town far beyond the calculation of the French general, who in his of ficial letters spoke with fome comfidence of its immediate furrender. When Buonaparte entered Lombardy, Mantua, which had been the only object of conteft for eight months, and on which the fate of Italy depended, was altogether deftitute of the means of fuftaining an attack, having a feeble garrifon unprovided with ftores or provifions, and would probably, after the battle of Lodi, have furrendered at the first fummons. Had the French general, inftead of march ing to Milan which was at all times acceffible, and making a promenade into the ecclefiaftical state, which he might have done at his leifure, feized on this important poft, he might have made himself master of Italy, and finished an early campaign. It muft, however, be re membered, that, before this place, four imperial armies have melted away in the short space of a few months; that these armies being recruited from thofe on the Rhine, from which large detachments were made, the latter were fa weakened, that the French were enabled to levy contributions in the heart of Germany; and, though the invaders were eventually repulfed, they fucceeded in diffolving the confederacy of the German princes, and in diminifling the number of the enemies of the French repub lic.

Amidst these victories, the affairs of finance ftill continued to be the principal object of the anxiety of the French government. The mi nifter of this department had fent a circular letter through the repub lic, to invite the bankers and priti cipal merchants to a general ailem bly, to deliberate and advife re fpecting the laws and regulations

neceflary for the revival of credit, and the re eftablishment of commerce. The directory, on the 10th of December, communicated by a meffage to the council their wants in a more preffing manner, urging them, as they had done before, to come to the immediate relief of the government, which, in all its different adminiftrations, from the armies to the moft menial offices, was in a ftate of decay bordering on deftruction. The remedy for thefe evils, according to the meffage, lay in procuring the confent of the legiflature to inveft the directory with power to take poffef fion of the laft part of the payments for the fale of the national do mains, which, as has been obferved, was ordered to be paid in money, and which amounted to eighty millions. It was imagined, that, by drawing a very diftreffing picture of the fituation of the republic, the council would be fufficiently alarmed to yield to the requifition. The meffage was read in a fecret committee, and was deemed unworthy of attention. The directory, re fenting the indignity offered to their requifition, publifhed the fol lowing day to the world, in their Gazette, this meffage, which they had confided to the fecrecy of the council as unfit for the public ears This conduct was the fubject of animadverfion, and was confidered as tending to fow the feeds of divifion between the legislative and executive powers, and to bring udium on the council, under the pretence of their refusing the neceffary, fapplies."

The prefident of the commiffion of finances, M. Camus, as the dis rectory had revealed the meilage, thought it expedient to ftate the motive of the rejection, by observ ing that the alarming and defperate

ftate

ftate of the republic exifted only in the message; that a feverer œconomy would restore the equilibrium of receipt and expenditure, and that the errors contained in the statement were equalled only by the imprudence of the directory in making them public.

Although the influence of the executive power with refpect to the public money was thus circumfcribed, it poffeffed an influence ftill • more dangerous over the lives of a certain class of their fellow citizens, which the legislature thought fit alfo to controul. As, during the reign of terror, great numbers had found fafety only in flight, and efcaped into foreign countries, and others had only abandoned their places of ufual refidence, and concealed themselves in various parts of the country, thefe fugitives had been of courfe ranked by their municipalities and departmental adminitrations as emigrants, and 'placed on the lift; on which lift many were alfo infcribed by the revolutionary committees of their communes, whom they held at the moment in their dungeons, or whom they had fent to the fcaffold. Amongst other laws which were enacted after the overthrow of the jacobinical government to remedy the enormous abuses and evils which this regimen had introduced, were decrees permitting the re-entrance of those perfons into France who had fled fubfequent to the thirty-first of May, 1793, the beginning of the reign of tyranny, and alfo regulations for the erafure from the lift of emigrants of all fuch whofe reclamations were found to be juft.

The latitude given by the law to appeals of this fort was fubject to a variety of abufes; a great number entered and took poffeffion of their eftates, who were not comprehend-.

ed in the law; who had emigrated before the period, but had found means of procuring from friendly or corrupted administrations falfe certificates of refidence. In thofe parts of the country which were moft difaffected to government, these cases were very frequent; and many of the diforders of the fouth were faid to be committed by emigrants of this clafs. These appeals, agreeably to the regulation, were made to the directory: but as the tyranny had been univerfal, the appellants were fo numerous that the examination of the claims, according to the mode established, would have been the labour of ages. Complaints had also been often made of the venality and partiality of those who were appointed to judge of thefe appeals: but no fteps were taken to remedy these abuses, till the judicial assassination of M. de Cuffy, who had come to Paris to make his appeal, induced the legiflature to take into their own hands a power which, whether from careleffnefs or defign, had so immediate and dangerous an influence on the fortunes and lives of individuals. The execution of this gentleman, attended with circumstances which brought to remembrance the ferocious and expeditious modes of the revolutionary tribunal, caufed a general effervefcence against those who had been inftrumental in the commiffion of this act. The councils, paffing in filence over this event, the examination of which might have produced difagreeable refults, contented themselves with taking the power and the means of doing further injustice out of the hands of the commiffioners of the directory, and appointed a committee of their own members to examine and pronounce on the future appeals.

The misunderstanding which had for a long time fubfifted between the French republic and the United States of America, difcovered itfelf at this period more openly by the refufal of the directory to receive as ambassador to the French republic Mr. Pinckney, who had been fent to fucceed Mr. Monroe, the refident plenipotentiary. Mr. Adet, the French ambassador to the United States, had notified nearly at the fame time (23d November) to the American government, that the directory had fufpended him also from his functions. He had previously communicated to the fecretary of state a memorial recapitulating the complaints of the French republic against the government of the United States, and had communicated the arret of the directory of the 14th Meffidor, enjoining French fhips of war to obferve the fame conduct towards the vessels of neutral nations, as they had hitherto fuffered with impunity to be obferved by the English.

1

The directory juftified this proclamation by the fecret approbation given by the Americans to this violation of the law of neutrality on the part of the British, who had seized on neutral veffels, particularly those belonging to Americans, even in their very ports; and taken out of them whatever they found either of French perfons or French property, without any refiftance being made on the part of the American government. From this memorial it appeared that the French ambaf, fador, in the beginning of the war, had made unheeded application and remonftrances on this fubject. The national convention had decreed, that, conformably to the ufage then eftablished by the English, British property found on board neutral veffels fhould become lawful prize,

but that American vessels were excepted from this general meafure. The conduct of the English in feizing on all American provifionhips had afterwards compelled them to refcind this exception, and decree conditionally that the feizure of English property on board neutral veffels fhould continue indiscri~ minately until the British government fhould definitively revoke the orders which it had given for this measure, and which were only fufpended by the embargo laid on by the congrels on the 26th of March, 1794. The convention having received information that Mr. Jay was inftructed to make remonftrances to the Britifh government refpecting thefe, acts of hoftility, revoked the decree refpecting American fhips, hoping that this conduct would lead the United States to ufe every effort to induce the English to adopt the fame measure. But his remon ftrances, if made, had no effect: the fame acts of hoftility were continu-, ed, and neutral veffels coming out or entering into French ports, were made prizes by the English.

Further reclamations were made, on the part of the French ambassador, to the American government on the 29th of September, 1795, which were unheeded; a memorial prefented on the fame fubject, the 29th of March, 1796, was equally unnoticed. It appeared from thefe papers, that not only neutral veffels were feized, but failors were taken out of American veffels to ferve on board Britifh fhips, without any mark of difapprobation manifefted, on the part of the American government. Under these circumftances, the government of France was compelled to have recourfe to the fame measures refpecting neutral veffels as the English government had adopted, and was permitted by the

neutral

neutral powers to continue, with out remonftrancès or reclamations on their part. M. Adet further obferved, that, if they would take meafures to render their flag refpected by the British government, the fame respect fhould be fhewn by the French republic; but if through weakness or partiality they fuffered the English to fport with their neu. trality, they ought not to complain if the French, in order to restore the balance, fhould continue to imitate in this cafe that conduct which the English had found it convenient or ufeful for their own purposes to adopt.

The anfwer given by the American government to this remon ftrance, ftated, in juftification of their conduct, that the treaty made with France in 1778, formally expreffed that neutral veffels fhould neutralize the cargo; whereas the treaty lately concluded between the United States and England contained no fimilar regulation. The American government acted therefore in perfect conformity to the letter of both treaties; and though it was lawful for the English to feize French property on board American veffels, the French were reftrained by their treaty with America, from making reprisals in fimilar circumftances on the English. So far as the letter of treaties ought to influ ence the decifion of the question, the reclamation of the American government was founded; but whether that government was juftified on the score of political morality in concluding a fubfequent treaty with England fo pointedly hoftile to the interefts of their former ally in this article, does not fo clearly appear. In addition to this memorial, M. Adet foon after prefented a note recapitulating other grievances, amongst which was the infraction, on

the part of the American government, of that article in the treaty with France which refpected the guarantee of the French colonies by the United States. The fpeech of the prefident to the American congrefs, and the answer of the vices prefident, contained recriminations, which, far from leading to any amicable explanation, or to conciliate the differences which had arifen, tended to widen the breach which already exifted, and fan the flame which it was fo much the intereft of both parties to have extinguished.

Whatever specific causes of complaint the French government might have had against that of the United States on account of the treaty lately concluded with England, the difpofitions which led to the formation of that treaty, would alone have been fufficient to have explained the reafons of the general indignation of the French against them. Accustomed of late to witnefs levees of minifters from the conquered monarchs of the old established governments in Europe deprecate the vengeance or fupplicate the friendship of the French republic, it was not without feelings of indignation that they faw the people whom they boafted to have fnatched from fervitude and oppreffion, and to have erected into independance and power, in violation of the ties of gratitude and friendship, and of thole bonds more commonly refpected between nations, folemn and formal treaties, not only become indifferent in the obfervance of either, but join against them by forming the strictest alliances with their common enemy. This indignation had been hitherto tempered by the conduct of the American ambaffador, and by the reprefentations whichthe friends

of

f both countries had occafionally made; and it is probable that the breach would have been widened no further than the temporary fufpenfion of the French ambaffador in the United States, had not the American government, by exchanging ambassadors at this period, evinced further difpofitions of hoftility, fince no reafonable pretence appeared for this exchange but the attachment which the prefent ambaffador had fhewn to the cause of the French revolution.

The news of the intended refignation of the prefident of the United States had preceded the arrival of the new ambaffador, Mr. Pinckney. This event, which was expected by the French government, had in fome meafure allayed this warmth; and it was hoped that an amicable arrangement would fpeedily have taken place, as it was fuppofed that the choice of the United States would fall on a perfoa lefs hoftile to their interefts; but as the exchange of ambaffadors under the prefent circumstances afforded fo favourable an opportunity of expreffing their feelings, they not only refuled to permit the new ambaffador to remain officially at Paris, but intimated to him that his refidence as a private citizen was inexpedient. The directory nevertheless, when Mr. Monroe took leave, obferved, as they had already done with refpect to Sweden on a fimilar occafion, that the people of America, not being implicated in the acts of their government, were still objects of their esteem; and expreffed alfo their perfonal regard for the intereft which Mr. Monroe, during his refidence at Paris, had fhewn for the welfare of the republic.

Amidft the various negotiations which in the courfe of the year oc◄ cupied the French government, that which England propofed to open, engaged moft deeply the public attention. The treaties which had been made with thofe of the combined powers with whom the republic was now at peace, were the neceflary effects of the advantages it had gained, or the apprehenfions it had excited. Supported by the coalition, they had found their efforts ineffectual to refift the overwhelming flood of French victories; torn by force, or feparated voluntarily from its caufe, their infulated fituations gave them no alternative, but fubmifion to its influence, or adhefion to its fate. Although the war had first broken out with Aufria and Pruffia, it was generally believed in France that the English cabinet had been the original fomentor of this war, as it became foon after its avowed and almoft only fupport. Regarding England therefore as the fource of all their calamities, the French could fcarcely look towards that country without reproach, for the defolation and horrors of which it had eventually been the caufe, and which it appear ed to them refolved to perpetuate.

The offer of negotiation from England was therefore confidered with a fufpicious and averted eye by the French government; and the previous negotiation which had taken place between the English cabinet and that of Berlin, and which had failed *, had added to the conviction of the directory that peace was neither the wifh nor the expectation of the English government from this negotiation. It was under thefe impreflions that the mi

1796.

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