pofite party, have taken up arms to defend their lives and their honour, to lay down their arms, and return to their habitations, and the bofoms of their families, affured of being no longer difturbed. As to thofe who, after this amicable and folemn invitation, fhall continue to form armed affemblages, unconnected with the organization of the French army, or the troops of the government of Italy, I declare that they fhall be regarded as enemies to France, the friends of England, and promoters of difturbance; and I shall caufe them to be purfued as fuch. (Signed) BRUNE. Letter from General Brune to the Chevalier Borghese, Minifter Plenipotentiary of the King of Sardinia to the Cifalpine Republic. Milan, 2d Thermidor. YOUR OUR note of yesterday, M. Minifter Plenipotentiary, could not but fill me with aftonifhment; I am accustomed only to the language of good faith and honour, and I perceive in what your court has dictated to you, expreffions and affertions, which wound the fimple virtues in which my nation conftitutes her glory. You call upon me to exert all my power to difperfe the Piedmontefe infurgents, at the very time when, drawn into fnares, which their enthufiafm could alone prevent them from difcovering, and which villany alone could contrive, they are maffacred by hundreds; while the infurgents confined in the dungeons of Turin, and other places, are ftill in irons; while your government, communicating its fentiments through you, dares immediately after the amnefty fay, that the country will be expofed to new calamities, if thefe ferocious men (the Piedmontefe infurgents) are restored to liberty. Your amnesty then was intended as a new fnare. You fay, that Citizen Angros, the French commander at Tortona, has permitted the infurgents to pafs under the fortress. This affertion is utterly deftitute of foundation. Having been apprifed at midnight, that an armed force was approaching, he put his troops in motion: he intimated that he would not allow treaties to be violated. Angros is a brave man. Would he have done well to have affifted in exterminating wretched fugitives escaped from the maffacre of the 16th Meffidor? The French refpect mifery; they spare the vanquished; they never affaffinate. You afk me, Sir, to take some steps. You affect to be ignorant, however, that the force which is under my authority, cannot, and ought not to be employed, but in the event that thofe of his Sardinian Majefty fhall be infufficient. You fay not a word of the precautions which it would be neceffary to take against affaffins, who form a part of the militia of the King your master, who who daily, fince the amnesty, have cut to pieces the fmall French detachments they meet, and shoot upon the roads our parties of cavalry. Europe will hear, and history will repeat, to the indignation of pofterity, the answer of one of the principal officers of his Sardinian Majefty, the commandant of Alexandria, to the remonftrances of a French general: "What! your troops affallinated? It is owing to a miftake of our militia, who take them for Piedmontefe infurgents." You recriminate againft Liguria, by accufing that republic of the charges which it imputes to you. The tree of liberty has been thrown down with contempt and infult in the towns which you still occupy. Contributions have been impofed, vexations.committed, arms carried off. Your government has been the aggresfor. Liguria fhowed itself the first to listen to the invitations of the Executive Directory, for the re-establishment of the peace of Italy. She laid down her arms, at the moment when her energy promifed her new victories. Her good faith and generofity have never been expofed to doubt. Nevertheless, in order to avoid all difputes on the principle of reftitution, by an order of yesterday, I decided, that the places taken on both fides fhall be put into the hands of the French republic, and kept as a depot, till a definitive treaty takes place between the two powers. Your court has made public the convention figned by Colonel. Saint Merfan and me, relative folely to the taking poffeffion of the citadel of Turin, but it has not thought proper to publish the previous convention, which fixes the balis of the amnefty, and which was figned by Citizen Ginguene, ambaffador of the French republic, and M. de Prioca, his Sardinian Majesty's ambaffador. Befides, I only received a fingle copy of the royal proclamation, and therefore it was not in my power to distribute it to our generals and commandants. If your infurgents are no better informed than we are of the difpofitions of your court, I am not furprifed that they still entertain alarms. I do not fay a word of a number of circumstances which prove a deep, crooked policy, in certain counsellors of his Sardinian Majefty. The indifputable facts I have mentioned, are sufficient to fhow that difpofition. It is yet time to return to good faith and to juftice. It is the wifh of the French republic, that all fhould be tranquil and happy around her army. She ought no longer to be difturbed by feditions, occafioned by the most criminal intrigues; and his Sardinian Majefty himself would do well to remember, that it was he himself who called upon us to fecure the tranquillity of his dominions. I request you, M. Minister Plenipotentiary, to notify to your court the following demands: 1. That liberty fhall be granted to the imprifoned infurgents. 2. The 2. The citadel of Turin fhall be furnished with provisions for two months, and the ftores and other neceffaries which were carried off when the French troops entered, fhall be re-eftablished, the taking away of which endangered the fafety of the depot. 3. The militia and other forces, which exceed the peace establishment, fhall be difbanded. 4. The Count de Salla, his Majefty's commandant at Alexandria, fhall be recalled. Upon thefe conditions, which are all either the provifions or the confequence of the conventions figned at Turin and Milan the 8th and 10th of this month, the French republic can still rely on the fidelity of her ally, and banish all fufpicion, notwithstanding errors of too fatal confequences. I yesterday fent you copies of my proclamation relative to the infurgents. I fend you feveral others. I trust that as well for the fake of humanity, as the intereft of your court, you will take care to have them diftributed. I have appointed an officer to regulate, in concert with a Sardinian officer, every thing that relates to the communications within the limits of the places which we occupy, and the means of facilitating the return of the infurgents. (Signed) Proclamation published on the 21st July, at Turin. BRUNE. THE Marquis Don Charles Francis de Thaon, Chevalier, &c. governor of the city and province of Turin.-After the beneficent orders fo often repeated for the prefervation of tranquillity in his realm, his Majefty hoped to have feen it perfectly restored among his well-beloved fubjects. It is with the greatest aftonishment, and the most lively regret, he learns that this tranquillity is in danger of being interrupted anew by evil-defigning perfons, lately returned into his territories, who labour, by false and seducing fchemes, to make the people favour their dark and infidious plans, either by predicting ftill greater misfortunes, or by artful exaggerations of the complaints of the country; or, finally, by openly and unrefervedly exciting all defcriptions and claffes of the inhabitants againft individuals of the French nation. From the atrocious malice of these wicked men must refult confequences baneful to the public and private tranquillity of his Majefty's fubjects. The French live in Piedmont under the protection of public treaties of peace and alliance. All hoftile plans that might be executed against them, would, therefore, be contrary to the engagements of his Majefty, and the principles of honour which al ways ways diftinguished his fubjects. They would be, moreover, the fource of the most heavy misfortunes to the state, and to indi viduals. His Majefty, therefore, being defirous to prevent fuch dif orders, by making known the danger into which the enemies of public peace endeavour to precipitate his good and faithful fubjects, and putting them on their guard against the dark machinations with which they are furrounded, in order to stop the progrefs of fuch perfidious manoeuvres, has ordered us to notify to the public, that it is his Majesty's intention, that all his subjects fhould abstain from all discourse tending to agitate the minds of the people, and to irritate them against the French; that in cafe of provocation or infult, complaint fhould be made only to their fuperiors, who may be able to adjust the public peace; and that all those who shall difobey their orders, thall be deemed disturbers of the public tranquillity, and punished as fuch. The Ambaffador of the French Republic refiding at the Court of Rome, to the Minifter of Foreign Affairs. Florence, 11 Nivofe (Dec. 31. IN my difpatch, No. 17, I gave you information relative to the prefent fituation of Rome. Events have fince occurred which obliged me to quit that city. On the 6th Nivofe ( Dec. 26), three perfons came to me to fay that a revolution was to take place in the course of the night; that the public indignation was extreme, and that they apprized me of this, to the end that no new event should furprise me. I replied to them, that my fituation at the court of Rome would not allow me to liften tranquilly to fuch an overture, and that the measure appeared to me to be as ufelefs as ill timed. They replied, that they wished to have my advice, and to know whether the French government would protect their revolution, if it should be accomplished? I told them that, as an impartial Spectator of events, I fhould give an account to my government of the tranfactions; and I added, that at the moment of a general pacification, it would be unfortunate that any thing should hap pen to retard it. As a man, I exhorted them to be tranquil: [ did not think they had the means within themselves: and I was fure the French government would not protect them. As minifter of France, I enjoined them not to repeat their vifit with such intentions. They quitted me with an affurance that every thing fhould be fufpended for the moment. The night accordingly paffed in tranquillity. Next evening, Chevalier Azarra told me confidentially, that he had just been with the fecretary of ftate, and that it appeared VOL. VII. probable probable fome imprudent perfons were about to attempt a rifing, which would be as unfuccefsfúl, on account of the smallness of their numbers and their foolish conduct, as that which was undertaken fome months before. : I learned at the Marchionefs Maffimi's, that four of the leaders of this affair were the fpies of the government, which had taken measures to defeat the plan of the infurgents, and that the infurgents were to meet at Villa Medicis. We feparated. On the following morning, at four, I was awakened, and told that there was a revolutionary movement at the Villa Medicis, where from eighty to one hundred men were affembled, and furrounded by the Pope's troops. I went to fleep again. In the course of the morning I learned that a patrole had been attacked by a band of fixty men. Two of the Pope's dragoons were killed. Some of the infurgents were apprehended, and the others known to the government. Many individuals had hoifted the French national cockade; a fack filled with which had been left, as if by accident, at the fpot where they were affembled. I went to the fecretary of state, whom I found tranquil, and told him, that, far from oppofing the arreft of those who had hoisted the cockade, I demanded of him that this arreft fhould take place, with the exception of the French and Italians attached to my embaffy: these amounted only to the number of eight, and I pointed them out to him, and proposed his immediately adopting measures against them. I informed him, that there were fix individuals who had taken refuge in my jurifdiction; that if they were in the number of revolters, I fhould willingly come to an accommodation with him, in order that the impunity of thefe men might not give confidence. It was then two in the afternoon, and the hour of dinner with the cardinal. He begged me to retire for the prefent, promifing to meet me at fix in the evening, at the Spanish minifter's, whither he was to go with the Tuscan minifter. All this we agreed to. I now returned home, convinced, by the ferenity of the fecretary of state, that the affair of the preceding night would have no difaftrous confequence. I found at my houfe General Duphot and Adjutant-general Sherlock, and two French painters. We fpoke of the paltry revolutionary attempt of the night before, as the news of the moment. We were about to fit down to table, but were retarded by the abfence of my fecretaries, who were engaged in drawing up a correct lift of the perfons entitled to wear the French national cockade. This I wished to fend to the fecretary of state before dinner. The porter now informed me, that twenty individuals were determined to force the house, and had in their hands a large quantity of French national cockades, which they were diftributing to the paffers by, whom they excited to all out, Vive la republique! Vive le peuple Romain !-One of them infifted |