signed)

LETOURNEUR, President.

The Executive Directory to the Citi

zens of Paris.

ROYALISM, at length despair. ing of being able to seduce you in its own coleurs, now takes to bring you under its odious yoke, a way, perhaps, more winding, but far more perfidious and less dangerous. For several days incendiary papers and placards have been profusely distributed. Seditious propositions and menacing discourses are heard, and groups are formed in the public squares. The heads of the party no longer conceal their object; they audaciously declare it. They wish to overturn the republican constitution, to de troy the national representation and the government; to put in force the atrocious and impracticable code of 1793; and to effect the pretended equal division of all property, even in the most inconsiderable nature, such as little shops, &c. They are desirous of plunder.

They are, in a word, desirous to re-elect scaffolds, and to bathe as formerly in your blood, gorging themselves with your riches and the smallest produce of your la. bours. The foreigner who pays

them knows very well that the present government being once destroyed, the multitude wearied at length with various agitations, which must tend to augment their sufferings, will throw themselves → into the arms of a king. The miserable agitators, whom he makes his instruments, must themselves desire this, to place their plunders under the safeguard of an authority which would be their work, and to secure the means of committing fresh ones with impunity, by sharing in all employments. Who can indeed doubt but that they are in agreement with foreigners to roy. alise France, or to reduce it to a state of debility and confusion, the inevitable consequence of which would be its dismemberment? Do our most declared enemies hold another language and another conduct? They say openly, that they will carry revenge and fire every where, rather than allow peace to be made; and at the same time they circulate a thousand lying reports to discredit the national money, and thus deprive the government of the means of securing to our armies the faculty of hastening, by new trials, a glorious and durable peace, which is the con. stant object of the views of the directory, and the aim of all its labours. To these odious maneuvres they add atrocious calumnies, to deprive the government of the force it needs; they even assert that the executive directory has done nothing towards the consolidation of the republic. Wellintentioned men! go back to the moment of the installation of the directory, and judge whether in a few months it could have done more. La Vendée has been dis

armed

armed, and its chiefs either killed or taken.

The revolt in l'Indre and le Cher was extinguished at the very moment when it broke out; and the war against the Chouans is carried on with activity and success. The armies which were in a complete state of dissolution are now re-organised, and are in a sondition to cope with the enemy, and to fix victory on the standard of liberty. Severe measures against the refractory priests and the emi. grants have been called for, and those which existed have been executed with vigour. Administrators, whose patriotism was suspect. ed, have been replaced by ener, getic republicans; and, finally, subsistencies have been procured, and their circulation, which was impeded on all sides, re-established. These emissaries of foreigners dare to add, that the directory does not cherish the patriots, but abandons them to persecution. Certainly it does not cease to cherish them; it has not desisted, and will not desist to support and defend the patriots, and will never suffer the errors into which they may have been led, by an ardent zeal for liberty, to be con founded with guilt. It has an affectionate regard for those pure and sincere patriots, who unite wisdom to the ardour of a burning civism; who, impatient of every yoke but that of the laws, are equally averse to the establishment of their own nomination. It will always know how to distinguish these from the disguised partizans of royalism, from the brigands who usurp the glorious title of patriots, merely to dishonour it. The directory is the warmest friend to patriots; and is not the fate of the patriots and VOL. XXXVIII.

that of the directory intimately connected? Are not their destinies common? Citizens, and you ge nerous defenders of the country, instructed by a long experience, you have repulsed, with contempt, these dastardly and atrocious miscreants. You are not ignorant, brave warriors, that if the governmeat is destroyed, the republic is lost. You will know how to preserve, by the wisdom and energy of your conduct, a liberty secured by your triumphs. You, citizens, who live by the fruit of your labours, will not forget the magnificent promises which the tyrants, covered with a cloak of popularity, have so often made to you, and which have never had any other result than their own fortune, and the public misery. You will constantly perceive that a regular government, solidly established, can' alone secure good order and tranquillity, which on their side can alone procure the resources necessary for the support of your families. You who are apprehensive for your property, judge what you have to expect from the system now on foot, if instead of rallying round the republican constitution, you favour by your neglect the dissolution of the government. As to us, faithful to our duty, we will maintain the republic and the constitu tion with an unshaken firmness; we will cause public order to be respected; we will keep a watch on those who attempted to disturb it, and will repress them with all the force of the laws, the execu tion of which is confided to us. Incapable of being the accomplices or the instruments of any faction, we will return with honour to the private life which awaits us, or will T

perish

perish with glory at the post to public. If they could have forwhich we have been called.

(Signed)

LETOURNEUR, President.

Address of the Executive Directory to the French Armies, April, 1795.

DEFENDERS of the country, the moment approaches when you are again to take up your victorious arms; the moment approaches, when you are to quit a repose to which you consented, in the hope alone that it would lead to an ho nourable peace; but the seas of blood which have flowed have not yet satiated the rage of your eneinies. They unquestionably ima. gine, that we are about to abandon the fruits of our victories, at the very moment when success is ready to crown them. They imagine that we are about to demand of them as cowards a peace which we have offered them as generous enemies. Let them conceive these unworthy expectations: we will not be surprised: they have never combated for liberty-but what they cannot be ignorant of, is, that the brave armies with which they wish again to try their strength, are the same by which they have been so often subdued. No: they have not forgotten the prodigies of French valour; they still recollect with terror, both the redoubts of Gemappe, and the plains of Fleurus, and the frozen rivers of Holland: they recollect that the Alps and Pyrenees have opposed to you but feeble barriers, and that the peninsula of Quiberon became the tomb of all the parricidal slaves, who in the hope of subjecting you to the yoke of a master, dared to set their feet on the soil of the re

gotten all this, you will bring it to their recollections by blows still more terrible; you will teach them finally, that nothing can resist the efforts of a great ration which determines to be free.

Brave warriors, you have afford. ed the example of a disinterestedress which cannot exist unless a nong republicans. Oftentimes, in the midst of the greatest scarcity of provisions, of an almost absolute want of the most indispensable ob. jects, you have displayed that heroical patience, which joined to your impetuous valour, so eminently distinguishes you, and will signalize you to all nations, and to the eyes of posterity. Republican soldiers, you will preserve this great character; ad at the mo ment when your situation has been ameliorated, when with an onani. mous voice the representatives of the nation have taken measures to provide efficaciously for your wants, you will redouble also your vigour and courage, to put an end to a war which can be terminated by new victories alone.

In vain has the French government manifested to all the powers which wage war against France, a sincere wish to restore at length the repose of exhausted Europe; it has in vain made to them the most just and moderate propositions; nothing has been capable of removing their deplorable blindness. Yes, brave warriors, we must still have victories; and it is your energy alone that can put a stop to this devastating scourge. Prepare, therefore, for a last effort, and let it be decisive; let every thing yield to, let every thing be dissipated by your phalanxes; let the new flags

of

of your enemies, carried off by your triumphant hands, form, with the preceding ones, the trophy with which, in the name of France, always great in her misfortunes, always just in her prosperity, the equitable peace you will give to the world will be proclaimed.

And you, generous defenders, who shall have cemented that peace with your blood, you will soon return to the bosom of your families among your fellow citizens, to enjoy your glory-terrible still in your repose, to all the enemies of the republic.

LETOURNEUR, President.

Proclamation issued by Scepeaux, in

the Western Department.

COMPANIONS in arms-as long as we thought it possible to attain our desired end, the free exercise of the religion of our fathers and the establishment of the legitimate heir of the French mo. narchy, we have not ceased to combat at your head, and to excite that courage and perseverance which you have displayed to the eyes of all Europe; but at present, convinced that fresh efforts will only draw new misfortunes on our already devastated country, informed that the most violent measures of terror would be exercised against our relations, who would be imprisoned, and their property entirely ravaged, we have not thought we could continue a war which was become the scourge of the country we had hoped to defend, and did not think ourselves permitted any longer to risk the lives of those brave men who had confided to us the charge of conducting them to the field of ho

nour. However painful the sacrifice may be to our opinion, we invite you to give up, into the hands proposed for that purpose, the arms that we cannot any longer engage you to preserve, without becom. ing the executioners of your rela tions and friends. This clause fulfilled, your persons and property will be under the safeguard of the laws you will remain quiet at home: nor will you in any respect be troubled for the past. This assurance concerning your fate has alone induced us to consent to a conduct contrary to the wishes of our heart, but dictated by the ne cessity of the circumstance.

Decreed 15th May, 1796.
(Signed) LE VICOMTE DE SCE-
PEAUX, general in
chief.

COUNT DE CHATILLON,
Lieut. gen. of the army of
St. Scepeaux.

LE CHEVALIER DE TURPIN,
Inspector general.

Message to the Council of Five Hun dred from the Directory, relative to La Vendée.

28 Messider, (16 July.) FOR this long time an intestine war, fostered by fanaticism, has desolated one of the finest regions of the republic; we had even to dread, lest it should make progress, and expose France to the brink of her ruin; gold and provisions have been furnished by the English. But thanks to the brave ariny of the ocean and its general, all is returned to good order. The inha. bitants have delivered up their arms, and were they even disin clined to preserve the tranquillity which has been restored to them,

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they would find it impossible forth. with to excite a commotion. At present we may travel in safety through the several departments of the west.

If we have not always spoken of the heroic feats which have signalized our gallant soldiers, composing the army of the coasts of the Ocean, it was done in order not 10 disclose to our enemies, all the inveteracy of the evil we had to cure ; but at present, while there is no danger in promulgating their exploits, we are cager to deciare, that no army has more well deserved of its country than that of the ocean. No doubt, citizens legis. lators, you will hasten to make this declaration in a solemn manner.

mediate abolition of fiefs, and of every feudal jurisdiction, shall extend to infeoffments made under a burthensome title.

The Congress of Cispidana to the People of Bol gui, Ferrara, Modena, and Resgin.

Reggin, 10 Niv se, first year of the Republic of Cispadana, one and indivisible, Dec. 30, 1796, (old style.

THE first stone of the founda. tion of your infant liberty was laid in the congress held at Modena last October, thanks to the invin cible French nation, which not only was so generous as to restore to you your natural rights, but also enabled you to exercise them in

Decree published at Medena on the order to secure your future exist18th of October, 1796.

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4. With respect to the odious privileges of hunting and fishing, the committee will immediately publish a proclamation to satisfy the general impatience to see them suppressed.

ence; it was with this view you formed the bounds of a friendly confederation, which nothing could untie; you also wished for the means of drawing those bonds still closer, in order that the structure; once begun, might rise great and majestic. In fine, you called us to the congress of Reggio, and we strong in your commands, were proud of being able and authorized to give our concurrence to an en terprise worthy of the honour of Italy, and which will be the admiration of future ages.

Citizens, the congress is eager to inform you that your wishes are fulfilled, and that you are henceforth but one people, or rather one family. The following is the te nor of the resolution:

"A motion having been made 5. The allodial rights shall re- in the congress to form the four main to the founders in absolute nations into a republic, one and inproperty. divisible in every respect so con6. Whatever concerns the im- structed, that the four nations may

only

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