and among them they numbered many partisans, had assembled riotously, and murdered seven prisoners accused of emigration, in the very arms of the three representatives, Mariette, Ritter, and Chambon. At the close of Ventose, they attempted to repeat these outrages. Twenty prisoners, taken in an enemy's frigate, were in one of the forts; they insisted that they were emigrants, whom the government intended to pardon. They raised the twelve thousand workmen belonging to the arsenal, and surrounded the representatives, who narrowly escaped with their lives, but were fortunately quelled by a battalion which was landed from the squadron.

These occurrences, coinciding with those in Paris, increased the alarm of the government, and redoubled the severity. It had already enjoined all the members of the municipal administrations, of the revolutionary committees, and of the popular and military commissions, and all employés dismissed since the 9th of Thermidor, to quit the towns to which they had repaired, and to retire to their respective communes. A still more severe decree was levelled at them. They had obtained possession of arms distributed in moments of danger. It was decreed that all those who were known in France to have contributed to the vast tyranny abolished on the 9th of Thermidor should be disarmed. To each municipal assembly, or to each sectional assembly, belonged the designation of the accomplices of that tyranny, and the task of disarming them. It is easy to conceive to what dangerous persecutions this decree must expose them, at a moment when they had excited so violent a hatred.

The government did not stop there. It determined to take from them the pretended chiefs whom they had on the benches of the Mountain. Though the three principal had been condemned to transportation, though seven more, Choudieu, Chales, Foussedoire, Leonard Bourdon, Huguet, Duhem, and Amar, had been sent to the castle of Ham, still it was thought that others quite as formidable were left. Cambon, the dictator of the finances, and the inexorable adversary of the Thermidorians, whom he never forgave for daring to attack his integrity, appeared troublesome at least. He was even supposed to be dangerous. It was asserted that on the morning of the 12th he had said to the clerks of the treasury, "There are three hundred of you here, and in case of danger you will be able to make resistance"-words which he was likely enough to have uttered, and which would prove his conformity of sentiments, not his complicity, with the Jacobins. Thuriot, formerly a Thermidorian, but who had again become a Mountaineer since the readmission of the seventy-three and the twenty-two, and a deputy possessing great influence, was also considered as a chief of the faction. Under the same head were placed Crassous, who had become one of the most energetic supporters of the Jacobins; Lesaye-Sénault, who had contributed to cause their club to be shut up, but who had since taken alarm at the reaction; Lecointre of Versailles, the declared adversary of Billaud, Collot, and Barrère, and who had rejoined the Mountain since the return of the Girondins; Maignet, the incendiary of the South; Hentz, the terrible proconsul of La Vendée; Levasseur of La Sarthe, one of those who had contributed to the death of Philipeaux, and Granet of Marseilles, accused of being the instigator of the revolutionists of the South. It was Tallien, who designated them, and who, after picking them out in the very tribune of the assembly, insisted on their being arrested like their seven colleagues and sent with them to Ham. Tallien's desire was complied with, and they were doomed to suffer the same imprisonment.

Thus this movement of the patriots caused them to be persecuted, disarmed throughout all France,* sent to their respective communes, and to lose a score of Mountaineers, some of whom were transported and others confined. Every

* "Many of the provinces of France became scenes of counter-revolutionary excesses, of the same character, and almost as terrible, as those of the revolutionary committees themselves. Massacres in mass, private assassinations, were the order of the day. Thus the infliction of cruelty and terror went its round, and was not confined to any particular class or side, but was the consequence of the maddening spirit and delirium of the time, and the hatred of the different factions towards each other." - Hazlitt. E.

movement of a party that is not strong enough to conquer serves only to accelerate its ruin.

The Thermidorians, after they had punished persons, attacked things. The commission of seven, charged to report upon the organic laws of the constitution, declared without reserve that the constitution was so general that it wanted framing anew. A commission of eleven was then appointed to present a new plan. Unfortunately the victories of their adversaries, instead of reducing the revolutionists to order, only tended to inflame them still more, and to excite them to fresh and dangerous efforts.

THE NATIONAL CONVENTION.

PEACE WITH HOLLAND, PRUSSIA, AND TUSCANY-NEGOTIATIONS WITH LA VENDEE AND BRETAGNE; INTRIGUES OF THE ROYALIST AGENTS; FEIGNED PEACE-STATE OF AUSTRIA AND OF ENGLAND; THEIR PREPARATIONS FOR A NEW CAMPAIGN.

DURING these melancholy events, the negotiations at Basle had been interrupted for a moment by the death of Baron de Goltz. The most sinister rumours were immediately circulated. One day, it was said, the powers will never treat with a republic constantly threatened by factions; they will leave it to perish in the convulsions of anarchy, without fighting and without acknowledging it. Another day, the very contrary was asserted. Peace, it was said, is concluded with Spain; the French armies will go no farther: we are treating with England, we are treating with Prussia, but at the expense of Sweden and Denmark, who are about to be sacrificed to the ambition of Pitt and Catherine, and who will be repaid in this manner for their friendship to France. We see that malice, differing in its reports, always imagined the very contrary to that which was most consistent with the interest of the republic; it supposed ruptures where peace was wished for, and peace where victories were desired. At another time again, it was pleased to report that any peace was for ever impossible, and that a protest on this subject had been placed in the hands of the committee of public welfare by the majority of the members of the Convention. It was a new sally of Duhem's that had given rise to this rumour. He pretended that it was mere shuffling to treat with a single power, and that peace ought not to be granted to any till they should come to demand it all together. He had delivered a note on this subject to the committee of public welfare, and it was this that had given rise to the rumour of a protest.

The patriots, on their part, circulated reports not less annoying. They alleged that Prussia was spinning out the negotiations, for the purpose of getting Holland included in one common treaty with herself, in order to keep her under her influence, and to save the stadtholdership. They complained that the fate of that republic remained so long unsettled; that the French there enjoyed none of the advantages of conquest; that the assignats were there taken at not more than half their value, and from the soldiers only; that the Dutch merchants had written to the Belgian and French merchants, that they were ready to transact business with them, but only on condition of being paid in advance, and in specie; that the Dutch had allowed the stadtholder to go off with just what he pleased, and had sent part of their wealth to London in ships belonging to the East India Company. Many difficulties had, in fact, arisen in Holland, either on account of the conditions of the peace, or owing to the excitement of the patriotic party. The committee of public welfare had sent thither two of its members, capable by their influence of terminating all the differences which had arisen. For fear of prejudicing the negotiation, it had begged the Convention to excuse it from stating either their names or the object of their mission. The Assembly had complied, and they had set out immediately.

It was natural that such important events and such high interests should excite hopes and fears, and contrary reports. But, in spite of all these rumours, the conferences were continued with success. Count Hardenberg* had succeeded Baron de Goltz at Basle, and the conditions were nearly arranged on both sides.

Scarcely had these negotiations commenced when the empire of facts was sensibly felt, and required modifications in the powers of the committee of public welfare. A perfectly open government which could not conceal anything, could not decide anything of itself, could do nothing without a public deliberation, would be incapable of negotiating a treaty with any power, how frank soever it might be. For treating, signing suspensions of arms, neutralizing territories, secrecy is most especially necessary; for a power sometimes negotiates long before it suits it to avow that fact: this is not all; there are frequently articles which must absolutely remain unknown. If a power promises, for example, to unite its forces with those of another, if it stipulates either the junction of an army, or that of a squadron, or any concurrence whatever of means, this secret becomes of the utmost importance. How could the committee of public welfare, renewed in the proportion of one-fourth every month, obliged to render an account of everything, and not possessing the energy or the boldness of the old committee-how could it have negotiated, especially with powers ashamed of their blunders, reluctant to admit their defeat, and all insisting on either leaving secret conditions, or not publishing their treaty until it should be signed! The necessity which it felt for sending two of its members to Holland, without making known either their names or their mission, was a first proof how essential an ingredient secrecy is in diplomatic operations. It presented, in consequence, a decree which gave rise to fresh rumours, and which conferred on it the powers indispensably necessary for treating.

A curious spectacle for the theory of governments is that of a democracy, surmounting its indiscreet curiosity, its distrust distrust of power, and, constrained by necessity, granting to a few individuals the faculty of even stipulating secret conditions. This the National Convention did. It conferred on the committee of public welfare the power of concluding armistices, neutralizing territories, negotiating treaties, stipulating their conditions, drawing them up and even signing them, without reserving to itself any more than was its due, that is, the ratification. It did still more. It authorized the committee to sign secret articles, on the sole condition that these articles should contain nothing derogatory to the open articles, and should be published as soon as the interest of secrecy ceased to exist. Invested with these powers, the committee prosecuted and concluded the negotiations commenced with different states.

* " Charles Augustus, Baron and afterwards Prince Hardenberg, Prussian chancellor of state, was born in 1750, and, after having completed his studies at Leipsic and Gottingen, entered into the civil service of his country in 1770. He passed several years in travel, particularly in England, and in 1778 was made privy councillor, but a misunderstanding with one of the English princes induced him to resign his place in 1782 and to enter the service of Brunswick. The duke sent him to Berlin in 1786 with the will of Frederick II. which had been deposited with him. A few years afterwards Count Hardenberg was made Prussian minister of state, and then cabinet minister. In 1795 he signed the treaty of peace between the French republic and Prussia, on the part of the latter. At the commencement of the present century, Berlin became the centre of many negotiations between the northern powers, in which Hardenberg played a conspicuous part. In consequence of the disasters which Prussia met with in her contests with Napoleon, he resigned his post, but in the year 1806 once more resumed the portfolio. In 1810 the King of Prussia appointed him prime minister. In 1814 he signed the peace of Paris, and was created prince. He went to London with the sovereigns, and was one of the most prominent actors at the congress of Vienna. He was subsequently the active agent in all matters in which Prussia took part. While on a journey in the north of Italy, he fell sick at Pavia, and died in 1822. Prince Hardenberg was an active minister of the Holy Alliance; but his abolition of feudal services and privileges in Prussia will always be remembered to his honour. He patronized the sciences munificently; loved power, but was just in his administration. He wrote Memoirs of his own Times from 1801 to the peace of Tilsit.' He was twice married." - Encyclopædia Americana. E.

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The peace with Holland was at length signed under the influence of Rewbel, and especially of Sieyes, who were the two members of the committee recently sent to that country. The Dutch patriots gave a brilliant reception to the celebrated author of the first declaration of rights, and paid him a deference which put an end to many difficulties. The conditions of peace, signed at the Hague on the 27th of Floreal (May 16), were the following: The French republic acknowledged the republic of the United Provinces as a free and independent power, and guaranteed its independence and the abolition of the stadtholdership. There was to be an alliance, offensive and defensive, between the two republics during the present war. This offensive and defensive alliance was to be perpetual between the two republics in all cases of war against England. That of the United Provinces placed immediately at the disposal of France twelve ships of the line and eighteen frigates, to be employed principally in the German Ocean and in the Baltic. It gave, moreover, in aid of France half its land army, which indeed had dwindled almost to nothing, and required to be completely reorganized. As to the demarcations of territory, they were fixed as follows: France was to keep all Dutch Flanders, so as to complete her territory towards the sea, and to extend it to the mouths of the rivers. Towards the Meuse and Rhine, she was to have possession of Venloo and Maestricht and all the country to the south of Venloo, on both sides of the Meuse. Thus the republic relinquished the idea of extending itself on this point to the Rhine, which was reasonable. On this side, in fact, the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheldt, blend in such a manner that there is no precise boundary. Which of these arms ought to be considered as the Rhine? We cannot tell, and on this point all is matter of convention. Besides, in this quarter France is not threatened by any hostility but that of Holland, an hostility far from formidable, so that a marked boundary is no longer a necessary guarantee. Lastly, the territory allotted by nature to Holland consisting of tracts formed by alluvions carried to the mouths of the rivers, France, in order to extend herself to one of the principal streams, must have seized three-fourths at least of those tracts, and reduced nearly to nothing the republic which she had just liberated. The Rhine does not become a boundary for France in regard to Germany till near Wesel, and the possession of the two banks of the Meuse to the south of Venloo left that question untouched. The French republic, moreover, reserved to itself a right, in case of war towards the Rhine or Zealand, of putting garrisons into the fortresses of Grave, Boisle-Duc, and Bergen-op-Zoom. The port of Flushing was to belong in common to both. Thus all precautions were taken. The navigation of the Rhine, the Meuse, the Scheldt, the Hondt, and all their branches, was declared thenceforward and for ever free. Besides these advantages, an indemnity of one hundred millions of florins was to be paid by Holland. To compensate the latter for her sacrifices, France promised, at the general pacification, indemnities of territory taken from the conquered countries, and in a situation most suitable for the clear demarcation of the reciprocal boundaries.

This treaty rested on the most reasonable basis. The conqueror showed himself in it equally generous and skilful. It has been vainly argued that, in attaching Holland to her alliance, France exposed her to the loss of half her vessels detained in the ports of England, and especially of her colonies, left defenceless to the ambition of Pitt. Holland, if left neutral, would neither have recovered her shipping nor retained her colonies, and Pitt would still have found a pretext for seizing them on behalf of the stadtholder. The mere retaining of the stadtholdership, without saving in a certain manner the Dutch ships or colonies, would have deprived English ambition of all pretext; but was the retaining of the stadtholdership, with the political

* " Rewbel," said Napoleon, "born in Alsace, was one of the best lawyers in the town of Colmar. He possessed that kind of intelligence which denotes a man skilled in the practice of the bar. His influence was always felt in deliberations; he was easily inspired with prejudices; did not believe much in the existence of virtue; and his patriotism was tinged with a degree of enthusiasm. He bore a particular hatred to the Germanic system; displayed great energy in the Assemblies, both before and after the period of his being a magistrate; and was fond of a life of application and activity. He had been a member of the Constituent Assembly and of the Convention: Like all lawyers he had imbibed from his profession a prejudice against the army."-Las Cases. E.

principles of France, with the promises given to the Batavian patriots, with the spirit which animated them, or with the hopes conceived by them when they opened their gates to us, either possible, consistent, or even honourable ?

The conditions with Prussia were more easy to settle. Bischoff werder had just been thrown into confinement. The King of Prussia, delivered from mystics, had conceived a perfectly new ambition. He no longer aspired to save the principles of general order, but to become the mediator of universal pacification. The treaty with him was signed at Basle on the 16th of Germinal (April 5, 1795). In the first place, it was agreed that there should be peace, amity, and good understanding, between his majesty the King of Prussia and the French republic; that the troops of the latter should evacuate that part of the Prussian territories which they occupied on the right bank of the Rhine; that they should continue to occupy the Prussian provinces on the left bank, and that the lot of those provinces should not be definitively fixed till the general pacification. From this last condition it was very evident that the republic, without yet speaking out positively, thought of giving itself the boundary of the Rhine; but that, till it should have gained fresh victories over the states of the Empire and Austria, it deferred the solution of the difficulties to which this important determination must have given rise. Not till then would it be able either to eject the one, or to give indemnities to the others. The French republic engaged to accept the mediation of the King of Prussia for the purpose of reconciling it with the princes and states of the German empire; it even engaged, for the space of three months, not to treat as enemies such of the princes of the right bank in whose behalf his Prussian majesty should interest himself. This was a sure way to induce the whole empire to solicit peace through the mediation of Prussia.

Accordingly, immediately after the signing of this treaty, the cabinet of Berlin caused its determination and the motives which had swayed it, to be solemnly communicated to the Empire. It declared to the diet that it tendered its good offices to the Empire if it were desirous of peace; and, if the majority of the states refused it, to such of them as should be obliged to treat for their individual safety. Austria, on her part, addressed some very severe remarks to the diet: she said that she desired peace as much as any one, but that she believed it to be impossible; that she would choose the fit moment for treating; and that the states of the Empire would find many more advantages in relying upon old Austrian faith than upon perjured powers, which had violated all their engagements. The diet, to give itself the air of preparing for war, at the same time that it solicited peace, decreed the quintuple contingent for the ensuing campaign, and stipulated that the states which could not furnish soldiers, should be released from the obligation on paying two hundred and forty florins per man. At the same time, it decided that Austria, having just contracted with England for the continuance of the war, could not be the mediatrix of peace, and resolved to confide that mediation to Prussia. There was nothing more to be settled but the form and the composition of the deputation.

Notwithstanding this strong desire to treat, the Empire could not well do so en masse; for it must have required for its members stripped of their territories restitutions which France could not make without renouncing the line of the Rhine. But it was evident that, in this impossibility to treat collectively, each prince would throw himself into the arms of Prussia, and through her mediation make his separate peace.

Thus the republic began to disarm its enemies and to force them to peace. None were bent upon war but those who had sustained great losses, and who had no hopes of recovering by negotiation what they had lost by arms. Such could not fail to be the dispositions of the princes of the left bank despoiled of their territories, of Austria, deprived of the Netherlands, of Piedmont, ejected from Savoy and Nice. Those, on the contrary, who had had the good sense to preserve their neutrality, congratulated themselves every day on their prudence, and the profits which it brought them. Sweden and Denmark were about to send ambassadors to the Convention. Switzerland, which had become the entrepôt of the trade of the VOL. II.

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