IfViiUm J'uhhshfJ Anofi ^'iSo-t fn- Jt'/ut Miinvty 32 t'lfft Stwa. \ J- / THE ^^j^QPrUyc/^- REVOLUTIONitKY PLUTARCH EXHIBITING THE MOST DISTINGUISHED CHARACTERS, LITERARY, MILITARY, AND POLITICAL, IN THE RECENT ANNALS OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC; THE GKEATER PAST FROM THE ORIGINAL INFORMATION OF A GENTLEMAN RESIDENT AT PARIS. TO WHICH, AS AN APPENDIX, 13 REPRINTED ENTIRE, THE CELEBRATED PAMPHLET OF " KILLING NO MURDER,' VOL. I. LONDON :^ PRINTED FOR JOHN MURRAY, 32, FLEET-STREET" A\a JOHN HARDING, 36, ST. JAMEs's-STKEET. I 804. V.I O TO THE Es a ■VIRTUOUS SHABES TWO DEPARTED PATRIOTS, <» LOUIS XVI. AND EDMUND BURKE, o o THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE DEDICATED : OF WHOM, (5 THE ONE DECORATED A THRONE, WITH ALL THE RARE AND ESTIMABLE aUALITlES OI' PRIVATE LIFE; Q WHILST THE OTHER, IN A PRIVATE STATION, POSSESSED THOSE TALENTS AND VIRTUES CAPABLE OF ADDING LUSTRE TO A THRO>i'E. m «-ju?ij? r^o PREFACE. l.a honte suit toujours ]e parti des'rebelles, I. ears grandes adions sont les plus criminelles, lis signalenl leur crime, en signalant leur bras, Et la gloire n'est point, ou les rois ne sont pas. LA TIIEBAIDE. THE ilu6liiating state of affairs in France since the Revolution, the various changes that have taken place, both of men and measures, and the real worthlesness, guilt and infamy, of the Public Charaders now enjoying a tem- porary usurpation, rendered a Sketch of their Lives a task unworthy detail, did not the present situation of Politics, the degrading submission of some, the weak- ness of others, and the apathy of most Continental Nations, and the daring me- naces of France, subjugated by its re- lentless Tyrant, render it necessary to VOL. I. a exhibit Printedby B. M'Millan, ? Sow Sept, ijth, 1793. iar MOREAU. at all times to all generals ; but it was particularly so during the campaign of 1793, when most of the French republican generals evinced such a want of capacity, that they were looked upon with a well-deserved contempt, both by the Aus- trians and by the Prussians, and which the cruel- ties of those regicides, whose cause they espoused in fighting their battles, did certainly neither di- minish nor extenuate. In the autumn, 1793, Moreau made the ac- quaintance of General Pichegru, who was then commander in chief of the army of the Rhine. Moreau belonged to the army of the Moselle, but during the winter campaign these armies often a£led and fought together, and Pichegru had an opportunity of observing his judgment, talents, and courage, which wanted only the guidance of a friend, as able as willing, to make them no- ticed, rewarded, and illustrious. This friend Moreau found in Pichegru, who, when he, in February, 1794, was appointed to the command of the army of the North, caused Moreau to be nominated a general of one of the divisions in that army. Moreau, before he had gained Piche- gru's friendship, was certainly a very clever and good officer, but no general ; he might command a battalion or a division, but he could not pretend, with MOREAU. 13 with any prospe61: of advantage, or any hope of ho- nour, to be a commander in chief of an army. The friendship of Pichegrue, which no mean jealousy or base envy could alter or lessen, made Moreaa in three months what he is — one of the first gene- rals in Europe. Moreau distinguislied himself highly on the 26th and 30th April, 1794, when he blockaded and took Menin ; in June, before Ypies, which he forced to surrender on the 17th ; and before Bruges, where he entered the 29th. On July ist, he took Ostend ; and on the i8th Nieuporr, which was garrisoned by Hanoverians and by emigrants. On the 26th of May, 1794, the National Con- vention passed a decree, assimilating Englishmea and Hanoverians with the proscribed French emi- grants, to whom no quarter should be given. On the 31st May, the cruel Barrere, at present one of Bonaparte's favourites, proposed to the Conven- tion, that this decree should be accompanied by an address to the armies, alike Impolitic, illiberal, and barbarous*. Disobedience to the decrees' of the -* On the 31st May, 1793, Barrere proposed to the Convention, that the decree of the 26th May, prohibiting quatier being given to the English or Hanoverians, should be accompanied by the foi- lowLng address to the armies : C «• Eiigland 1-4 MOREAU. the convential tyrants was death ; but Moreau braved death, was disobedient, and, like a manly and generous soldier, had the virtue to risk his life, rather than to tarnish his fame, by putting " England is capable of every outrage on humanity, and of every crime towards the republic. Siie attacks the rights of all nations, and threatens to annihilate liberty. How long will you suffer to continue on your frontiers the slaves of George — the soldiers of the most atrocious of tyrants? He formed the Congress of Pilnitz, and brought about the scandalous surrender of Toulon ; he massa- cred ycur brethren at Genoa, and burned our magazines in the ma- litime towns ; he corrupted our cities, and endeavoured to destroy the national representation ; he starved your plains, and purchased treasons on the frontiers. ** When the events of battle shall put in your power either Eng- lish or Hanoverians, bring to your remembrance the vast tra£ts of country English slaves have laid waste. Carry your views to La Vendee, Toulon, Lyons, Landrecies, Martinico, and St. Do- mingo — places still reeking with the blood which the atrocious po- licy of the English hassl.ed. Do not trust to their artful language, which is an additional crime, worthy of their peifidious charafter and Machiavelian government. Those who boost that they abhor the tyranny of George, say, can they fight for him ? " No, no, republican soldiers ! You ought, therefore, when vidlory shall put in your power Englishmen or Hanoverians, to strike : not one of them ought to return to the traitorous territory of England, or to be brought into France. Let the British slaves pe- rish, and Europe be free!" It is necessary to observe, that abou-t this time Robespierre did no longer share in the measuies of the committees, but absented himself; Barrere, Bonaparte's favourite ; Jeanbon St. Andre, his prefeft at Mayence ; Jean De Bry, his prefeft at Besanfon ; Car- rot, his tribune ; Fouche, his senator, with other his associates, were the princip.il authors of this and other inhuman and infamous a£ls. into MOREAU. 15 into execution this savage decree. All the Ha- noverians were saved. He had nor, however, courage or generosity enough to extend the same humanity to several hundred French emigrants, who heing found in die garrison, were all inhu- manly butchered. On the 28ch of July, General Moreau exe- cuted one of the boldest enterprizes which distin- guished the campaign. Having resolved to be- siege Sluys, it became necessary to gain possession of the island of Cadsand, at which there was no way of arriving but by a causeway, inundated on both sides, and commanded by fourteen pieces of cannon, or by throwing a bridge over the strait of Coschische, which he could not effedl for want of pontoons. He had no resource but a few boats, in wdiich some of the troops passed, while others swam across ; and forming in the face of a superior force, and of numerous batteries, cap- tured the island, with ninety pieces of cannon, a great quantity of ammunition and provisions, and two hundred prisoners. Sluys was forced to capitulate on the 26th of August, after enduring a vigorous siege, in which General Moreau and his army were subjected to the greatest hardships and inconveniencies ; be- sides, a great mortality carried away numbers of C 2 :. his 16 MOREAU. his men. The country round Sluys, and in Zea- land, is at all, times unhealthy ; and in the sum- mer months particularly, it is liable to periodical and dangerous fevers, the efFe6l of which the French felt so much the more, as thev were ex- posed to the damps of the night and to the heat of the day, without tents, covering, provisions, or medicines. Moreau's tender care of his soldiers during this siege, and the wants, fatigues, and pri- vations which he shared with them, endeared him to men, who by their republican rulers were sent to death and destruction, with an apathy, negle6l, and indifference, unknown to and incompatible v.'ith lawful governments and civilized states. When, in Oflober 1794, General Pichegrue was forced, from illness, to resign the command for some time, he recommended Moreau to be his successor. This is the first command Moreau had, as a general in chief; and although Piche- grue's absence was but of short duration, the army of the North under Moreau, captured Nimeguen and Arnlieim, and made such preparations for future vi<5tories and progress, that Pichegrue, in re-assuming the command, paid Moreau in his orders, and in his report to the National Con- vention, the highest compliments. During the famous v/inter campaign that followed, and which subjected MOREAU. 17 subjedled Holland to France, Moreaa command- ed the right wing of Pichegrue's army, and con- tributed greatly to its rapid and astonishing suc- cess. He partook with Pichegruc the honour of viilory and the glory of conquest ; and with him declined the plunder of the vanquished, and the contributions of the conquered. After the conquest of Holland had been com- pleted, and a peace concluded with Prussia, Piche- grue was appointed the commander in chief of the armies on the Rhine and on the Moselle. . Moreau had several enemies amongst the leading members of the Convention and in the Committee of Public Safety, who had adted as accomplices with the assassins of his father, and therefore hated the son, whose vengeance they feared, and because they had murdered the father, wished to disgrace and humiliate the son; but Pichegrue, whose friendship for Moreau was as great as his love for his country, forced the conventional regi- cides to give a respite both to their hatred and fear, and to nominate Moreau his successor in the command of the army of the North. In December, 1795, Moreau ordered the blockade of Luxemburgh ; and after consulting with Pichegrue, he sent a plan of defence for Holland to the Dutch generals Daendels and Du- - c 3 monceaux,. , 18 MOREAU. monceaux, and to the Batavian Committee, with orders to put it into execution within eight days. This is the same plan which, during these last seven years, has been followed by all the French commanders in Holland, and to which tlie igno- rant General Brunc owed the advantages he gain- ed there in the winter 1799. Disgusted with the tyrannical and impolitic condudt of the DIreflory, Pichegrue, early in the spring 1796, resigned the command of the army of the Riiine and of the Moselle, and he again persuaded Carnot to nominate Moreau in his place. This general was not a much greater favourite with the DIredory than he had been wfth the National Convention and its Committee of Public Safety, because the diredorial as well- as the conventional jacobins never forgave a man •whom they had offended. Pichegrue had therefore great difficulty to convince Carnot and Barras, that in serving his friend, he only served his country,, and in serving his country he served the Diie6lory; After different marches and counter-marches, Moreau, in June, 1796, opened a campaign — the undisputed foundation and basis of his military re- putation and glory. He was before known to be aji able general and an experienced chief; to be as vigorous in his attacks as vigilant in his re- treats J. MOREAU. 1^ treats ; to add to the adtivity of youth the pru- dence of age : but during tliis celebrated campaign, and more celebrated retreat, he not only surprized his friends, but astonished his enemies, and com- manded viiftory and admiration where defeat and destrutStion were to be expeded. After forcing General Wurmser in his camp under Franckenthal, Moreau repulsed him under the cannon of Manheim, and soon after, in the night between the 23d and 24th June, efFedled the passage of the Rhine near Strasburghi The opposite fort, Kehl, was occupied by the weak and ill-condu6led troops of the Empire, whose resistance was feeble, and therefore ineiFectual : those who were not killed or made prisoners, were easily dispersed. After several engagements between a division of the French army commanded by General Fe- rino, and'thearmy cominanded bv the Prince De Gonde, *and when another column of French troops had passed the Rhine at Huninguen, the Austrians were obliged to evacuate Brisgau, it was then that Moreau, on the 6th July, attacked the Archduke Charles by Rastadt, and on the 9th by Etlingen, and foicedhim to retreat. In those two aitions Moreau shewed the greatest courage aiKl talents, particularly in the last, which was not 20 MOREAU. not decided before it was night: he manoeuvred with a vivacity and boldness almost incredible, and was perfe6lly well assisted by General De- saix, and his other generals of division, who rather wearied out the Austrians by their euthu- siasni than overcame them by their valour. On the 15th he again attacked the enemy at Pfortz- . heim, and compelled him to quit his strong posi- tion. If the Austrian army retreated, it was only step by step: they contested every inch of ground; and several hard -fought engagements took place on the 18th, 21st, and 22d, at Stut-. gard, Caustadt, Berg, and Eslingen, all to the advantage of the French, and -entirely owing to . Moreau's exceedindv brilliant manreuvres ; and as Jourdan had hitherto been as successful as Gene- ral Moreau, their joint successes made them mas- - ter of the Necker, a river commanding both . many and strong positions, and useful and advan- tageous to lay the neighbouring countries under contributions, and to transport tlie French artillery , and army equipage. The armies of the Rhine and of the Mo- selle, of the Sambre and of the Meuse, were now enabled to co-operate ; the different princes . of Franconia and Suabia were obliged to sue for peace J and Moreau's orders were obcyed- from MOREAU. 21 from the banks of the Rhine nearly to the gates of Munich. On the 8th and loth of August, two of his di- visions met with some checks; and on the iith the Archduke Charles resolved to try once more the fate of a battle ; attacked Moreau on his whole line ; and, defeating his advanced guard, forced his right wing to retreat to Heydenheim ; but Desaix, who commanded the left wing, with his usual courage and talents, overcame the enemy every where ; whilst Moreau at the same time-re- trieved with the reserve the losses of the right wing. At last, after a battle of seventeen hours, both armies remained in presence of each other, both believing themselves defeated. The Arch- duke finding, however, that whether he conquered or was defeated, he should be obliged to fall back to the banks of the Danube an 1 the town of l)o- nauwerr, began his retreat by ordering his army to descend the Danube; and Moreau took a vidfo- rious attitude, although he had obtained no vi6tory. This well-fought battle disconcerted the pro- jetffs of Moreau ; for his reserve of artillery and stores having been obliged to fly to a considerable distance, he could not harass the retreat of the Aus- trians towards Donauwert ; and this check first interrupted the grand proje6t which had been founded 22 MOREAU. foundeJ on the success attending the armies in Germany and Italy, for efFe6ling a jun£lion of both, and pouring with irresistible force into the hereditary states of tlie Emperor. The Archduke receiving daily reinfor-cements, which diminished the disparity between hfni and his opponents, conceived the boklproje6l of leav-_ ing a small number to keep Moreau in check, while with the remainder he fell on Jourdan, and overwhelmed him with superior numbers. Sucli a plan was certainly replete with danger ; and has by Moreau, even in his dispatches, been men- tioned with the highest applause, as zvorthy the genius of the young Austrian general to conceive, and his valour to execute. On the departure of the Archduke, General La Tour had taken a defensive station behind the river Lech, covering the town of Augsburgh, while Generals Froelich and Wolf were at Wan- gen and Kcmpten, prote6ting the left of the army, and keeping rip a communication with the Ty- rol; Moreau's army was partly on the left and partly on the right bank of the Danube, be- tween the .rivers Iller and Lech. When Mo- reau learned that the Austrian prince had con- centrated his forces at Donauwert, he cross-.. etl the Danube at Dettingen,, Hoechstedt, and Lan- MOREAU. 23 Lanlngen. In this he unwittingly completed the views of the Archduke, and for some time after shewed himself utterly unapprized of his real plan. When better informed on that point, he passed the Lech, for the purpose of penetrating into Ba- varia and approaching Munich, hoping by these means to makq the Archduke abandon his pro- jeiSls against Jourdan, and return to his former station; but that judicious young general pru- dently contented himself with detachfng ten thou- sand men, under General Nauendorf, to the as- sistance of La Tour ; a force which was found sufficient to hinder Moreau from penetrating be- yond the Iser ; and thus prevented his intended diversion. The French under Moreau gaining ground for four successive days, the 24th, 25th, 26th, and 27th August, upon the Austrians under La Tour, both found themselves under the walls of Mu- nich ; but neither army took possession of the town. La Tour posted himself in a judicious manner, while Moreau sele6^ed a situation, at once daring, singular, and dangerous. While Moreau, in order to meliorate his situation, medi- tated an assault on the tete de font at Ingol- stadt. Generals Nauendorf and Mercaniin, on the first of September attacked his left wing, and pursued 24 MOREAU. pursued him as far as Langenbruck, and the cha- pel of St. Cast. Moreau, however, soon re- venged this loss, by sending General St. Cyr, on the 3d, to dislodge the Austrians from Freysingen and its bridge, in which he completely succeeded. For several days, slight affairs of posts only took place ; but in this interval the Eledlor Pala- tine, terrified by the approach of the republicans, obtained from Moreau a treaty of peace, by which, in consideration of large sacrifices in money, cloathlng, and provisions, for the French army, he sold to the Ele6lor a neutrality for his domini- ons in Bavaria, Franconia, and Westphalia. As this defe6lion from the general cause of the empire followed within a month the pacification of the republic with Saxony, it was expe6ted, that from the consequent diminution of the Imperial armv, and the supplies which the French acquired, they would have derived great advantages; but, infa6V, the pursuit of this easy, though apparently pro- fitable triumph, insulated Moreau, prevented his receiving due intelligence, and in the end brought upon him many difHcultles. The Austrian light troops displayed the most successful vigilance in intercepting all couriers ; and at length Moreau, very ill informed of Jour- dan's situation, sent, on the lOth September, a large MOREAU. - 25 large corps of cavalry, drawn from his left wing, across the Danube, an.l, on tlie ensuing day, quitted his own position on the Iser, for the pur- pose of suppoi'ting or following this column. While execui^ing this bold manoeuvre, he was attacked near Munich, by Prince Furstenberg and General Froelich, who defeated his rear-guard. The division which had passed the river on the preceding day, reached Aichstedt, where it levied contributions, and threw Franconia into great alarm for the fare of the Archduke ; but General La Tour instantly commenced a pursuit of Moreau, while General Nauendorf, passing the Danube below Neuburg, overtook Desaix, whom Moreau had recalled, and defeated his Tear-guard. General Jourdan had about this time been so com[)letely routed by the Archduke, that his army was in the most confused and irregular re- treat ; and the disorderly conduft of the army of the Sambre and Meuse placed that of the Rhine and the Moselle in a very critical position ; for all the conquests of Moreau were now become useless in consequence of the defeat of Jourdan. The former, after condu6ling his victorious troops from the banks of the Rhine to those of the Da- nube and Iser, and proving successful in no less D than 26 MOREAU. than five pitched battles, as well as a muhltudeof skirmishes, was now obh'ged to commence his justly celebrated retreat. French generals have more difficulty to keep their troops in spirits antl order, in a retreat, than to lead them on with alacrity, even to the most dangerous attack. On the offensive, the French adl at all times with courage and vigour; but on the defensive, oftentimes with dread, in- quietude, and cowardice ; and it demands, there- fore, more real judgment, talents, and patience, to make an orderly retreat with a French army, tlian to defeat with it the bravest enemy, or to storm the strongest positions, and the best fortified camps and places. With the exception of Mar- shal Eelleisle, in his famous retreat from Prague, no other French general had before Moreau been able to keep order, obedience, and regularity in, and to defeat a pursuing enemy by a retreating French army. After every arrangeinent was made to ensure a safe and honourable retreat, Moreau oidercd a proclamation to be read at the head of every bat- talion, in which it was stated, ^'^ that the comman- der in chief expelled every thing from his soldier s^ and ivas conscious that the }nonu?/tary success of the enemy in anothtr quarter^ and the measures he ivas tbliged MOREAU. 27 thligcd to pursue in consequence of that event, ivould not diminish any of the energy and valour so often dis- played by this army.'" He added, *' that the mo- ment vjould soon arrive zvhcn they should have an opportunity of earning neiv laiircU ; and, in the mean ' time, he hoped that the signal for combat, vjould also he the signal for vi^ory." After Moreau had, on tlie 1 1 th September, cross- ed the Lech, he gave orders to cut down all the bridges behind him; he tlien ascended along the banksoftheJ!)jnube, and stationed his head-quaiters at Ulm. Poinding himselfcloselv pursued, he sud- dl'nlv, on tlie ist October, attacked General La Tour in his camp between Biberacli and Buchan, and after a long andbloody acSlion, not only forced him to retire inconfu ion, but would haveentiie- ly destroyed his army, had it not been fi)r the gallant resistance on the part of the few emigrants under the Prince of Conde, wlio covered the re- treat of the Austrians, and saved their baggage. Moreau now divided his army into two bodies, and marched suddenly through Munderkingen, Neudlingen, and Palengen, to attack the Gene- rals Nauendorf and Petrasch, who were forced to abandon their res[)e>5live positions: so terrible was this commander, even in the moment of rc- D % treat. 2S MOREAU. I treat, that lie took no less than seven thousand prisoners lii these tliiferent adions. Having iu length opened a conimunicarion with the forest towns, forced the passes of the Black Forest, and pcneiarcd through the Fal Den- fir with his centre, he employed his two wings against the numerous detathments, led on by the Generals La Tour, Nauendorf, and Petrasch. The French anry having, on the 1 2th 061ober, resumed its march, the main body encamped In the neig!ibourhoodof Fribourg, and waited for the arri- val of the rest of the troops. The moment a junction had been eiFev^ed, the Archduke Charles assaulted, and, on the i8th Oftober, with some difficulty, carried the village of Kendringen. Next day he attacked part of the enemy stationed at Nvmbourg, but after an a6tion that lasted from ten o'clock in tl>e morning until dark, he was obliged to desist from his enterprize, having experienced conside- rable loss in consequence of the spirited resistance of General Desaix. Moreau now abandoned the Brisgau, and at the head of an army fatigued by the length of its march, destitute of shoes, and rendered sickly by continual rains, proceeded towaids ihe baiiks cf the Rhine ; and dividing his army into two bodies, Desaix re- passed MOREAU. 29 passed that river at Brisach, while he himself di- rected his course towards Huninguen, continually followed and harassv?d by the enemy. On Moreau's arrival at Schliensren he assumed O an excellent position, and notwithstanding the su- perior numbers of the Austrians, determined to wait the event of a battle. He was accordingly on the 24th 06tober, attacked along the whole of his line, but the enemy were repulsed on every side. However, Moreau moved !iis camp oil the night of the engngement, and iiaving passed the Rhine at Huninguen without any molestation on the part of the enemy, returned to StrashurgJi on the 26th 0<£lober, the point from whicli he had set out four months before, after one of the most memorable expeditions recorded in history. This noble retreat of Moreau, in 1796, was of more radical use and advantage to Fiance, than all Bonaparte's vidlories in Italy the same year; because, had Moreau not shewed a greater military genius, and a genius more fertile in resources and expedients than Jourdan, the army of the Rhine and thr Moselle must have beeji in the same disbanded state as the army of the Sambre and the Meuse ; and instead of its beins: able to send reinforcements to Bonaparte in Italy, the Aus- trians would probably have been in a situaiion to D 3 assist , 30 MOREAU. assist General Wurmser blockaded at Mantna, and Italy might as easily have been conquered in 2797, as lost in 1796. German and French writers have compared Moreau's retreat to that ot Xenophon amongst the ancients, and of Belleisle amongst the moderns ; but it undoubtedly surpassed the latter, and miore than equalled the tbrmer. Belleisle owed the lustre of his retreat to s^nne marches which he stole upon the enemy, and Xenophon retreated with his Greeks through the territories of a cowardly and effemi- nate people ; while Moreau traversed a country inhabited by one of the most warlike nations in the universe; and neither Xenophon nor Belleisle blended the laurels of victory with the cypress of retreat. According to Carnot's memoirs, Moreau and De- saix made ihe vi6tories of the Archduke Charles of little service to Austria, by amusing him in a petty warfare before Kehl, wasting there those precious moments which ought to have been de- dicated to the relief of Maniua. But fins was not the only reproach made against the Austrian com- jnander; when his army, by the incessant attacks during the rigours of winter, suffered considerably and diminished daily, the army of the Sambre and the Meuse was again organised by Moreau, who was, MOREAU. 31 was, besides, enabled, and generous enough to spare 20.,ooo 4;f his best troops for Bonaparte, and thereby put Iiim in a situation to cotnraand the peace of Leob,:n, in 1797 After the capitulation of Kehl on the 22d De- cember, and the surrender of the bridge head of Huninguen, the 5tii February, 1797- arid after the army of the Sambre and the Me ise had re- ceived Heche for its commander, Moreau re- lumed to head the army of the Rhine and the Mo- selle. With this army he again, on the 20th April, 1797, crossed the Rhine, and afrer a long and vigorous resistance, forced tiie enemy to abandon its borders. During the eight following days he pursued the Aus^rians nearly to the Da- nube, when he received a courier from Bona- parte, announcing the peace of Leoben. Moieau had never participated in the crimes or approved the principles of the jacobins ; on the contrary, he had shewn himself humane z.nd li- beral towards many proscribed persons who, dur- ing the campaigns in Gerniany, had fallen into his hands*. He was, besides, the friend of Piche- * It is true that, in 1794, at Nieup-.rt, Moieju caused several emigr.'nts to be shot; bul, during the cjmp.»igiis of 1796 and 1797, all cHiigran s who fell into his hands, he ordeied, in the presence of the army, to be shot; bul he secretly procured them an opportu- nity to escape. gru, 33 IVIOREAU. gru, then a deputy in tlie Council of Five Hundred, and tiie avowed enemy of tiie jacobin fadtion in the Dirctiovy. All tiiese reasons made hiin nodoulu suspedled by the dired^oiial jacobins, Banas, La Reveilicre, and Rewhel. On t'ne i8ih Fru<£\idor, or 4th September, 1797, tliese three dirtdlors effedled a revolution ; and Pichegru, with many other deputies, was, •without a trial, condemned to be transported to Cayenne. It is difficult to say how far the pre- tended corrcs;>on'Je;ice of Pichegru, in which there v\as not a leiier in his own hand-wrhing, could comi)rnmise Morcau : every one has judged this correspondence as [.assion or intcicst directed him ; and whiie one party accuses Pichegru, an- other acquits him. This correspondence was taken in a packet belonging to the Austrian Gene- ral Klinolin, wljen Moreau crossed the Rhine, and hdd tiierefore been a long time in' his hands before he made any use of it : either he judged it insignificant, or withheld it from attachment to his friend and benefa'dt,r ; INlorcau liaving been in- debted to Pichegru, both for instruction and promotion. Moreau was still tb.e commander in chief of the army of the Rhine and the Moselle, and his head- (juariers were at Strasburgh, when the revolution at MOREAU. 3^ at Paris, of tlie 4th Scpteniber,|^that proscribed Pichegru, took place. Strasburgh is upwards of 300 miles from Paris ; but, in three or four hours, any thing may be communicated by the tele- grapli between these two cities. 'It is therefore to be supposed, that when Moreau, on the 5th September, wrote a long letter against Pichegrn, and denounced him to the Diredlor Barthelemy, "whom he, no doubt, did not imagine had shared the same fate, he had already received a short te- legraphic information, that the jacobin fatStioii had been vidlorious, and therefore entirely clianged sides. This is so much the more probable, as, during the spring and summer 1797, when ad- dresses poured in from Bonaparte's army in Italy, in favour of the jacobins, and against the Council of Five Hundrced, neither the threats of the Directory, nor the intrigues of its emissaries, could procure one single address from the army of the Rhine and the Moselle under Moreau's com- maud*. Moreau * Extraft from a letter written by Genera! Mcieau, to the Di- redior Barthekiriy, dated head-quarters, Strasburgh, igih Fruc-> tidor, year v, or jih September, 1797. "citizen director, •• You will no doubt remember, that during my last journey to Basle, 34 MOREAU. Moreau possessed hitherto the esteem of all loyal men; but by this incomprehensible conducSl he lost the good opinion of the royalists, without obtaining the confidence of the republicans. Even his friends and admirers have been 'unable to make any acceptable apc.logy for hirn ; arid have acknowledged, that one of the bravest and great- est of modern warriois has shewn himself the weakest of ijien, and that, however he loved and desiied what was honest and just, when lie met with any unfores'-en obstacle, 1-e had not cha- racter en-.-ugh to defy \ ice in power, or to back or defend vircue io exile and. distress*. Others Basle, I informed you, that after our passage o! the Rhine, we liad taken a p.icket belonging to General Klinglin, containing twa or three hunuieii letters of his ccnespondents. Many ot these were in cyphers, &c. &c. " / ttuis at fii St deterininfd not to publish I his conesjonJercf { but observing at the head of parlies wl.o at present trouble our Country, a man eijoying, in a higli situation, the greatest con- fiJence ; a >nari deafly in-vol-Vid bi this connj'ondenre, and des^ tintd toptr/orm nn impvilant part in the recall of iht Pretender ^ the objcSi to ivhicb it ■was direBid\ 1 thought it my duty to in- form you of this circumstance, &c. &c. " I tcii,[ess, Citizen Dirciilor, th.'t it is extremely painful to in- form yi^u of this treachery, more especially as he "u-hom J nonu denounce tojou •nms once wj friend, &c. J allude to the repre- sentitii-ve of iht piop>le,Pich-gru. And agjin, the proofs are as cl eat- as daj \ J douhiy hciivevii, -ubether they ure judicial," &c. &c. * Apologie de Ceaeial Moicau par un deses Admirateurs, page 4, have MOREAU. S5 have said, that he hecamc the denouncer, not of a iriend, but of a person from whom he had withdrawn his esteem, because he did not approve of his condudl ; that he believed tliis inculpation could do no harm to Pichegru in his a<3ual situ- ation, but might save himself from tlie hatred and persecution of the vidtorious party. It can- not, however, be denied, that this transadlion, in whatever manner it is explained, must hurt Ge- neral Moreau, with people even tlie most indul- gent, without his gaining from it the benefit he expe(5ted. In vain did he again write to the Di- redlorv, on the lOth September, against the great man the dire6loriaI satellites were then with cru- elty condu(5ting to Cayenne ; in vain did he affirm and protest his devotion — no regard was had to this tardy dejiunciation ; and Moreau, after being for some time under arrest, was forced to re- sign his command. If the Dire£tory emploved him afterwards, it was not because it trusted to his sincerltv, but that it wanted his talents ; and it always calculated more upon his submission ^nd fidelity from his weakness, than from his at- tachment. Had a man of Moreau's great abili- ties been the general of a legitimate king, he would never have found himself in a situation, cither to stain his reputation or to dishonour his charadler 86 MOREAU. charafter ; because he would have known that, under regular and moral governments, any mean a6tion is as much a certain ruin, as it is, under a revolutionary usurpation, a duty, and often a re- coinmendation to preferment. During the greatest part of 1798, Moreau lived retired, and in disgrace. His adive mind was, however, not witliout employment: he partly occupied himself with writing the particulars of his own campaigns, and partly in reading the memoirs of other great generals. Bonaparte was at this time the favourite with the DirecStory, the army, and the people ; but such were his base jealousy rnd shameful ingratitude towards General M rtau, to whose reinforcements, sent to Italy in the winter 1796, he owed all his late success, that lie neither once s.joke in his favour to Bairas, as Moreau desired him, nor returned the visit Moreau paid him before his departure to Egypt. General Moreau revenged himself nobly for this insolent negledi; for after the vidory of Lord Nelson, on the 1st of Aug st, 1798, wlien Bo- naparte wai unable to return as so n as he had in- tended, Madame Bonaparte was reduced to such great distress, as even to i a.vi; her je els. Her situation was reported to Mureau, who sent her lOOjOOO MOREAU. 87 103,000 llvres by a stranger, upon her bond only ; and Bonaparte had been the First Consul for up- wards of twelve months, before he knew to whom he was indebted for this afl of generosity, and it was then only discovered by the indiscretion of Moreau's friend. In the winter of 1798, when tlie Dire£lory ap- prehended that hostilities would recommence with Austria, Moreau was sent as inspedtor-general to the army of Italy, under t!ie command of General Scherer : an inferior station for a persoa of Moreau's merit and rank ; but he has more than once proved himself, both before and since, to be above pun6lilios, when his country was in danger, and he could serve or save it. Under the command of a general who had pre- pared the ruin of the army of Germany by his dilapidation as a minister, and that of Italy by his hicapacity as a commander, Moreau submitted, for his country's sake, to the prote^fkion of a plun- derer, and to instru6lion from an ideot, who was the darling of jacobin direclors, as rapacious and ignorant as himself. Moreau often mentions this period of his military career as the most disgust- ing and tormenting, because he despised Generai Scherer, and foresaw the destradlion of the army under his coiruiiand. E Early 3S MOREAU. . Early in March 1799, the war with Austria was renewed under the most unfavourable au- spices; every thing seemed now to demonstrate that the councils of France were no longer di- rei5led wirii the same energy, and that her armies would not be led with the same ability and success. At the battle of Verona, commenced in tlie nei2:h- bourhood of Castel Nuovo, between the lake of Garda and the Adige, on the 26ch March, and which continued from sun-rising until night, be- fore it was possible to determine to which side vi6lory Inclined, Moreau served only as a vo- lunteer, but was prevailed upon to assume the diredlion of the right wing of the army : he took from fourteen to fifteen hundred prisoners, and six pieces of cannon ; but Scherer, w'ho had taken post on the left wing, being routed, Mo- reau found himself obliged to relinquish all his ad- vanrap'es. After the vi6lories of Championet and Macdo- nald over the Neapolitans, in December 1798, Tuscany and Naples had been occupied by the French: Scherer having failed in his attempt to pierce the enemy's line,, it was proposed by Mo- reau to evacuate for a time these countries and Rome, where the French had continued to re- main since i797> on purpose to concentrate all their MOREAU. 39 their forces in Italy, with a view of recovering the ascendancy, and forcing the Austrians to retire. Instead of following tliis judicious advice, Sche- rer determined to draw fresh supplies from the garrisons in Piedmont, and to try once more the fortune of arras. lie accordingly sent a large de- tachment to turn Verona, and to take that place -by storm. But by this time General Kray had arrived with a large body of troops, and resolved to drive the enemy behind the Mlncio, after which he would be at liberty to besiege Peschiera and Mantua. On the 30th March, the avTiioil commenced by an attack on the right wing of the French,, while a large body of Imperialists ad- vanced a-gainst the left, where Moreau was posted with the diviiioas of Hatry, Montrichard, and Scrrurier. Aware of the approach of the Impe- rialists, Moreau in:imediateiy marched out to meet, and at lengtli forced them to retire ; but Scheier having been again beaten, he was obliged to halt in the midst of the pursuit, for the purpose of covering the retreat of the main body of the army. The corps that had advanced against Ve- rona was also surrounded, and, after some resist- ance, made prisoners. On the z8th April, the Russian auxiliaries^ j; z coi;i» *0 MOREAU. commanded by Field-marshal Suwarovv, joineil the Auitrians at Verona. Suwarow had risen from the ranks, through all the intermediate gra- dations, to that of general in chief, and brought with him a reputation established by more than fifty vidorious campaigns. A short time before his ar- rival in Italy, the French had again been defeated by General Kray near Maguan, and by Count De Bellegarde in the Tyrol. It was at this pc- riod that Scherer, overwhelmed with the curses of the Allies, and of the troops of France, resigned the command, and Moreau, whose reputation had not been diminished by the late events, was appointed his successor. Tiiis dangerous, but honourable appointment, Moreau accepted, not with any hope to repair the disasters of the beginning of this campaign, because the French Dircdory furnished him with no means to do it, but, if possible, to stop, prevent, or diminish, the fatal consequences of so many defeats, of so many wants, and of so great a dis- content in the ruined army of which he assumed ihe command. All military men. Frenchmen, Austrlans, -and Russians, acknowledge that he here displayed a genius and talents worthy the greatest Captain of any age ; and it is indeed impossible to refuse him MOREA/U. Ai him a well deseived admiration, when one con- siders with what art, ability, and courage, he disputed, at the head of the feeble remnants of an army without pay, without clothing, without magazines, and without hope of reinforcements, a country of some few leagues, which all Europe expected would only cost the vi6lorious armies of the combined powers some days marches. To the united forces of Austria and Russia, Moreau had to oppose only thirty-five thousand men, harassed by continual and severe marches, discouraged and intimidated by recent defeats and disasters, disaffected, discontented, and mis- trustful. A retreat, therefore, became abso- lutely necessary: Isola Delia Scala and Villa Franca were abandoned in succession ; the Min- cio was crossed ; and tlie strong fortresses of Peschiera and Mantua being left to their fate. Generals Kray and Klenau formed the blockade of both with a body of twenty-five thousand, men. Suwarow now took the field in order to pur- sue the French, and having crossed the Oglio, and advanced to the Udda in three columns, he found them strongly posted on the other side, having fortified Cassano, and made all the ne- cessary preparations for an obstinate resistance. E3 The. J 43 MOREAU, The Russians, however, determined to effe6i: the passage, and General Vickassowich found means to cross the river,- during the night between tlie 26th and 27th April, on a flying bridge, after which he immediately took, post on the right bank, near Brevlo. In the- course of the succeeding tnorning, one Austrian column, under General Otto, also passed over near the castle of Trezzo, and falling in with Grenier's division, which was advancing against Vickassowich, at length forced it to give way. After this, the village of Pezzo was carried swoid in hand. General Melas also marched with artillery against Cassano, and ob- -tained possession of the bridge, while a division of French at Bertero was beaten after an ob- stinate engagement, and forced to capitulate. DuriuGf the lono; and hard fouQ-ht battle ofCas- sano, Moreau was every where encouraging his troops with his presence, and inspiring confidence- by his example : on that memorable day he rather courted than shunned danger, in hope to restore if not vi6lory to France, at least to lessen the ef- fe<5ls of the viclory of a too powerful enemy. Mo- reau had three aides-de-camp killed by his side,, two horses wounded and one horse killed under hiiTL, and was slightly wounded himself. This battle decided the fate of the Cisalpine re-^ publicj^ MOREAU. 4^ public, and the next day the Allies entered Milan. The aspedil of affairs throughout Italy was at this moment peculiarly inauspicious for France. The people- of Piedmont were disconented, and many of them in arms ; in the Liguriaii commonwealth great commotions had also taken place; many of the Neapolitans, driven to despair- by the exadlions of the French pro-consuls, wished for the return of royalty ; while the Tus- cans, who had been tranquil and happy under the Grand Dukes of the House of Austria, mur- mured aloud, and were about to commence hostili- ties against their conquerors. In the mountainous regions of the Engadine, in the Grison country, in Switzerland, in the Valais, and in the Valte- line, the French had either been defeated, or the inhabitants were in open insurre6lion against tliem. Brescia and Peschiera had surrendered to the enemy ; Mantua was closely pressed, and the capital of Piedmont was threatened by a larce column of the Allies. Thus situated, Mo- r;eau, yielding to superior numbers, was obliged to abandon his strong position between the Po and the Tenaro, after defeating General Vickassowich on the banks of the Bormida. Hitherto Suvvarow appeared to have justified the 44' MOREAU. the higli opinion entertained by all Europe of his talents ; but by a loose and injudicious partition of the army under his command, it soon became evident that he was unacquainted with war on a grand scale, and equally ignorant of the. nation , and the general with whom he had now. to con- tend. His condu6t presented an excellent chance for Moreau to retrieve the losses Utely sustained by him in Iraly, and he seized the occasion with a promptitude peculiar to his character. Accord-, ingly, although he had now retreated in succes- sion from the plains of Lombardy and Piedmont, within the rugged frontier of the Ligurian re- public, and was left with only twenty-eight thou- sand men, he detached General Vi£lor with , a whole division, to strengthen the army of Na- ples, while measures were adopted on his own part to form a jundlicn with it, hoping, in that case, to be able to overcome superior forces, ren- dered weak by extension, and incapable of suc- couring each other, in consequence of their want . of connexion. No sooner had General Macdonald received instru6lions for that purpose from Moreau, tlian he immediately evacuated Naples and Rome, after leaving strong garrisons in St. Elmo, Capua, and Gaeta, and marched towards Florence, with a view MOREAU. 4'5 view of uniting with Generals Gautliicr and Miolis, \vho commanded the French troops ia Tuscany, and of receiving the succours now ad- vancing to his relief from the head-quarters of Ge- neral Moreau. After several partial and vidorious engage- ments with the enemv, General Macdonald lost at last the hard-fouglit hattles of the 17th, iSth, and 19th June, on the Trebbia ; but wliile the Austro-Russian commander was combating Mac- donald, Moreau, taking advantage of his absence, left Genoa, at the head of an army of twenty- nine thousand men, and marching by Bochetta, Gavi, and Novi, descended into the plain, where he, on the 20th of June, attacked and beat Field- marshal Bellegarde, who had been left to su- perintend the blockade of Alexandria. The Austrians, unable to resist the superior numbers and impetuosity of the enemy, were drjven from all their positions, and not only obliged to raise the siege of Tortona, but to retreat across the Bormida, No sooner did Suwarow receive intelligence of tliese sinister events, than he abandoned the pur- suit of Macdonald, whom he might have come up with before he had passed the mountains, and en- deavoured, by a rapid countef-march, to overtak-e \ the 46 MOREAU. the viflorlous Moreau, who, after boldly fighting another battle, retreated within the precin6ts or the Ligurian republic, and bid defiance to his dis- appointed foe. After the surrender of Turin, Alexandria, and Mantua, and since tlie retreat of Macdonald into the Ligurian territory, Suwarow, having now conquered tlie greater part of Italy, began to me- nace the southern departments of F'rance; but he was kept in check by the army of Moreau, which still occupied its formidable position in the neigh- bourhood of Genoa ; and although inferior ia point of numbers, prevented the advance of his antagonist, by threatening to fall upon his rear» Whilst Moreau in such an honourable manner was fighting for his country, the diredtors at the head of its government were plotting and in- triguing against each other, Sieyes and Barras had already forced Treillard, Meilin, and La Reveillere, to resign. Sieyes meditated a new revolution; but having, or pretending to have, more capacity to write a constitution than cou- rage to defend it, lie looked put for som.e yountr military man of talents to back him and rea- lize his metaphysical reveries, and he fixed his choice upon General Joubert. To engage Jou- |)ert sp much the more in his interest, Sieyes mar- ried MOREAU. 47 lied him to Mademoiselle De Semonville, the daughter of his friend Mons. De Semonville, whom he at the suiiie time nominated ambassador hi Holland. Jouhert was therefore sent to Italy as a general in chief; and Moreau, without re- sistance, resigned liis command to a young man, who in 1796, when he excited the admiration of Europe by his viflories and retreat, was only a colonel under Bonaparte, who in 1798, before he left France, strongly recommended Joubert (o the Dire61:orv, as a young ofBcer whom it might trust as a patriot or emplcv as a commander. Before Joubert's arrival in Italy, numerous supplies had been sent there, and the French troops were not much inferior in number to those of the allies : he carried therefore orders with him to a6l on the offensive, and to relieve Tortona, closely besieged by the Russians. Rloreau had no longer any command, but, witli his usual pa- triotism and generosity, he consented not only to remain wiih the army a few days longer, but even to accept of an inferior situation, in case of a bat- -tle. On the 14th of August, while Moreau and Joubert v^'ere busy in reconnoitring and observing a distant part of the enemy's lines, they received intelligence that the left wing of the French was attacked; for Suwarow, conscious of his strength, had 48 MOREAU. had determined to anticipate the designs of the French, whom he knew to be always most for- midable when the assailants. On the return of Joubert and Moreau, they found the adion had become general. Desirous of encouraging his troops, Joubert immediately advanced at the head of Ills staff, and received a mortal wound. The loss of a commander has frequently caused the loss of many battles ; but from the presence and courage of Moieau, the death of Joubert pro- duced neither confusion nor dismay, nor repressed the ardour of the French soldiers. The enemy were received every where with intrepidity, and would have been obliged perhaps to abandon the field, but for the indiscreet valour of the right wino^, which had advanced towards the plain in pursuit of the Allies. Advantage was immediately taken of this error by General Melas, who found means with the Austrian cavalry to turn the flank of the division under General St. Cyr ; on which Moreau, who had re-assumed the command, was under the necessity of giving orders for a retreat, after having had two horses shot under him. This measure was efFedled with his usual ability ; and Suwarow, instead of attempting to follow him through the Boclietta, allowed him to occupy his former position near Genoa, whence he issued soon MORE A U. 49 soon after, to defeat General Klenan, who, from Tuscany, had advanced within four miles of tlie capital of Liguria ; which proved that the army of Moreau, although frequently defeated by a su- perior force, was never efFe6lually overcome, were its opposers ever so numerous. Moreau, in return for the many and brilliant ser- vices which he. had rendered his country, received nothing but insults, ingratitude, and negle6l, from the French directors, who were as odious for their tyranny as contemptible for their meanness. It was therefore not surprizing that he joined Bo- i"iaj)arte to overthrow the dire6lorlal government, although he did not quite approve either the man- ner in which the Corsican usurped power, or the use he made of it after its usurpation. Moreau passed the winter of 1799 at Paris, and was often Iieaid to say, that until an honourable peace had restored the tranquillity and happiness of his coun- trymen, he would serve any person vvlio should assume or usurp the executive government — ei- ther a Robespierre or a Bourbon ; a Barras or a Bonaparte; but peace and order once returned, he would oppose all ambitious intriguers, sanscu- lottes or princes, diredlors or consuls, who abused their ])ower to enslave Frenchmen, and were infamous enough to deprive them of a liberty for F which 50 MORE A U. which they had been fighting so many years, and for which they had made such numerous sacri- fices. Moreau repeated this hmguage in all the societies he frequented ; there is little doubt but that it came to the knowledge of Bonaparte, and tlierefore explains a part of his late condu(5b to- wards this general. In the beginning of 1800, Moreau took the command of the French army called the army of the Danube. The forces under Moreau were as inuch superior to those under his opposer, the Austrian General Kray, as his talents surpassed those of all the Imperial generals acfiing against liim. By occupying the Austrians in Germany, he prevented them from detaching any more forces into Lombardy ; and he prepared successes in Italv, whilst he gained victories in Germany. The manner in \%'hich he led, and induced Gene- ral Kray to employ himself in the vallies descend- irg towards Brisgaw, at a time that he efFedied his real passage over the Rhine at Siein ; the art with which he forced him, only by able manoeuvres, to forsake the Lech, and afterwards the environs of Ulm ; and at last, the boldness of his passage over the Danube — do Moreau, in the opinion ■of military men, more honour than his vitStories over the same g. ncral at the same time. Ihc MOREAU. 51 The plan of the campaign for iSoo was drawn entirely by Morcau. In its outline it did noc differ greatly from tliat of the two preceding cam-' paigns, but the means were more proportionate to the end: it was intended to a6i with large masses against inferior numbers, and by means of a combined movement with the armies of Svs ic- aerland, Germany, and Italy, to end t!ie contest Vvith the capture of Vienna. Af/ter the passage of the Ilhine by the French, and thejunf^ion of General Lecourbe with the division of Moreaii's army under Generals St. Suzanne and Richepanse, the Austrian Comman- der, who had been completely deceived respev5l- Wg the intentions as well as tlie force of the enemy, was under the necessity of recurring to defensive operations. He accordingly retired to a. formidable position on the heiglits of Ptullendorf, which being strongly fortified, and defended by no less than sixty thousand men, was considered as impregnable. The aiflion during the first day, May 3, when the centre and ^!nz right only of the French participated in the attack, proved long and obstinate; and as the enemy did not succeed in their attempt, the Imperialists were entitled to the claim of vidtory. The combat was renewed next morning by F % sun- 52 MOREAU. sun-rise, and the centre of the Austrlans obtamet^ some advantage over the assailants ; but part of their right wing, commanded by Pi ince Joseph of Lorraine, was chased from Stockach, and their magazines there were abandoned to the enemy. On the 9th of- May^. all the French having been brouglit into adtlon, the combat was once more renewed with an extraordinary degree of obstinacy: at length the Austrians, and the sub- sidiary troops in the pay of England, after exhi- biting prodigies of valcur, finding their entrench- inents forced on all sides, notwithstanding the incessant fire of a numerous artillery, and the jundion of Archduke Ferdinand, deemed it pro- per to withdraw. But even their retreat was unaccompanied^ Vv'ith disorder; for they retired leisurely, fighting and disputing every inch of territory, first to Biberach, and then under tlie cannon of Uim. The whole circle of Suabia was now sub- je6l to French dominion ; the magazines col- Jeded by tlie Imperialists on the banks of the Danube fell into their possession: the Duke of V/irtemberg was obliged to abandon his resi- dence at Siutgard; while Augsburgh, Kem,p- ten, and Mcmingcn, were occupied by the in- vaders. Thus MOREAU. 53 . Thus Morcau, afcer overcoming all opposition, had already penetrated into the heart of Germany, where he was employed in levying contributions, and exacfting supplies of corn and provisions. In the mean time the Cabinet of Vienna, kept in constant alarm by his movements, and as yet un- certain of the final intentions of such an enter- prizing chief, was prevented from sending sup- plies to Italy, now become the scene of that con- test which was to decide the future fate of Europe. For the second time, therefore, Moreau enabled Bonaparte to he viiStorious in Italy ; and it was to . his vi6lorI.es, and to his- unparalleled manoeuvres, that Bonaparte owes the important consequences of the battle of Marengo, because, had the 25,000 Austrians destined to reinforce their army in Italy arrived thercj. it was. absolutely nnpossible that the Imperial General Meias would have signed the armistice of the 16th June 1799 ; but as tliese 25,000 men had been detained in Germany, and had already shared in the defeats by Moreau, of the army under General Kray, Melas could expedl no succour, and was therefore, after the loss of the battle of Marengo, which he ought to have gained, under the nccessitv either of lavins: down his arms, or, what was worse, of seeking his safety in. an armistice as humiliating as impohtic. F,3 When^ , 54 MOREAU. When, on the 19th of June, Moreau was ap- prized of the event of the battle of Marengo, he prepared to pass the Danube between Uhn and Donauvvert. This he effedled, after an obstinate resistance from General Sztaray, who, being advantageously posted on the celebrated plain of Hochstet, or Blenheim, disputed his ground with vigour and ability, though without success. The French were highly elated with this vi£l:ory, which, by compelling Kray to re- treat, and leave Ulm to its own strength, gained ihem possession of part of the Circle of Fran- conia, and that of the Lower Rhine from Suabia, to the line of neutrality of the North of Germany, prote6tcd by the King of Prussia. Indefatigable in his exertions, Moreau imme- diately marched in pursuit of the retreating ene- my, and having come up with them at Neu- bourg, a new a6lion and a new defeat ensued. After this vidlory, Moreau entered Bavaria, esta- blished on the 8th of July his head-quarters at Munich, and was preparing for new exploits, •when the armistice that had taken place in Italy ■was extended to Germany, and the Continent once more experienced a short respite from war. While the Imperialists withdrew their detach- ments from the country of ^he Grisons on the one MOREAU. 55 one hand, so as to strengthen their position In Italy, and extended their front on tlie other, with an intention to cover the Hereditary States, the French army formed one grand uninterrupted' line from the borders of the Rliine near Frank- fort, to the shores of the Mediterranean, in the neighbourhood of Lucca. On the 28th of July, the Austrian General Count de St. Julien had, without any powers of the Emperor, but seduced by the intrigues of Talleyrand, signed at Paris the preliminaries of~ peace between France and Austria, founded on the treaty of Carapo Formio ; but, faithful to lils engagements with Great Britain, the Emperor disavowed this transacSlIon. During these and other discussions, the armistice on the Continent had been suffered to expire, and the Cabinet of Vienna, totally unprepared for a renewal of the contest, was under the necessity of soliciting a new truce. After some negotiations between General Moreau on the one part, and the Count de Lehrbach on the other, a further suspension of arms was on the 20th September, by the Con- vention of Hohenlinden, agreed to for forty- five days, on terms that indicated the critical situ- ation of the Austrian affairs ; for the cities of Philipsburgh, Ulm, and Ingolstadt, were presented 56 MOREAU. presented as a boon for this short respite by the Emperor, who, with the Archduke John, had re- paired to the head-quarters of his army. Before Moreau left Paris, in the spring 1800, to take the command of tiie army, he had obtain- ed permission to pay his addresses to a young, beautiful, rich, and accomplished lady ; he de- c-lined, however, to celebrate the nuptials, until his vidlories had procured his country a safe and honourable peace, fearful, as he said, that Mars, jealous of Yenu?, s/iould treat lum a la Jou- bert. Alter tlie Ccjnventioa of Hohenlinden, and when the Austrian asid French Ministers were negotiating a definitive peace at Luneville, ■whicii Moreau, from the known weakness of Austria, believed certain, he, went to Paris, and, as an elegant historian has said,, he entwined .the roses of Hymen vvitii the laurels of Mars. Proud and vain, fiom the successes heiiadm-et with in all his undertakings, the Bonaparte of the autumn 1800 was become very ciifFereot from the Bonaparte whom Moreau left in the spring, agitated by absurd schemes, and tormented by an ambition which he had hut little prospefl of grati- . fying ; he, however, received Moreau as he ought . to receive a general to whom he owed every thing. In the presence of all the foreign ambassadors, and of M0REA17. . 5^ ef many French generals, he said : — General Mo^ tequ, you have made the campaign of a consummate and great Captain, uihlle I have only made the campaign of a young and fortunate man. The truth and justness of this remark, no military man, either of the present T)r of anv future age, can deny. Moreau had not been married a fortnight before he was obliged to repair to his head quarters, be- cause, precisely three weeks after tlie Austrian and French Plenipotentiaries had met at Luneville, for the express purpose of renewing the negotia- tions for peace, a rupture of the armistice took place,- and hostilities were once more resorted to. The French, unable to force Austria to a separate treaty, and relying on the ascendancy which they had o!)tained, determined to recommence the war. Moreau, therefore, instantly repaired to his head-quarters, and published an address to tlic soldiers, in which he requested them " to exhibit the same gallantry, and the same disregard to the rigours of the season, which they had before dls^ played^ when employed in the defence of Fort Kchl^ and the conquest of Holland.^'' While Augereau, after defeating the raw levies of the Ele6lor of Mentz, was penetrating tlirough Franconia, to communicate with the commander in chief General JMoieau, the latten, put 5S MORKAU. put himself at the liead of the most numerous army that Fnmce had ever sent into Germany, and proceeded in quest of the enemy. Their advanced guards encountered each other at Hnag, and the Austrians obtained the superiority. The French were beaten at tlie same time at Rosen- heim ; an event to be aitiibnted chiefly to the bravery of the troops of the Prince De Condc, in the pay oi:' Great Britain. I'he Archduke John, now at the head of the Imperial army, being flushed with these unexpe6l- ed advantajres, colied^ed all his forces, and im- mediately marched in search of tlie republicans, whom he attacked in three columns with an un- usual degree of vigour. The rival armies en- countered each other on the 3d December, at seven o'clock in tlie morning, between the rivers Iser and Inn, on the heights which extend from Bierkrain to Neumark, and near to the very spot where the armistice had been concluded but a short time before. A variety of circumstances contributed to ren- der this a«5lion fatal to the Austrians; and it ought not to be omitted, that a severe fall of snow early in the mornings prevented that regularity in point of operation which ought always to accompany a combined movement. But although this event de- . ranged , xMOREAU. 59 ranged. ilie original plan, it in no tiegree dimi- nished the ardour of the combatants, who seemed insensible to the fury of the elements, so that vic- tory appeared for a long time uncertain on which side she should declare. But Moreaii, wlio had anticipated the inten- tions ot the Archduke, liavlng ordered General Richepansc to assail the centre column in flank at the moment it commenced an attack, tliis un- €xpefled evolution produced great confusion ; and the left one being pierced nearly at the same time, wliile that on the right encountered unexpe6led obstacles, the Imperialists were forced to retire at three o'clock in the afcerpoon. Morcau, equally dreadful in attack as in retreat, anaoyed their raarch, and luing upon their rear with such per- severance and efFeCl, that they were saved by the approacli of night alone, from total destruction. The battle of Hohenlinden appears to have been one of those calculated to decide the fate of an empire ; for the greater part of the bag- gage, more than eighteen thousand prisoners, and near one hundred pieces of cannon, constituted the trophies of victory ; while the enemy fled in disorder beyond the inn, and carried with them • terror ami dismay. •iis the French were no less fortunate in Italy, the m MOREAU. xhc situation of the Austrian Monarchy was never so critical, even in'the early part of the reign of Maria Theresa, as at this moment ; for although the Archduke Charles had been recalled, and new subsidies, granted under the name of a loan by Great Britain, had enabled the Emperor to recruit the Imperial armies, his fate appeared inevitable. The P rench, after the splendid vi6lory of Hohen- linden, had, on the 25th December, crossed the Inn and the Ips, and arriving at Steyer, in Upper Austiia, were within seventeen leagues of Vienna, now menaced by no less than four different gene- rals. The Gallo-Batavian troops, under Augereau, at the same time approached the hereditary states, by coasting along the Danube; Macdonald, in possession of the mountains of the Tyrol, had the option of eitlier descending into Italy or Ger- many ; while Brune blockaded Mantua, and was ready to penetrate into the mountains of Carin- thia, with a view to form a jun6tion with Moreau. Under these circumstances, the Imperial ca- binet proposed an armistice, which was, on the 25th December, executed between the Archduke Charles and General Moreau at Steyer, and •whicii, according to Moreau's expression, '* put it cut of the power of the House of Austria to resume hostilities.^^' To procure a suspension of arms of only MOREAU. Gt only forty-five days, it was agreed that tlie Ty- rol should be wiiolly evacuated, and the fortresses of Bruneau and Wurtzburgh delivered up to tha French. These conditions were certainly very hard, but they were the forerunners of a general pacification on the Continent. In this short sketch of Moreau's life, a more minute or detailed relation of all his brilliant mili- tary operations cannot be expe£led : what re- quires volumes to describe, cannot be contained in a few pages. On the 9th February, 1801, a Definitive Treaty of Peace was signed at Luneville, between Aus- tria and France; and in a short time after, Gene- ral Moreau resigned the command of an army, which had reduced Austria more in one campaign tlian it had been before in three centuries, and procured to France a peace, which the ambition of French rulers, the negotiations of French mi- nisters, and the plans of French politicians, had in vain desired, plotted, and intrigued for, these last two centuries. Between the Convention of Luneville of the 26th January, 1801, and the Definitive Treaty of the 9th of the following February, Moreau had openly declared his opinion, " that by the humi-' Hating and dishonourable terms imposed upon Aus- G tria 62 MOREAIT. tria by France, Bonaparte, with all his political hypocrisy and revolutionary Machiavelism ; with all his pretended wish for peace, and affe6led en- deavours to procure it, never sincerely desired, nor could expe6t but suspensions of arms, because a peace didlarod by the power of the bayonet, could only be preserved by bayonets, and might as easily be annulled by the power of the bayonets of fo- reigners, as commanded by the bayonets of France." Bonaparte had always spies In the different re- publican armies, but particularly in the army commanded by Moreau ; there is, therefore, little doubt but that all Moreau's a6llons, transaflions, and conversations, had been reported to him. After the battle of Hohenlinden, and when Moreau ap- proached Vienna, he had several secret conferences, botli with the Archduke Charles and the Archduke John, and one audience even with tlie Emperor. On these occasions, it Is said Mcreau promised that Tuscany should continue to belong to the Austrian Grand Duke ^ and that one of his aldes-de-camps •was therefore sent to Paris with a remonstrance to Bonaparte, on the necessity and policy of not driving Austria to despair by any degrading sacri- fices. " That by consenting to restore Tuscany to jts former Sovereign, France was certain to gain the friendihif MOREAU. (55 friendship and graiUude of Jmtrla, without violat- ing any engagements with Spain \ but bv giving up Tuscany to a Spanish prince, France made Austria 'nreconcilcabky without gaining any thing by its im- politic liberality to Spain *." TJie same aid-de-camp who carried this re- monstrance to Bonaparte, had a letter from Mo- reau to Talleyrand, nearly of the same contents. That the minister might be prepared to second Moreau's views when consulted, he had orders to deliver tin's letter before he spoke with the Consul. Talleyrand had at all times tried to ob- tain Moreau's friendship, or at least to wdieedle himself into his good opinion. Before Moreau left Paris in the spring, for his last campaign, at an entertainment T.^lleyrand gave him, he insi- nuated plainly enough, " that if merit and services were the only successful pretensions to the supreme power in a republic, General Moreau would have no rival to oppose his governing the French Common- wealth ;" but since Moreau's vidtories had conso- lidated Bonaparte's consulate, and Talleyrand's place depended upon his goo(i»igrace, he thought this would be a fit opportunity to ensme it, and to please the Corsican Consul, by humiliating the * La Vie Politique du General Moreau, pag. 24. G z French 64 MOEEAU. French general with foreign sovereigns *. Had Moreau been as good a politician as a general, he might have foreseen and prevented this affront, by knowing the real value of protestations of attachment and frietdbhip from a man of Talley- rand's immoral chara£ter. This crafty intriguer, therefore, easily dissuaded General Moreau's aid-de-camp from mentioning any thing, or de* livering his dispatch concerning this business, " until it had been well considered vchai ivas ta be done, because he could not ansvcer for what other-' wise might be the consequence, knowivg, as he did^ how intent the First Consul was to create a Bourbon « king in Tuscany f ." This aid-de-camp arrived at Paris on the 24th of January at nigh', and on the 25th in the morff- ing orders were sent by the telegiaph to Joseph Bonaparte, at Luneville, to sign immediately the Preliminaries of Peace, by which Austria re- nounced Tuscany. During that day J^.Ioreau's aid-de-camp went several times in vain to confer with Talleyrand, who was not visible, although he remained at the Foreign Office till near twelve o'clock at night ; but the next day, in the foie- • Les Intrigues du Ch.M. Talleyrand, Neuchatel, 1801, pae^. ^q, + Les Intrisuesdu Ch.M. Talleyrand J Neuchatel, i8oi,pag. 62, noon, MOREAU; 65 noon, M. de Hauterleve, one of Talleyrand's confidential secretaries, called upon him with the information, that government had just learned, by a telegraphic dispatch, that the Preliminaries be- tvveen France and Austria had been signed at Luneville ; that Talleyrand, therefore, advised him to go back to General Moreau as soon as pos- sible, and to represent to him the necessity of dropping his interference for Austria for the pre- sent. He assured the aid-de-camp at the same time, that Talleyrand had not communicated a word to Bonaparte as to the contents of Moreau's letter, and that this general would of course, at his return to Paris, be received, as though nothing had occurred to alter the friendship between the First: Consul and his first general, so indispensably ne- cessary and useful for both parties, for their com- mon cause, and for. their common country *. Ever since 1796 great jealousy existed between the officers and privates of the two armies of Ger- many and Italy, or that of Moreau and Bona- parte : General Moreau was beloved and esteem- * Les Intrigues du Ch. M. Talleyrand, Neuchatel, i8ol, pag, 64, 65, and 66, in which it is said " to Ife a known fan!fp6in, or heir of the throne. General 68 MOREAU. General Moreau's younger brother is a tribune, and the only person of his family employed under the consular government. As a reward for all his eminent services, General Moreau enjoys no more than the half-pav of other general officers, I2,0C0 livres, or 500I. sterling ; and had he not married a lady with a large fortune, he would be another Cincinnatus, obliged to cultivate his own lands ; because, during his many cam- paigns and numerous vi61:ories, although he some- times was forced to see and suffer the plunder of some of his gei"rerals and officers, he was never accused, nor even stispe6led to share it with them. On the contrary, he more than once punished "witli rigour', or degraded with ecJat, those guilty of committing excesses or vexations, either by arbitrary requisitions, by forced loans, or illegal contributions. In the summei", 1801, he de- graded General Vandamme, and sent h.im to the rear of his army*; and the Chief Commissary Pommier, who, with Vandamme, had been * This Vandamme is now one of Bonaparte's favouriie generals, and his governor at Lilie ; he is the son of a barber, and was, be- fore the Revolution, condemned to the gallows for house-breaking, and was marked on his shoulders with a hot iron. In 1794, he sent to the guillotine the judge whose humanity had, ia 1788, saved his life. guilty 6 MOREAU. 69 5uiltv of exactions and extortions in Suabia, he oideretl to be tried before a council of war, which condemned him to be shot. This upright and generous conduct was a di- re£l reproach to Bonaparte, who not only par- took of tlie plunder with his generals, but distri- buted amongst tliem provinces and cities to pro- cure plunder* ; and neidier in Italy nor in Egypt were any of his generals punished on this account, although any one of his soldiers wiio took by forcc- the value of a sixpence, was diot 011 the spot with- out a trial. Moreau was therefore as mucli rcspedted by * In 1797, Augereau complained to Bonaparte, that by all his cam- paigns he had not yet made 100,000 crowns : soon after, when the Venetians rose against the French, during Bonaparte's maich to- wards Leoben, Bonaparte sent for Augereau, and told him to bring him his 100,000 crowns, and he would procure him means to gaia a million or two. Augereau obeyed, and was made the President over the Military Tribunal eredled at Verona to try the ii surgents ; and of five hundred Venetian Nobles accused, o«/y75"i'f perished, and of as many Clergymen, on/y eig/jt were shot : the former sold or pawned their estates to save their lives, and the latter sacrificed the treasures of their chuiclies and saints, to avoid martyrdom by French atheists. One of Augereau's mistresses at Paris, Madame Chauvin, wears a diamond cross worth ten thousand Louis d'ors, which formerly belonged to a Madona at Padua. In three months time Augereau pocketed six millions, of wliich Bonaparte borrowed one million, which sum, Augereau says, ha bas forgotto repay.— i« Nouvellcs a la maine Ftntoic, an xi» No. V - hiS /O MOREAU. his oiliccrs as dear to his soldiers ; whilst Bona- parte was despised by his officers and detested by his soldiers ; and any one who, since the Revo- lution, has studied the contemptible character of modern F^renchtncn, by turns elevating vicious and \yorthlcss men into power, and sending worth and virtue to the scaffold, finds no contradidion or surprize in seeing an abhorred Corsican upon the throne, and a beloved general r,nd Frenchmaa. in obscurity and disgrace. When Moreau was a c;enern] commandins: in Flanders, and his father suffering under the axe of the guillotinebf terrorism, Bonaparte was only a colonel, sharing in the crimes of terrorism, and. a terrorist himself, Moreau owed his promotion to his military talents, improved and guided by the- counsel of his friend Pichegru : tr,e first ad- vancement of Bonaparte he owed to the massacre of the Toulonese in 1793, ^'"^ ^° ^^^^ recommen- dation ol his accomplices, Barras, Frcron, and Robespierre the younger. Merit niade I\^oreau, in 1795, a commander in chief ; the crimes com- mitted by Bonaparte in another massacre of Uie Parisians, in Odober 1795, procured him tl)e command of the army in Italy. Moreau often retarded vifloiy, by sparing the lives of his sol- diers i Bonaparte obtained vidory by always, and often MOREAU. 71 often without necessity, sacrificing thousands of his soldiers. During the retreat of Moreau from Bavaria, in the autumn of 1 796, he was more care- ful of the preservation of his soldiers than of himself; and he more than once exposed his own life, to prevent his sick and wounded soldiers from falling Into the hands of the enemy : before the retreat from Syria, in the spring I799> Bonaparte caused all his sick and wounded soldiers to be poisoned, and all those taken ill or wounded dur- ing his retreat, he left to be butchered by the Turks and Arabs. Moreau studied only the pre- servation and honour of his army ; Bonaparte, his ovv'n advantage and preservation at their ex- pence. Moreau was courageous and vigorous during the attack, but humane and generous after vi£lory : Bonaparte was cruel and outrageous in battle ; fierce and unfeeling after vi6tory. — In 1794 Moreau, at the risk of his life, saved several hundred Hanoverian prisoners at Nieuport: in 1799, Bonaparte murdered, in cold blood, several thousand Turks at Jaffa, who had for some days been his prisoners of war. In the winter 1796, Moreau sent Bonaparte conside- rable supplies of his best troops, with which the Corsican commanded the Peace of Leoben, and of Campo Formic; in the winter 1797, Bona- parte n MOREAU. parte treated Moreau with contempt, after having by his plots undermined his reputation, and caused his disgrace. An intriguer at the head of armies, and a tyrant at the head of government, Bona- parte's only study was to usurp power, and ty- rannize over France with hisarmies; whilst Mo- reau, as modest as unassuming, as liberal as un- aspiring, commanded armies, and served the cause of his country, for the liberty and welfare of his countrymen, without any ambition for rank, or any intrigues to obtain dominion. When, in 1801, Barras was sent Into exile at Brussels by Bonaparte, Moreau bought his estate, Grosbois, belonging formerly to Louis XVIII. and there he chiefly passes his time with his ami- able wife, in the company of some few, but chosen friends. Report says, his principal occu- pation is the continuance of the history of his campaigns; and as he is as accomplished a writer as an illustrious warrior, when he favours the world with this publication, it must be both high- ly valuable and greatly interesting. Moreau docs not approve of the changes Bona- parte has made in the government, more than of the peace he concluded with Austria and Eng- land : he predi(5led the short duration of the latter, and he insists on the uncertainty of the former. He MOREAl). 73 He has often expressed himself, that despot for despot, he prefers a i3ourbon to a Bonaparte, a Frencliman to a Corsican. He has exposed Bona- parte's insolence towarxls foreign nations, and his tyranny and oppression over Frenchmen ; he has condemned the impudence of his consulate for life, the shamelcssness of his nominating a succes- sor, the hypocrisy of his religious concordat, and the affectation of his ridiculous legion of honour*. The immorality of Bonaparte's republican go- vernment, the extravagance and profusion of his family, the prodigality of his courtiers, the lavish- ness of his generals, and the wasteful and destruc- tive cxpences and irregularities of hrs ministers, senators, prefects, tribunes, and other placemen, are often held out by Moreau to his countrymen as a proof of the corruption, and as an evidence of the unfitness of the present consular constitu- tion, forced upon Frenchmen by this Corbican advemurcr: last spring, at a ball at Madame Re- camier's, where many of Bonaparte's favourites were present, he loudly said, " that it is, and must be, an eternal indelible shame arid reproach ta * In the summer i8oZ, shortly after the institution of Bona- p:iite's legion of honour, Moreau said, in the presence of several foreigners who dined with him, that as they a,>proved of the sauces of his cook, he ihou.d decnc him a saucepan of honour. H thirtv 74 MOREAU. thirty mlUlons of Frenchmen, not to find amongst themselves one individual with talents enough to go- vern them, and to suffer the despotism of a despicable and cruel foreigner, who has waded through foods of French blood, to usurp the throne of France '^.''^ Since that time, he has never been invited by Madame Recainier to any of her routs or parties. This language is very different from that con- tained in Bonaparte's commanded or bought ad- dresses, and if known to him, which it probably is, must excite his jealousy, hatred, and ven- geance. He has, however, hitherto been obliged not only to dissemble, but to treat his rival and enemy with more regard than he shews to empe- rors or kings. Before Bonaparte left Paris, on his journey to Brabant, he exiled every general not in employment at Paris: as Moreau's estate' is only twelve miles from that city, he comes there several times in the week, either to visit his friends or to frequent the theatres ; the Corsican dared not, however, insult Moreau with such a proceeding, he, therefore, invited him to an inter- view at Berthier's house. Bonaparte began the conversation by mentioning some complaints, al- though he at the same time insinuated his respedl * Les Nouvelles a la maine, Germinal, an xi. No. 31. for MOREAU. 75 for Morcau ;is a pcneral, and his esteem for him as a citizen. He told him that he might com- mand any place in his disposal, except that of a consul. He offered lo m.akc i.im a duke, or here- ditary sovereign of Parfvsa and Piaisanca, and in return he only denian.'ed his tiiendship. Mo- reau's answer united tu ti";e frankness of the soldier tiie generosity of the })atriot : lie said, " lis zvas the personal enemy of no man, but the ir reconcile able foe of all men, either princes or sansculottes, who tyrannised over his countrymen ; that m serving his country he had only done his duty, ivithout any ambition for power or expcflailon of reward; and should foreigners again attack It, and he were ceriain that his endeavours should procure his countrymen that freedom, for which they have fought so many and bloody battles, he would again offer his services ; but he would never dravJ his siuord, until he was convinced that his mill- tary talents would bj of other use to his fellovj citizens, than solely to leave them the choice of tyrants ;" and without waiting for an answer, he retired*. The * Bonaparte often ridicules Moreaii's military conversation ; he told somebody who reported it toMoreau, thai he looked upon hii« tohe-z.' true miiitjry pedant . Some time after Moreau invited Co. dinner, Gejieral Le fevre, formerly a private in the guards, at H. 7r present ;« IMOREAU. The writer of this has been Moreau's prisoner and guest ; has associated with him in Gerin^Tny and in France, at Munich and Stutgard,at Paris and Grosbois ; has been at his military parade when attended by ail his generals, aides-de-camp?-, and officers ; and at his table when surrounded by elegance, beauty, and fashion : he has seen him in his camps on the Rhine and the Danube, and at Ills balls and routs at Strasburgh and Paris ; and he has always found him the same amiable, agree- able, modest, and unassuming man ; although, at all times, in all places and in all companies, a military enthusiast, whether in the society of ladies or in a circle of officers, at the head of his table, or at the head of his army, leading his soldiers to battle, or handing a lady to dance ; but so lively, amusing, and intermixed with anecdotes is his conversation, that even Fiench coquets have listened to it in preference to the flattery of their gallants. It is impossible for any person of education to be in IVloreau's compnnv half an hour without considering him a great military chara6\er, whosfi present Bonapavre's favourite and senator; when at table he said, 1 am cailel a military pedant— it may be true enough ; but you iifid I kniw a man ivha is bsth a military hypociiti and a political tmposlor. ihouglita MOREAU. 77 thoughts and words are those of an officer of emi- nent talents^ and much experience, and whose ' onJy passion is military glory. To an open and pleasing countenance, he unites soft and insinuating manners ; and to the frankness of the soldier, he joins the becom- ing ease of the courtier, without the licentious^ ness of the one, or the vices of the other. French- men allow him the liberal good nature of a Tu-. rennev to whom he is compared for his able tac- tics ; and tlie vigour and patriotism of Henry IV. whom he resembles as a skilful warrior.— They say that in his attacks he is a Gustavus Adolphus and a Conde, and in in's retreats a Xenophon and a Belleisle. All the reproach made against Moreau even by his enemies, is, that he continued to serve the assas- sins of a father whom he dearly loved, and his in- gratitude towards his friend Pichegru, whom he could not but greatly esteem ; but it may be said without fear of coutradiciion, or charge of par- tiality, that, with the single exception of Pichegru, Moreau is the first, the ablest, and tlie puresty of all the French republican generals, and the one to whom France is the most indebted, be- ^^ 3 cause 78 MOPvEAU. cause Mtlas lost the battle of Marengo, whereas. Moreau gained the battle of Hohcnlinden *. * It is the opinion of all French generals, that Melas lost ihe iattle of Marengo, but that Bonaparte did not gain it ; that Melas was defeated by his own faults, but that Bonaparte was not vid\ori» ous by his own talents or valour ;,and that lie swindled Italy from Austria by tlie political incapacity of its commander, as much as by his military ignorance. When the Austrian general. Count De, St. Julien, carried the dishonourable armistice- of the 1 6th June, 1800, accepted by Me« las, to Bonapaite, ihe present French ambassador in Portugal, Lasnes, with other French generals, shewed Ccunt De St. Julien the French camp; and in p.issing by two six- pounders, he said 10 his companions, " Cit'ix^eris I let i/i ia-w to those cannons ; tbry •ujtre the only tivo not ,>i the poiver of our enemy ivhcn the late vJSlory declared itself in our Jav.our." Th« feelings ol the Aus- trian on this occasion must have been stronger than even the inde« llcate impudence of the Frenchman. Histoire secnte dt la BjSn- lai/It de Martnga, par un Cbouan., pag( 1 2^ JEMANUrC ( 79 y EMANUEL JOSEPH SIEYES, ONE OF BONArARTE's SENATORS. E.J. Sieves, commonly called the Abl's Sieyes, was born at Frcjiis, in Provence, in 1748^ nnd before the Revolution, was vicaire general to the Bishop of Ch;irtres, a canon, and chancel- lor of the church of Chartres. A christian priest ami a preacher of atheism^ n subjc6l to a king and an apostle ot equality, Sieyes was received as governor and instru6lor to the young Baron Mattliew Montmorency, a no- bleman of one of the first families in France, ne- phew to a cardinal and to a bishop, and grandsoa ID a prince; but, as might be expedfed, the sc- phistry ot Sieyes soon perverted the loyalty of his pupil : his lessons caused young Montmorency to forget what he owed to his God, to his king, to his country, to his family, and to himself, and at an early age to become an associate of La Fayette and of his accomplices. Li most noble families in France, some years before the Revolution, it was the fashion to trust the education and the condudl of their thlldrea to persons as loyal aud religious as Abbe Sieyes.. i'or QQ SIEiES, For Ills promotion in the church, and for his nomination ns a deputy to the States-General, Sieves was indebted to the Montmorency f^imily : he had, however, already caused himself to be noticed by his philosophical connexions with D'Alembert, Diderot, Condorcet,^and their asso- ciates. Sieves did not wait for the Revolution, to pub- lish and profess his dangerous and anti social ideas. In fSy he circulated several of his writings, full oF metaphysical subiilty and anarchic pre- cepts, but in a dull and heavy style; more fit to tire the curious or the studious, than to instru6l or to persuade the ignorant or the inquisitive. These writings were litile read, ami less praised. The vanity of Sieves was therefore hurt ; and he determined, if possible, to revenge upon mankind at large, the negle6t: which his Imaginary merit met with from men of letters in France ; un- fortunately for France and Europe, Sieves has ■since been in situations that have enabled him to adhere to his determination. A member of the Tiers Etat, Abbe Sieyes be- came one of the first opposers of the distindions between the clergy and the nobility ; and he was one of the principal movers and promoters of the union of the three orders m a National Assembly. Oa SIEYE5. 81 On the loth and 15111 June 1789, lie strongly urged this first revolutionary measure towards ecjuality, which at last was decreed. From the benevolence of Louis XVI. Sieyes had received several ecclesiastical livings, and having an opportunity, in the family of Mont- morency, to mix with many of the King's cour« tiers and ministers, he must have known his sovereign's patriotic and humane disposition ; ne- vertheless, when the King had some troops col- le6\ed near his residence, for the protedtion of hijr.self, his throne, and his family, Sieyes, on the 8th July 1789, was ungenerous enough to throw out in tlie tribune of the National As- sembly, the most illiberal suspicions of the inten- tions of his King, and the most infamous calum- ny against his patriotism. Sieyes had not been three months a deputy, be- fore he announced himself as a traitor and a rebel, and enlisted under the colours of the Orleans fac- tion ; a revolutionary charnel-house, the recep- tacle of every thing that was corrupt, ambitious, vicious, and vile. When any questions were debated, or any plans proposed for the improvement of his coun- try, or for the relief ot his countrymen, from which his personal interest or fortune might suf- 82 SIEYE^. fer, S!eyes laid aside the charadlcr of the partisatr and the innovator for tliat of tlie piiesr. On the lOth of August, 1789, he vehemently opposed the suppression oi clerical tytlies. He then used an expression, always appli.cable to himself and to his accomplices, exclaiming, in tlie middle of the discussion on thjs subject, " I'ou ixish to be free, and you do net know hoiv to be just.'" On the yih of September following, when Sieves opposed the question for giving the royal prero- gative of the veto to the King, he forgot, how- ever, himielf to be just, though he said he de- sired to be fiee. Sieves was deeply implicated in the cruel and unfortunate insurredtion of the 5th and 6ih Octo- ber 1789. The Count De La Chaftre deposed upon oath before the tribunal of the Chatelet, that he had heard Sicycs say to a person who re- ported that there were movemeuts at Paris, " / knew there were movements, but 1 do not understand any thing about these ; they proceed in,a contrary sensed. When he \\ as hiius. If called upon to declare upon oath what he kiiCw on this suhje(5V, he affirmed that he knevj^ nothing, but, with all other good citizens, was- indignant at the scenes that took place, in these four lines are three dif- fei'cnt persons — the plotter, the perjurer, and the priest^ *>• SIEYES. 55 priest, united in one individual — the conspi- rator. • The King had been prevailed upon to give Sieyes some vacant and rich abbeys, and from this period lie became a strenuous defender of the church-lands, against Talleyrand, and other revo* lutionary spoilers. He wrote a work, called, Observations on the Property of the Clergy, and in every debate resisted its sale. This is only men- tioned as a measure of Sieyes' patriotism. But it is to be recorded, as a proof of his modesty and gratitude, that when he heard of these donations from the King, he said : " Jt last the court begins to know its duty, and to do what it should have done ten years ago?'' During the year 1790, when he apprehended tliat the violence of factions would bring about the proscription of the fa6lious, and that those who made themselves most conspicuous would be the first viilims, Sieyes seldom ascended the tribune to speak, but chiefly employed his time in silence in the committees. He now began to •^vrap himself up in a mysreiious obscu- rity, and continued so in the several assemblies of which he has been a member ; and to this, as well as to his revolutionary Machiavclism, may be ascribed his escape in all the bloody confli6ls be- tween «4 SIEYES. tvveen all the cruel rebellious parties, figluing or intriguing for power, and proscribing or desirov- iflg ea<;n other. Sieyes had proposed in the constitutional com- mittee, a declaration of the rights of man, but it was objected to, as being too metaphysical ; he suc- ceeded better in his plan of dividing France into- departments, distri6ls, and municipalities : this measure was approved and decreed bv the Nation- al Assembly, and is yet continued. In 1791 he was eleited a membei" of the de- partment at Paris, of which the Duke De La Rochefoucauli was the president, and Roederer the secretary ; he distinguished himself here by a speech in favour of religious toleration, and the- liberty of worship. At this time the. rabble at PariiJ, nick-named the active chl'zeHs, perse- cuted, insulted, or murdered every clergyman who had not taken the national oatii, and pro- scribed the members of his congregation. It v/as then as dangerous to profess a religion, as in former times it was punishable to be of no religion. Atheistical fanaticism had taken the place of Ro- man Catholic superstition ; ^the latter chastised in- dividual persons, tlie former proscribed and pu- nished whole communities. A decree of the de- partment at Paris tried in vain to put a stop -co those SIEYES. 85 ttiosc liorrors, and Sieves was forced to acknow- ledge in the tribune of the Nationxnl Assemblv, " that the sovereign ■people at Paris mistook their defenders for their assassins, and their assassins for their defenders; and in disturbing the worship of Christ, condutled themselves like devils l^'' Every member of any abilities in the Constitu- ent Assembly, wished to give France a constitu- tion according to his own manner of tliinking, and his own religious and political notions ; it was, therefore, not surprizing, that a man of Sleyes* vanity, and who liad so great an idea and so high an opinion of his own talents as a legislator, should present a plan for the constitution of a democrati- cal monarchy, or rather a monarchical anarchy ; the Constitutional Committee, however, rejedted it as impra6iicable, and the National Assembly confirmed this rejection. During the imprisonment of Louis XVI. after the journey to Varennes, Sleyes was bought over to the court party ; but was courted by the repub- licans and by the jacobins, who at that period in- tended to make France a commonwealth. To serve the King and to silence fa61ion, Barnave - and Charles Lameth persuaded Sieyes to pub- lish his political creed. In a letter in the Monl- teur (Julv 1791)' Sieves expressed the following I senti- 80 SIEYES. sentiments: " Neither to be iveddcd to old customs^ nor from any superstitious opinion of royalty, do I prefer monarchy ; / prefer it because it is dcmort- strated, that all citizens enjoy a greater portion of iibfrty under a monarchical, than under a republican form of government ; and that in all possible hypo- theses, man is more free under the former than under the latter r Sieyes has more than once repented of having given this pubh"city to liis monarchical principles, and even the vote for the death of his King has not been able to atone for it. Since 1791, this letter has been republished in divers newspapers no less than sixteen times, by Sieyes' enemies, and every time some nev/ explanation or apology has been printed by Sieyes in answer, ■which, instead of explaining, only opposed the sophistry of a traitor and the treachery of acowaid. When religious schism followed the religious and political innovationsof the Constituent Assem- bly, and revolutionary intruders usurped the sees of the christian bishops, Sieyes was offered the episcopal see at Paris, which he declined, enjoy- ing already, and without envy or danger, more than double the salary of a constitutional bishop. Sieyes was far from approving th.e constitution of 1791; he prcdided its short duration, and plotted with the leaders of tlie Legislative Assem- bly S IE YES. 87 blv to have his predi6lion fulfilled. He continued to receive a pension from the King, and at the same time to conspire against monarchy, as the only means of tiying a constitution of his own ma- nufadlory. The Legislative Assembly having suffered the jacobins to overturn the throne, a National Con- vention was ordered to be convoked, and Sieyes was elecled one of its members. In this den ci brigands he did not profit by the influence his opi- r.Ton had over many of his fellow rebels. He was trembling before the nudacious revolutionary ge- nius of a Danton, Marat, and' Robespierre ; and surrounded as he was by assassins, to save his life he 'tried to be Forgotten, and therefore sunk again i;ito an apparent nullity. // was fear that caused him to be a regicide, and secretly to advise Robespierre to assume tlie di£tatorship ; it ivai fear that made him declare on the lOth November 1793, that as he had for a long time renounced the christian religion ^ Jie had, of course ^ long given up the iraposition of priestcraft and the hypocrisy of priesthood \ and it zvas through fear, that some time afterwards lie joined Chaumette, He- bcrt, and IVIomcro in tlieir scandalous and sacri- legious farce in honour of Momero's mistress, called else Goddess of Reason. 1 2 During «S SIEYES: During the Convention, until the death of - Hobespierre, Sieyes was seldom a member of a committee, never upon any mission, and only spoke twice in the tribune : when, after the 9tli cf Thermidor, more moderate tyrants had divided Robespierre's pov/er, Sieyes condudled himself lor some months wicli the same circurnspedlion ; but perceiving that a too long silence mioht. en- tirely bury him in oblivion, he again ascended the tribune, spoke with abhorrence of Robespierre's tyranny and cruelties, and in favour of the arrest- ed or outlawed conventional members. In 1795, he was, with Rewbel, sent to nego- tiate, or ratlier to didlare a treaty to the Batavian Republic : he here condudled himself with that harshness and insolence which accompanied him in ail his transactions, and never left him, but when fear forced him to dissemble, or to disguise a passionate c'-iaracler fall of hatred. In the an- nals of civilized Europe, and of negotiations with independent, but contjuered states, there is not an example oi harder conditions imposed, or more dishonourable ternis submitted to, than those con- tained in the treaty which Sieyes and Rewbel forced upon Holland, in which the Dutch gave up provinces, paid icr independence, and con- sented SIEYES. 89 sented to continue to be treated as subdued slaves to the vilest and most unfeeling tyrants. Sieyes differed from Rewbel and other revolu- tionary statesmen, in his opinion of the external, as well as of the internal politics of France. Si- eyes, not to excite too much the jealousy of Eu- rope, wished that the river Meuse should be the boundary of the French frontiers ; but these being extehded to the Rhine, prove that Sieyes has not been more successful as a politician than as a le- gislator. When, in five years, a fourth constitution was to be tried on the French nation, in which the executive power !iad been invested in a diredlory of five members, Sieyes was defied one of the di- redors ; hnifear again got the better of his vani- ty ; the bleeding scaffolds of terrorism, and the unsettled state of France, frightened him to de- cline an honour which he wished, but trembled lo accept. The National Convention being changed into two coviucils, Sieyes was one of the members chosen for the Council of Five Hundred. Here again he was seldom conspicuous as a speaker ; he was, however, during the years 1796 and 1797, very aftive in the most important com- mittees. It did not escape the observers of Sieyes' I 3 revo- go SIEYES. revolutionary consistency, that he was one of the Committee of Five, charged to find out means to oblige judges, and other public fun6lionaries, to swear hatred to royalty. That a man who had proclaimed monarchy the best of governments, and in eighteen months after voted for the death of his King, and taken tb.e oath of equality ; that such a man should be made an instrument to tor-- ment and tyrannize over the consciences of royal- ists, is not surprizing in a rebellion, where oaths have been ridiculed as trifles, and conscience has been laughed at as an absurdity *. In 17985 when the invasion of Egypt was de- termined upon, Sieyes resigned his place in the Council of Five Hundred, and was appointed ambassador to the King of Prussia. The insolence of the Dire6lory, in sending so notorious a regicide ambassador to a King, was only surpassed by the weakness, meanness, or treachery, of the Prussian ministers, in not only not advising their sovereign to resent it, but * On the lath of April, Sieyes was in more danger from th« vengeance of an individual than he had ever been from th« fury of parties. Another apostate, of the name of Poule, a partisan of th fertorist Babceuf,- wounded Sieyes in the hand and in the sid'e with a pistol, with which he had as intention tokillliim. per- le SIEYES. 91 persuading him to degrade monarchy and mo- narchs, by enduring at his court the presence of one of the murderers of another sovereign. It was, however, not in- Prussia where Sieyes found his reception the most flattering, and his re- sidence the most agreeable : he was excluded from more than one society into which all other foreign ambassadors were; admitted ; and, when admitted any where, he was shunned, despised, and often execrated. When he requested to be presented to the Field-iVlarshal Baron KnobelsdorfF, this old and loyal warrior abruptly answered, " Non, et sans phrase;'" in allusion to a cruel expression used by Sieyes, when he voted for the death of Louis XVI*. The behaviour of this hero, and of many other Prussians, will, if possible, palliate in the eyes of posterity, the base and selhsh condutSt of the Prussian cabinet, both on this and on many, other occasions. But even the policy of the DlretSiory, in send- ing Sieyes to Berlin, is doubted. Prejudice pre- ceded his arrival there ; suspicion watched him during his stay ; and contempt accompanied him on his return to France. Sieyes was intriguing •* " La morte sans -phrase,'' were the only words spoken by Sieyes ia voting for the death of his King, to 92" SIEYES. to engage Prussia to declare war against Austria, or at least to enter into an alliance offensive and defensive with regicide France ; Lut he failed in both. Sieyes was just in time relieved from the blame of his political miscarriage, and from the shame of remaining any longer in a country where he was detested, by being elected to the vacancy in the Directory, in March 1799. Since 1795, when Sieves refused his former ele£tion as a director, dethroned kings of facSlion had only been sent into exile, but not to the scaf- fold, as in the times of Robespierre and of the National Convention. There was besides another motive — Sieyes had never given vp his favourite ■plan of being a legislator. From the chara6ter of his countrymen, and from the discontent of the fadiiousin the two Councils, he clearly observed that a new revolution was preparing; and iie hoped, that the time was at last come, when lie might be pioclainied a French revolutionary Lycurgus. Sieyes had not been long in the Dire£l:ory be- fore he forced Treilhard^ Merlin, and La Revel- liere, three of the direciors, to resign ; and requir- ing to be supported in his plots by military cou- rage, he fixed upon Gen. Jouben as a proper person to SIEYE3. 03 to defend with his sword the metaphysical reveries and produtSlions of his brain. With the death of Joubert, the hope and proje6ls of Sieyes vanished ; and he was nearly becoming a vi6tiai ot the jaco- bins' contre-proje6l, to renew tlie reign of terror. The unexpedled arrival of Bonaparte saved his life, but annihilated his ambition. Sieyes was, it is true, for some lime a consul witli Bonaparte ; but he soon observed that the Corsican would be the First, if not the only Consul; this was not the least mortification which Sieyes experienced from liis new sovereign : a constitution, the work, the pride, and the ambition of his life, was laid aside for the laconic constitution of Danou, and Sieyes was compelled to content himself with ease and obscurity, amongst other rebels, in the Cor- sican senate. In sixteen months time Sieves had been a member of the Council of Five Hundred, an am- bassador, a diredtor, a consul, and the first pre- sident of a senate, of which be was made one oi the first members. To all these revolutionary ho- nours and places, Bonaparte added the plunder of an estate belonging to the emigrated Dc Crosne family. This last was intended to satisfy Sieves' avarice, for the loss which his ambition had suffered, or rather, to gratify one passion at the expence of anothei", 94 SIEYES; anotlier, because Sieyes is nearly as fond of mo- ney as ambitious of power or literary fame. AH these Corsican arrans:ements have, how- ever, not contented Sieyes : he has more than once expressed, t/iai t/ie present consihution h not yet the good one \ that is to say, that he is dctcrmiu- ed to have a trial of another. By those w!io are intimate with Sieyes, it is commonly believed, that he wishes for the re-establislnnent of a limited mo- narchy under its former dynasty, but thatliis vote for the death of Louis XVI. makes him doubc the pardon of Louis XVIII. j and therefore his plan is to offer the throne of France to the Or- leans branch of the Bourbons. Oi)stinate and despotic, but timid to the greatest degree, more base than passionate, Sieyes has been the soul and the servant of all the several fadions ; and he has survived them all. He had already some influence in the Constituent As- sembly, notwithstanding he was regarded as an obscure logician, more fit to discuss, than to adi, or to convince by his eloquence. His yellow and scraggy face, liis wrinkled brow, his hollow eyes, his auk ward attitude, his reserved policy, an- nounce his excessively plodding, harsh, hauglny, but cunning chara6ler ; which the continual fear ef exposing his life and fortune, causes him ha- bitually SIEYES. 9S bitually to wrap up in much circumspect on and hypocrisy : in a few words, however proud and full of hatred, he always takes care to keep upon good terms with the ruh'ng party, but only in a manner that he may desert it when overturned, without committing himself; and as his timidity- is greater than his ambition, and his vanity is des- titute of courage and energy, he is careful to be at a distance during the civil commotions and revo- lutionary storms which he often excites himself; but the vitStoriqus faction may always depend upon seeing Sieyes amongst its first adherents, first admirers, and first deserters, when defeated. - Previous to taking leave of this famous, or ra- ther infamous charader, ii is necessary to notice his present situation, and to account for his pre- sent obscurity. Bonaparte, dreading the in- triguing malignity of Sieyes, in order to secure himself against his future plots, has presented him with elegant apartments in the castle of Luxem- burgh, now called the Palace of the Senate, where he is watched by Bonaparte's spies, de- spised by hiy accomplices, and hated by all loyal men. A state-prisoner, under the appellation of a senator, he feels the oppression of a tyrant, whom his treachery to his King has assisted to elevate into power ; and he must content Iiimself with 96 SIEYES, •with being the slave of an usurper, after having revolted as a free subje61: of a lawful king*. It is a melancholy refle6tion to a contemplative mind, that in the life of a man of Sieyes* parts, not one trait offers itself, upon which the virtu- ous, the religious, and the loyal, can dwell with satisfaction. It may, however, be an useful les- son to modern reformers and fashionable innova- tors, to see that Sieves (whose abilities are cer- tainly great, and whose knowledge of mankind surpasses his abilities), is the slave of a man who, in 1789, was an objecTt of public charity, after having, during fourteen years of revolution, expos- ed his life, lost his reputation, degraded his charac- ter, debased his condition, condemned his King, and denied his God ! * Before Bonaparte left Paris for Brussels, he sent liis first phy- sician to Sieyes, to inquire after his health, and to advise him " /• Jri>tk the Sfa nn'cters during, Bonaf artels absence." Sieyes took the hint, and left Paris for Spa, the day before Bonaparte set out on his jcrney. At this time a caricature was exposed for sale in the Palais Royal, in which a known great man was represented in royal robes, with a halter in one hand and a guillotine in the otiier, searching for somebody, and calling out, Si es ? Ubi a ? The French pronounce Sieyes, Sies ! ! ! FOUCHE (97 ) FOUCHE DE NANTES, 8NE OF Bonaparte's senators, late minister OF the general police of the; FRENCH REPUBLIC. The Consular Senator, Fouche De Nantes, has become notorious with many other French- men, who, like himself, have, since the Revolu- tion, been by turns abhorred for their cruelties, dreaded for their povs'er, and envied for their in- fluence, their places, and their riches, and who, without a single virtue to atone for all their crimes and enormities, enjoy under Bonaparte a kind of revolutionary prerogative and protedlion, due, no doubt, to the oblivion of what they have been or of what they have done, to the inconsist- ency of the French chara6ler, and to the consular favour, so liberally bestowed on every man of some talents or of any revolutionary merit, let his past condu£t be ever so reproachful, and his prin- ciples ever so corrupt or vicious. Fouche was born in 1748, of poor parents, vintagers in a village near Nantes, in Brittany. A beggar-boy in the streets of that city, he was K noticed, 98 FOUCHE. notlcerl, and charitably adopted and educated by the friars of the order called Oratoire. Uniting with some ability great hypocrisy and cunning, he in- sinuated himself so far, as to be at an early age received a novice, and afterwards a member of that order. From being the humble valet of these men, he was no sooner advanced to be their equal, than lie intrigued to be their master, and to rule men %vhom he had but lately served. Several years before the Revolution, he spread disunion, and sowed discontent, amongst per- sons with whom he had made the vow of peace and concord ; by his sophistry he changed the principles of the weak, tormented the consciences of the timorous, and staggered the faith of many members of this religious community ; and al- though his superiors condemned him at different times, both to severe penance and close confine- ment, he returned to society as little correded by seclusion as changed by repentance. Since the impolitic destrudllon of the order of the Jesuits, the education of youth in France was entrusted to their i ivals, the friars of the order of Oratoire. The political, religious, and moral no- tions of modern Frenchmen, prove what France and Europe have gained by this change. Fouche, instead of iiTiprovin^ the morals, corrupted the opinions FOUCHE. 99. ©pinions of those young men wlio had the misfor- tune to have him for their instrucflor. During the civil troubles in Brittany, in 1788, most of Fouche's pupils went from Nantes, to join at Rennes the insurgents against the legitimate au* thority. Since 1789, some of them have risen to revolutionary honours, others have ascended the republican scafFold ; some have perished in foreign and civil wars, others, more unfortunate, are yet alive — the contemptible slavesof aCorsican usurp- er ; but all have approved, applauded, and served the J\ evolution* . The instant monastic institutions were abolibhcd by the Constituent Assembly, Fouche apostatized and married. Having, by this step, exposed him- self to the severest punishment, in the event of a counter-revolution, he became from fear, like most of the other men wiio have figured in die Revolution, a soi-disant. republican, or rather ter- rorist, and as such distinguished himself until 1799. At the establishment of the Jacobin Ckib at Nantes, ini789, Fouclie was the firstfriar of his or- der, and one of the first of the clergy in Brittany, Fouche's speech in the Jacobin Club at Nantes, 8th Geimi- nal, I'anii. printed hx the Gazette Nantaise of the loth Germinal, I'an ii. K.2 who 100 FOUCHE. who enrolled his name as a member of this club-: he was therefore immediately eledted one of its Kecretaries, and chosen its third president. The most sanguinary and violent measures were pro- posed and recommended by him. He particularly distinguished himself for his persecution of the clergy, and for his hatred to his own order. When the national seal was affixed to that religious abode where his youth had been cherished, pro- teifled, and instrudled, he headed, as a deputy from tlie jacobins, the detachment of the .na- tional guards commanded on this duty, and hunted out of tlieir retreat, and turned upon tlie world, men who had renounced it for ever, who were afflixfled by sufferings and weakened by age, without means to subsist, without strength to la- bour, or intellicrence and knowledge how to be industrious. Amongst otliers, he dragged for- ward the venerable old man. Father Cholois, who, thirty vears before, had picked liim up in t!iC street, a beggar-boy, the solitary viclim of want and disease*. Jn 1792, when a National Convention was * La Denonciation des Bretons contre !e Terrorist, le voleur et I'assasln Pouche, dit dt; Nujius, presence a la Convention Na-. tionale, le 15 Ventose, aniii. page 2. called, FOUCHE. 101 called, and Its members were chosen from the vilest, most cruel, and corrupted- class of men, Fouche was nominated one of them by the blood-thirsty jacobins at Nantes. His ektllon took place in the morning ; in the afternoon his eleflors murdered all the nobles and the priests confined in the different pri- sons at A antes ; and in the evening he joined these assassins at their fraternal banquet, stained and reeking with the blood of their vi^ims I Father Cholois, Fouche's benefa£lor, was amongst those whom they h:id butchered. What must have been his feelings in the last moment, when he knew (as he did) that the murderers were the friends and associates of his adopted child — the representative of the French people * / Arrived in the capital, strongly recommended by the jacobins at Nantes, he, on the 1 9,th of Sep- tember, 1792, made his first entrance at the Ja- cobin Club at Paris, and in a virulent speech, and with his usual revolutionary declamation, praised the deeds of the Scptembrisers, and se- conded Marat, in demanding the heads of the King and Queen (then unhappy prisoners in the * La Denonciation des Bretons centre le Terrorist,- le voleur et.l'assassiii Fouche, dit Je Names, preseiUe a la Convention Na- lionaje, le jj Veiitose, an iii. page 4. K 3 Temple), 103 FOUCHE, Temple), and of 200,000 aristocrats, their adhe- rents*. From tlie first sittinfis of the National Conven- tion, FouGJie joined the party called the Moun- tain, composed of'Danton, Robespierre, Marat, and their a;:complices ; and with them he voted for the death of the King. Observing, however, from t!ie malignity and agitation of the different fa6tions, that it would be safer and more profita- ble to be employed in missions in the departments, lie intiigued a long time, and at last, in July, 1793, was sent as a conventional deputy, first to the department of the Rhone, and afierwards to the departments of Allier and Nievre. When Fouche arrived before Lyons, the chief ciry of the department of the Rlione, it was in open insurre6lion against the regicides of the Na- tional Convention. Lyons was without ram- parts, ammunition, artillery, and provisions, and had no other garrison, no other soldiers or defen- ders, but its own inhabitants, mostly manufadlu- rers and mechanics, accustomed to a sedentary life, generally as much enervating the mind as re- laxing the body ; but the Lyonese underwent a long and glorious siege, and sliewed somany traits * Jounwl des Jacobins, du 20 SeiHembic, 1797,, No, 40. of FOUCHE. 105 of valour, skill, and' intrepidity, that it occupied tlie French republicans a longer time, and it cost them more lives to enter this open, defenceless city, than to conquer any otlier fortified place which thev.have attacked during the last war. It is well deserving remembrance, that at tliis period twenty thousand Swiss, or Piedmontese troops, assisting the Lyonese, might have established a regular government in France, which at present millions of foreigners cannot cffe6l; because La Vendee was then in arms and vi6lorious, Toulon occu- pied by England, and disafFe6lion reigned every where. Unfortunately for the lovers of order, ■nionarchv> and religion, such has been the im- provident and impolitic condu6l of other nations in Europe, thatthey never took the advantageof any opportunity which a change offered, nor lost sight of a selfish poHcy, which has endangered their verv existence; and should tliey continue to adl: as they have hi-therto done, sooner or later they must share the destiuv of Switzerland and Piedmont, at present enslaved and conquered countries. Amongst civilized peojjle in arms, a noble de- fence, a generous courage, excite admiration, even in an. enemy who is liberal himself ; and in rejoicing at their victories, tJiey esteem and spare the brave, ajad pity the misfortunes of the van- quished. 104 FOUCHE: quished. In revolutionary France, a different maxim has been adopted and followed. When Lyons opened its gates (they were never forced), every loyal man \vas proscribed as a traitor, and every valorous person punished as a rebel. Poli- tical fanaticism, aided and attended by the fury usual to facSlion, and the cruelties always accom- panying civil wars, ordeVed not only the destruc- tion of the citizens, but of their dwellings and of their city*. Such were the decrees of the Na- tional * The following is one of the many letters fjom Fouche during his mission, to tlie National Convention'; it is extratfled from the Moniteur of the 4fh Frimaire, an ii. of the republic, or 24th No. vember, J793, No. 64, page 2^8, second column. The Representatives of the Nation, Fouche de Nantes and Collot D'Heibois, to the National Convention. Commune AfFrancliie (Lyons), 26ih Biumaire, an ii. of the republic. " C I T I Z E N' S COLLEAGUES, " We proceed in our mission with the energy of republicans, who are penetrated with a profound sense of their charader ; this we shall retain ; neither shall we descend from the exalted situation to which the nation has raised us, to attend to the -puny iniertsts of some indlv'tduiits who are more or less guilty towards their country; IVe hii've dismissed e-uery one of them, as we have no time to lose, no favours to grant. We ars to consider, and only do consider, the republic and your decrees, which ordain us to set a great ex- ample, to g've a signal lesson. We only listen to the cry of the na- tion, which demands that all tlie blioJ of the patriots should be ai'ff/gt'd at once, in a speedy and d> eadjul manner, in order that the human race may ootlameiu iu being spilled afresh. " From FOUCHE. 105 tional Convention, the then government of France, which had usurped all powers, executive as well as legislative j and what passion had decreed, frenzy and rage performed. It was hardly possible to suppose, that men were to be found who could improve upon the horrors and barbarities commanded by the Na- tional Convention, had not Fouche and Collon D'Herbois •' From a convlcllnn that this hifjtnjus city cofttj'ns no one that h innocent y except those who have been oppiessed and loaded wiih irons by the assassins of tlie people, we a. e guarded against the tears of repentance ; noi/jii:^ ca.n disarm our severity. ,This they were well aware of, who have obtained from you a decree of respite in Javour oj o/ieoj our prisoners. Who has dared to do this ? Are we not on the spot ? Have yqu not investeJ us with your confi- dence ? — and yet we have not been consulted ! *' We cannot forbear telling you, citizens colleagues, that in- dulgence is a dangerous iveakness, calculated to re-kindle criminal • hopes at the m-jHient it-hen it is requiiite to put aJJnal end to them. It has been claimed in behalf of one individual, it has been solicited in the behalf of every one of his species, with a view of rendering the cffey Fouche's satellites, to fill them up, and to cover with earth the mutilated corpse of their fathers, husbands, and brothers, who were always previously stripped naked, and plundered, by a band of women, in the pay of Fouche's revo- lutionary judges, called the furies of the guillotine. It is difficult to say which inspires more compas- sion or abhorrence ; whether the dreadful situa- tion of the female relatives of the sufferers, or the liarbarous condu6l of the furies of the guillotine, who regularly accompanied till condemned per- sons from the tribunal to the place of execution, hooting, shouting, insulting, and often calling to their remembrance the objedls of their affe<5lion and tenderness, to sharpen their regrets and suffer- ings, 108 FOUCHE. ings, and to make their agony and death so much the more tormenting*. After one of these executions in mass, Fouche wrote thus to Collot D'Herbois, his friend and colleague, then a , member of the Committee of Pubhc Safety : " Tears of joy run from my eyes and overfiow my hearty'' and in a postscript to the same letter, he adds : " T4^e have but one means of celebrating our vi£lory (at Toulon) ; vje shall send 213 rebels this evening to the place of execution \ our haded cannons are ready to salute them f . The un- feeling * See Le ciis de vengeance des Lionois, contre Collot D'Her- bois et Fouche; chez Delandine a Lion, an ill. fi795J, pages. In the note of page 5 is related, that when, one day in November 1793, near 300 Lyonese citizens v?ere ordered to be shot in mass, the wife of one cf them, Daunois, had, according to the orders of Fouche, been sent the night before to dig her husband's and bro- ther's grave. She was in a state of pregnancy, young and beauti- ful, and had only been married four months. In being dragged to the Place de Brotteaux, she miscarried, and was brought home senseless. When Daunois marched to his execution, the furies of the guillotine had Fouche'sxjrder particularlyto torment him, "and, amongst other things, told him, that his ivlje, whom he dearly loved, ivas next decade to be married to 07te of the sans culottes, his executioner^ •whom they pointed out ; and in faiS Fouche put her in requisition for this man, but she expiied at the sight of him, when he presented Fouche's orders ! ! ! + Moniteur, 5 Nivose, an ii. ('25th December, 1793J, No. 35, page 38J. FOUC HE FOUCHE. 109 feeling Fouche disgusts as much by his inliumau reports as he shocks bv his more than savat^e cru- elty i his language even adds to the blackness of his heart. Fouche was not only cruel but sacrilegious; and as a proof, one of the most hideous tran- sadtions of this ex-monk, who, as a minister. FOUCHE TO COLLOT D'KERBOIS. " And we likewise, my friend, have contributed to the surren- der of Toulon, by spreading terror amongst the traitors who liaj entered the town, and iy exposing to their ■viezu the dead bo.iies oj thousands of their accomplices. Let us shew oursf Ives terrible ; let us ar.nihilatey in our an^er, and at ene single i/loiv, every con- spirator, every traitor, that we may not feel the pain, the long torture, of punishing them as kings would do. Let the -perjidious and Jerocious English be assailed from every quarter ; let the •whole republic turn into a -volcano, and pour forth the devouring lava upon them : may the injamcus island that produced these tnonsters, "who no longer belong to the human species, be buried for ever in the leaves. Farewell, my friend !— tears of joy rua from my eyes and overflow my heart. (Signed J fouche. " P. S. We have but one way of celebrating our victory; ws jhall send 213 rebels tliis evening to the place of execution: our loaded cannons are ready to salute thern." According to th« iast-mentioned pamphlet, Les Cris de Ven- geance, this letter was dated the 2zd December ; and that day, 192 Lionese had been shot at the Place de Brotteau);, during a feast Fouche gave to thirty jacobii.s and twenty-two prostitutes, who from thbir windows on the quay, could witness the butchery Fouche had ordered} as he said, pour la Sonne boucbe. Page 25, L assisted no FOUCHE. assisted Bonaparte, in 1802, to re-establish the christian religion, is not to be forgotten, because it shews the worth, the devotion, and the since- rity, both of the minister, and of the consul who fnjployed him. .ChaUier, :i Piedmontese, had, from the begin- ning ot the Revolution, been the tormentor an4 tyrant of all the peaceable and loyal citizens at Lyons, where he was establisjied as a merchant. Every insurre6lion,aad the continual agitation of this populous city, were the work of this maa and of the jacobin emissaries from Paris, assisted by some disgraced and bankrupt Lionese. In December 1792, when no honest man dared to appear as a candidate for any public employment, Cliallier was by some few jacobins first nomi- nated a municipal officer, and afterwards a judge. As a recommendation to popular favour, he dis- tributed liis own porirait, with the following in- scription : " ChaUier^ an excellent patriot, has fossed six months at Paris, as an admirer of.Adarat and of the Mountain of the h ational Corwention** Challier's first adt as a public tuntlionary, was an order to imprison .twelve. hundied citizens, whom he had proscribed as traitors to the repub- lic, because he suspedted them to be his private enemies. Despairing, from the courageous re- sistance lt)UCHE. lib sistance of the Mayor, Nievre Choi, of being able to send them to the scaffold, he, on the 6th February, I793» presented himself in the Jacobin' Gliib with a dagger in his hand, and caused to be? decreed, "that a tribunal, similar to that which- murdered the prisoners at Paris, on the 2d Sep- tember, 1792, sh.)uld in->mediately be instituted, with a guiliorine on the bridgeof Sti Clair; tl.at nine hundred persons, wliose names he gave in, should there be beheaded, and their bodies ihrown into the Rhone; and that, in want o( execiui.in- ers, the members of the club should perform this office." Fortunately, the mayor and tiie armed force prevented this horrid decree from having its cffecSI. Some time afterwards Ciiallier was de- posed by the citizens at Lyons, but restored by the Convention ; and in the daily contest between the two parties, the jacobins and the loyal citi- zens, he was by turns vidlorious and by turns de- feated. At last the people at Lyons became exas- perated, and erefled the standard of revolt againsi: the National Convention ; Ciiallier was ar- rested, condemned, and executed, on the 17th Ju'Y' 1793- No sooner had Fouche and CoUot D'FIerbois entered Lyons, but t!ie busts of Ciiallier were carried in triumph, and placed on the altars of the churches, and on the tables of the tribunals and L z muni- na FOLTCHE. 5nunicipa]Ity. Fouche took upon himself tlie apotheosis of Challier, at a civic feast ordered in honour of his memoi v. Fouche chose to cele- brare this feast ihe ist November, 1793, a^iay consecrated by the Roman Cailioiics to prayers, and to the memory of all saints. •' Early in the morning the cannon announced the festival, and men and women carried, with an air of respe^^ adoration, and pomp, the image of Challier^ whilst, other enemies to the c/ir.istian religion, brought consC" crated vases ; surtounded a jack- ass covered with an Episcopal gown, a mitre fastened between its twa ears, and dragging in the dirt the Bible tied to its- ^ail. -^ftcr the burning of Challier^s pretended torpse, of which the ashes zvere piously distributed mnongst the sefianes of his and Fouchps morals, the Holy Bible was thrown into the fire ; and as it arose into the air, in smoke, the ceremony ended with the ass drinking from the sacred chalice 1 1 P' When the ceremony was over, Fouclie pro-™ posed to consecrate that day, by sacrificing all arrested persons (amounting to upwards of 25,000) to the manes of the god whom they had just adored ; but a storm suddenly dispersed this in- famous assembly *, * Les Cris de Vengeance, page 19 ; Prudhomme, art. Fouche; and Les Annales du Tenorisme, page 93. In FOUCHE. HI In his letter from Lyons, of the lOth of Novem-! ber following, prhited in the Moniteur, and ad^ dressed to the National Convention, Fouche said: " The shade of Chall'icr is satisfied \ his pre* cious remains^ religiously colledcd, have been carried in triumph. It is upon the place where, this holy martyr ivas immolated, that his ashes have been ex- posed to public veneration, to the religion of patrio- tism. At last the silence of sorrovj was interrupted by the cries of vengeance ! vengeance / Tes, we swear that the people shall be avenged !, This soil shall be overthrown ;, every thing %ohich vice has ercffcd shall be annihilated y and on the ruins of this superb city, the traveller shall firrd only some sim^ple monu- ments, eretJed .in memory of the martyrs of li- berty, ,&c, Sec*". . Having distinguished, himself in such a terrific, manner at Lyons, Fouche. was thought hy the. National Convention a worthy and fit instry- ment of its vengeance and of its hatred, at Moulia, and in La Vendee. If his adtive correspondence, with Robespierre's Committee of Public Safety had not been preserved in the Moniteur, and ether • Challier was called the Marat of Lyons; and by Fouche and the jacobins, St. Challier. — Les Annates du Terrorisme, page 93, and I'fudhommej art. Lyons. L 3. papers 114 - FOUCHE. papers of those times, it would at present be im- possible to form an idea of the crimes and enor- mities committed by Fouche in his different mis- sions. In a letter to the National Convention, dated Nantes, Germinal 6th, an ii. (March aStli 1794), he says, *' the day before yesterday I had the happiness to see 8 00 dwellings of the brigands (the royalists) consumed by fire; to-day I have wit- nessed the shooting of goo of these brigands ; and for io-morrovj^ land Carrier have prepared a civic bap- tism {dixowmng) of 1200 women and children, mo- thers, sisters, wives, daughters, or sons, of the ac- cursed brigands from La Vendee. In ttva days, three impure generations of rebels and fanatics have ceased io be any morc'^- " In another letter to the depart- ment of Nievre, he wrote, '* let us have the cou- rage to march upon the bodies even of our fathers^ brothers, and sons, to' arrive at liberty ; let us brave death ourselves,- by infixing it on all the enemies of equality, without any distin^ion of sex or age, re- latives or strangers f." At Lyons, as well as in La Vendee, Fouche had, in the name, and for the use of the repub- * La Denonciation des Bretons, page 36. + Didtionaire Biographique, torn, ii. p-fge 35 ; and Les Annates du Terrorisme, page 1 1 1 . lie. FOUCHE 115 lie, confiscated all the property of those whom he ordered to be shot, drowned, or guillotined ; but Robespierre, by his spies, found out that Fouclie had appropriated to himself the greatest part of this national plunder; he therefore denounced him in tlie jacobin Club at Paris as a thirf, and his name was struck out as a member in its matricular register. Cruel from nature, Robespierre was the natural proteiSlor ofall revolutionary assassins; ambition was his oalv passion ; his wants were {qv/, and his expences trifling ; he therefore never forgave any peculator ; but fortunately for Fouclie,' the death of Robespierre soon after, prevented him from sharing the fate of his friends Danton, Chaumette, Ciiabor, Hebert, and other patriotic robbers. After the death of Robespierre, and during the fa6lions which succeeded him in power, denunci- ations against Fouche poured in from all the de- partments where he had been a deputy. He was accused o/'r«/)t', of murder, of drotviung, of plun- dering, of being an atheist, and an incendiary *. * La Denonciation des Bretons, page 52. It is said there, that Fouche himself set fire to six villages in L3 Vendee, and in one of them ordered 66 old men, women, and children, to be thrown into the flames« • At 116 F0UCK2. At this period, the National Convention ap« prehending the punishment due to its nume- rous crimes, in order to divert the attention of the people, found it necessary to make a purification (as it was called) of some of its vicious and guilty members, by sending Carrier and Le Bon to the. scaffold, and declaring others, from their immoral or cruel condudl during the reign of Robespierre, unworthy of a seat in the National Convention. Fouche dc Nantes, after the report of Tallien, was, amongst others, expelled from the, Conven-. tion, as " a thief and a terrorist ^ whose barbarous, and criminal xondiifl would cast an everlasting d/s- honmr upon any assembly of which he was suffered, to be a member'^'.'''' After another report by Dent-, zel, on the 2ist and 22d Thermidor, an iii. (8th and 9th August, 1795), Fouche, with Le- quinio a-nd eight other terrorists, formerly of the, National Convention, were ordered to be arrested, and they remained in prison until released by the, amnesty granted by tliq Convention, some tiiije before it finished its slttingsf. * See the Moniieur from August 1794 to Oftober 1795. It contains a number of denuiicintions against Fouche for plunder and inurder, with Tallien's report; and Les Annales du Terrorisme, page I 14. + Sec ihc Moniteur of the loih and iiih August, 1795. Frcm FOUCHE. 117 From OiSlober 1795, to September 1797, Fouche was employed in the suhakern capacity of a spy to the jacobin party of the Direilory, and in laying out in the purchase of national es- tates the fruits of his robberies at Lyons and in La Vendee. After the i8:h of Frudidor, or 4th September 1797, wlien t^iis jacobin party of the DnedVorv was victorious, and the Kings of Spain, Prussia, Sweden, and Denmark, received from their dear and great friendsX the French Dired^ors, as their ambassadors^ the regicides Sieyes, Guin- gueve, La Mark, La Combe, Grouvelle, &c. Foucb.e quitted his obscurity ; became first a Com- missarv in Italy, and afterwards, in the winter 1798, was nominated ambassador to t'le Bataviati republic, or French viceroy in Holland. Having, however, foijiotten to remit to his emplovers tlieir due siiare oi his plunder in that country, he was recalled, and in 1799, when terrorists occupied the principal places, appointed, by the advice of Barras (who said, a citizen knqwu to have been X See the official letters from the different neutral Kings to the French Diredlory in November and December 1795, and from the present King of Prussia, announcing his accession to the throne jn November 1798. These letters all begin, ^runds e! chers amis ; 3nd published in the then oftigial paper called {e RidaSlfur, and xa the Moni'.eur, lis FOUCHE. an assassin, a spy, and a thief, could not but bie a good chief over a revokuionary police), Minister of the Poh"ce of the French Republic. On the l8th of Brumaire, or 9th November 17995 when- Bonaparte usurped the supreme power, Fouche? was bribed over with 6oo,ooo llvres, and a pro-, mise to keep his place at least four years ; and- both Barras and his friend Tallien have since, found, that in times of revolution, every inan>. however infamous, is a dan^;,erous enemy^ Fouche had excited iiorror by his condud^ as aj conventional deputy; as a minister of .police he has been allowed talents and capacity to which he can have no just claim. Before the Revolu- tion, as has already been mentioned, Fouche. was several times reprimanded by his superiors in the eonvent, for his continual cabals and intrigues ; but he never was looked upon as a man of any> great parts ; he had an uncommon share of impu- dence, with scanty information *; To wha5 then is Fouche indebted for the present general opinion of his abilities ? lo nothing but the unlimited power he enjoyed during his ministry, and to his want of respctj for any thing either sacred or just* Any man with even less sense and knowledge « La Deaonciation des Bretons, page 3. thaa FOU€HE. 119 than Fouche possesses, might do as great tilings (though perhaps not so tyrannically), if he only- laid aside aJl feelings, all principles of probity, of of iionour and justiee. Fouche's skill as a police minister was as much below that of a Sartine and a Le Noir, as his- means -and power were above the -means and^power which these ministers pos- sessed from the laio King. The present French police, as it vet continues, ■Tvas organized by Fouche. So widely differing, by its tyranny and oppression, from the police of Great Britain, and even from that of countries the most despotic, every thing relating to it must be interesting to the inquisitive, instru6live to the moralist or politician, and useful as an article of in- formation to travellers. The Writer of this has been in all countries of Euiope, but no where is the liberty of Individuals oftener violated than in France, except in Italy, where Frenchmen go- vern Italians. It is a curious fa£t, that the Continent of Eu- rope never has been less free than since they be- gan to talk of liberty in France. No man since that period can travel without a pass, and no pass proteds him from a jnijrney to Siberia, a voyage to Cayenne, or a dungeon at Olmutz, Spandau, or Munich. A similitude of name or of person, is 126 FOUCHE. is sufficient to annul any pass whatever, and tlie honest and most innocent traveller suffers years of exile or imprisonment, because he happens to bear the name of a man who is disagreeable to the mistress of a favourite, or favourite minister at St. Petersburgh, St. Cloud, Vienna, Berlin, or Munich. Formerly a single a6l of despotism, such as the confinement of the net innocent Baron Trenck, caused a general sensation, and excited universal pity : the numerous examples of re- publican France have lately accustomed men to all a6ls of violence and oppression, and by raising apprehensions for one's ow^n safety, appear to have superseded all pity for the sufferings of others. The press, so useful and so necessary to un- mask tyrants, and to inspire abhorrence of ty- ranny, Fouche has enslaved, either by French in- trigues or by French power; and in no part of the Continent dare any fiiend to rational liberty, to truth, and loyal principles, write, or any printer publish, " tJiat Bonaparte is an usurper and a poisoner, and his senator Fouche an assassin and a robber,''^ whose ideas of liberty are as generous, liberal, and just, as those of the Emperor of Mo- rocco or the Dey of Algiers. During the monarchy, the general police .,.?>f France belonged to tiie ministry of justice and of the FOUCHE. 121 the interior. Paris, Lyons, and olher large cities^ had their lieutenants de police^ as they were called, but the lieutenant de police at Paris was the principal one ; and some time before the Rcr- volution, that office was a certain recommenda- tion to advancement and promotion * ; but these, the police ministers of the King, could have no di- Te£l correspondence with his civil or military go- vernors, parliaments, intendants, bishops, &c. &c. the noblemen occupying those places would never consent to communicate with a man whom they regarded as the chief spy, or the chief of the French spies. Since Fouche's regulations, any petty commissary has more power to do what he chooses, unpunished, than the King's lieute- nant de police ever possessed. If he were guilty of any abuse of authority, he was not only repri- manded, but fined by the then existing parliament, and the King's privy council. There was not a man in France during Fouche's ministry, either judge or counsellor of state, who did not tremble at the very name of Fouche, or his police commis- saries; the mayor at Brussels, Lacoue, the secre- tary to the consular council of state, his chefs * During the reign of Louis XVI. Marquis de Sartine was pro- moted to the ministry of the marine depaiiment, from the offiie of aileuteiiant de police at Paris. M de 122 FOUCHE. de bureau, and the judges of the tribunal at Brest, occupied, in 1801, the dungeons of Fouche's basiile, th3 Temple, because, instead of following the interested and arbitrary didlates of Fouche, they obeyed the laws of their country, and the di6lates of their consciences. The King's minister of police had all the information that he wanted in civil or political affairs, tlirough the office of the ministers of the home and foreign departments, and he was always obliged to execute their orders or the orders of the King's governors, or comman- ders. At present, the prefetSls, generals, com- manders, mayors, &c. &c. are forced not only to caiTy on a diredl correspondence with Bona- parte's police minister, but to obey ail his orders, without any representation whatever, let them be ever so tyrannical or unjust : the consequence was, that during Fouche's ministry, in the many bastiles of tlie different departments in France, numbers of innocent citizens, from a likeness of persons or names to Fouclie's private enemies, more numerous than, or always confounded with, the enemies of the Republic, have suffered for years in dungeons, however well persuaded the governor or general who arrested ttiem was of their innocence ; because any person who was once confined by the order of Fouche, could only FOUCHE. , 12J only be released by an order from Fouche him- self, even though acquitted by the tribunals ; and the same levity, corruption, and indifference, prevailed at his office, as to the liberty of indruidu- alSf as in the reign of Robespierre, with respect to their lives; it was therefore not only difficult, but nearly impossible, to obtain such an older of re- lease, without great loss of time and many sacri* fices. The author of this- work called,' in 1801, sixty- two times at Fouche's office, and was obliged in the end to pay fifty- Louis d'ors for the release of his friend, Mr. P. an American, arrested &y mis^ take, as an accomplice in the escape of Sir Sidney Smith from the Temple, in 1798, although A/r. P. proved that his residence at that time was at Baltic more, in America, and that he, never ^ before the year 1 800, had been in Europe. Bur, even without any abuse of authority, Fouche and his successors, by merely following the yet existing revolutionary laws against the li- berty and safety of citizens, have more power than any king's minister ever had. Before the Revo- lution, no man, either a foreigner or a French- man, wanted any pass to travel or to reside in France, and no where was any pass ever de- manded : a traveller only told his name, or v. hat M 2 name 124 FOUCHE. name he chose, if he was interrogated, in passing through some fortified ciries j and at Paris wrote a name down in the inn where he lodged. By the present police laws and regulations of Fouche, every person, Frenchman or foreigner, must have a pass, or be exposed to imprisonment, if only three miles from his home or place of re- sidence, should any capricious or tyrannical com- missary of police, or even gens d^armes'^, ask for it ; and at Pans, as well as in every other city, town, or village, of France, the landlord of the inn to which a traveller goes, is to demand his pass, and copy from it the name, and description of his person, age, &c. which are immediately sent to the commissary of police. If a traveller stays longer than twenty-four hours, he must pre- sent himself at the prefe6^ure of the police at Pa^ sis, and in all other places to the police commis- saries, in order to obtain a permission to reside there ; which never is granted, but after answer- ing different questions, as to his business, his ac- Gens d'armes, are police horsemen, who are quartered every where in France, and v/ho patrole, day and night, all public roads, and otten stop the diligences, coaches, or persons on foot, to inquire after passes. On the frontiers tliey are particularly strift. In De- cember 1801, the writer was stopped by them thirty-two times between Metz and Coblentz. Their number amounts to 18,000. . auaintances. FOUCHE. 125 quaii)tanccs, &:c. ; and always his friends are bound to answer for bis appearance; or, if a fo- reigner, the sanflion of his consul, or minister, is necessary : and this very permission (or, as it is called, carte de yurete, or carte cl'ctranger) to stay- any where, contains, in the margin, an order of arrest, should the beaier pass the limits of a city,, town, or A'illage : the permission to reside any where is for a fixed number of days, and, wlieii. expired, must be renewed. . hi some places, as- at Marseilles, in iZoo, foreigners zv ere obliged to renew their permission every five days^ altliough they had the security of their consuls ; even cap- tains or masters of. vessels, who resided on board their ships, were forced to submit to the same slavish and troublesome regulation^ Formerly no public gambling-'lioa'Ses were per-,- mJtted in France ; but after Fouche began to rule, the police, .the privilege of keeping gambling-; houses has been let out as openly and as publicly^ as the ^^ving'sm.inisters laimed out the duties y\^oxi salt, tobacco, or wine, to the farmers-general o£ his revenue. Cards of address to gambljng-houses are distributed in. all parts of, France, in the sa'me juanner as quaclc billa in London. This scanda- lous and immoral transadtiou hrou^'it into Fguche's pocket upwards of ten thousand pounds M 3 perv 126 FOUCHE. per month. The late prefedl at Lyons, Vernig- nac, learnt, to his cost, how dangerous it was to meddle with this lavcful income of citizen Fouche \ for, having ordered the suppression of all gam- bling-houses at Lyons, Fouche represented him in such a light to Bonaparte, that he lost the ho- nourable place of prefe6l, and was sent in disgrace, as minister, to Switzerland ; a situation no pre- fect's secretary would by choice accept, on ac- count of the unsettled state of that country, and the disagreeable and difficult part a French mi- nister had to perform there*. Besides what the farmers of the gambling- houses paid to Fouche every month, they were obliged to hire and pay i2O,00O persons employ- ed in those houses at Paris, and in the provinces, as croupers, from half a crown to a half a guinea a day ; and these I20,000 persons were all spies for Fouche, without any expence, although he always took cafe to charge the government the same for them as for 200,000 other spies, whom he employs every wliere else. To such a de- ■* In the autumn 180I, Vernignac lost his place as prefeft at Lyons, and in autumn i8o2, his en-ploymeiU as a minister in Swit* ^lerland; and such is Fouche's influence, that, without any known reason but what has been menlioned, Vcrnigaac is yet in total dis- grace. gree FOUCHE. 127 gree had Fonche carried this detestable praflice in FVance, that he has not only caused his spies to be proteiled, but also respe61ed. A known spy, who, under the monarchy, was exposed, insulted, and despised every where, is at present, by the free Frencli republicans, not only feai-ed but caressed, since Foucjie has honoured them .with the title of agens de -police, or agents of the police*. Such are at present the general mistrust and want of confidence amongst the French republicans, that there is not a public functionary in France, from the First Consul down to the lowest com- missary of police, who has not his private spies. Fouche, however, so long as he was police mi- nister, had most of them under his own immedi- ate control, as much by his bribes as by his power. It was by these means that he, in 1800, gained over Lucien Bonaparte's spies, on iiis brothers, and on himself, and was enabled to inform the First Consul of all Lucien's plots, crimes, or in- trigues, that caused his disgrace, the loss of his * La Police de Fouche devoile, Neuchatel, i8o3, pageS. A Swiss officer, the supposed author of this pamphlet, which was seized at Berne, was airested there by Cenerai Ney, and is yet in the Temple, 1805, place 123- FOUCHE. place as a minister, and his mission to Spain-. It was in the same manner that lie deteiSled all the royalist or jacobin conspiracies, .and particularly the latter, by gaining over his old protedtor^ Ban^re, wh.o, in 1793 '^^^ ^794> when one of the members of Robespierre's Committee of Pub- lic Safety, employed liim, and who, in his turn, under the patronage of Fouche, was, and is yet, the known agent of police, or spy upon the news- paper writers and printers, and upon the jacobins, ^vhose confidence he possesses, although several^ have paid for it by transportaticai to Cayenne or^ Madagascar*. Ever since the Revolution it has been the con-i stant plan of all the different facSlions, but parti- cularly of the regicides, to induce government,' or the public, indirc£tly to san6tion alKtheir infa-. Hious and inhuman deeds. Next to the humilia-. tion of kings, this was one of the principal causes' why the late Diredlors sent regicides to represent, the French Republic, as ambassadors to their /(ryi?/ friends, the Kings of Pi pssia, Spain, and Den~ mark. It was of course easy for Fouche to per- suade the consular government to sanction his^r/- vate plan of public gambling, by direcling a na- * La Police dc Fcuche devojle, page 24. tiona] FOUCHE. 12^ fiofuil lottery to be drawn live times every ten dpys, or decade \ viz. every second day of the de- cade at Strasbuigli ; every third at Bourdeaux ; every fifth at Paris; every seventh at Brussels; and every ninth day of the decade at Lyons. That the people might lose no time in ruining them- selves, besides extra couriers, the telegraphs were employed to announce, in a few hours, the num- bers drawn. The writer of this has kiiown at Paris, before twelve o'clock, the numbers drawn at Strasburgh at eight o'clock the same day, and Strasburgh is upwards of 300 miles from Paris. Tickets in these lotteries may be had to any amount, from ten sous (five pence) to a mil- lion of livres, or 42,000 pounds. The plan of^ Fouche was made out in such a manner, that the servant and the master, the chimney-sweeper and the banker, may all enjoy the only liberty and equality existing in France, of ruiningthemselves. Close by every lottery-office, even in the same house of manv, as well as in or near all other gambling-houses in France, reside pawn-.brokers ; and it is a Avell known facl, which happens every day, that numbers of the lower class of the people literally strip themselves, in order to procui e mo- ney to gamble with. To this public gambling is as- cribed the great number of murders and suicides, stated 130 FOUCHE. stated in a report of the minister Chaptal, in tlis proportion of 192 to i, compared with former times *. Modern philosophers, reformers, and Innova- tors, have, for these last fifty years, continually declaimed against emperors, kings, and other so- vereign princes, fl)r tolerating and permitting lot- teries in their domiiiions ; amongst others, tha revoknionary pliilosopher Mercier, reprobated very strongly the French )y his party, a«d had greater talents than most of the other loyalist chiefs; but this was not tlie cause of his death ; nor yet, as some people believe, a letter, which was published with his name, called, ** A Letter from a French Nobleman to the Qox-^ sican Usurper, Bonaparte ;" but Fouche had bought several estates belonging to Frotte's rela- tives and friends, which were, according to the plan of a pac-ification, to be restored to their law^ ful owners ; to prevent this, it was necessary ta sacrifice Frotte and his adherents. These particulars the author heard from Gene- ral Guidal himself, in May 1801, at Paris, who perniilted him to make them public. In the June follow- FOUCHE. 139 following, this general (who never concealed his abhorrence of Fouchc, nor that, although a re- publican by piincinle, he preferred, tyrant for ty- rant, a Bourbon to a Bonaparte) was ordered to leave Paris in 24 hours, and to retire to an un- cle's house near Nice, 600 miles from tlie capital, under pain of being transported to Madagascar or Cayenne, if he left his place of exile without Fouche's permission. It is necessary to inform foreigners, particular- ly English merchants and manufadlurers, who may be enticed by French emissaries, or forced by business to go to i^-rance, that in the whole re- public there is lujt a house, except the Consul's^, which is not exposed to the domiciliary visits of the police minister's agents or spies: under pretext of looking for some suspeif^ed persons, or for pro- hibited or smuggled goods, their dwellings and warehouses pre searched, and put under the na- tional seals, in particular, if they are foreigners, and thought to be rich ; and when oulc justice is obtained, if obtained at all, and the seals are re- moved, they may think themselves fortunate if not more than halt'of their property has disappeared. Even during a peace, whatever may belaid to the contrary, no Englishman h safe in France^ nor free from vexation, plunder, and insult ^ nor will he be 140 FOUCHE. be so, as long as France remains a republic. It is, indeed, as absurd as ridiculous in foreigners, to expedl: even a temporary protecSlion, in a country ■where the natives groan under perpetual,, vile, and abje6l slavery and oppression. As to the safety of commercial speculation, when Fouche, and others of Bonaparte's favourites or ministers, dispose of the laws of their country as. they think proper, it depends entirely upon their, will, their caprice, or their interest. The fol- lowing is one of the many examples of this tiuth: The exportationof rags from Brabant and Flan- ders to foreign countries, has always been stri6t- ly prohibited ; owners of paper-mills, therefore, used regularly toagiee with merchants, or collec- tors of rags, to furnish them with a fixed quantity at a fixed price ; and these, in their turn, were accustomed, for years, to deliver their paper to dealers, either in wholesale or retail, at a certain profit. Contrads of this description were made in general for five or ten years. At the moment peace was concluded with England, a house at Ghent, in Flanders, paid one of Fouche's agents twenty-five thousand crowns for the privilege of exporting to England (where rags which sold in Flanders for one guinea,,, tietched sixteen guineas), during a limited time, a certain quantity of rags. The , raucHE. 141 The consequence of this monopolizing privilege was, the rise of the article upwards of 400 per cent, ill a moiuh, to the ruin of many, and to the great loss of all concerned in that branch of commerce ; when one single individual, the friend of FouciiC, pocketed one hundred thousand crowns for the twenty-five thousand laid out. Others in the same manner have bought exclu- ^slve permission, or patents, either from Fouche or the minister ofthe home dej)artment, to expoit seve- ral prohibited articles, as wool, corn, law sdk, ficc ; and to import toreign produ(5lions or manufadured goods, to the detriment of their interdicted fellow- citizens, speculating lawfully at the same time, English mercitants, enjoying the bles.^ings of a just and stable government, aie th.e best judges of the efFeifls of such corrupt and impolitic proceed- ings upon commeice. In most of the provinces, Fouche's commis. saries of police improved upon his plan of ptivati and cxiraor dinar y conn-ibutlons. in 1801, the regicide Lecointre Puyraveaux, Fouche's com-* niissary for tlie police at Marseilles and its depart- ment, amongst other impositions, laid the bakers of th.at city under a tax of 30,000 livres, or 1250I, sterling, a month ; and to enable them to discharge it, he consented to an advance of the price of bread 142 FOUCHE; bread from three to five sons a pound, when at Paris, and in other places, at that time, tlie pound of bread was only two sous and an half. This same Lecointre ordered, in June iSoif his subaltern commissaries of police and the gens d'armes, under pretext of protecting the mer- chants who visited the fair of Beaucaire (one ofs the most frequented in France, kept in |uly every year), not to suiTer any person to attend it wlio- was not provided with a pass from him ; and^ this pass cost three livres, or half-a-crown Eng-. lish. In consequence of this arbitrary regulation,. Lecointre signed in twelve days 46,000 passes^, and put 465OOO half-crowns in his own pocket or private treasury. In August i8ci, Lecointre was offended w'nh some of the merchants at Marseilles, because, in •>a private dispute between him and La Croix, the prefedt of the department, they did not make his cause their own, as he had the impudence to de- iiiand. To punish them, and at the same time- to shew his power, he invented and decreed a new ordinance, about the exchange hours and transactions ; by ic all merchant's clerks or sons, qxccpt one, were deprived of the permission to frequent the exchange ; and Lecointre, or, if- prevented, one of his agents or spies, wasalwa};s ta FOUCHE. H« to be present to demand the licenses, passes, or cards, of those citizens whoiii they thought proper to exclude, or suspected to be excluded by Lecoiii- tre's regulations; and as it had been stipulated in them, that the exchange hours were to be be- tween the hours of one and tliree o'clock in the afternoon, every day, ^ quarter before three o'clock, two drummers entered the exchange, beating their drums, literally drumming out the merchants from the exchange. The Author has received the honour of being drummed out in this manner from the exchange at Marseilles up- wards of sixty times ! This same Lecointre, the favourite of Fouche, In order to extend his autliority, even to the amusements of tlie people, and to punish the pro- pi-ietors of the principal theatre at Marseilles, who had refused to raise the price of their tickets of ad- mission in his favour, forced them to shut up the principal place of entrance to the boxes of the first rank, and to build upon that spot a private box large enough to contain twelve persons, for him and his family. At Marseilles, and in every other city or town in France, the public pay, as it is alledged, to charitable uses from 2d. to 6d. upon each ticket of admission to play-houses, or other public amuse- jnents: 144 FOUCHE. ments : this money is always delivered into the hands of the commissaries of police, who, not being subjeft to any controul, employ it just as they chuse. Such is tlie minute catalogue of petty tyranny, and such the indignant triumphs of little villains, flowing from the corrupt fountain of republican grandeur : vexations and plunders, which even a tyrant on a throne has never sanctioned or prac- tised, but peculiar to every people who bear the oppression of a thousand tyrants. The vex- ations and plunders, indeed, of Fouche and hia commissaries were as numerous and various as they were extensive, reaching over all France, Italy, Holland, and Switzerland. On tlie 15th of August 1801, a commissary of police at Aix, in Provence, at half-past eleven o'clock at nighr, forced a friend of the Author, with thirty-six other passengers in the same inn with him, to rise sud- denly from their beds to shew their passes. FXur- ing this domiciliary visit, the inn, situated in the suburb of Aix, was surrounded and guarded by iifry gens d'armes. As it was an infraflion of the constitution to make any domiciliary visits at night, the landlord was asked the reason of this unlawful measure: the answer was, that this commissary was a protege and favourite of Fouche, FOUCEIE. 145 Fouche, who regularly visited three or four times in die decade, all the difFerent inns at Aix, not to look for, or arrest any suspeiSled persons, but to lay those passengers under contribution, who had no passes, or whose passes were too old, or wanted any of the numerous and oppressive for- malities to which all persons travelling in the/rce Fre"hch republic, are obliged to submit, or else ex- pose themselves to be taken into custody, and transported, as suspedled, often without a trial, to Cayenne, St. Domingo, or A'ladagascar. The landlord added, this commissary did not make it a secret that these tyrannical and unlawful do- miciliary visits brought him a yearly income of 1000 Louis d'ors. Such is the degraded state of public characi- ter and public spirit in France, that although every body complained and declaimed against these abominable vexations of Fouche and his agents, no man, nor any body of men, dared to make any formal complaint to the consuls ; indeed to complain to Bonaparte of Fouche, was exadly the same thing as to complain to Fouche of Bonaparte. Amongst other inventions to insult loyalty, to honour disafFedion, and to encourage discontent- ment against lawful governments, Fouche, as- sisted by Talleyrand, made our, after the peace o of 146 FOUCHE, of Luneviile, a list of all known persons in Eu- rope, statesmen, politicians, and authors, who had eitlier written or spoken for monarchy, moralitv, •religion, or who had published opinions in fa- vour of modern innovations, praised the French Revolution, and extolled Its past and present repub- lican rulers. This list begins with the letter A, and finishes with Z,and is a large volume in falio, ]eft with the commissaries of police in all the frontier towns of France. In t/ie margin opposite to each name, are instruflions for the police com- missary how to a6l towards travellers ; if royal- ists, either to arrest them oi" affront them ; to send tliem back with insult, or to permit them to continue their way with precaution, accompa- nied by a spy or a gens d'armes ; Imtyifjas/iion- able patriots, to receive them with more or less revolutionarv distin6lion, either bv the comman- J 'J dant and the municipality eyi masse, or only to ho- nour them by a visit of the police commissary ; either to feast them at the expence of the republic in style, or privately by the commissary. This curious list contains, besides the names of several foreigners, those of state creditors ; they are to be stop|)ed under different pretences, until they lose all patience, and are by no means permitted to go to Paris. If they become troublesome, they are to be escorted to the other side of the French fron- tiers FOUCHE. U7 tiers bv "cns d'armes, and forbid to return, under pain of being regarded and ijunishr.d as spies.— Mengnud, the police commissary at Cajjiis, has one of these lists, which explains a part of his late insolent condud towards different British travel- lers *. The people in France Iiaving, since the Revo- lution, seen so many persons of the bwest extrac- tion, and ths most vicious habits, not only make great fortunes, but occupy the fir.-t places both. in the military and in the civil government, there are but few wdio do not expert tlie same . success, and trust to chance for riches and rank, for favour and preferment, whicli, in republican France, virtue and merit have never yet obtained! To keep up this spirit of hope and expedtation, which naturally checks tlieir inquiry about state affairs, and the conduct of the men at the head of the present government, Fouche has ordered numbers of his spies to become fortune-tellers: most of them have printed answers, agreeable to the age, sex, condition, or appearance of the persons wishing to penetrate into futurity, all foretelling * La Police de Fouche devoile, page 44. The Author h?.s seen one of these lists deposited at tlie police office ai Cologne^ and by the names of Pitt, Windham, Grenville, &c. &c were some very curious instruftior.s, which prove the illiber.i), unjyst, and cruel charaflers of Byn.iparte and his ministeis. o z prospe- 148 FOUCHE. prosperity and success. At the bottom of these printed answers are always some numbers for the lottery, which are called fortunate for the pur- chasers. This is another interested object of the consular governrhent, to engage the people to gamble in the lotteries*. ' The * The following answer the Author received when, from curiosity, he made an inquiry as to futurity,- it is Coijicd ■t'n'- -baiim with its faults. 8 A T U R N E , Saturne est la 4me. des 7 pianettes. Les Remains la contondoi?nt avec Janue le premier mols de leuranr.ee, cCtte pianette a double domination surcelles de ]up;ter et de Venus, son influence est douce et paisible. Les signes du Zodiaque qui president au tours de votre vie, jpints a la pianette iX^ Saturne, vous predisent de ne point vous alarmer, si qiielques evenement de votre vie n'ont point et6 tout a tait aussi heureux que vous eriez en droit de I'esperer. Malgre toute raffabiiite de votre caradere, vous n'etcs pas sans avoir eprouve des injustices qui n'ont pas manquer de vous rebuter ; peut-etre en ce moment I'inquietude vous do- mine, mais rassurez vous, votre pianette est heureux, et sous peu de terns vous cprouverer un avantaj^e certain, tant du cote du coeur quede la fortune, quis'apprete a vous tendre les bras ; bnuque-x. la avec haiditssc et "vous elcs sur de la fixer. Vous jie I'avez deja echappe plusieurs fois que parceque le moment d'cn profiter n'etoit pas encore vcnu pour vous. Saturne en- fia cettc pianette reconniie pour etre d'une influence douce et paisible, s'apprete a vous preparer par dcgres, a la jouissauce «rune vie calme et denueedc cliagrin. Par Colligno!!., C'ett a I'sJge de maturlte que la prosperite vous at t cade. P.CR: FOUCHE. ii9 The Boulevards, and all public places ^and squares at Paris, abound with those fortune-tellers ; and in the provinces, these fellows relieve each other, so that if the credit of one sliotiUl dimi- nish, another takes his place, to serve Fouche, and to deceive the public : in every city, town, or large village, in France, some of them are always to be found. At Paris, tlie prices paid P. G. R. Voiis avez cte bicn long-temps jeune, et vous avez eu hien de la peine a vous decider a quitter les amis, avec .lesquelles vous avez ele elevc, maisl'age ayant muri vos ideas, A'ous vous etes determine a ,le t'aire pour voire interet personnel. Avant de vous marier, vous ferez un vovage tres lucratif ; mais il faudra bien prendre garde, car plusieurs personnes chercheront a vous surprendre. A votrc retour vous epouscrjz line personne jeune, jolie, et aimable, avec laquelle vous vivrez en tres -bonne intelligence : Vous entreprenez le com- merce, vous y reussirez an gre de vos desirs : Vous aurez des ent'ans qui vous donneront beaucoup de satisfadlion, sur-tout vine fiUe qui sera votre unique esperance. P. G. La fern me ijue vous aurez. Deposes a la Bibliotequc Nationale. An —II pleut. Beige) e. Vous aurez femme sage, Ayant mille agremens, Qui fuira le langage, Des sedutleurs amans ; Quoiqu'a tort et sans homes Jaloux de ses appas, Vous croirez porter comes Vous n'cn porterez pas. Les numero'i 22, 74, Si. Par le Citoyen Tenand. 03 £0. 150 FOUCHS. to tiiose attending the most frequented walks or places, are from two to six sous; but in the country, the prices are even less. Those ambulatory prophets have only the mem- bers of the lowest classes of society for their cus- tomers ; but there are besides, particularly in Paris, at fixed places of abode, frequented by the first people of rank and fasliion, several who receive from six livres to a Louis d'or for tellJnt^ their fortune with cards, in cotlee, with dice, 6vC. they are all registered as spies to the police, and are obliged to pay to Fouche's agents a monthly sum for prote6lion. Fouche's income, which hehas bought orplua- Gcred from the national property, is upwards of five hundred thousand livres (or 20,000l.) a year; his salary perfasetnefas, as a minister of police, nobody knew to a certainty ; the general opinion was, that it exceeded three millions of livres (or one hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds), but r.s long as Fouche occupied this ministry, it was very dangerous in France to speak upon that sub- jedl. A young clerk at one of tlie first banking houses at Paris, had the imprudence, in the spring 1802, to mention at a restaurateur's, •' that he was sure the house which he belonged to, had bought up for Fouche, since the peace, upwards of five nii'lioas lOUCHE. 151 millions of stock in the foreipn funds, under dif- ferent names." Some few days after this decla- ration, the young man disappeared ; and the ninth day after he had conversed about Fouche's pro- perty, his body was found in tlie river, near St. Cloud ; he had been murdered, and thrown into the Seine*. During Fouche's ministry, 16 royalists were guillotined, 302 were s!iot, 1660 were transport- ed, 96 died in the Temple and other prisons, and 44 are yet detained state prisoners. Of the jacobins, 9 have been guillotined, 24 shot, for robbing the diligences; 120. transported, and 10 confined as state prisoners. Fouche discovered, as a police minister, from June 1799 to Novem- ber 1802, 32 conspiracies, or pretended conspi- racies : he doubled the number of French spies ; and the number of criminals punished in 1802 were double the number of those condemned in 1799. In these last four years, from 1799 to 1803, 2502 suicides were committed at Paris, and 3809 in the provinces : 2006 state prisoners have been at the Temple, and 166,009 names of criminals have been entered in the gaolers' books all over France; of these 29,650 have been le- * La Police de Fouche dcvoile, page 60. leased 152 FOUCHE. leased or acquitted, 15,05! guillotined or shot, 25,060 have been iranspoited, 36.464 have been condemned to the galiies, and the remainder were still imprisoned in December 1802*. The jacobins, who, in I799, forced Talley- rand to resign his place as minister of th.e foreign dei'artment, promoted Fouche to the ministry of the police. After the Rbvolution etFe<51:ed by Bo- naparte in November the same year, Pouclie was continued as ministerof police, and Talleyrand re- assumed his former station. It was, however, not to be supposed that two such equally vicious and equally cunning men, but whose revolutionary principles were so very opposite, could long agree as ministers in the same councils, without trying to supplant or exclude each ether. By persons about Bonaparte it was easily dis- covered, from his execrations against thejacobiiis, or his apprehension of the royalists, whose influence %vas the greatest, and \vhose reports were most be- lieved. Talleyrand alway- insisted that the royal* ists were not dangerous; whilst Fouche assured him that tlie jacobins had neirlier the means nor the inclination to trouble Bonaparte's government. -Until the pretended plot of the jacobin and Cor- * La Police de Fouche devoile, page Cg. sicanj . FOUCHE. ' 153 sican, Arena, had been forgotten, Talleyrand excluded Fouche for some time from the coib- sular favour; Fouche, in his turn, at the disco- very of St. Regent's infernal machine, caused Talleyrand to be i)oth slighted and suspedted. Hardly a month passed that it was not expecfled in the consular circles, that one of these two mi- nisters would be forced to resign. Talleyrand got, however, so far the better of liis rival, that, contrary to the wishes and to tlie interest of Fouche, a prefe6l of the police at Paris was nominated ; and, what was of more .consequence, this prefect of police was one of Talleyrand's creatures. From this step Fouche er,silv concluded, that the instant he was no >ur.>;Ci- wanted he would be dismissed, although con- trary to Bonaparte's promise ; and tliat to be wanted, it was necessary to keep the Ccrsican in continual alarm and fear of intrigues, plots, and conspiracies. Twice in every decade, Fouche had orders to present his report of the public opi- nion, or what was otherwise interesting, and oc- curred concerning the safety of the First Consul and his government. Those reports belonged to the secret police of the interior, and Bonaparte therefore never shewed them to any body. One day, whea his daughter- iu- 151 FOUCHE. in-law, Fanny Beauliarnois, married to Louis Bonaparte, and a great favourite with the First Consul, observed him much agitated in rea{hng a paper, which, at her approach, he put over the chimney-piece, curiositv, or perhaps the advice of somebcd^y, made her contrive to penetrate into tlie cause of her father's uneasiness. In playing with him, as she often did, she got hold of this paper» and, to prevent any suspicion, she toie another paper near it to pieces, and threw them through the window, saying, " dear father, I hope you are not angry that I have destroyed the villanous paper which made you so uncomfortable." Bo- naparte freely forgave her, when, in presence of her mother, she mentioned what she l\ad done. The paper slie had concealed was found to beons of Fouche's reports, instilling feur and suspicior) into the Consul's mind, of persoHS even the nearest and dearest to him. What most surpnzed Ma- dame Bonaparte was, that Fouche mentioned those informations as extradled from tlie report made to him by Dubois, the prefe6l of police. Madame Bonaparte knew that Dubois owed his place to tlie protection of Talleyrand, and that Fouche was Talleyrand's enemy ; she therefore sent for him, and presented him the report of the police minister. In some few hours I'alleyrand informed FOUCHE. 13S informed her that the whole was an Invention of Fouche, to make himself necessary, l)ut that he should take care the First Consul should not long ■continue the dupe of this man. •It is said this report was transmitted to Bo- naparte in the morning of the 8th of August, l8o2, and that it was in consequence thereof he wrote for the Moniteur of the next day, that absurd and virulent philippic against England ; Fouche having reported, amongst other false- hoods, " that English travellers in France, and George, and the French chouans residing In Eng- land, were closely conne6led, and conspired with those disafFedled persons who were about him." On the 15th of the same month, Bonaparte's birth-day, Talleyrand had an opportunity to con- gratulate the First Consul " upon the tranquillity that reigned every where, and the union of all parties under his mild but firm government, which he had heard with so much satisfadtion from Du- bois, the police prefe6l, who assured him that, for the last six months, he had not received any intelligence of discontent or disaffedion, either amongst foreign or intestine rivals or enemies." This compliment made Bonaparte thoughtful ; and the next morning he ordered Dubois to send to him lor the future his police accounts in se- cret. 155 FOUCHE. cret, and to conllnue to forvvartl them to FouclTt, as was his duty. These counter-reports proved, both the guilt and intentions of Fouche, who some time after- v/ards was unexpe6tedly dismissed as a poHcc minister; but this crafty intriguer possessed too many of Bonaparte's political, revolutionary, and family secrets, to be entirely disgraced, and he was therefore appointed a senator ; a place of little profit, and less importance*. When the Swiss mock-consulta was put into requisition for Paris, Helvetia, after being enslaved, was insulted, by seeing such a vile man as Fouche one of the consular negotiators, or rather dicta- tors, as to the future constitution of that country ; a person who, as an accomplice of those Septem- brisers who, on the ad September, 1792, in the Abbey prison, murdered tlie unfortunate Swiss officers and soldiers who had escaped their fury on the loth of the preceding August, and whose blood had neither been revenged by their country nor regretted nor bewailed by France. At his office, Fouche was seldom accessible, if money or women had not prepared the way. He •* The particulars of this intrigue are taken from Les NouveUes a la Maine, No. IV. ^xi.; and La Police de Fouche devoile, page 73. made, FOUCHE. 157 mada, during 1800 and 1801, great sums of mo- i^ey by the permissions (surveillances), granted to emi2;rants to return to France: none were sold for less than twenty, and some as high as on& hundred Louis d'ors. In the usual^ routine of office, he depended entirely upon his chefs dcs di- visions and chefs de bureau, some of wliom had been employed at the police for upwards of thirty years. Hev/as implacable against any one of his inferiors who toolc any bribes, without sliaring them with him. In August 1800, in one decade of Thermidor, he sent four cJiefs de bureau, and ten clerks, only on suspicion, Vv'iihout a trial, to Cayenne. His secret general police was under the direction of his secretary Desmarets*, called by the French, the damned soul of Fouche. It was he who examined all state prisoners, and amongst others, last summer (1802), the Duke of Bouil- * Desmarets is about 34 years of age, the san of ^ breecnes. maker at Fontainblcau. By the generosity of an lulian settled iu Trance, he was educated at the coHege of hlarcoiirf, at Paris. Iri 1794 he sent his benefaSor to the scaffold, and forced his only child, to save her life, to accept him for lier husband. He was one of Fouche's associates at Lyons, and in La Vendee. Li 1800, he c lused his own brother, whose poverty was a reproach to his affluence, to be transported to Cayenne, where he died. He is a tyrant over his wife and family, and keeps a mistress in his ovva iiouse.— X(J I'olice de Fovcbi tievoile, page 77. p Ion. 15S FOUCHE: Ion. Talleyrand pretends, and with some justice, to have discovered all tlie plots of the royalists in England, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany, during the last war, and that the arrests and seizures made of most state prisoners, and their papers, originated from the information which the police obtained from the foreign office*. Future ages may judge of the moral and politi* cal principles of all classes of society of the present day, when it is known that persons of rank and fashion, from most countries in Europe, travel- ling in France, have degraded themselves by danc- ing attendance at the office, and waiting for hours in the anti-chambers of this Fouche, merely to •obtain an audience, and his signature to a pass^ ■which enabled them to leave yr^^ France with safety, and to return to their homes with a broken constitution and a ruined fortune, often after hav- ing lost their health with one sex, and their pro- perty, loyalty, morals, and religion, with another. It is to be remembered, that Fouche, in his promotion to the senate, was accompanied by the atheist Rosderer, and the christian, or rather con- sular archbishop of Paris ; so that Bonaparte added * La Police de Fouche devoile, page 68. OB FOUCHE. rsg on the same day to his heterogeneous collc6lion ot senators, a regicide, a convidled assassin and thief, a known atheist, a traitor to his accomph'ces and to his King, and an old respe6lable priest, who from' dotage, being 9a years old, had been persuaded to accept first a revolutionary mitre, and afterwards to dishonour the purple, and scandalize religion, by becoming a Corsican senator. The office of a minister of the general police hi the French Republic, was, after Fouche's pro- motion, united with that of the grand judge ; a chief officer of the Corsican Legion of Honour. Regnier, the person who occupies this place, has, since the Revolution, been, by turns, a jacobin and a terrorist ; has carried the red cap, and adored Marat ; has been the promoter of revolu- tionary tyranny, in the name of liberty ; has at all times, either as a legislator or a judge, opposed moderate and recommended violent measures*. It is, therefore, to be supposed, that if with Fouche the tyrant of the police was removed, the police tyranny will be continued; and as long as France remains a republic, its police, organized by Fouche, will remain the same, and never sufter either * Diftionaire Biographique, torn. jii. page 236. P Z any iOo FOUCHB, any change or diminution in its vexations, coTiufv- tions, or oppressions. Fouche is distinguished by an insinuating cha- radler, and a certain manner of expressing hi^Tl- seir easily and ag-eeably. He writes and executes with facility, and has a great knowledge, both of the Revolution and of all men who have a61ed a part in ir. He knows their foibles, their passions, and their vices, and how to turn them to the best ad- vantage. As a friar, he was ungrateful and un- generous ; as a deputy of the National Conven- tion, cruel and infamous, enforcing the awful and aggravating even the dreadful; and, as a mi- nister, despotic to his inferiors, treacherous to his equals, and obsequious, submissive, and con- temptible, with his superiors. From his present senatorial nullity not much is to be apprehended, were he not still the favourite, and often the coua- seller, of Bonaparte. liARRAS. ( i6i ) BARRAS. In revolutionary times, In times when rov— alty is calumniated, humiliated, degraded, and insulted ; when rank without power, virtue with- out riches, and religion without hypocrisy, ar^ exposed to the contempt of the rebel without ho- nour, the rich without generosity, and the hypo- crite without a conscience; — in such times, when it is not regarded 'whether the powerful is guilty,, the rich infamous, and the pretender to religion an atheist; when little morality is found in the first classes of society, and less religion amongst the people ; when rebellion is not only incited by impunity and encouraged by success, but suc- cessful by the weakness or selfishness of princes,- by the intrigues of their favourites, the treachery of th«ir ministers, and the ignorance of their counsellors ; — in such times, it cannot ba tiuin- teresting to read the revolutionary life of one of the revolutionary kings of fadion, who, during four yearS; commanded the destiny of Europe;. P 3, who.. l62 E ARRAS. who has fraternized with kings, plundered em- pires, enslaved nations, changed republics into the provinces of princes, and. made principalities provinces of a republic. Many nobles of the first families in France, who were persecuted by their creditois, or dis- honoured by their vices ; who had no property or charafler* to lose and no honour to preserve, joined with- ardour in a revolution, which, from Its beginning, promised to level all distin6lions between the good and the vicious,, the worthy and the worthless. This explains \v!iy Viscount De Barras was amongst its first supporters and promoters. Paul Francois Jean Nicolas Viscount De Bar- ras, was born at Foxemplioux, in Provence, on the 30th June, 1755: he descends from one of the most ancient families in that country. It is a, saying there — " Noble comme Ics Barras^ aussi an- aens que les Rochers de Provence." At the acre of sixteen, he obtained a commission as a sub-lieute- nant in the regiment of dragoons of Languedoe, where he soon caused himself to be remarked, not for his talents and application, but for his vices and irregularities. During the reign of the vip- tuous Louis XVI. nobility was never a protec- tion for the infamous, nor poverty an excuse for baseness. BARRAS. 163 Baseness. Farms having appropriated to himself 100 Louis d'ors belonging to one of his comrades, was publicly degraded, and dismissed with humi- liation and disgrace*. Barras' family was as poor as it was Illustrious; and one of its members had, as an opportunity to enrich himself, obtained the very. lucrative place of a governor In the Isle of France.. Dishonour- ed in France, Barras was very happy to obtain, by the influence of this relative, a place in the regiment of Pondicherry, chiefly composed of young adventurers, who, like himself, having neither properly, nor reputation in Europe, went to the Indies, in hope to acquire both. In pro- ceeding to join his regiment, he was wrecked upon a sunken rock near the Maldive Islands, on the coast of Coromandel. Dangerous as his situation was, he shewed both courage and presence of mind. After many hardships, he at last arrived safely at Pondicherry, where he remained until it was obliged to surrender to the English. He afterwards served on board M. De Sufrrein's squa- dron, and v/ith the French troops at the Cape of Good Hope. When peace was concluded he See Le Thee, published at Paris, August 1797. After the Revolution of the 4th September, 1797, Barras transported the au- Uior to Cayenne, returned 164 - BARRAS. returned to Europe, where he aiTiVed in 1784, \vi:h the rank of a captain-heutenant, without having either retrieved hischaradteror gained any riches. Great cities as often conceal the shame of the guilty as the virtuesv and. sufferings of the unfor- tunate: as often does impudent crim© meet there, with resources, as modest worth is left in distress. After Barras' return from India, he went to Pa- ris, and there joined the numerous gamesters and debauchees with whom that city abounds : he soon after married a prostitute ; kept a gambling-, house; became fashionable, and despised; and with a competence was scorned. In such a situation, the Revolution found Bar-, ras, without honour, probity, or characSter, or even any pretension to either. He was disowned by his parents, slighted by his relatives, and shunned by their acquaintances; the Orleans fa6lion had. therefore not much trouble to augment the nuirt* ber of its associates by such an accomplice. Bar- ras was observed amongst the plunderers in the suburb of St. Antoine, in April ; amongst the mur- derers and captors of the Bastile, in July; and amongst the assassins at Versailles, in October, 1789. The alarm which the plots and cruelties of the Orleans EARRAS. 163 Orleans faflion caused every wlicrc in France, and the temporary disgrace of its nominal chief, ihe late infamous i3uke of Orleans, made Barras, like many other fashionable patriots, change sides, and become the denouncer and witness against those in \vho;e crimes and confidence lie had participated. After many and tumultaous debates, the Na- tional Aisemblv decreed, that tlie Tribunal of the Chatelet should try those who were accused, or suspe61ed to he the conspirators against their King and the Royal Family, on the 5tli and 6th Oc- tober, 1789. Barras therefore made bis bargahi with La Fayette ; and having obtained a company in a colonial regiment, he turned evidence against the Duke of Orleans and the Count De Mira- beau, and by his discoveries, these traitors were deeply involved. He finished his deposition with these remarkable words : " t^/iat havmg, on the cth Ofiobcr, heard three persons utter horrible things of the Kin? and the ^iicen, he desired to prove to them the innocence of the King, but was so ill received, that he was forced to re^ tire, shuddering with, horror*.^"* The money of the * " Qu'ayant entendu, le 5 d'Odobre, trois personnes vomir des liorreyirs du Roi et de la Reine, il avoit voulu kur prouviy l ' i n s o- CENCS 155 BARRAS. the Orleans, and the Intrigues of Miijibeau,. caused, however, the intimidated Assembly,, and the toa good Louis XVI. to bury in oblivion ihe shocking particulars of tliis conspiracy. In 1790, when all loyal officers resigned their, commissions, Banas recdved one in a regiment at the Isle do Bourbon ; but anarchy was as great, in the colonies at that time as In France; and in expedlatlon of the issue, Barras was permitted to remain at Paris. That a traitor to his King will easily betray a faflion, Barras had already proved ; but the Or- leans party wanted his revolutionary experience^ and therefore overlooked his revolutionary trea-^- CENCE DV Roi, maisqu'ayant ete mal reyu, il s'efoit eloigneen pREMissANT d'hor R EU R."— Pieces du 5 et 6 d'Ocl. lySg^ page 66. When two of the judges from the Chatelet demanded an audi- ence of the Queen, to inquire of her what she knew about the plots oii the 5th and 6th O£lober 1789, they received this noble and ge- nerous answer : " / /have teen every thing, I have known every- thing, but I have jorgot every /;6/»g- fj 'ai tout vii?, J'aitcutsiie, mais ]*ai tout oublie j. It is well known, that if two of the King's garde du corps had not stopt the assassins sent by Orleans to murder the Queen, in the morning of the 6th October, by calling out to her to save herself, and sacrificing their own lives to give her time to escape, she would cartainly have perished that day. In her journey the same day from Versailles to Paris, the cruel Parisian mob carried the heads of those ivio garde du corps, upon pikes, be-, fo;-; die Queen's carriage ! ! I chcry.. BARRAS. 16^ cliery. He again shared in their confidence, pro- pagated their principles, plotted against the throne, and undermined the altar. By the influence of the Orleans fa6lion, he was, in Auc;ust 1792, ap- pointed a juror of the High National Court at Or- leans, a tribunal instituted to try all persons sus- pe6ted to be inimical to the Revolution, and as such proscribed. It was erei^ed by the Consti- -tuent Assembly in June 1791, and was tlie fore- runner of Robespierre's Revolutionary Tribunal; but Barras had no time to exercise his honourable function as a revolutionarv juror, because the so- vereign people at Paris, who had murdered the nu- merous prisoners confined in the many prisons of that city, after forcing the National Assembly to order the Orleans prisoners to Paris, went to meet them, on their way thither, at Versailles, and there cruelly and basely butchered them. In September 1792, Barras was ele6led for the department of the war, a member of the Na- tional Convention ; an assembly composed of every thing that was vile, infamous, and guilty ; -but intended to renovate the government of France and to regenerate Frenchmen ; to esta- blish a republic upon the ruins of the throne ; and republican equality, instead of monarchical li- berty ; and to change the subjcfls of a king into free m BARFxAS. free citizens of z. commonwealth. How it sue- ccedecl, we have all witnessed ; and Frenchmen, when tliey lemember what they have suffered these last eleven years, /loiv they were before, what they tncant to be, and what they are, cannot but curse a Convention, the detestation, disgrace, and reproach of France and of Europe. In 1790, Barras wished to prove to the calum- niators of Louis XVI. his imiocence. With the accustomed consistency of modern patriots and fadious men, he, in 1793, condemned his i««c- cem and good King to the death of a criminal, and by it confirmed the historical truth, that a rebel easily becomes a regicide. -^Degraded nobles and apostate priests have brought forward the most cruel and ungenerous measures, and committed the most disgusting atrocities of the French Revolution. It was in conseijuence of Barras' and Buleau De Varenne's horrid speeches at the Jacobin Club, that the un- fortunate Queen, and the virtuous Madame Eli- zabeth, ascended the scaffold. Barras has neither political abilities nor inilitary talents, but he possesses, to a high degree, all the low cunning of the intriguer, with all the indqii- cacy and impudence of the unprincipled knave ; he therefore, by .turns, served and betrayed the Or- leans ^AFxRAS. 169 bans fa'i^ion, and served and beirayed tlic Brissot fa6lion ; he wa?, by turns, the accomplice aud accuser of Marat, Danton, aiad Robespierre. Wli^cn, in 1793, he observed the popuLirity of Pvobespierre to increase, and his cruelties to silence clamour by terror, he insinuated himself into the piote6lion of the younger Robespierre, and pro- stituted an unfortun-ate cousin, to change pro- ts<51ion into friendship. After Toulon had surrendered to the English, Barras was sent, with the younger Robespierre and Freron, as a deputy of the National Conven- tion, to organize an army for the recapture of tliat city. Ail the violent measures in the south <:)f France, and the permanency of the guillotine at Marseilles, Orange, Avignon, and other places, were the effects of Barras' orders and regulations. It was during the siege of Toulon, that Barras formed his acquaintance with Bonaparte ; and after that city had been evacuated by the enemy, Bonaparte executed the cruel orders of Barras ; their vi6lims, the unfortunate inhabitants of Tou« Ion, were murdered en massed The * Upon the faith of a proclamation of Barras,Robespierre, and Fre- 301), offering a pardon to all Toulonese who had served or assisted Q th« 170 BARRAS. The friendships, or rather the connexions of the guilty, are seldom of long duration. In shar- ing the plunder of the Toulonese, Barras did not observe the ecjuality prevalenr in his proclama- tions, and in the speeches of his ;t handsome j his complexion is of a yellow hue; and his face has often convulsive movements, or, as Carnot has said, he continually gnashes his teeth. When in the Dire6>oiy, amongst the auk ward and ig- noble figures of his associates, he was distin- guished and admired by strangers, who, if they had seen him in the crowd, would hardly have no- ticed him: He has no genius, but good sense ; and he has shewn some judgment, even in the crimes- he has committed, or caused to be committed. He has more aclivity than information, more am- bition tl;an capacity. During the four years he- was a diredor, he influenced the determinations of the Direiftory more than any of its other mem- bers, although he was the most ignorant, and preferred pleasure to business; because they knew him to be more desperate than courageous, and feared his ferocity more ilian liis bravery. AIL Barras' panegyrists extol his great courage; but no cruel man can be called courageous ; ?nd that Barras has always been cruel, even his flat- * See Journal d'(/Mivarius, July 1803. teters B ARRAS. . \7§ terers cannot deny. On ail occasions, when Barrab' ctmrage has been put to a irial, he had no choice left between vi6l jiv and deatii, and he did by despair what a coward, in his situation, would have done trom fear. As long as Barras was In power, all his bio- graphers were his panegyrists. Since his exile, those who, at the expeiice of truih, painted, not the man, but the diredtor, want either honour, or ha^e not impartiality enough tocovrefl what was erroi.eous, or to revoke wuat was false, in their former charavSters ot this jjerson. This sketch has therefore been thought necessai v, not o. ly to prevent our contcmporaiies from being misled, but lo ins;ruiSt posterity concer.iing a man who has acled such a conspicuous part upcn the revO" lutionary sla;;e ot PVaucc and Fluiope*. * Tlie former chaiavflers ot Lairas were '.he produdlions of re* volutiofiaiy flaueiers or enthusiasts, and chiefly coped Jrom a work called, Les Ch:q Homines, or from Dr. Meyer's fragments of Paris; an author who, aa. a true plulosijiher ol the French school, ahhough born a German, has alike admired I. a Fayette and Mirabeau, Brissot and Petion, Marat and Robespierre, Kew- bel and Barras, and who is at pieseiu the strenuous admirer of the mJliiary despot, the Corsican usurper and tyraijt, Bonnp.irle ! yet Dr. Meyer pretends to be a republican, and a lover ot liberty ani equality ! ! ! Carnot's answer to Barras' accusation against him, printed at Nuiembergh, 1798, contains some of the remarks inserted here, iut with discretion, as CarnatV^as Barras' enemy. ROEDERER, ( i8o ) RCEDERER, \ ONE OF Bonaparte's senators. RcEDEPER was a counsellor of the parila- aient at Metz, when, in 1789, he was elefted a deputy to the States General. In every part of France, most of those wlio were chosen members to these states, were before known, either as dis- affefted or as intriguers, either as encyclopedists, atheists, philosophers, or economists* ; to these last Roederer pretended to belong. All the plotters against the throne and the altar were enlisted under the banners of one or the other of these vcr) numerous parties and se6ls, which were speculating, schem ng, preaching, and writ- ing, about politics and about leligion. In all * Volt.iire, Diderot, D'AIembeit, Helvetius, and others, call- «d themselves [)l;ilosophers, and as such, iiiserteJ in the French Encvclopse>lia their irreligious and anti-social prod-udlions ; their adherents w£re therefore called Fncyclopedists. The late minister of Louis XVI. Turget, and Dupont De Ne- mours, were, wiih I'osderer, the most atkiveof the econojDisis, so styled from their absurd schemes of dangerous or imprafticable in- ^ovatious hi the poUiical ecouomy of states. classes . rOEDEREll. 181 dasses ofsocicty in France, just before the Revolu- tion, it was as fashionable to he discontented, and to speak in favour of innovation, under the name of reform, as it was ridiculous and dange- rous to beh'eve and acknowledge that our ances- tors knew as much as we do, and that monarchy is, for the welfare of mankind, (he best of go- vernments, and Christianity the best and only re- ligion for future felicity, as well as for present policy. Amongst all these fashionables, Rosdeter was the most fashionable. Speaking with fluency the language of sophistry, he seduced the ignorant, conhrm-cd the irresolute, and converted the weak ; he bid defiance to shame, morality, and religion : married to a virtuous woman, by whom he had several children, he publicly kept the wife of his private secretary as his mistress, with whom ha squandered away the dowry of his wife, the inheritance ot his children, and the fortune of his family ; lie was, besides, in debt, extravagant, and ambitious, and therefore joined with ardour, from the beginning of tlie Revolution, those traitors ■who prepared tiie way for it. When the States-General decreed themselves to be a National Assembly, Rosderer belonged to the Orleans fadion: after the massacre at Ver- R- saiiics, 182 KCEDERER. sailles, when this facSlion became detested, lie united himself with La Fayeit'e and his party, to create (what was as absurd as impoHtic) a royal democracy. Roederer was a member of several committees, and one of the advocates and propagators of the - perstition. volney: 197 pcrsitlon, of exposing the horrors of tyranny and proving the blessings of h'berty, he has sacri- legiously calumniated the religion of his country, reviled its hereditary monarchical government, and at last, after the sufferings and v^retchedness of his countrymen for years, and after the sacri- fices of millions of lives, he has, with other athe- ists and propagators of equality, been forced to submit to a consular tyranny, both dishonourable and oppressive. V^^iilst a member of the National Assembly, he always joined with the most violent party ; and he voted for the most outrageous and ungenerous measures against the nobility and the clergy. In August and September 1789, he often ascended the tribune, to hasten the judgment and condem- nation of Baron De Bezenwal, a Swiss general officer In tlie French service, who, for dvoing- his duty, in obeying tlie orders of the King's ministers, had witii difficulty been saved from the then fa- shionable lantern of the revolutionary Parisian bri- gands ; and, contrary to the treaties and capitula- tions between France and Switzerland, was jn a prison, waiting for a trial by a civil court of jus-' tice, for what belonged only to the cognizance or inquiry of a military -council. ^ ^ In all his speeches, during the different debates s 3 about igs VOLNEY. about a plan for a new constitution, M. De Vof- ney, with the greatest tenderness, spoke for, and defended the absurd and imaginary sovereignty of the sovereign people. On one occasion (Fe- bruary 1 791), /le called the attempt to invade or to divide its power and rights, a regicide suicide ; and at another time (May 1791), he said, in a moment of revolutionary enthusiasm, that a trai- tor to the sovereign people, was a monster, outlawed by the laivs of Nature, of God, and of Man, whom every body has a right (no / it was every body's duty) to pursue, every nation ought to proscribe, and who had to expe£i no safety upon earth, and no rest hi heaven. This is only mentioned as a specimen of his eloquence^ and as a proof of Iiis principles,, at this period of the French Revolution.. When any question was discussed concern- ing the power and privilege of the execu- tive government of France, he often declared himself against the royal prerogative and the- King's authority. In May "1790, during the de- liberations about the right of declaring war, or of concluding treaties of peace, he strenuously-main- tained, that the King should not only be deprived, of the power to declare offensive wars, but even prevented by the constitution to adt on the defen- sive, if attacked, without the consent and appro- batioa VOLNEY. igg txitlon of the national representatives, to ivhom alone he would have trusted and confided all ne- gotiations about tieatics, either political or com- mercial, either offensive or defensive alliances. With warmth and adivity M, De Volney proceeded to have the plunder of the clergy, and the confiscation and the sale of the church-lands^ decreed. He, with many other antl-chrlstiaa members of the Constituent Assemblyy wished first to beggar and ruin the christian clergymen, before they proscribed them and tiieir religion^ Their plan was too well contrived not to succeed: and for eleven years, or from 1789 to 1800, plunder and proscrij)tion, proscription and plua». der, have continued to succeed eacli other, and. liave been the sole rewards in France, both for the preachers of tlie gospel and fur the w-orship- pers of Christ. According to Caaiiile Jourdan's report in the Council of Five Hundred (May 1797), no less than 19.000 priests, friars,, and. nuns, had then perii-lied since 1789, in the pri- sons, in exile,, and on tlie scaffold ; and, accord- ing to the report of PortaUi in the Council o£ State, in April 1802, since 1797, the Diredory had, voithout any trlal^ t;eut 800 priest., to Cay- enne, where uiost of those who survived the ill- treatment during their voyage, were exposed to certaia 200 volney: certain death, from want, from disease, and front^ the efFecls of an unhealthy dimate; and when. Bonaparte recalled these vidims of revolutionary . intolerance, only 62 were alive of the 800 trans-- ported ; and of these 62, only 44 arrived in France, It cannot be supposed that M. De Vol- nev, had he foreseen the miser/ and the suffer- ings of this class of his countrymen, would have been cruel enough to bring about measures, the:' consequence of which he did not know, although he might easilyjiave conjedlared, from the charac- ters of his associates, arid their avowed principles^ that the lives of their fellow-citizens were af lit- tie value to them, as they highly esteemed, en- vied, and coveted their property. In all his de- clamations against priests, he laid it down as a rule, that they could only be divided into two. classes, religious hypocrites and religiaus fanatics r . nobody accused M. De Vclney of being a revo- lutionary hypocrite ; but when, on all occasions,, he shewed himself the personal enemy of the ok^ virtuous, and respedtable Archbishop of Paris,. M. De Juii^nie, whom his enmity at last forced to emio-rate, even the less liberal of his adherents declared tliat they despised him as a revolutionary fanatic, and more dangerous than a religious one. In August 1 79 1, he presented (and did homage) to VOLNEY. ' 201 to the National Assembly hh lately published work, cnlied T/ie Ruins : of Afedhat'ions on the Revolutions of Empires. In this work, as well as in all his formeror later publications, in his Voyages as iin his Historical Leflures-, he either direftly or indire6lly attacks the christian religion ; and, as 3 grear writer has observed, in thesn subtllty fur- nishes arms to Impudence^ and invention leads on credulity, K pretended philosopher^ he afFevSts to meditate on, and to describe the ruins of former empires, at the same time that he, as a real conspira- tor, assists in bringing about the ruin of his own country^ that he may, as Abbe Maury said (Septem- ber 1791)) in another volume add a pathetic and trucpifiure of the ruins of the French empire. After the return of Louis XVI. from Varennrs, and his teniporavy suspension from the royal au- thority, M. De Voliiey united with tlie deter- mined republicans, Coudorcet, Brissor, Petion, and Robespierre, and tried with them to chr.nge thcj suspension of the King into a cihange of the government; he ditFercd, however, with these men as to the executive power, which he desired to entrust to an hereditary president, and to make this presidency hereditary in the Orleans brancli of tiie Bourbon family. In a pa^iphlet printed about this chne, at;\d supposed to come from the pea 202 VOLNEY.- pen of the Marquis De Clermont De Tonirers (called M.DeYolnevclemasque), it is said, amongst other severe reproaches, " that he intended'to de- grade monarchy, by making a president a monarchy and to elevate insupportable republics, by decreeing them hereditary monarchies ; that he excelled to be the first president' s first minister^ and to govern a re- public impossible to be governed^ and from the tail of the Orleans fa^ion, ascend to head the presidency of the Orleans.''^ Within two months after the dissolution of the Constituent Assembly, M. De Volney thought himself forgot, or at least confounded amongst the many guilty and nameless men, who with him had brought about the Revolution. To make France and Europe again converse as well of De Volney the patriot as of De Volney the author, he picked up a matter borh ridiculous and imper- tinent. Voltaire, and other philosophers of his school, had made it as fashionable as it was ad- vantageous, to court the Empress of Russia, Ca- tharine II. by dedications of their works, and to- flatter her literary vanity, by praising her great h'terary abilities. In 1787, he presented to the Russian ambassador at Paris, for his sovereign, a work, called Mon Voyage, accompanied with a letter, as absurd as servile, demand ing?/i^y^^(5zo- of thi. VOLNEY. 203 t7ie proie^Jon, and the ho77ouy of the prote^ion, front such a great a7ul cofnpctent judge, the Female So- lomon of the North, In return, the Empress ordered her ambassador to present M. De Volney with the usual gold medallion, with which she rewarded most men of letters wlio sent to her the produ6lions of their genius. After Louis XVI. had been arrested at Varennes, the Empress had recalled her ambassador in France ; and when the King had haen forced to accept the constitution of 1-791, and notified this acceptance, and his desire to continue the former ties of amity and alliance •with Russia, by sending an ambassador, the Em- press declined the latter, because she knew that the King had not been free to accept or refuse the former. More from a hope of being noticed than the zeal of patriotism, M. De Volney had, on the 4th December, 1791, the impudence to write to Baron De Grimm, the Russian charge d'af- faires at Paris, and to return the medallion. This letter, where he says th&t a citizen of regenerated (he should have said revolted) France could not re- tain any thing coming from an enemy of the French Revolution, is remarkable through the u'hole for a style as unbecoming as contradidlory to that of his letter in 1787. It was answered by a very able and spirited writer, who signed himself Pe- troskoy, 204 VOLNEY. troskoy, and M. De Volney was held up to just and well deserved contempt. He had, besides, soon reason to regret ilie publicity lie gave to his fadlious aaibition and to his factitious patriotism, because, when the jacobins exalted his disinterest- edness, the royalists found out, and published as a proot of it, that within a fortnight after he had returned a gold medallion worth 20 Louis, he bought a national estate for 2O,00O livres^ worth at least 200,000 livres. The modern philosopher J, J. Rousseau had been invited by the Ccrsicans, during their civil wars, to come and reside amongst them, and to prepare for them a republican constitution, which should make them alike free and happy. Rous- seau, in his letters to the JVIarshal Lord Keith, at Neuchatel, says, that he had accepted of this offer ^ because the Corsicans were a N f w people as to their civili'zatlony zvithout the prejudices and vices of ether European nations (Rousseau did Jior remember that this new people were known to ancient Rome, both for their vices and treachery, so much so, tliat the Romans would not have a Corsican even for a slave). However, Rousseau changed his opinion of going to Corsica. What he had said about this new people, made a great impression on the minds of many young zealots who have read his dan- VOLNEY. 205 (Jangcrous works ; amongst others, M. cle Vol- ney was no sooner of age, and could dispose of his patrimony, than he went to settle amongst thh neiv people. In buying large estates there, he was imposed upon, and in resenting the imposi- tion, he was threatened with the stilettos ot" the impoitors'; to save his life, he was, therefore, in 1786, obliged to dispose of his Corsican property at a great loss, and he left Corsica in disgust, and, as he has often said, with an abhorrence of these infamous islanders. He was now cured of his romantic ideas about happiness, a la Roussea7ti amongst thisTz^iv j>£'5/»/^ ; but it did not prevent him, as has already been observed, from trying upon his own countrymen, and in his own coun- try, the absurd theories, or rather reveries of Rousseau, the fallacy of which he had so recently experienced. The danger that in 1792 accompanied art anarchy in France, brought about by M. deVol- ney and his associates, obliged him to seek a re- fuge in America. By this prudent step he saved his life, and at the same time had an opportunity of experiencing the comfort of a republican govern- ment, ' That his residence in that country was not very agreeable to him, is evident from his sud- den return to France, as soon as the adlivlty.of T Robe- 205 VOLNEY. , Robespierre's guillotine had ceased ; and from the contempt and ridicule with which he honours the neiu people oi Amtx'icz, who, he says, surpass as much the Corsicians in rudeness, and in inhospi- tality, as the Corsicans surpass them in cruelty and treachery. The modern reformers and in- novators are rather too nice, or too presuming, in demanding perfe6lion in a world where nothing is perfetSl ; instead of judging their books from what they s^e of society,, they judge society after their books, and meet with disappointments where lliey could never expc6l success. In O6lober 1794, M. de Volney landed again in France, where he found ruins, nothing but .ruins, the efFedts of his favourite Revolution that had regenerated France. In a letter to Ge- neral Washington, of tJie 15th Vendemiaire, year iii. or 8th 06tober, 1794, he says, " i have only been absent frtfm my country two years, and I hardly know it again : two centuries have not made so great and cruel changes in other devaslaud countries, as these last two years have made in France. I see every where rums, and nothing hut ruins : our throne, our altars, our cities, our vil~ Jqges, our castles and our cottages, are all in ruins : eur ci-devant nobility and clergy, our magistrates, our Merchants and manufailurcrs, are all ruined.^* After VOLNET. 207 After such a confession, it is hardly possible that the virtuous Washington coukl any longer esteem the reforming plnlosopher De Volney. In November the same year, he was nominated Teacher and Professor of History in the Not:- mal Schools at Paris : being a very indifferent orator, his historical ledlures were little fre- quented, and, after he had printed them, le^is read. In 1796 he was chosen a member of the National Institute ; but he continued, however,. to an ambitious mind, in a tormenting oblivion^ until the Revolution of the 18th Brumairc, or '9th November, ly^Q. According to the advice of Sieyes, Bonaparte determined to employ all men of talents of the Constituent Assembly, and Volney was one of the first whom lie sent for and consulted. In December the same year, he v/as appointed a member of the Conservative Senate, after he had in vain intrigued and wished to be one of the consuls. Since 1789 M. De Volney has much changed his revolutionary and political principles ; he is no longer an advocate either tor the sovereignty ©,f the people, or for the rights of man ; but his hatred against the Christian religion is always the same. When Bonaparte, in April 1802, caused the Concordat for re-establishing the Christian T z religion 205 VOLNEY. religion to be proclaimed, he demanclecl an aucH- tnce, and strongly remonstrated against this Farcer as he called it. M. De Voiney had, since 1799* been rather a favourite with Bonaparte, and his remonstrance therefore received no rebuke ; the Consul only told his senator, t/iat a <^g--iOQt/i part fif the French people desired the return of rcUgio'tU That may be true, answered M. De Vohiey \ but. it is also true, " that 99I-100M fart of Frenchmen sigh and pray for the return of the Bourbons.''* Since tliat time Bonaparte has seldom noticed him, and he continues, in levenge for this ne- gle\5l, to write in the newspaper, Lc Citoyen Franqois, sarcasms against the clergy, and abuse- against religion. M. De Voiney afTei^s rudeness, frankness, and a blunt condu6l : his friends sav, that this is his aiatural chara6Ver ; but his enemies accuse him of imitating the ancients only through afFe(£lation,an(i the desire of being distinguished ; they say that he wishes to convert a passionate coaradlcr into a blunt one, and to disguise the want of feelings by an unfeeling frankness. He certainly possesses a great deal of Information, but no profound know- ledge, nor a corie6t and penetrating judgment. He writes wiili facility, but he abuses this facility in all his writings. Like most of his countrymen, he VOLNEY. 209 he has a great presumption of his own abilities, and a liigh opinion of his hterary, political, and revolutionary merit; but as in all his writings he eternally attacks and calumniates the Christian religion ; — and where there is no religion, there can be no virtue, and where no virtue, no hap- piness ; — all loyal men suspecSl that his senatorial toga covers neither a religious, a virtuous nor a.happy man. "J 3-;: 'CENERAii. ( 210 ) GENERAL PICHEGRU. That offspring of rebellion, the French Re- public, was from its cradle, and is yet, surrounded by murderers and plunderers, and governed by men whose policy is to dare every thing, and Avhose religion consists in respefling nothing, ei- ther sacred, eminent, or illustrious ; who, in the name of liberty, plot the slavery of the world, and in holdifig out equality, meditate the wretch- edness and ruin of the universe : their fraternity is destruclion, their commands blood, their alliance infamv, and their reward proscription or death. Every man who is not an accomplice, is regarded as ap enemy, and punished as a traitor or a rebeL With them guilt is merit, and merit guilt ; and it is as dangerous to be innocent, as it is a re- commendation to power and advancement to be criminal or corrupt. General Pichegru is a revolutionary phenome- non : he has passed through the blood and mirs of the Revolution, without contrading a soil, and has obtained renown, and deserved the esteem of the gocd :',nd the loyal, although lie has obeyed ihe orders of regicides, and fought the battles of ' ' rcpub- .JllJUiu]JJlMllUMMllMtllilllllUJ)Mtiijm """'""""'"'»='^''?''^^?i!!illlli!l!llllllliiiiiiiiiillS^ ' n-fF(Tmm^«nM*m< tniimvimmimimtHtmiNHmiiuiiMHVimHUiM^^^ Lmdan. hibUihidAugfi^ iSo4 by John Mu-rM J2 1-Uct Sn^tt. PICHEGRU. 211 republican tyrants, more dangerous, as well as more nunierous, than all other despotic rulers. Under moral governments, wHere tlie law pu- nishes the vicious, and justice recompenses and promotes the deserving, it is a duty, it is the in- terest of all, ro be virtuous and loyal. ' Under re- publican Ftance, poverty and contempt, prison, exile, and the scaffold, await loy;dty ; whilst riches, honours, distincflion, and a throne, are the j)leasing prospe6lives for t-!.e accomplices of a ve- bellion, encouraged and saniSlioned by success, approved or applauded by Frenchmen, and re- speiSled by foreigners. In this age of egotism, intrigue, arid ambition, only ■•> I'.esitate in the choice, is goodness; but to choose the former and to decline the latter, Is a greatness seldom met with, and tVierefcre so uiuch the more praise- worthy. The plu-iicul lis of General Pich.egru's public and military \\k\ will prove that such an emine;K character exists. Piche^ru, late a £c. _ral in the Frencli Re- public, was born in 1761, at Arbois, in the pro- vince of Franche Comte, of obacure and poor, but honest parents. He began his first stuiiies at the college at Arbois, and continued and improved them in the same town, at tiie convent of the monks of the order called Miniins. Shewing a greai 212 • PICHEGRU. great aptness, and a decided taste for the abstruse sciences, these monks persuaded in"m to teach phi- losophy and mathematics in a. college cf their or- der at Brienne. Innovators and dec) aimers against Christianity and its religious institutions, have forgotten that Europe is indebted to the so much blamed and ridiculed, solitary and devout inhabitants of mo- nasteries, for the preservation of sciences during the barbarous centuries of the middle, age, for the cultivation of them in the succeeding ones, and for the progressive success they have made within the last tlnee centuries. Erasmus, Bacon, and Mallebranche, were friars ; and Corneille, Des- cartes, Racine, and Voltaire, were educated by friars, as well as a, Richelieu, a Mazarin, a Tut renne, a Conde, . and an Eugene : Pichegru Moreau, Kieber, Desaix, and Bonaparte, the five best republican generals, amongst the thou- sand ethers who have figured since the Revolu.- tion, had friais for their instructors. What those guides and teachers of vouth have efFedled, we aU know; but time alone can evince what France has gained, by changing Christian colleges into republican pritanees*, and by creating atheistical philosophers tlie successors of christian priests. * Pritanees are the republic: a. public schools in f rance,.;SO call* td after (he ancient Gixcku i'liunees, Pichc- PICHEGRU. 21 3> Fit'iicgrn, in teaching the sciences to otiicrs, completed his o\vn studies and informaiion. As no man, and no class of men, are wiihoui; thei? foibles, to augment the number of their own or- der with subje6ls of genius and virtue, was the constant endeavcmr of the fathers of the Mininj order. Pichegi u was strongly entreated by them to begin hia noviciate, and become one of their ediumujuty ; but having a natural incihiation foe SI military life, lie enlisted, in 1779, in the first regiment of artillery. His officers soon observed the unusual knowledge and valuable ditippsitions of their recruit, and within six months he was no- minated a Serjeant. In 1780, he was, with a di- vision of t.Iie regiment to which he belonged, cm- barked for America ; and during the last t'lrce years of that war, he had an opportunity to pro- fit from his vast learning, by praiStiising what he knew from theory. His disposition to study, to improvement, and to labour, procured him many occasions to observe witli advantaoc everv thing: connected with a maritime war, and mucli en- large his own ideas by useful comparisons. In 1789, Pichegru had the rank of an ad- jutant in his regiment, and" was on the eve of be- ing promotedto the rank ot an officer ; and indeedr several years before this period^ Pichegru had beca HU PJCHEGRtr. been honoured with the confidence of his colonel,, and was entrusted with all the particular transac- tions and manacrement of this repiment, hoth mi- litary and economical, and may therefore be said to have been its real chief Jhis reputation was then so well known anti estamislied, that the roy- alists wished him to emigrate, and the democrata promoted him, r^s an eneouragemefit t9 lerve.the cause of the Revolution, Pichegru btlieved, with many others, that ths post of honour was the post of danger, and that the post of danger for all loyal men, was where loyalty was proscribed, and probity and vlrtu-e but- chered or sent to the scaiFold : that those were his sentiments in 1789, the whole condu^fl of his hfs proves. When other revolutionary generals, as a Jour-- dan, a Hoche, a Vandamme, a Leibcau, and aa Anselme, by intrigues or bloody deeds, ascend-- eitl to the rank of generals, in one leap from com- mon soldiers, Pichegru's- modesty caused him to be promoted by degrees and seniority ; and if change had not shewn the value ot his talents, and ne- c^ssitv'and danger urged usurped power to employ them, he would probably have remained amongst the nameless thousands who have fought or died . fpr a cause they detested., Plche- PICHEGRU. 215 Pichesfru soon had occasion to evince that he de- served tiie reputation whicli licenjoyed. In thelatter part of 1790, tlie command was ottered to him of abattahon of national guards, amongst whom seve- ral former commanders Iiad tried in vain to intro- duce order'and subordination. Pichegru accepted the offer, and in a short time establislied an ex- a6l discipline, solely by that firmness and vigour, as calm as uninterrupted, wiiicii iiave in such an erninent manner distinguished him during all his commands. This success caused him to be em- ployed under the ministry of Narbonne, in the autumn and vvinter of 1 791, to organize, or to as- sist other commanders, inorganiz/ing regularity and ts«5tics amongst the national volunteers of no less than six departments*. In 1792, after the Brissotine fadion had forced the virtuous Louis XVI. to declare war against Austria, Pichegru was attached to the staff of the annv of the Rhine, under Custine, and he con- tinued to serve in the same army during the spring and summer of 1793, w!^en Biron, Beauhamois, and other generals, wereitvcommanders, although he had already been advanced, first to the rank Di hasty UHreat to cover Ment?-, and soon withdrew from the command in disgust. During the short, but brilliant period of three months, that Pichegru had commanded the army of the Rhine, neither his services nor his victories could preserve iiiin from the then proscribing im- putation and reproach of not being a general sans-culottes, or an anarchical jacobin, because his language was always as his sentiments, that of a gentleman, and he liad never carried a red cap, nor once frequented any jacobin club. It was, therefore, not his merit, but the urgent necessity Robespierre's committee of public safety felt for bis military capacity, that preserved his hfe, and caused him, on the 5th of February, 1794, to be appointed commander in chief of the army of fhe North. Before Pichegru left Strasburgh, and resigned u z his 220 PICHEGRU. his former command, the conventional commis- saries sent for him, and told him, " that all the former disasters of France originated fi om its ge- nerals not being true sans-cuioites ; they therefore advised him to change, for the future, his revolu- tionary opinion, and become a mountaineer* and ;i republican, that he might owe his prosperity hereafter to his own patriotism, and not, as lately, to tine patriotism of- his army, to deserve viii^ory as a jacobin, and not to swindle it as an aristo- crat." To this fraternal admonition Pichegra answered, " that he did not bciieve either the Duke of York, the Prince of Cobourg, or the Duke of Brunswick, were sans-culottes, or their soldiers jacobins ; that they had, however, been often vidlorious; and if the love of his country, and his wishes for the liberty and welfare of his countrymen, constituted true patriotism, he was the best patriot in France, as much above the fa- natics of a club, as the fadtions in a national as- sembly f." — This anecdote evidences both the temper and qualities of the republican rulers of * The mountaineers of the National Convention were Robe- spierre, Marnt, Damon, Barrere, Fouchc, Carrere, and the most blood -tliirsty of the regicides. f Recueil d'Auecdotes, art. Pichegru. those PICHEGRir. 321 those times, and die respectable chara6ler of a re- publican geneial, who, when it was dangerous only to be suspe6\ed of virtuous principles, had fortitude enough to acknowledge virtue as his only- guide. General Pichegru received with his new com- mand no instru<5lion for his proceedings, but *' an imperative and ridiculous order to conquer;" and in his conferences with the ministers at Paris, lie was vaguely dire€ic(\ to attack the Allies in the centre, and,, in the mean tla^e, . to'harass their flanks*. \< Of Pichegru's predecessors in this hazardous command, within ten months one had been out- lawed j; and deserted, one killed on tlie field of battle I, and two were guillotined §. The officers of this army were ignorant, undisciplined, without education, skill, or ardour; and the soldiers were worse than the officers, frequenters of clubs, de- nouncers and informers against their commanders, whom, from principles of equality, they hated, and, from experience, mistrusted ; but how much depends upon the choice ot a superior chief is evi- dent, when, with such an ajmy, Pichegru in six * David's Memolres on Pichegru's Campiiens. ■^^Duroouricr, J Dainpierre. ^ Custine and Houchard. u 3 ' months . \ 222 PICHEGRU. inonths retook what had occupied the enemy, even assisted by treason, upwards of twelvemonths in conquering; and in three months more he added Holland to the other conquests of France. During the years 1793 and 1794, the reign of terror, enforcing obedience to the conventional decrees, caused an adlivity, and produced re- sources, which are totally incompatible with the respedl for the lives and property of indi- viduals in civilized nations. The existence of /».•»' no person was certain for an hour, and the pos- sessions of all persons appertained to the nation at large. . The Agrarian law was not proclaimed, but the absurd speculations of J. J. Rousseau were forced into pradtice ; and it may tiuly -be said, that in France, " the earth belonged [o nobody, but its productions to every body *. The general who was not vicSlorious was pu- nished as a traitor, and an army defeated, was an army suspected and proscribed ; and many of those who had escaped the sword, the cannon, and the bayonets of the enemy, were doomed to suffer in republican bastiles, or perish by tlie revolutionary guillotine. * J. J. Rousseau, in his discourse on the inequality of the con- iilions of mankind, addressed to the .-^cadeBiy at Dijoa. The PICHEGRU. S2S The decree for the levy in masse had already placed all the youth of the most populous nation in Europe at the disposal of a government, which boasted of having one million two hundred thou- sand men in arms. The war with the maritime powers having interdided the importation of gun- powder and military stores, these were now sup- plied by the talents of the chemists, and the in- dustry of the artisans, of France. Paris alone, from its three hundred forges, and fifteen foun- dcries, furnished eleven tliousand five hundred . and twenty stand of arms, and one thousand one hundred pieces of brass cannon, every month *. The insurgent cities were ordered to transmit a certain portion of saltpetre, by way of fine ; the feudal castles of the murdered, exiled, or impri- soned nobility, still supposed to frown on the liberties, or rather anarchy, of the republic, as well as the forest that had sheltered the brave and loyal men of La Vendee, also provided their quota of an ingredient so necessary in the modern art of war. Nor were the commercial signs of wealth, at all times indispensible for carrying on military operations, wanting. In addition to the almost inexhaustible fund arising from assignats. ® The report of Barerre, Frimaire an xj. 224 > PICHEGRU.. die credit of which was supported by 'the maxi' mum and the guillotine, the virtuous j*^^f their ancestors presented, them with otli:r resouices,. ■which were at this period called into allien ; for. the estates of the cler2,v, and the sacred treasures and vases of the Christian religion, were freely, resorted to, and even the consecrated bells were melted, to furnioh cannon for armies amounting to 780,000 fighting mtn*. That nothing, might, be wanting to give efficacy to these immense pre- parations, the archives of the war department were searched for the schemes and meniorials presented^ to the Duke De Sully, to the Cardinals Richeiicu. and Mazarine, and other great ministers, and. drawn up during the reigns of Henry IV. Louis ~ XIII. and Louis XIV.; a chosen body, con- sisting of the ablest military men in France,., formed plans for the campaign, ajid olten laid; down instrn£tions for the generals, under the iiv- spe6tion of Carnor, a worthy member ot the cruel; Committee of Public Safety, who pretended; \C) be one of the best engineers and ablest states-- « After Carnot's statement, published by the National Conven- tion in Nivose an xi. The army of the North consisted of azojooo men ; the armies of the Rhine and the Moselle, 280,000; tjie army of the A'ps, 60,000; of the Oriental Pyrenees, 2o,ooo; the army of the South, 60,000 ; of the West, 80,000. PICHEGRU. 225 Kicn of the age, although he had never commaiKl- cd a siege or a battahon, or carried on or negotiated a single treaty; but in the difFerent situations in which rebellion and crime placed him, he profited by the information of those who groaned under his regicide tyranny, and appropriated to hunself the success of plans diametrically opposite to those of his own invention *. * In the Didlonn.iire Biographique, a Work from an able hand, is, tome 3, page 173, the following note concerning Carnot : On ne s'auroit trop faire remarquer I'impudeur avec laquelle ce Carnot, a qui quelques gens ont accorde line reputation militaire, on ne salt trop pourquoi, puisqu'il ne derigea jamais un batailton, «t qu'il ne montra que des talens d'administrateur ou de curaliste, SI voulu enlever a Jouidanla.gloire de labataille de Fieurus, etiaire croire aussi qu'il etoit I'auteur du projei d'itfuasion de la It-'est Flandre, (voy. son Rapport du ire Vendetnaire, An. 3. J. 11 n'est pas etonnant que ce conspirateur, aviies aussi etroites que sangui- naires, et dent rien ne s'auroit egaler la vaniie, ait cru pouvoir fair oublier /'f«/f/c-wf«/ avec Uquel il sotitint Ls plans sur la Jorct d'c-yi/orwii/fipuisqu'il imaginera bien pouvoir faire oublier aussi que Jrt vtain, qui osa tracer depuis les mois de -vertu et d'hunneur, avoit sig»£ tons ces arrets qui devastennt sa palrie. Ennemi fersenel de Pichegru, dont il envioit la gloire, ainsi que cells de tons les generaux, il a, dans ses Exploits des Francois, omis ou attribue a des officiers en sous ordre les vidloires de ce general avec mauvais foi tout-a-fait mal-adroite. The Report of Dayeul to the Council of Five Hundred, con- cerning the conspiracy of the 18th Frudtidor, an v. confirms the- above, and exhibits Caraot in hit true colours. Thk 226 PICHEGRU. This was the case with a plan for a campaign sent to Pichegru a short time after his arrival at the head -quarters of the army of the North. Ac- cording to Carnot's orders, the war comnuttee at Paris, and the conventional deputies> insisted that Piehegru should attack the centre of the enemy in the forest of Mormale, although thij. general represented hoth the danger and absurdity of so doing, which the levcral defeoti already eK« perienced by thq French, on this peint, geymed to confirm ; thus, when, after repeated loiies^ at the risk of his life, Pichegru entirely change cd this favourite plan of the infatuated CamotinfQ Ills own proje\5l of invading West Flanders, the. regicide Carnot, in his report to the. National Convention, of the first Vendcmiaire, year iii» had the impudence to take to himself all {he ho- nour of Pichecru's vi<5lories*. Soon afier Pichegru had assumed his new com- inand,. from the beginning of March, he form- ed a great number of encampments, to accustom the many i-ecruits of his army to military move- ments. After a fortnight passed in this manner, he colle6led a greater quantity of troQps round" Cambray and Guise, for the purpose of execut-- * See the last Note. PICHEGRU. k,27 tng Carnot's orders, and driving the Allies from the forest of Mormale, and forming the siege of Qiiesnoy. He began on the 29th of the same month, hy attacking the Austrian posts at Cateau, Beauvais, and Solesme, which he carried ; but although his attack was both well formed and skilfully directed, the Imperialists rallying, oblig- ed him, after being repulsed on his whole line, to Vetreat, with the loss of six liundred men killed and wounded. Notwithstanding the several almost daily en- gageinents, the opening of one of the most famous and momentous campaigns, eitlier amongst- the ancients or moderns, and which placed Pichegru above Bonaparte and all other republican ge- nerals, as much for his talents as for his vir- tue, had not yet taken place ; at length, on the i6th of April, the combined armies, consist- ing of Austrians, British, Dutch, Hanoverians, and Hessians, and amounting to 187,000 men, assembled on the heights above Cateau, and were reviewed by the Emperor of Germany, who lately had assumed the command in person. In pursuance of the plan previously agreed upon, they advanced during the succeeding day, in eight columns, three of which were intended as corps of observation. The first, composed of Austrian and S28 PICHEGRU. and Dutch troops, under the command of Prince Christian of Hesse Darmstadt, seized on the vil- lage of Catiljon, where they ol)taincd four pieces of cannon, and having crossed the Sambre, im- mediately occupied a position between that river and the Little Helpe, so as to invest Landrecies on that side. The second, .led by Lieutenant- general Alvintzi, took post in the forest Nouvion- The third, headed by die Emperor and the Prince of Cobourg, after forcing the enemy's entrench- ments, advanced to the heights called the Grand and Petit Blocus. The fourth and fifth columns ■were formed from the army under the Duke of York, that of which His Royal Highness took the dirediioii being intended to attack the village of Vaux. Major-general Abercromby commenced the assault with the van, supported by the two grenadier companies of the first regiment of Guards, under the command of Colonel Stanhope, and starmed and took the star redoubt, while three battalions of Austrian grenadiers, commanded by Major Petrash, attacked the wood, and mad(; themselves masters of the works which the French had constru6ied for its defence. Sir William Erskine was equally successful "with the other column; for, finding the enemy posted at Premont, the brigade of British infantry, with PICHEGRU. Zt9 with four squadrons of light dragoons, was de- tached under Lieutenant-general Harcourt to turn their position, while he himself attacked ia front with three battalions of the regiment of Kaunitz, supported with a well-dire6ted fire of British and Austrian artillery, under t!ie orders of Lieutenant colonel Congreve, and not only obtained possession of the reilouhts, but of two pieces of cannon and a pair of colours. The success of this extensive and complicated attack-, in conseq'ience of which the Frencli un- der Gencfal Pichegru lost thirty pieces of artil- lery, nine of which were taken by the column under the immediate coinmand of His Roval Highness the Duke of York, being now com- plete, it was immediately determined to lay siege to Larulrecies. The direftion of tiiis important affair was entrusted to the Hereditary Prince of Orange, while His Imperial Alajesty, with the grand army, estimated at 6o,00O men, covered tlie operations on the side of Guise, and the troops under the Duke of York, amounting to near g,0,000, were employed in a similar service to- wards Cambray. A body of Austrians and Hes- sians, to the number oi i2,0D0, under General Wurmb, were at the same time stationed near Douay and Bouchain ; Count Kauaitz, with X 15,000 ^30 I'ICHEGPvU. 150CO, defended the passage of the Sambre ; anf! General Clairfayt, with 40,000 more, prote6led Flanders, from Tournay to the sea. Such were the strength and position of theAlh'es, even with- out the assistance of the Prussians, who made no movement in their favour, that all generals of the old school imagined success to be inevitable. And appearance, for a time, seemed ro confirm these conjedlures, for on the 21st of the same montli, the Hereditary Pi ince of Orange made a general attack upon, and carried, all the posts still occu- ;picd by the enemy in front of Landrecies: he -^Iso took their entrenched camp by storm, and obtained possession of a strong redoubt within six liundred yards of the body of the place. To raise the siege of Landrecies, Picheccru or- tiered an attack on the advanced posts of the Prince of Cobourg at Siccus and Nouvion ; at the for- mer the French were repulsed, but Nouvion was carried, and general Alvinzi obliged to retreat; some success on the part of General Wurmb ren- dereil this, however, an event of small importance. Apprehensive that he could not succeed in raising the siege of Landrecies, and yet not daring to infringe the orders of the Committee of Public Safety to persevere in attacking the centre of the ■allies, Pichegru coUeded, in Csesar's Camp, a force PICHEGRU. 23 li: force of thirty thousand men under Souham, and twenty tliousand under Morcau, for the purpose, of making a detached invasion of West F'anders. . General Otto heing sent on the 23d to reccn->, noitre them, an engagement ensued, in wiiicli- t]ie French were driven into Can:ibray with. loss,. and tlie next day tiiey were repulsed with great, slaughter, in an attack on the heights; of Catcau,. where the Duke of York was posted ; on this- occasion Lieutenant-general Chapyy,, with tliree hundred and thirty officers and, priy^iQS, were, taken prisoners, and thirty-fiv,^. pieties of ca.n,KP:i^. fell into/ the. hands of the English. Bijt; ib^s*, defeats were nxjt of suiiicient con&eq^uence to, px-^-^ vent Picliegru from persevering in his original ea-k terprize. While the subordinate generals were employed ill this incuisipi), Pichegru, on the 26ih, ad- vanced in. five .qoiuams, drove i« all the out-posts and piquets of the hesieging army, attacking along the whole frontier, from Treves, to the: seaj but in the progress of this day he dad not succeed j . on t!ie contrary, he was forccil to retreat, and pursued to the very gates of Cambray, with loss both of men and artillery. Pichegru, however, returned to the ciiarge on the 29th, assailing an almost impiegnabie post, ^ Z defended »32 PICHEC4IIU. defended by General CbiiTayt at Moucron, and, by his success, retrieved the disaster of the former tronflI(^, besides animating his troops with the confidence resulting from a first victory ; and not- withstanding the defeat of a body of 30,000 men of his army, who had attacked tlie Dnke of York at Tournay, on which occasion tlieylnsi thirteen pieces of cannon, and above four hundred men taken prisoners, he in a short time after obtained possession of Werwick, Courtray, and Menin, the last of which held out during four days ; when, finding no probability of succour, the garrison, consisting chiefly of emigrants, forced their way through the enemy with great bravery, but with great loss. Landrecies had now surrendered, and Piche- gru, convinced of theimpraflicabilicy of Carnot's plan, recommended by the Committee of Public Safety, desisted from further attacks on the centre of the Allies. He would not even attempt the reco- very of Landrecies, but leaving small garrisons in the central fortresses, to prevent surprize, pro- jefted a combined movement with the army of the Ardennes, and taking Beaumont, made some in- cursions between the Sairbre and the Meuse. The army of the Allies, in consequence of the offensive operations of Pichegru, who, whether van cjui shed PICHEGRU. 233 vanquished or vi61:orious, proved incessant in his attacks, being thus broken into many separate masses, and destitute of unity in its operations, was evidently liable to be overcome. Numerous skirmishes took place during ih^ early part of May; and on the lOth an attack; was made on the Duke of York near Tournay, in which the French were defeated, and three thousand killed. . General Clairfayt, who, since his defeat at Moucron, had occupied a strong po- sition, so as to cover Ghent, Bruges, and Ostend, at. the same time attempted to drive the French from Courtray ; but a reinforcement was. judi- ciously thrown into the town by Pichegru ; and in an engagement which took place the ensuing day, General Clairfayt was driven back into his original position at Thick. This last a£iion did the greatest honour to tlie gallant, but unlucky Austrian general, and Pichegru decided the fate of the day solely by the vivacity and unity of his attacks, . During this conflict, while Pichegru was pur- • suing hi^ vi6torious career in the ^Vest, General Jourdan, already celebrated for his vidlories a£ Hoondschoote and Maubeuge, had tiie command of the army ot the Aidennes^ and with this army, and the right wing of the army of the North, he '^ $ crossed -i 234 PICHEGRIT. crossed the Sambre, forced General Kaunltz to retreat, and took momenrary possession of Fon- taine, I'Eveque, and Binch, which, however, he was obliged to relinquish on the appearance of an Austrian force, with the loss of near 5000 men and three pieces of cannon. The armies of the North and Ardennes, again partially united, were at this time under the ty- ranny of the constitutional deputies St. Just and i_e Bas, who stimulated the troops to exertion by perpetual threats of execution in case of failure j threats which, from them, could never be covi-' sidered idle or nugatory, because, as they often repeated, " the permayiency of the guillot'ine was tJw erder of the day.''* After the last defeat of Jour- dan, Pichegru went to assist him to re-organize the army of the Ardennes, and to instrudl him how toa6V with more method even in aceeleratinsr his operations ; but he found this army not only terrified by tlie cruelties of the two pro-consuls, but when he had formed plans for passing the Sambre, and besieging Charleroi, they were frus- trated by the precipitation, violence, and igno- rance, of those men who controlled iiim and su- perseded his authority. To expel the French from Flanders became a principal objce I'Eveque and Binch, and partially invested Charleroi ; they were, however, again to be shot by the sentence of a court-martial, for plunder and extortion in Suabia. Van Damme continued during the whole campaign in the rear of the army. routed riCHEGRU. 2-4 3. TGiUed liy General Count Kaunitz, -with the loss of five thousand men killed, wounded, and pri- soners, and fifty pieces of caniKin. The loss was, however,' compensated on the otlier side, where a portion of the army of the Moselle was placed un- der Jourdan, and received the name of the army of the Sambre and the M-euse. This force, coi>- sisting of forty thousand ^^^e^l, Invaded the dutchy of Luxemburgi took possession of Arlon, and obligt'd Bcaulicu to fall hack on Marche, in order to cover Namur. The Duke of York's .position at Tournay was thus vcmkred, for several days, verv precaricus, as a great partlon of the allied armv was obliged to fall hack to cover Brussels and Ghent, and the Prince of Co'iourg marched the principal part of his army to their relief. St. Just and Le Bas, ignorant of ta£lics, and cruel, like most upstarts in power, were, contrai-y, to the re presentations, of Pichegru, still persevering to sacrifice tlie lives of the soldiers, for the attain- ment of a proposed point, and again compelled the troops to cross tiie Sambre on the 3d of June, and commence the blockade ot Charleroi j but being attacked by the combined army under the Here- ditary Prince of Orange, and by a judicious sally of the garrison, they were compelled once more to fall back to their former position after a great loss both of men and artillery. Y 2 Not- 244 PiCHEGKU. Notwithstanding their reiterated miscarriages in that quarter, the enemy soon after recrossed tlie Sambre, and assumed a position near Gos- seh'es, on purpose to cover the siege of Charleroi, before which they had already begun to opcrk trenches ; but the same general who had defeated them a few days before, arrived again, and obliged them on the 6th of June to retreat, with the loss of near six thousand men, twenty-two pieces of can- non, thirty-five ammunition waggons, and a con- siderable number of horses and baggage. But General Jourdan having received numerous rein- forcements from the army of the Moselle, crossed the Sambre a fourth time, stormed the Austrian camp at Betignics, and prepared again to besiege a city which had so long eluded his attacks. The right wing of the army of the North, so often, by the infatuation of St. Just and Le Bas, defeated before Charleroi, had now joined the army of the Saml5re and the .Meuse ; ajid Piche- gru, who commanded them, confident in superior forces, determined at all events to succeed. The Prince of Cobourg on this occasion abandoned Tournay, leaving the defence of the Scheldt to the Duke of York, and withdrawing all his posts from before Valenciennes, Quesnoy, and the other French towns in his possession, to fulfil the mors PICHEGRU. 245 more important tnsk of succouring \\'est Flan- ders. For tliis purpose he spent two days in pre- paration, and then made, on the 27th of June, a general attack on the advanced post of Jourdan's army. Charleroi had the preceding day been forced to surrender at discretion. The Prince of Cobourg, assisted by the Prince of Orange and General Beaulicu, not being acquainted with this event, after the attack on tlie advanced po3t, marched with the combined armv, divided into five co!u;nns, and made preparations to relieve the place. Having attacked tlie enemy's en- tienchments, in the direction of Lambrisart, Espinies, ami Gosselies, he obliged a few detaclied; bodies to retreat, though protetfled by several very strong redoubts; but such was the opposition ex- perienced on this occasion by tlie Allies, tliat it was evening before the left wing had arrived at the principal heights, wliich were fortified by an extensive range of field-works, lined with an im-. mense nun^iber of lieavy artillery. AUb.ough a. variety of unforeseen obstacles iir.d interposed, an attempt was now made to force this strong posi-. tion with th.e bavonet ; while Jourdan, on the otlier hand, having obtained the assistance of the besieging army in consequence of the fail cf CiiArleroi, determined, after the advice and plan- ^ 3 ' of: 245 PICHEGRU. of PlchegvH*, to decide the fate of Flanders In a pitched battle. He accordingly advanced with a numerous army, and made such a disposition, as to enable the greater part of his forces to contend v/ith the left wing of the Allies only. Neverthe- less, such w-as the impetuous valour of the assail- ants against four times superior forces, strength- ened and protected by the nature of their position, and by every thing the modern arc of war could invent, that they repeatedly penetrated the French lines, and formed several times under the fire of their cannon ; but towards seven o'clock in the evening, the advantage obtained by Jourdan be- came conspicuous ; for having drawn his troops out of their entrenchments, and made three distindl charges upon the enemy, after au a6tioa which commenced at dawn of day, and tUd not entirely conclude until near sun-set, vi6lory> ■which had been hovering by turns over each of the rival armies, declared finally in favour of the republicans. The combined troops taking ad- vantage of the night, immediately fell back, first on Marbois, and next on Nivelle, with an intent if possible to cover Namur. * See Ls Coup- j'oeil, page 24, Thus PICHEGRU. 24r Thus ended the battle of Fleurus, which obliged the Allies to forego all hopes of retaining possession of Flanders, as their foFce, whTch con- sisted originally of a hundred and eighty thousand men, was reduced to seventy thousand, while that of the republicans was increased to more than three hundreil thousand. Neither the loss of the Comb'iicd Powers during this battle, nor that of the French, has been precisely ascertained. The effevTis, however, were prodigious,, for the Allies. now retreated in all quarters, nnd Bruges, Tour- nay, Mons, Oudenanle, Brussels, and even Na* mur, were left without prote£lion. That, however, the French, during tlie first three months cf this severe campaign, had lost more men even than the Combined- Powers, or rather, sacrificed a greater number of their coun- trymen to the absurd and cruel obstinacy of the national deputies, may be concluded from a French author, who states, *' that the offiv-ers and soldiers killed and wounded in one point, in the attempts to pass the Sambre, and to blockade or besiege Charleroi, amounted, according to the French army estimates and registers, to 44,604; of whom, the same autlior says, 30,000 miglit nt least have been spared, if St, Just and Le Bas had not a61:ed contrary 248 PICHEGRU. contrary to the proposal and designs of General Picheiiru*." About the same period, or on the 26th June, the virtuous' patriot and able general, the Earl of Moira, arriving at Ostend witii seven thousand men, found Ypres and Thorout, on one side, and Bruges on the otherj in possession of tlie French ; and, despairing of rendering effedlual assistance in any other quarter, on the 28th pressed forward to join the Duke of York, who with the body of English and Allies under liis ccmmand, had par- ticipated of course in tlie disasters of the cr,m- paigii, taking his route through Bruges, v, hich at his approach the French evacuated, to Malle. General Vai> Damme was in the iTci'-'lVbourliood, with twenty thousand men, and would 'lave fjillen upon the f^nglish force, but for the skilful marches and evolutions of the Earl of Moira, aiid the ingeni- ous deception of that highly valuable officer Major- general Doyle, the British Qiiarter-master-gene- ral, who made the burgomaster of Bruges believe the English army consisted of fifteen thousand men, and that as many more would arrive the same eveniu'.';; intelligence which was convcved * See the last -mentioned pamphlet, page 26. to nCHEGRU. 249 to tlie French general, and prevented his attacking the English troops*. It v/as on this occasion that General Pichegru, ■whx) had sent Van Damme purposely to inrertept and capture the Earl of Moira's army, tlie small number of which was known to him before it left Ostend, wrote to Van Damme's proteftors,. the conventional deputies, and accused him of incapa- city, and finished by saying, that he was as ig- norant as barbarous. This letter had been expe- dited to Robespierre, and was found amoivgst his papers, and marked, " to he forwarded In time to the public accuser at the revolutionary tribunal^ as a proof of Pichegru' s aristocracy." This admirable patriot of the modern republican school, Van Damme, had, before the Revolution, been con- demned to the gallows, and afterwards both mur- dered' and plundered in mass. To charge such a worthy citizen of the French commonwealth with incapacity and barbarity, -was ail unpardonable crime with his accomplices, the terrorists and ja- cobins, and, by their code of laws and revolu- tionary justice, deserved nothing less than the guil-* lotinef. * Coup-d'ceil, page 40. + The same pamphlet, page 42, and Courtois' Report to tha. Kaiipnal Conyenticn, page 6„ After 250 PICHEGRli. After several marches and countcr-mnrclies be- tween the 1st nnd 8'.h of July, the Earl of Moira at last, af;er raiinerous difficulties, by means of a rapid movement completed the oh}itt\ of the ex- pedition, and etlei^cd his jundion with His Royal Highness the Duke of York. During his Lord- ship's fatiguing marches, the French took pos- session of Ostend, and marched towards Ghent ; tlie Prince ^f Cobourg was again, after a noble resistance, defeated by a vastly superior enemy at Mons and Soignes ; tha French grjned possession of Mons; the Duke of York, always pursued by Piehegru, was obliged to retreat from Revalx to Grannnont, and subsequently to Asche, Malines, nnd Kontieq, while the French rendered them- selves masters of Ghent, Oudeinarde, and Tour- nay. The French army of the Sambre and Meuse, under Jourda^^, being joined by that of the North under Piehegru, they both pressed their advantages on every side, and after a series of en- gagements and skirmishes, possessed tiiemselves of Brussels on the 9thof July, where the conventional deputies, the representatives of the Great Nation, sat in dreadful state, issuing orders of blood and plunder. The republican armies halted in positions fixed by Piehegru, and reached from Liege to Ant- werp, PICHEGIIU. 251 wcrp, while the Austrians defended the banks of the ivleuse from Ruremonde to Alaestricht : tlie troops of England and Holland having retired be- yond Br<;da, were encamped at Ostcrvvist, and a corps was posted at Ludhoven to keep open the communication between the armies. Ma!ines, Louvaine, Judoigne, Namur, Antwerp, Tongers, Liege, St. Amand, Marchiennes, Cateau, and otiier places, had already been evacuated ; and Conde, Valenciennes, Quesnoy, and Landrecies, abandoned to their own strengt'n, were invested ■by the republicans, who were fortified by the additional terror of a savage decree of the regicide convention^ forbidding them to give quarter to any of the garrisons, unless they surrendered on the first summons. During these last four months, while Pichegru, in gathering so many laurels for himself, had done such great and efFe61:ual services to his country, he had not only to contend with the ignorawce, cu- pidity, and jealousy of the deputies accompanying his army, but with the envy, malevolence, and cruelty of Carnot, Robespierre, and the other jnembers of the Committee of Public Safety. — Pichegru, after his vi6lory of the i8th of May, at Turcoing, intended, by a bold but Avise com- 4)iaation, to pass the Scheldt near Oudenarde, and to 25t PICHEGrxU. to cut off General Clairfayt from all communica- tion with the English army, to fight the Austrians singly, and afterwards fall upon the rear of the troops opposing Jourdan ; but the Committee of Public Safety sent him another order for his operations, which, absurd as they were, he was obliged to obey, and thousands of lives were sacri- ficed, which might have been spared, and the same end obtainecL Although Pichegru had only influence and command in the combined and general plans of the motions and transa6lions of the army of the Sambre and the Meuse, he was nevertheless re- garded as the commander in chief over all the republican troops and armies on this frontier. His power, bis successes, his talents, and his glorv, offended alike the republican proconsuls, and they were mean enough to let him often per- ceive it, particularly at Brussels, where they did every thing to counteradt or change all his pro- je6ls, and to impede his future progress. With that v.irt-uous severity which charadlerizcs him, Pichegru tonlenred himself with telling them, that Jie observed arutocvacy had only changed hands in France, -but that the aristocracy of revolutionary up' starts, or political hypocrites, ivas more dangerous and pichegru. 25 j gnsJ disgraceful than that of. kings or of patricians. In revenge for this just and pointed remark, the regicides, to lessen the extent of his authority, forced him to separate the armies of the North, and of the Sambre and the Meuse, which but lately, and with so much pains, had formed their jundtion. Though Picbegru was disgusted with the ■behaviour and principles of these deputies, and of the members of the Committee of Pubh'c'Safety, his coostant and only study and labour were to serve his country, and to silence or calm the vile passions of its vile tyrants by new vi6lories. He therefore, after the capture of Antwerp, form- ed a plan, which by cutting ofFall connexion be- tween the English and Austrian armies, would have brought him nearer to the last, and ensure the successes of the army of nhe Sambre and the Meuse, as well as prevent the movements of the republican troops on tlie Rhine, hut t!ie jealousy of his superiors, and of General Jourdan, pre* vented the execution of tliis well-contrived plan. From these scenes of carnage, where the hor- rors of death are diminished by the <* pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war," at- tention is called to contemplate transadions no less sanguinary, though infinitely more dreadful^ 2 exhibited 254: EICHEGRU. exhibited in tliat internal government of Franc**, Avhich had appointed Pichegvu to the command, and held continually the axe of tlie guillo- tine suspended over his head. Terror, avowed as a svstem, stalked through the land, dealing on every side the bluw ot fate, and extinguishing love, mutual confidence, honour and pity. The ■various devices for proving treason, or treasonable inclinations, gave vigour to a host of spies, in- formers, and persecutors, some of whom were in the pay of government ; some hoped to conciliate favour * ; and others thought, by denouncing their nearest relatives or mcst intimate friend , to avoid those perbccuticns, of which a moment might make them vi61ims. No man could con- sider himself sure of an hour's life, yet no man * Miot, one of the jacobin ministers in Tuscany, during the fiist six months ol the Fiench republic, was suspedted of having received bnbes, without sharing them with h.s ii"jrthy employers, and therefore was seiii prisonertoth Lux' inburg t Paris; where, to obtain favour, lie became an informer against his fellow pri- soners, and a spy of I haumetie, Robespierre, Barrcre, and Fou- ^uierTinville ; and, according to tie z\X'\wr o{ ^^ Ahm irei sur Jes prisons de Fails, en un ii. et iii. page 44," Mot's denun. .C\z.i\on% i»9ug^hi tld innocent persons to the icajfoid. He was in disgrace under the Direiftory, but in 1799 Ronaparti made him ane %J bis tiibuneSy and he isjel a coiijidentialjriendajhis Consular Majesty, who has pi omised him an embassy, — Les Nouvellesala main, Biumaire ix. No. u. was PICHEGRU. 255 was permitted to prepare himself for death ; and he wlio dared to express or inculcate a hope of a better existence beyond the g^rave, incurred immi- nent danger of being sacrificed as an incorrigible fanatic. As no motive of safety, nor any prospeft of advan-- tage, stimulated the conventional rulers of France to so profuic a waste of human blood, it could be notliing but their own blood-thirsty chara6lers, and their total disregard for all moral and religi- ous principles, that produced so many horrors and such horrible deeds ; but with the usual revolu- tionary cant of republican tyrants, while daily inun- dating the scaffold with the blood of hundreds of their vidims, and proscribing by a single decree 250,000 families *, they spoke of hu- ^ — . .. .... I I , , ^■— --■— ^.M I III. . II — * On the J-jth September, 179J, Merlin de Douai caused the Convention to decree, " that all persons of the former privileged orders, and their relations, should be arrested as stispe&ed," and within four weeks 2^0,000 families were imprisoned in all parts of France, with intent to expose them to the same massacres as the prisoners at Paris had experienced on the 2d September, 1792. Merlin was then, and is yet, c.ilied Merlin-siispelfs—IMerlin- foteuce. He is the same person wlio was made one of the diredors after the revolution of the 4ih Septsmber, 1797, and is at present Bonaparte's favourite, and attorney.general to his tribunal of revi, sion. He was before the Revolution a pettyfogging at-torney with- out charafter or property ; but during the Revolution lie has bought ten millions of national estates,— See DiSiionnahi B'r.grai>bique page 18 et 19, and PiudJiojiimcy art. Merlin. 2-2 raanity, 25(J PICHEGRU. fiianity, generosity, and justice, as often as of their liberty, equality, and fraternity. On tlie 31st January, 1794, Robespierre made a rf^port to the National Convention, on the nature and operations of the revolutionary governtnent, in which he contrived, wltli singular art and sa- gacity, to impress general notions of virtue, mild' ness, and benevolence^ while by decrying the two extremes cf coldness and uUra-revolutioariry vi- gou?, he subjected every man to a rigorous in- cjuisition, which might declare him t'le enemy .of the republic, and to persons of that description the revolutionary governxTient owed no proictfi^n jhut death *. Such were the avowed principles of the repub- lican government, or, what is the same, of the National Convention, wliich h:A usurped all powers, and each of its members, as long as he belonged to the victorious fa61ion, was a privi- leged and protevSled despot. That ail parts of France, and every class of Frenchmen, might groan under the same oppression, feel the same cruelties, and witness the same immorality f, con- * See Prudhomme, vol. v. page 326. + The deputy Subrany was the reptesentallve of the people at Pau, wheie lie, to apprjacB the sitUe of niUuie^sinpoedhimssls one nCHEGRU. 257 conventional "depmles were sent as pro-consuls, with unlimited authority, to all the departments, as well as to the different armies. St. Just, who in 1792 was a student at law, and the attorney Le Bas, were, as has been men- tioned, the two conventional commissaries who had accompanied and inspected the operations of the army under Pichegru ; who unnecessarily had caused the butchery of so many thousand inno- cent persons, and who had denoonced him to Robespierre as an aristocrat, because he opposed their sanguinary measures, and did not dishonour his victories by inljumanity. These and otlier representatives of the French people, by the armies, were followed in their missions by a horde of commissaries, clerks, and secretaries, their rela- tions and friends, .whose piiviL-ipal occupation was to enrich themselves at the expence of theiv . countrymen, when In France, and by plunders, requisitions, and extortions, when in an enemy's country. Tiie pillage to which they addicted one night, and forced all rubllc jurnflionaries, with the'iF wives and daughters, to accompany liim to the plny-Iioiise ?iaked, and Re with his party not only continued in that indecent state during the play, but from his box he declared every body who did not follow his example, enemies to equality, — Les Annales du Tnrorisme, pag? 70. z 3 them- 258 PICHEGRU. themselves, v/as unrestrained by principle or shame ; and while the representatives robbed in mass, their followers, by their republican anptemenl . Pichegru \ it de sang-froid, ot iapetitcsse des prc.ro>uu!s tt da disputes ■vetiUeuses des administraiioRS. I'our tout concilier, il accorda tout ce qu'on demanda pour Tarmee de Sambre et Meuse ; mais il ne put convenir de rlen sur les mouvemer.s des troupes, par* te£ceding centuries,'^ Iji thts Diftiounaire Eiographique, pag 231, tom. \i. Ls said, " Ce fut sur-tcut sous le con?,missariat de Joubert, onl ecrit eux mimes les Beiges, qu'il n'y eut pUis de homes /Jo^r les vols et les exaSiions ; il les santlionjyjit tons pa.r sot exenifle. Cet eiT. onte concus, ijionaire acheva d'opprimer le peuple. Ecrases de tous cotes par ces jiisolens vampires, nous n'eumes bientot plus la liberie de nous |iourvoir devant les administrateurs. Joubert les cassa et subjti- tua d'liutrcs, tous complices di; scs brigandages, SiC. &c. and S60 PICHEGRU. and what patience it required in Pichegru (who could not 'out be conscious of his own worth) not to throw up Ills command, and refuse to serve any longer his ungrateful country and its barbarous and corrupted governors. He was then the only republican general in whose talents, not only the government and the army, but the whole nation placed their confidence and hope, and it isjmore than probable, that his resignation in the present circumstances would have disbanded the armies lately organized bv him, entirely changed the face of affairs, and Brabant and Holland miglit yet have been free. On the other hand, liad Pichegru possessed the unprincipled ambition of a Bonaparte, he might, with the applr.use not only of France but of Eu- rope, assumed a temporary sovereignty of tlie French commonweah;!, because at this very time the abominable ferocity of the republican rulers had extended its terror to all nations, and any me- ritorious ard moderate man would have been , hailed and respecled as the saviour of the liberty and civilization of the world. Pichegru's pa- triotism and modesty on this occasion, have caused . as many sufferings to mankind since, as the virtue, and iil-applied, and ill-placed hirmanity of PICHEGRU. 261 •f Louis XVI. had produced some years be- fore*. In the mean time the armies, but Httle in- fiuenccd by tlie convulsiotis that had taken place in the capita!, were'put iu motion, and resumed the * That true patriot, the loyal, able, and distinguislied writer, Mr. Bowles, makes, on t!ie mis-app!ication of this humane principle by the virtuous and unfortunate Louis XVI. some remarks, as acute as judicious, as liberal as jusr, and tl-ey ought to be printed and re-printed in all woiks where tlie horrors of rebellion are ex- posed, obedience instilled to subjedls, vigihince and firmness insi« nuaied to sovereigns and their ministers. — '* La wortJ'un goiir-^ vnnen-ent esi totijiiurs un suicide." All friends, favourites, coiMii- sellors, or ministers of lawful princes, should adopt this phrase of Voltaire as their motto. In his " TJioughts on the late General EleQion," pn^e 73, Mr. Bowles says : " Strange as U naay seem, mischiefs which involve the ruin of states, and the destruiflion of soci.il order, mny origi- nate in honourable and amiiible feelings, which produce the most disastrous cfFiCls'j because they, are not under the guid.mce of judgment; because they are not accompanied with comprehensive views of the naiure of society. The preservation of order and se- curity imposes an indispensible duty on all who exercise authority, to resist, as dangerous v;c.'.kness€S, those compassionate feelings which, if indulged, wouid scieen offenders from punishment, en- courage the cor:3mission of crimes by the piospedt of impunity, or suffer resistance to ripen into rebellion, by negledling to lepress tha tirst beginnings of turbulence and commotion. While they remem- ber, that it is their bounden duty to temper justice with mercy, they should not forget, that ill-judged lenity to the guilty is cruelty, to the innocent. The ambition of Louis XIV. the bigotry df Charles IX. and tlie tyranny of Louis XI. were not a thousandth pjrt 252 PICHEGRU. the operations of tlie campaign. Accordingly, ■while Pichegru prepared, with one body of troops', to attack Holland, another assembled in the neigh- bourhood of Brussel;, under Jourdan, and pro-- ceeded in pursuit of Clairfayt, who had succeeded part so severe a scourge to France as the misplnced lenity and amiable weakness of Louis XVI. No usurper, of ancient or mo- dern times, ever waded througli such seas of blood to a throne as liave deluged that unfortunate country, in consequence of the appa. rently humane resolution of the last-mentio: ed Prince, tiiat n» hloid ihouid be shed in hh cause. There cannot, indeed, be a greater and a more mischievous error, than this unfortunate Prince fell into, in supposing, that when the authority of a Sovereign is assailed, it is his cause exclusively, or even ptincipally, which is at issue. The authority which he has received from that Power by which " Kings reign, and Princes decree justice," is bestowed not for his own s.ike, but that of his people. It is a sacred trust reposed in hiir. for die benefit ai:d security of his subjedls. He is the guardian of the persons and property of those who are placed under his care. 'J'he laws are weapons put into his hands for their defence. And if to indulge t;ie generous emotions of liis heart; if to escape those pangs which every human mind cannot but feel in irrfiirting punishment upon criminals, lie suffers those laws to lose their effeif, and to be no longer " a tenor to evil doers" — if he " bear the sword in vain," he will be reponsible to the great King of Kings, whose minister he is, for a'l the surferings v.hich his iU- judgsd and- destrudive humanity may bring' upon the people com- mitted to lus charge — and, indeed, for every outrage upon the person or properly of any of them, v hich tins sacrilice oT justice to mercy may invite — nay, for the very guilt of offenders, who may be drawn into the commission of crimes by those hopes of impunity which a reliance on his lenity shall have encouraged them to form. the riCHEGRU. 253 the Prince qF Cobourg, as commander in chief, and was the omly general of the Combined Powers wlio now kept the fieki ; for the Duke of York by this time, before vastly superior forces, had withdrawn into Duch Brabant, after a long, in-* efFedtual, but glorious struggle ; and the Heredi- tary Prince of Orange was obliged to%cro>s the Dvle, to prevent his small army from being sur-% rounded. Pichegru wished to advance, and undertake the siege of Breda, and the troops desired it as well as himself ; nut the army of the Sambre and the Meuse had not yet been able to drive the Austrians ro theotlier side of the river Meuse, con- sequenilv, if he linci marched to besiege this city^ his right wing would have been uncovered. Be- sides, the administrations of pruvibions, &c. for the army of the North, had adled wiih such little intelligence and unanimity, that the incerti- tude of subsistence for the troops, gave more uneasiness to General Pichegru's mind, and per* plexed him more, than the direction over the movements ot the army. This part a£ the ad- ministration wascondudied widi such great negli- gence and ii^norance, ti.at ever since Piciiegru's departure frum Giient, he conanued to get bread from Lille, which was often wanted, and oftener arrived WjA pichegru. anlveJ half rotten and not eatable. He wanted forage, ana means to transport and convey it ; and when he complained to the members of the administration, they answered, " i^ai they were independent of all military authority ;" and if he ad- dressed himself to the representatives of the peo- ple, tliey said, " his conquests were too rapid : they therefore wonted more time, to provide vjith order and regularity*;'" that is to say, they had not tirad enough to pillage andexhaust tlie resources of one country, before his victorious army was marching in another. So circumstanced, it was too hazardous for Pichc"gru yet to penetrate into the vast heaths of Dutch Brabant, and these considerations deter- i-nined him to let his army encamp for eighteen davs in its positions near Antwerp; and after much trouble, Pichegru at last succeeded, duiing this interval, to have magazines established at Ghent, Malines, and Antwerp. This measuie diminished some of the obstacles, but it did not cause them entirely to cease, because these magazines were . so ill supplied, that in case his army had met with a defeat, it would immediately have been reduced to penury, and want of the ^rst necessaries for its. * Le Coup-d'ail, p^ge 33. ' , yiCHEGRU. 255 subsistence. The cominissaries had not even waggons enough to traiis])ort the bread for the troops, and the horses destined to this use weie so badly taken care of, and starved, that during each convoy, thirty or forty died or perished on the road *. Notwithstanding all these difficulties, Pichegru was determined to try the conquest of Holland, and to realize v^^hat Louis X!V. had attempted in vain. Alarm and consternation now spread among all those Dutchmen who really feic a patriotic zeal to rescue their country from the horrors of French domination. The Stadiholder had already ap- pealed to the United States in an energetic ad- dress, disclosing the just a])prehcnsion which he enter-tained, invoking them to imitate the strenu- ous valour of their ancestors in resisting the Spa- niards, shewing" the-miserable consequences which must result from permitting themselves to be de- luded by the arts of deceit, sedudlion, and corrup- tion, whichcou'd alone render their situation despe- rate, and give the desired advantages to, the enemy; and exhorting all classes to co-operate in securing to themselves liberty, independence, and perma- nent iiappiness. Unfortunately for Holland and » Les Campagnes du Pichegru, page 72 et 7a, A a Europcj 266 PICHEGRU. Europe, this, and other patriotic appeals of the worthy chief magistrate of the Batavians, had little cfFe6V, and the people, in an evil hour, continued to shew a general disposition to court the frater- nity of France ; a fraternity which offered grati- fication to many base and malignant passions, and for which the people had been assiduously pre- ;pared by French emissaries and agents. After a suspension of operations for nearly two months, during which interval the four fron- tier garrisons had been subdued, Pichegru re- assumed the offensive, and the army of the North quitted the environs of Antwerp on the 20th of August, and marched that day to Westmale, and and the next dav as far as Mol ; but such was the bad administration of the commissariat, that he could not for some days advance farther, from ■want of bread for liis army. Besides this obstacle, Jourdan informed Gene- ral Pichegru, that the passage of the river Oust, ■with the army of the Sambreand the Meuse, offer- ed inv'inciUe difficulties. This march on the Lower Meuse became therefore of no utility, and the prcjedl was given up. Pichegru then intended to approach nearer to the English army, and v»:ithout removing too far from Antwerp, to defeat it on the first occasion^ knowing it to be greatly reduced by recent losses. The PiCHEGRir. 26f The Duke of York, after having been com- pelled to retreat before the superior strength of the French, marched to the plains of Breda, es- tablishing his head-quarters at Oostcrhout on the 4th of August, and taking so strong a position, that he felt secure from an as?ault, till the Dutch should have had time to put the garrison in a state of defence, eredled redoubts in thefiont of his camp, and had the satiifadbon to see the town put in a formidable condition, and a large tradt of the surrounding country inundated. On the 24rh of August, Pichegru took his position near Turnhout, and on the aSch, in the neighbourhood of Hoogstraten, behind the little river Merk, he dpove in the British outposts, ■with an intent to turn the left of t!ie arrnv, and. , cut off tde retreat to Bois-Ie-dnc ; but the Biicish Commander, with greai judgment and geii.raU ship, effected a tunely recreai, and encamped oa a large plain seven miles bevond Bois-le-duc, esta- blishuig his head-quarters at che village of Udden, and relinquibhiug the defence of Breua to its gar- • lison. In this interval Sluys had surrendered, after enduring a vigorous siege, in which the ficnch were also subjected to great inconveniences, aiid a destru.6Uve mortality, both from the nature of A a 2 their 26s PICHEGRU. their situation, from the height of the tide, and from the exlialation of the inundations, which^ besides, made the approaches to the city exceed- ingly difficult. The besieging army, exhaust- ed by fatigue and illness, could not immediately be employed ^ and as the battering artillery was not arrived, Pichegru, in sending orders to Jour- dan to pass with the army of the Sambre and th& Meuse, the river Meuse, and to attack the left wing of tlie Austrians, prosecuted his originui plan of pursuing the Duke of York, and leaving Breda, till he should have made some impression on Holland ;. tiiere was yet another reason for tisis conuu6l — if tiie Austrian armv had defeated the army of the Sambre and Meuse, and Piclie- gru had been occupied with the siege of Breda, his retreat with tlie army of the North would have been impossible, if the Duke of York had received leinforcemcnts to give him the superiorip- ty of numbers, which he, from tlie reports- of his spies, had every reason to believe would be the case*. Pichegru made, however, a judicious feint of commencing the siege of that place, for the purpose of concealing the amount of his force, and on the I4ih of September made a general al- •" Conp-d'cti!. page 66, and the note page 69. tacfc; PICHEGRU. 269 tack on all the outposts Dlong the Dommel, forcing that of Boxtcl, which was chiefly protedl- ed by tlie troops of Hesse-Darmstadt. In this affair the French behaved with extraordinary- valour ; all the bridges over the Dommel, as well as those across a neighbouring stream, had been , broken down, which retarded the a6lion, com-' mencing at three o'clock, and continuing until six in the evening, when they effe6led a passagCj . partly by swimming and partly by rafr, and kill- ed, wounded, or made prisoners,, upwards' of fif- teen hundred of the Allies. As the loss of the Boxtel would oblige HiV Royal Highness to abandon th^ whole of his line. of defence, it was determined to send Lieutenant- general Abercromby, at the head of the reserve, during the ensuing night, with ciders, if possible, to retake it: but tl.e enem.y beinsi; found too Strong, having, already received a reinforcement from Pichegru, the English troops returned ; and the commander in chief having learned bv this time, that numerous columns, to the amount of 80,000 men, were advancing against him, and not being able to muster 20^000 men himself, it was deemed pruderit to withdraw, more especially as an attack appeared to be meditated against his - A a 3 left;, 270 PICHEGRU. lefr, wliich was the most vulnerable poHit*. This portion of the allied troops according!)' re- treated across the Meuse in good order, and en- camped at Wichen, after some loss in men, horses, and artillery ; while Bois-le-duc and Ber- gen- op-zoom, as well as Breda, being no longer prote61ed by a covering army, were obliged to depend on their own internal strength r^nd re- sources, which the long resistance and able re- treat of the British Prince before a vastly superior enemv, had given the Dutch provernment tinie both to improve and augment. The French of the army of the North, on the 19th of the same month, took a position behinjd the Aa, between Wechel and Bourdouk, and on the ensuing day proceeded to Denter. Pichegru for a short time discontinued the purr suit of the Duke of York's army, as well on ac- count of the fatigue of the French troops, as from want of good maps ; but the army of the Sambre and the Meuse, agreeably to the ordeis of Pichegru, attacked and defeated the left wing of the Aus- trian Army, and, after a series of well-contested engagements, in which the nun:!bers of the repub- * See Le Coup-d'ceil, page 55, and Loadon GazeUe Extraordi- nary, Sunday, Sept. ai, 1794. licaus ^ PICHEGRU. zn licans gave them a constant advantage, the Im- perialists were compelled to cross the Rliiue at Cologne, with the loss of near ten thousand men. The last battle was peculiarly bloody : General Ciairfayt had chosen his position near Ruremonde with so much judgment, that Jourdan appeared to be squandering lives with unavailing profu- sion ; and his attack must have remained an ever- lasting monument of his rashness, had the. two wings of the Austrian army -exhibited as much courage and discipline as the cejntre : but at the' mo- ment Clairfliyt flattered liimself with the prospecSlcf complete success, and of destroying immense.num- bers of the enemy, while his own troops sustained no injury, he was informed that his v^ings were forced ; and he was obligedto make a hasty, though orderly retreat, to avoid being turned and over- powered. Jourdan was so doubtful of the courage of his men in this tremendous assault, that he ordered cannon to be placed, to fire on such as might fall back. In a week after this battle, Jourdan gained possession of Cologne and Bonne. It cannot be denied, that the successes of the French army in Holland originated from the talents qf General Pichegru ; its superiority in point of numbers over the Allies; and to its se- cret adherents in the inner part of that country ; because in PICHEGRU. because at this period, while the French were' vi6lorious in the field, their partisans in the Seven Provinces became additionally alert and insolent : their number daily increased. The States Gene- ral authorized tlr" Stad?hoider to cut the dykes and inundate the country, should the enemy, make further advances ; but t!ie people were • thought to oppose and reprobate the plan, as de- slru6tive to their lands and properties. This ar- gurnenr, which iiiculcated a preference of tem- porary advantage to permanent treecbm, would not perhaps have been popular even in Holland, but a large portion of the natives, uninstrudted . by the- horrible raping which devastated and op- pressed the inhabitants of Brabant and Flanders *;^. looked * This note is extraflel from the work of David on Pichegru's Campaigns, pages 94 inJ 95 : it relues to Br. bant nnd Flamleis only, but is arplicable to all coimlries where French rtpublicms have penetrated, either by force or fraud, eiiher during a peace, as in Swi'z.iland and F.gypt, cr during a war, as in Italy and Holland. *' Ce I'.'etoit rieu que d'avoir souffeit tous 'es ravages qu'entrainent une guerre aussi terrib'e ; d'avoir vu uictnd ei ou demolir ses mai- sons; d'avoir vu deiruiie les plus lelles esperance- de colte ; d'avoir ■yu prendre ses bleds en gr r' e ■, pour laire les c.ibanes de nos soldats;; il, a fillu encore que ce iT'.alheureux peuple ait passe par tous les termes du malheur, de Toppression et tie ia devastation Ses villes ont cre inondees d'ur.e cohorie de proconsuls plus inliuninins. que Phalaris, qui n'ont rien oubiie de ce qui peitt exasperer les hommes ; des ccmiies, des iribunaux isvolutionaires ont cte orgmiies ; !ex PICHEGRU. 273 looked to the French as fricncls and deliverers, who ivould rescue them from tyranny and taxatloHi and permit the jioor, under the notion of frater- nity, to plunder the opulent* This explains some easy conquests, even to the astonishment of the vidors themselves : treachery, corruption, and cowardice, went often hand in hand. To pursue the English army to the other side of the Meuse,. Pichegru judged it absolutely neces- sary to obtain possession of some strong place, whence his an«y might draw its subsistence: the f^aimes out he hnulths la homines inC'tyd-res ft les fropri'e.'et vioices. Notre coJs levclution.iire 3 f-ai'i' tiop doux pour ce psuple paisible ; il 5 eie revu parces hoRn.mes crueis, tt augmente d*une foule d'arrctes qui lous fortdeMt peine de mo&t , de sorts que fct/r iin geste ou uii mot, un fere de Jamille eloit envoye a i'ech.i- JauJ, et sa fiimii/e eloit liviee aux horrezos de /a /aim et de la tnisere ;" and page 97, lie continuts-, "■ Inuependamment de tous ces mesures effrayarites, Ir.justes et devastauices, une uue des rt.- quisiteurs et membres de cette ap^ence, appelles si impropr,e:r!e!it ^e commerce foiidoient comme des vautours siirles viiies et sur l6s Campagnes et ruinoient pour long-tems le commercant et i'agricul. ture. Jamais operation n'a cte faite avec uti arbitraire aiissi mar- que, et aussi revoltant, chaque requisiteur mettoit I'embargo sur les merchandises, sur les quelles, sa cupldite avoit specule ; ici cetoit \ti Hkotis, les dentelles, etc. qui etoient repues pour les besoins de I'arme, la c'etoit les vernis, les tabh.nux, les voi/ures,de luce, etc. etc." Citizen David is a Frenchman, and a republican, and has therefore certainly not-exaggerated the blessing of a French frater- sit;^. bread 2^4 PICHEGRtr; bread for the arm^- of the North came yet from Antwerp, a distance of twenty-five leagues, or" seventy-nve miles, through almost impradicable roads ; and as both horses and waggons were want- ed to have it transported, it never arrived in a re- gular manner, and often the troops had no bread . at'all. Bois-le-duc was the most convenient place, both, to ensure a favourable position for the army, and. to establish magazines. It became, therefore, of great consequence to get hoid of this city, before the passage of the Meuse was attempted, though the enterprize was not onlv difficuk but perdous. The place was defended by several forts weii sup- plied with artilieiy, and ni good order, which ■were thought imi;rej;uable The inundations,^ ■which extend themselves loupwardsot three hun-- dr^d tathoms, oi- 1800 tcet, from iis ramparts, make it an island in the middle of a great river ; ami, was it even possib e to inake a breachj. all the iascine&.of irjince would not be sufficient to approach it. Independently of all these difficulties, for want of horses, General Pichegru had yet his heavy- artillery for a ^ie^^e at a great distance ; the seasoa< was. far advanced, and by the usual rains of that ^ time of tlie year> the inundations might have been aug- HCHEGRU. 275 augmented in such a manner as to make any trenches impradlicable. Notwithstanding all these obstacles, Pichegra determined to undertake the siege: the place was invested by the French cavalry on the 23d of Sep- tember, and the next day the infantry was placed. Some batteries of howitzers were construded to set fire to the city, and the trenches were opened, but became every day more difficult, because the waters increased. On tlie 24th of September the fortofOrlen was seized, being evacuated by the enemy; and on the 29th, the fortofCrevecceur ca- pitulated, after a bombardment of two days. This fort defended the sluices over the Meuse, and was therefore of great importance. By inceisant rains, the floods and inunda- tions' round Bois-le-duc were so much in- creased, as to make a siege, if not impossi- ble, at least long and destrudtive : the trenches were st too great a distance, and as it was not in the power of the French engineers to ad- vance taem nearer, they became useless ; Piche- gru, and all the other generals, were therefore doubtful of the success of this siege, when the commander, to their great surprize, terminated their suspense on the nth of October, by a vo- luntary surrender, obtaining an advantageous, but not an honourable capitulation. The 275 PICHEGRU. The Dutch had also abandoned the fort of St. Andre, situated on a small island formed by the Meuse and Waal, eastward of Bommel ; but It •was bravely retaken from the French by Lieute- nant-general Abercromby, and proved a material impediment to the further operations of the re- publicans. On the 14th of Oiflober, General Pichegru marched towards Grave with the army under his command, which place had, during the short siege of Bois-le-duc, been - -rtly invested by a division under the orders of General Bonneau. General Pichegru having now a place of strength to support his motions, had on the igth crossed the Lower Meuse in pursuit of the ene- my, regulating his movements in exadl confor- mity to the operations of jourdan, and completed the investing of Grave. This place entered ne- cessarily in the French line of fortifications on the Meuse, because the projefl being formed to capture Maestricht and Venlpo, it would have been imprudent to leave behind a fort so near Bois-le-duc ; besides, these measures were in- dispensihle to support the left wing of the army of the Sarabre and Meuse, by the right wing of the army of the North. The Duke of York, who is allowed on tliis, as PICHEGRU. 277 as well as on many other occasions, even by the enemy, to liave conducled his retreat with great ability*, in the face of a superior armv, waited for the invaders in a strong position In the neighbourhood of Pufflech, having his two wings supported by two rivers. On the i9thDf06lo- ber, the French, notwithstanding this, moved forward in four columns, and attacked the whole of the advanced posts on his right, particularly those of Doutin and Appelthern, tiie former of which was defeated by the 37th regiment, aud the latter by the Prince of Rohan's light batta- lion. The troops conducled themselves with great gallantry ; but a post on the left having been forced, A4ajor Hope, after distinguishing * Had the son of a sans-culotte a£ted with the same ability as the son of a king, and encouatsied nobly, and ofren vitloriously, so many difficulties from the superior number of his foes, and from the treachery or cowardice of his friends and allies, a thousand voices ■would have proclaimed his great performances; but vvhile the friends of loyalty .ue silent, a Fiench 'Citizen, an avowed enemy to England and its Prince, writes thus : " Un historien, impartial ne peut pas s'empeclier de convenir que dans cetie occ.ision ti dans ieaucoup d'aulies, les . dispositions de I'enfiemi pour la dejensive, cut toujours ete jrtiirqiies at; coin dc la bonne taBique. On peut dire la meme chose de turtles leiirs retrailes. Celle que Us An~ gi'ais Jirent dans cette occasion merit e des fhges ; e//e exignoi.' /cs plus f^randcs precautions, ft on peut ajjirmer qu'il n'y en cut au- cum-s de ncgligk's." See Campagnes du General Pichegru, p.ir le Citoyen David, page 114." r> b hi 11) self 278 PICHEGRU. himself greatly, was obliged to retreat along the dyke of the Waal, where his regiment, being charged furiously by the enemy's horse, suffered considerably ; Majoi-general Fox is said to have been nearly at the same time taken prisoner, and detained for a few minutes by some French hus- sars, while encouraging the troops to a strenuous opposition. On this occasion, too, the unfortu- nate emigrants in British pay, fighting bravely, suffered considerably. After this engagement, the Duke of York immediately retired behind tlie Waal, while Pichegru with the invading army, notwithstand- ing the advanced season of the year, and the ob- stacles arising out of the nature of the country, prepared to besiege the neighbouring garrisons. Venlco w-as accordingly invested by General Laurent, who is said, uj;on this occasion, to have had no more than 4000 men under his command, and to have been destitute of heavy artillery. He, however, commenced his operations within lOO fathoms of the covered way. The garrison, after a vif^orous sally, In which it was repulsed, iniimi- dated by the vigour of the French, and the proxi- mity of iheir works, on the 27th of 06lober as- sented to a capitulation, and was permitted to niarcb out with the honours of war and ten pieces of cannon. Pichegru'« PICHEGRU. 2fp Pichegru's first division of die army of the North," and one of tl)e strongest in this army, never once 4nade a retroorade motion. To tliis division, and to that under General Mo- reau, France is indebted for all its triumphs dur- ing the campaign in Flanders and in Holland. "When the one besieged any place,. the other pro- tected its undertaking as an army of observation ; neither the ont^ nor the other miscarried in their eutcrpriscs ; hut sucli arc tiie graiiiudc and jut lice of a republican government, that of the two ge- nerals who coiKluifled them to vicSlory, the one is proscribed and in exile, the other ncglefled, and in disgrace. F.'-om the fatiguhig course of one of the most a6l!ve campaigns, and from the constant custom to sleep always full dressed, Pichegru contracted ajrinveterate cutaneous disease. He had now sat down before Nimeguen with the main body of the forces, but was obliged, froxr^ this complaint, to abandon the command to his friend and pupil Moreavi, and to repair to Brussels to obtain medi- cal advice and a.^sistance. He continued, however, to direvSt the operations both of the army of the North, and of the Sambre and Meuse, by his. councils and correspondence with Moreau and Jourdan. B b 2 Durins: 280 FICHEGRU. During Pichegru's absence, General Kleber greatly facilitated the operations of the two granci armies, by the celerity with which he reduced JVIaestricht. This city was besieged and taken by Lonis XIV. in thirteen, and by Louis XV. in twenty-one days ; General Miranda in 1795, had during nine days attacked it in vain, but it now capitulated, although the trenches had been opened only eleven days : another proof of the want of courage and of character in the Dutch commanders. The French, however, appeared for a while to be less fortunate in their attack upon Nimeguen, another city which was not only defended by a numerous garrison, but covered by the Duke of York, who from his camp at Arnheim, was enabled at any time to throw in supplies. The enemy, after forcing the British outposts in front of the place, immediately attacked fort St, Andre ; and Lieutenant-general Abercromby, and Lieutennnt-coloncl Claik, were slightly wounded in the skirmish that ensued, as was also Captain Pi61on in a sally from the place. At length the French broke ground, under the direc- tion of General Souham, and began, on the 5th of November, to coustrucl their batteries; on which Count Walmoden marched out suddenly with PICHEGRU. 2S1 with a body of Biitish infantry anl cav;lry, con- sisting of the 8rh, 27th, 28th, 55^h, 63d, and. 78th regiments of foot, and the -ych and I5t!i light-horse, two battanons of Dutch, the legion ot Damas, and some Hanoverian horse, under Ma- jor-general De Eurgh, who was wounded while leading on his men with great gallantry. On thii- occasion the infantry. advanced under a severe fire> Vim] jumping into the trenches without returning a shot, charged with the bayonet, and by this chtck _ greatly retarded the enemy's works. . As it now, appeared evident, that the place could ; not be taken .until all intercourse vi'ith the English army was cut ofF, two strong batteries wxre con- st.ru6\ed on the riglit and left of the lines of ilefence, and these were so etFcsStually served, that they at length destroyed one of the boats which supported the bridge of communication. The damage sus- tained upon this occasion was immediately repaired by Capt. Popliam, of the royal navy ; but the Duke of York, being aware of tiie superiority of the enemy's hre, judiciously determined to vi iti:dra\v every thing from tlie town, beyond what was barely necessary for its defence. All the artillervf of the reserve,- with the British, Hanoverian, and Hessian battalions, accordingly retired; but pi- <^uets, to the amount of twenty-five hundred men, , ' St) 3 visi:£c 282 PICHEGRU. were left under the command of Major-general De Burgh. The Dutch, on seeing themselves abandoned, became dispirited, and determined also to evacuate the place ; but an unfortunate shot having carried away the top of the mast of the fly- ing bridge, it swung round, and about four hun- Holland in the course of the ensuing spring. . The operations of t!ie French had been now suspended upwards of a montli,. and an awful : pause had taken place in the career of vidory ; it was even uncertain, . whctlier, on the return of fine weallicr, it would be safe to venture further into a country, which might be so easily laid i under water ; and the genial winters that had occurred in Europe since 1788, prohibited the hope of that degree of congelation necessary for. military enterprises. The ^ FICHEGRU. 285 The season, however, soon assumed a menac- ing appearance for the Dutch, as the frost set in towards the latter end of the year, with an unex- peded degree of rigour. On this, General Pi- chegru, for whom repose had no longer any charms, althougli his health was not yet entirely- re-established, immediately left Brussels, and pro- ceeded to head-quarters. This general had, the year before, made a winter campaign on the Up- per Rhine, with the greatest success, but what he had effedled in the cold season in that country, he might have done during the spring, whilst such a severe winter as that of 1795 ^^^^ absolutely necessary to obtain any brilliant conquests in Hol- land. On resuming the command of the army of the North, he found that both the Meuse and the Waal were already able to bear troops ; he determined therefore to take advantage of this opportunity to complete his proje<5ts. Two brigades under the Generals Daendels and Osten, on tlie 27th December received or- ders to march across the ice to the isle of Bom- mel ; a detacliment was at the same time sent ofF against the fort St. Andre ; and the reduction of those places, which at any other time wodd have been attended with great slaughter, was pow atchieved almost without bloodshed, at a time 2B6 PICHEGRIT. time when the mercury in the thermometer had fallen lower than at any former period during the last thirty years. Sixteen hundred prisoners, and an immense nviraber of cannon, rewarded the toils of the invading armv, while the Allies, unable to withstand their numbers, retired to the entrenchments between Gorcum and Cuylen- berg. A successful attack was made at the same time on the lines of Breda, Oudehesch, and Se- vciibergen ; hut what was iurinitely more im- pottant, the town of Grave, considered as a master-piece of fortiBcationi and which had al- ready suffered a blockade of two months, being- destitute of provisions and ammunition, was on the 29th December forced to furrender, in conse- quence of which, its garrison was made prisoners of war. A few days after this, the weatiier continuing favourable to his enterprise, Pichegru determined to cross the Waal in the neir:hbourhoGd of Nime- O guen, with his whole army ; this was according- ly effected on the iith of January 1795, and. "whole battalions of infantry, squadrons of cavalry, detachments of aitillcry, with an immense num-. ber of waggons, passed over this branch of the Rhine without the assistance of either bridges or feoats. The whole of the troops had not, how-- ever,. riCHEGRU. 28; ever, reached the place of destination, when on the 13th a sudden thaw, by cutting off the com- munication, seemed to liazard the success of the whole expedition ; but the frost by the next day resuming its empire, enabled the French to form a junction; and Gorcum, the head- quarters of the Prince of Orange, was now threatened with an assault. The Duke of York having, in the mean time, returned to England universally regretted, the command devolved upon General Walmoden, who atchieved every thing that-was possible to be performed by an army destined to contend against an enemy superior In point of numbers, iiuired to hardships, and accustomed to vi61ory. But ai- tliough Major-general David Dundas had suc- ceeded in an expedition, in the course of which he boldly carried Tayl, and drove a body of the •enemy across the ice, with the loss of a number of men, and four pieces of cannon, yet it was deemed necessary, in the course of a few days, to remove the head-quarters from Arnheim to Amerongcn. An intense frost having converted the whole of the Low Country into one continued sheet of ice, the Allies were obliged tofall back during the night, first upon Beuren, and they soon after took refuge behind the Lech. They, however, at times attacked 288 PICHEGRU. attacked the enemy, and proved succcssfid In au affair at Gelder Malsel, on which occasion Major- general Lord Caihcart, with the 14th, 27 th, and 28th Regiments, and the British liulans, distin- guished himself greatly, and this too during a pe- riod when the troops, notwithstanding the incle- mency of the season, were frequently obliged to pass the night in the open air. Pichegru having completed his arrangements, crossed the Waal in still greater force,- and at- tacked several points at the same time, on the whole line of the Allies : one column passed at Pameren, and another at the village of Ghent, but were repulsed ; a third crossed near Nime- guen, and, in conjunction with two columns which had passed between Tiel and Dodewaert, attacked the British positions on that side. The Austrians had abandoned Heusden, and passed the Lech ; and the Hanoverians, with General Coates's brigade, consisting of the 40th, 59th, and 79th regiments, \^ere ol=>liged to fall back on Lent ; tlie French had all their troops on the opposite side of the river, and on a signal given, they crossed in great numbers, and attacked General ' Coates; the 40th and 79th regiments were placed about half a mile in the rear, close to a wood, and the 59th were left to engage, and try to draw them into HCIIEGRU. as9 into the ambuscnde, but a strong column of the enemy forced their way between the 59th and the main body : on their faUing back on Lent, they found it in the possession of the enemy, and m consequence, retired across the Lingen, where they maintained themselves behind the river, near Elst. The French obtained immediate possession of Buren and Culembourg, and prepared to besiege Gorcum, which from the strength of the works and the facility of inundation, had been considered the key of Holland ; it was the head-quarters of the Stadtholder, but the frost rendering resistance impossible, he quitted the untenable fortress, and finding from the ascendancy of his enemies, that his residence in the United States was no longer secure, abandoned that ungrateful country, whic?i, forgetful of its great obligations to himself, his family and his ancestors, and its duty as an inde- pendent state, was plunging with blindfold con- fidence into the most -despicable and hopeless bondage. ITie Stadtholder, and a great number of rcspe(5lable natives of Holland, whopreceded or •accompanied him, found a safe refuge and cheer- ing welcome in England, where His Serene Highness landed on the 20th of January, 1795. While the Stadtholder was thus forced to fly C c from 290 PICHEGRU. from a country where his ancestors, by their ii5- trepldity and patriotism, liad estahlished liberty and independence, a French officer with dis- patches from General Pichcgru enteied Amster- dam, and repaired to the house of the burgomas- ter. In the evening of the same day, numbers of the rabble placed the three-coloured cockade in their hats, and made the streets resound with re- bellious airs. Next morning a detachment of hussars posted themselves before the town-house, where the tree of liberty * was planted with a ridiculous solemnity, and the command of the place conferred on Citizen KraycnhofF, one of the disaffected and insurgent Dutchmen, while De Winter, of the same party, but a general in the French service, with the French light hors.e, took possession of the fleet frozen up in the Texel. At the time when Pichegru crossed the Waal, General Bouueau left the environs of Breda, and attacked Gcrtruydenburg: the British troops, finding themselves unable to maintain their posi- tion in the province at Utrecht, retreated towards Inundated with blood every where, the tree of liberty flou- rishes no where. In France they call it, /'aiire de misere, decore d'un bonnet it du gullire ; and, ia fait, the liberty of galley slaves Is the only fruit it produces. West- PICHEGRTJ. 291 Westphalia, after sustaining a severe attack all along their line, from Arnheim to Am rengen ; and this province entered into a separate caj^itu- lation for itself, receiving the French with pros- strate submission and eager welcome, while the retreating army of the British was treated with sa- vage cruelty, the sick and wounded were insulted, plundered, and even murdered bv these wortiiless and ungrateful Allies, in whose cause they had shed their blood, and lost their health. The in- tense coldness of the winter increased the miseries of the retreating army, and produced scenes of distress which cannot be reflected on without hor- rur and anguijh. On the very same day the Stadthokler landed In England, Pichegru, the conqueror of Holland, surrou;.tded by the deputies of the States, repaired to Amstcn'am, the chief city of the union, wiiere he was received with transports ot joy. The mo- desty of Pichegru, on t lis and ad other occasions, when crovvned by vidtory and obtaining applause, was a reproaching contrast w-rtli the insolence and pretensions of the French representatives, aiitl their associates the L>urch patriots; and it re- quired all Pichegru*s iirmness of chara£ler to pre- vent tlicse scenes of plunder, vengeance, blood- shed, and pioscription taking place in Hoiland, which so lately had dishonoured France. s c 2 After 292 PICHEGRU. After the French had gotten possession of Anr- Sterdam, Pichegru ordered Eonneau's division ta pass the lakeBiesboch, and it occupied Dordreelir, Rotterdam, the Hague, Brille, and Helvoetsluys^ and General Macdonald entered Naeiden. The province of Zealand having also capitulated, the light troops, consisting chiefly of horse and artil- lery, had marched into North Holland, and added to the wonders of Pichegru's campaign the unpre- cedented circumstance of taking a fleet. Overyssel, Groningen, and Friezeland, were still in possession of the British army ; but dimi- nished as they were in numbers, hostile as were the Dutch towards them, and immensely superior in force as were the French, their situation could not be long tenable, nor was it either political or desirable, under such circumstances, to retain ground in such a country. A thaw havmg com- menced, the depth of water rendered the passage by the usual, route impracfticable. According to Pichegv:u's orders, the French under Macdouald, having taken a position be# tvvcen Campen, Zwoll, and Deventer, while Moreau occupied Zutcher, General Abeicromby becaine appiehensive, that, in case of an attack, his retreat would be cut off; he therefore with- drew his troops from the advanced jiosts, and marchei. hchegrlt. 293 marched to Eenthelm, by way of Euchede and Velthuysen ; and the British head-quarters were moved first to Osnaburgh, and afterwards to Dicpholtz, the repubhcans being every where re- ceived by the decree of the new government of the United States as friends. At last the British forces marched to Bremen, and thence to Bre- merleehe, vi'here they embarked for England, after surmounting toils and difficulties seldom equalled, with a valour, perseverance and disci- pline, which v^'ere never surpassed. Thus ended the campaign in Holland, during which Pithegru, aided by the rigours of an acci- dental frost, atchieved conquests, that one of the greatest French monarchs had been unable to etfeCt ; for the Lech had proved an insurmount- able barrier to Louis XIV. in 1672, amidst his career of glory ; while Pichegru, with an army belonging to a country degraded by rebellion, witliout a chief, destitute of a government, and devoid ot finances, after crossing both that river and ttie Yssel, carried iiis conquering arms to the borders oi the Ejns. General Pichegru, by this brilliant campaign^ has convinced military men that tiie lorn^er tac- tic, which began by making sieges, and squan- deiing away by it the bravest troops, was not c c 3 the 2Q4 FICHEGRU. the best, A place well fortified Is impregnable S:S long as it is defended by a brave army ; but no fortress can bold out any length of time wherv the troops who should prote6l it are defeated.. Had the Combined Powers in 1 793 adopted and^ followed- the same ta6lics which made Pichegru-' vidlorious in 1794, a regular government would probably have now existed in France, French- men would have been happy and tranquil, and. Europe freci This assertion is evident, from the: manner in which France got possession of Valen- ciennes, Conde, Quesnoy, Luxembourg, &c. Pichegru never laid siege to any fort or forti- fied place, which was not. absolutely necessary to protect the position of his army;, and with this metliod he in nine months con querelesome menibers of his family. — Dubois Crcauce connnanded the execution of one of his sons, shot as an einigiant. The De- puty Duquesnby caused his own father to be guillotined, as insulting the national representa- tion, by claiming him as Itis son. Heibert poisoned his first \%ife, to he enal>]ed to marry a nun ; and confined his brother, who was a priest, in the £ e a eont- .319 nCHEGRU. convent of the Carmelites, -where he was mur- dered with other prisoners in September 1792*. Such was the conduiSt of one class of the revolu' tionary charafters, Rewbel, Merlin, Carnot, Sieves, and Buonaparte, have a(^ed differently, and In a manner as if all persons related to them were born with capacity to be ministers, generals, senators, ambassadors, and to fill other impoitant offices, while the French national treasury, and those of Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and Hol- land, procured them means to live according to their high stations. Neither guilt degraded, nor ambition or cupidity dishonoured Pichegru, in his behaviour to those near and dear to him; the ties of blood and of nature were sacred to liim, but he did not drag ignorance from ob- scurity, nor reward consanguinity at the expencc of merit ; none of his relatives had any place un- der him, or by his recommendation, and it was his glory to find them again as good, as poor, and as obscure as he had quitted them. On his com- ing back amongst them, they saw in his course of life, the former companion of their society, the brother, the cousin, the friend, and not the vi6tor nor the hero ; they could not, therefore, murmur Les Annilcs du Terrorisme, page 666. as PICHEGRU. 317 as neg1c£led, nor complain as if disregarded; the general partook of their scanty meals thearfully, and returned their embraces with th.e same cor- diality as the adjutant had done; and in their com- pany lie was the person who oftenest forgot both what he had dane for his country and what his country had done for him, and that a small farm was the only fortune of the saviour of his country, and of the conqueror of Alsace, Brabant, Flan- ders, and Holland. Of the friars of the Miniones, who had been his early instructors, most had died in misery, or perished in prisons, or on tiie republican scaffolds. Five were ye|. alive, but in a situation which made life a burthen to themselves, of use to nobody, and a torment to all feeling men who knew them ; ihey were old, decayed, sick, and destitute of for- tune, and, ot course, of friends ; and, besides, pro- scribed as fanatics, because they had not renounced the religion of their ancestors, the religion of ' Christ. Pichcgru sold his horses and camp equi- page, and distributed the amount amongst thcin and two of his poorest relations, who had courage and humanity enough to harbour the houseless, and to shelter wretchedness from unjust prosecu- tion. What is the gift of Buonaparte's kingdom of Eiruria to such an aflion? E e 3 When 318 PICHEGRU. When once amongst his friends, Pichegru de- sired nothing but quiet and privacy ; but his re- nown was so great, and his chara6ter so much respc6led, that all loyal Frenchmen were indig- nant at knowing his penury, and the cause of his retirement ; and as the French press, although not free, was not quite enslaved, the daily prints were filled v/ith reproaches and accusations against the Diredory. As an honourable exile, and more to get rid of a supposed enemy than to si- lence public clamour, the base and jealous Direc- tors offered Pichegra the embassy to Sweden, a country which was at that time governed by a regent, who had pardoned most of the regicide assassins of his great and loyal brother, who had changed his alliance against revolutionary France into amicable connexions with the French regi- cides, and whose political principles, if he had anv, were erroneous, if not dangerous to the cause of religion and monarchy. It was on this occasion that the dire<5lor Le Tourneur mentioned Pichegru, as " a man whom the French nation could present either to its friends cr its cnetniu; and ihat this was the case, and that there is no other person who has figured in the French Revolution, of whom this can be said, all Europe knows as well as citizen Le Tour- neur. Per- PICHEGRU. 319 Perceiving the real motive of the ofFer of tliis tmbassy, Pichcgru declined its acceptance, not, as Barras afterwards chose to say, because he found himself unfit to fill it with honour, but because he would have nothing to do with the Diredlors, men whose charadlers ditFered so wide- ly from his own, and whom he could neither persuade himself to esteem, nor desire to serve. That this was the true reason, appears from the confession of Carnot, one of his greatest and most ungenerous enemies. He savs in one of his writings, " that during a conversation of two hours with Pichegru, this general spoke with a finessed^ esprit, and with a diplomatical information, which surprized him, knowing him only for his military talents, which do not alwavs suppose an universal genius, highly cultivated by a careful education." This praise is not flattery nor suspi- cious, wlien coming from such a man as Carnot; and all persons who have the honour to know General Pichegru, agree in describnig his feelings, judgment, political information, and intelligence, as liberal and as amazing, as his skill as a warrior. But if he refused any employment under the Direflory, when his fellow-citizens chose him, in March, 1797, one of their representatives in the Council of Five Hundred, for the department of 320 PICHEGRU. of Jura, It was his duty to accept, and he fol- lowed its dic\ates. By the viiSlories of Buonaparte, during 1796, and more so by his false and bombast descriptions of his battles, tlie Jacobinical Directors hoped to diminish the popularity of Pichegru, and to make the inconsistent Frenchmen forget what they owed to this great general ; but in the middle of external successes, the interior of France, though not so forcibly convulsed, was little less agitated than at the most alarming periods of the Revolu- tion. The Dirc6tory possessed neitlier the confi- dence nor the respect of the people ; their councils were divided by separate views, and by mutual distrust and contempt ; while tiie dread of new revolutions, and the immediate terror ot military force, alone appeared to prevent some violent ex- plosion. The Dire6tcrs, tully sensible of the dangers to which they were exposed, saw with alarm the approach of the period when, by the new constitution, the people must meet in primary- assemblies, to choose anew a third part of the representatives. As a measure of security on this occasion, the Diredtors, by a decree, prohibited all persons in- scribed on the list of emigrants, ahhough never emigrated, fiom exercising any political rights; and FICHEGRU. 321 •and a new effort to prevent tlie sovereign people from enjoying too great a siiare of authority, was made by the Diredtory, in a message to the Councilor Five Hundred ; whei\Mn, after speak- ing mysteriously of conspirators, whose hopes were not yet annihilated, it insinuated the propriety of denying to all who had refused, or should refuse, to take the oath of hatred to royalty, the right of voting, considering the people on that occasion as public funnionaries. As most of the citizens chosen were of the same moderate principles with Pichegru, the ele6lions to vacant seats in the Council of Fjve Hundred •were not satisfadtory to government ; but the committees of nine, formed to decide on the pro- priety of the returns, agreed on the eligibility of most of the members. A'l tlie first meeting of the new Council of Five Hundred, Pichegru was called to tne chair, as its f.rst president, and Iiis name being signed to two resolutions, the Council ot the Ancients hailed his nomination with expressions of respc6l for his military talents and virtues ; but his abilities were envied by one part of the Directory, and his moderation suspected by another: his modesty was called a secret ambition ; his prudence a con- scaled vanity ; his loyalty hypocrisy, and his po- pularity 322 PICHEGRU. pularity conspiracy ; and after these liberal suppo- sitions, they determined sooner or later to let him feel the effect of their envy and hatred. Notwithstanding that Buonaparte had about this time concluded the Peace of Leoben, and his po- litical and revolutionary principles were known to correspond with those of the jacobin Diredlors, Pichegru's popularity augmented, and he became and was regarded as the chief and hope of all mo- derate men, not only in the Council of F'ive Hun- dred, but in the armies, and all ever France. The distraction of the executive government was therefore at the highest pitch : the new eledlions, by giving seats to some men of greater abilities than had before been cliosen, and of chara61ers comparatively unblemished, afforded foundation to a strong and popular opposition, who justly censured public proceedings with a freedom which upstart tyranny could ill endure, and a force which made oppression writhe in an- guish, and meditate bloody revenge. This new opposition bid open for all French- men to be convinced, that frauds, ignorance, im- prudence, nt'gligcnce, folly, and peculation, reigned in all tiie offices under the Dire6lory, and that, particularly in the finances, there existed neither order, foresight, nor economy ; and the pub- lic PICHEGRU. 32S He afFairs were therefore in endless confusion ; it was proved that they had obtained the disposal of ninety-seven millions of livres (about 4,300,0001.). besides at least twenty millions received in con- tributions, under pretence that they would thus he enabled to make peace, but no peace was thought of*. In the military committee, of which Pichegru was a member, it was discovered that the army list contained^})' thousand men to be paid, clothed, and accoutred, more than had ever been really en- rolled; and the military hospitals charged for patients who had never entered their walls, or who had long been dead: and this, said Dupont de Nemours, who was stating the fatSls, is only a corner lifted up of the curtain which conceals these enormities. On the thriftless expenditure, he ob- served, that while large sums were issued for the opera, the conservatory of music, the riding- schools at Versailles, and lavished on manufac- tories of arms no longer wanting, and on build- ings of mere ornament, the Diredory had sent to the councils an alarming message on the state of the hospitals, affirming, that out of three hun- Sec Lt Rapport du Citoy«n Gilbert Dcsmorliers, le 2j Prairial, an Y. dred 324 PICHEGRU. drcd and fifty fou7idUngs, three hundred had died foy want of the first necessaries *. These and otlier debates produced no good ef- i^di^ except information concerning the econo- mical, moral and political condu6t of the virtuous rulers of a modern and fashionable republic. Religion also occupied a conspicuous share in the deliberations of the Legislative Bodies, but no law founded on just, wise, and honest principles, was adopted. The horrors experienced by catho- lic priests, during the reign of terror, were ex- changed only for a more tranquil, though not less systematic persecution, under the system of philosophy. None of the laws which imposed oaths and declarations on professors of all per- suasions, even on those whose tenets did not allow them to take an oath, were repealed ; but instead of drowning and the guillotine, the penal- ties of seclusion and deportation were applied. Besides these domestic occurrences, the con- dudl of the French Government towards neutral nations was loudly censured by Pichegru and his party : the injustice, rapacity, and violence, which had irritated the people of America, and the con- • See Le Rapport du Citoyen Dupont dc Nemours, MesBidor, an V. dua PICHEGRU. »25 veilliere "were united by guilt and by fear ; while Carnot and Barthelemy, concurring perhaps in nothing but a desire of peace, opposed the blood-thirsty, disorganizing, and tyrannical spirit of their col- leagues. The opposition of Pichegru's party ia die Council of Five Hundred, though generally successful, was not combined by any common principle, except hatred and contempt of the triumvirate; -honour, ability, and popular favour •was theirs, but some of them were infedled with the desire of shewing their rhetoric, and declaim- ed in tjje tribune, while their adversaries, more expert in the conduft of revolutions, were prepar- ing to deriv,e the utmost advantage from their chief resources, tlie furious jacobins and the armies. Reports of counter-revolutionary projecSls were cumulated 5^ and on the 20th of July the official V f journal. 326 PICHEGRU. journal, or government gazette, then called LeRs~ da£leur^ issued a virulent inve(5live against the Council of Five Hundred, implicating them as, conspirators. This audacious publication occa- sioned a message to the Diredlory ; but it was answered by an impudent and laconic observa- tion, that no existing law applied to the case. On the same day, or the aoch of July, Pi- chegru made a long and able report concerning the necessity of a re-organization of the national guard, and on the manner to form this organi- zation so as to ensure the safety o the state with- out too much trouble for the citizens of this guard, iKiiio alone in France could be depended upon for assistance to oppose the daily usurpations of the exe- cutive power. This and some other vigorous pro- 4)osals and plans of the Council of Five Hundred, caused the Dire6lorY to take measures as for their own protection; they had almost entirely changed the ministry, and foreseeing tliat an op- position headed by Pichegru, Willot, and other experienced generals, would not easily be con- <]uered, were preparing to violate the constitution, by drawing a large military force round Paris. This intention was not kept sufficiently secret to prevent the circulation ot reports, and surmise was changed tor certainty, when Aubry, in the name PICHEGRU. 32/ iiame of the Committee of Inspe6iors of the Hall, declared that four regiments of chasseurs, with part of the staff of the army of the Samhre and the Mcuse, were marching for Ferte-alois, a vil- lage' about seven leagues from Paris, while the constitution limited their approach to twelve leagues. On ihc 26rh of July Pichegru pronounced a most eloquent speech on the same suhjedl, in which he cleariy proved " the plots of the DireSlory^ its vio- lation of the constitution^ and its intention to again in- troduce the revolutionary government and the reign if terror ; to exchange the constitutional code for the anarchical and bloody tyranny of the jacobins.'''* \\ the discovery of their proje61s was calculated to alarm the conspiring major-'ty of the Direc- tory, the feeble conduct of many of their oppo- nents restored their courage. Instead of a61in^ as Pichegru desired, and of [>roceeding with revo- lutionary vigour, sue h as they were sure would be ised by the Directors, they formed decrees for abolishing two clubs, which had been opened un- der the name of constitutional circles, and in dis- patching a message to ascertain the age of Barras *; they decreed besides, a law for establishing!: on all public roads, at a certain distance from Paris, * By the Constitution, a Diredlor should be above forty years of 3ge ; Barras was supposed to ba only thirty-eight. F f 2 columns 328 riCHEGRU. columns inscribed with articles from the constitu- tion, and an order forbidding the advance of ar- mies beyond them ; a most ridiculous, feeble, and shallow attempt, in a period so critical *^ Timi- dity, hesitation, variety of views, and want of mutual coi.fidence, prevented the adoption of the only mode of condu6V, the impeachment of some of the Dire^orsy which could, in the present state of affairs, tend to the advantage of opposition, and save France from republican oppression. The Diredlory relied on the attachment of the- army, and were highly gratified by the condu61: of the jacobin Buonaparte. Divisions of the army under his command in Italy, contrary to the con- stitution, sent addresses to the troops of the inte- rior, most of which were distinguished for vio- lence ; but particularly one from the division under Augereau, which rivalled in virulence, abuse and threats, the produdtions of the most licentious days of the Revolution. The atrocity of these proceed- ings, so repugnant to the constitution, and ro every principle of social order, was rendered com- * One division cf troops, to sheiv tbeif f;reat lespeEi Jor the laivs and J or the conslilulion of ihe'ir country , t>efoie they begun their march towards Paiis, digged up the consutuiional coluiiii*. which they were forbid to pass ; they put it upon a waggon, cany- ing it before them, and resptdl fully followed, without p.Tsn'ng it, until they wtre at the gates of Paris !!! pletQ PICHEGRU. 329 plete by an address from the staff of Buonaparte's army, avowing all the sentiments contained in the various missives already circulated, threaten- ing death to those who should shew themselves royalists ; a term which they had previously shewn they meant to apply to all the opponents of the Di« re6tory, and of their friends the regicide jacobins. Wliilst the Legislative Body had such an in- contestible evidence of the criminal intentions of the three Dire6\ors, a message was received from the Executive Government, in which some faiSls were denied, others palliated, and accusations of conspiracy retorted in a vague and insidious man- ner, upon some members of the two councils. This message was by both councils referred to a committee ; and on the 20th of August, in the Ancients, the report was made by Tron^on Du- coudi'ay, who was sele(Sled for this task, on ac- count of his acknowledged moderation and talents. He gave a full detail of the condudl of the Direc- tory and armies ; shewing, in many instances, their inconsistency with the letter and spirit of the constitution, though he was not hasty in imputing evil intentions. Thibaudeau on the same day, in the Council of Five Hundred, made a report equally argumentative, tliough more warm, and concluded _by recommending two laws; one Ff3 charging 330 PICHEGRU. charging the public accuser to prosecute all plots, machinations, and generally all offences against the Legislative Body, tlie Executive Diredlory, and each of their component members ; the other, declaring penalties against the military who should deliberate as a body, or sign addresses colleftively. Before any decision could take place with re- spe£l to these propositions, the three Diredors liad resolved to overturn by force all the impediments raised by the constitution against arbitrary power. Hoche was first fixed on to carry the design of the Direflory into execution ; but they having been obliged to disavow some of his proceedings, he had retired, full of rage and disappointment, to his armv, while the confidence intended was re- posed in Augereau, whom Buonaparte had sent to Paris from the army of Italy *. Besides the re- * Augereau is the son of a fiuil-woman at I'aris, and has served most of ihe powers in Europe as a common soldier, and bee:i {logged in Austria and Prussia ft.r desertion. He wus a fenting- master ai Neuchatel, in Switzerland, in 1789, and robbed a watch- mjker, Courvoisier, of a horse and two watches, and then enlisted as a soldier in the Neapolitan service, where he gave lessons as a fepcing-master; he again deserted, and became first a French spy, . and afterwards a pTench general. At Verona and Venice he plundered upwards of six millions of livres; he is in private re- markable for his presumpti(jn and vanity; his boasts deprive all other commanders of their merit, and tlie ostentatious decora- tionsofhis person with rings and jewels, form a ridiculous con- trast with his igAorance in conveiiation, and the gross vulgarity of his mauners. Ki(mii d'Antcd^la, page 360. gular PICHEGRU. 331 gular troops at the disposal of this general, great numbers of jacobins and terrorists, who had served Robespierre and his faiflion, were in Paris, soli- citing employ or promotion, and were encouraged to remain in the city, although motions had been made in the Council of Five Hundred for their removal. It a()pears almost Inconceivable, tliat with so many evidences of a conspiracy against them, and so many proofs of the determination of the tri- umvirate, not to regard the restridlions of the constitution, Pichegru and the other leading men in opposition should not be bound by some com- mon tie, or animated by some general spirit. But the fa61: is, diat in troublesome times, courage, fi:ankne3S, patriotism, and talents,- are seldom suf- ficient to defeat the plots ot intriguers. Pichegru was surrounded by orators, who did not think of any thing but making brilliant speeches in the tribune, rounding periods, and framing motions, without any spirit to a£l with vigour or judgment enough to see the absolute necessity of doing so. Notwithstanding all his endeavours, he could not inspire the timorous with valour, the idle with a6tivitv, and unite the opinion of twenty different societies and parties, who constituted the opposition ef which he was regarded as the principal chief : he 332 PICHEGRU. he was unable to subdue the circumspection of some, tlie scruples of others, and the dread, the cowardice of most of them, and to prevent the crimes of the directorial faClion, by being before- hand in the attack, and to inflicl on its guilty members a well-deserved punishment. Pichej^ru had not been six weeks a member of tlie Council of Five Hundred, before he rightly judged the persons who pretended to share his sen- timents, and to be conducted by his opinions; he therefore always doubted of success, and might, as s\ell as many otlier ot his colleagues, have escaped pro cription by retirement; but he had been the first tw propose the organization of the national guards, and although many thousands of the Parisians IkkI made hiiu offers and promises to resist t'ie attempts of the Dire61:(vry, he knew per- fedtlv well l!^o^e cowardly citizens, not to foresee thai i;t the moment of danger not one would stir or intericre ; he thought it, however, his duty to remain on the spot, ar,d to be the noartyr of his lovalty, rather than to give Wis enemies and ca- himniators reason to say ih.it he iiad deserted men who required nothiui^ bui a chief to become vic- torious. "While, therefore, his and their adversaries were drawing rouna him and them the net of destruc- tion, PICHEGRU. 33« tlon, the sitting of the two councils, on the 3d of September, terminated in perfedl tranquillity i and in the Council of Five Hundred, the motion on Thibaudeau's report was adjourned "to the next day, a. day in which the existing legislature was doomed to undergo a total alteration in its consti- tution and members. Picjiegru, and^many others of the opposition party, made by him sensible of the perils which awaited, had proposed bringing forward a decree of accusation against the three J3ire6tcrs; while others, judging the period too far advanced for sucli a measure, proposed march- ing to the dire6lorial palace, arresting or putting them to death, and then publishing to the people of France a statement of their motive ; but these proceedings of vigour were over-ruled by the timid, the treacherous, and the indolent. In tlie nights of the 3d and 4th September, the conspiring Directors threw oiF the mask of patriotism for that of rebellion, and began toeffe(5l another revolution, by ordering two of their col- leagues, Carnot and Barthelemy, to be taken into custody; the first, however, secured his retreat, but the ether was arrested by Barras himself. Having thus partially executed the first jfertion of ibeir projed, Barras, Rewbeil, and La Rcveil- liere. 334 PICHEGRU. Here*, the triumvirate, proceeded to other opei-a^ tious. A committee called !nspe6lors, appointed to prevent the approach of troops to tiie place of- sitting of the Councils, and to direct their inter- nal police,, was composed of General Pichegru, Vaublanc,Thibaudeau,Eniery,andDelarue f, who were divided in opinions respe and the other proscribed per- sons were removed from the Temple in carriages^ placed upon four-wheeled waggons, nearly re- sembling gun-carriages. They were a kind of Diie(£lory, and praised the two Councils. In the night the Re=. volution took place, and the next day all the gardens, squares, and Streets, were filled with the same Paris ans, dressed as sans cu- lottes, and crying out every where, " Long live the Direftoryj dowi; with the Councils !" * Uamel's Narrative, page i a. eg 2. eagcj. 340 PICHEGRU. cage, secured on all sides with bars of iron, breast high, nearly resembling such as are used in Eng- land for the conveyance of wild beasts, and every shake or jolt bruised them in the most terrible manner: a padlock fastened tire iron grating by ■which thev entered ; tliey had neither time nor means to make the slightest preparation for their removal. The triumvirate, anxioos to enjoy the brutal and cowardly pleasure of contemplating their fallen adversaries, caused the cars to pass be- fore their palace of Luxemburgh ; where the \s'alis, already rendered by its inhabitants the in- closure of every imaginable crime, re-echoed with the mirthful plaudits of a ruffian band, whose savage exultation would have disgraced the untu- tored aborigines of America. During the jeurney from Paris to Rocliefort, there were no sufferings, or indignities, which Pi- clict^ru and his companions of misfortune were not obliged to endure, and no clanger to which they were not exposed : they were hooted at, cursed, threatened, and covered with mud, by the jacobins, at every place they passed or halted at : water was their only drink, and black bread their only food, during the day, and a prison, a dun- geon, or the damp pavement in some deserted church, their place of repose at niglu. The officers PICHEGRU. SU ofEcers under Dutertre, Adjutant-general Colin, and his second, Guillet, were, in September 1792, amongst Septembrisers, or assassins, of the pri- soners at Paris, and owed to it their military rank. At Blois they had prepared the same destru6liori for the deported Deputies, had not the courage and humanity of a municipal officer prevented ir, and whom, enraged at their disappointment, they lodged the sam.e night amongst the galley-slaves, in irons, at Tour, in Tourain. At Chatellrault, Dutertre ordered them to be shut up in so in- fectious a dungeon, that Pichegru and several others swooned, and they would all have been stifled, had not the door, at which sentinels were placed to watch them closely, been speedily opened. Even Pichegru, though still young, and hardened by the fatigues of war, suffered so much from the badness of the roads, and the jolts of the waggons, that he demanded as a favour to walk on foot in the midst of the escort, but he was- refused with brutality ; for " when once the pri- soners had entered the carriages, or rather the cages, in the morning, and the hon grating was locked, they were not opened again till nigiit, if illness ©r natural wants ever so much required it." Such were the orders of Dutertre. At last, on the 21st of September, they arrived G S 3 at 34a PICHEGRU. at Ivoeliefort, where die. most ill -omened presnges suiTounded them. The garriionof this city Hned the hedge upon the road, and, a crowd of sailors made tlic air re-echo vvitii the- ill-boding cry ot " to. ihe water, to the water ! drozun ihem, drown them! //" Here tliey were embarked on board a small brig, and by some ill-looking soldiers, rudely forced down between decks, pusliing- and crowding them towards the forecastle, whilst they wei e nearly suffocated with t!is smoke of the. kitchen. They were suffering extremely from hunger, and thirst i for they had neither eaten nor drank during the thirty-six preceding hours. A pail of water was let down in the midst of them, and a. couple of the. crew's loaves were thrown dowa beside it,, with a gesture of the utmost contempt. They were, however, unable to eat, on account of the smoke and their very uneasy situation. In the meanwhile, the sentinels, who pressed them, more and more, held the most horrid language. Piciicgru having resented the insolence of one who vvas'rin the midst of them, the latter replied to the general, " Thou hadst better be silent, for thou art not yet out of our -power ^ This was a boy of fif- teen or sixteen years of age. They had every reason to believe that the place PICHEGRU. 343 plarc of tiieii deportation was no ether tlmn the bed of tlie river Charante, where thev were now at anchor, and that they were already on board one of those liorrid instruments of execution, a vessel with a trap-door, invented to quench the thirst of republican ivv^nis for human blcod, and to murder in the dark as rapidly as possible, as many vic- tims as their thoughts or their caprice could desire ; and during one, to them, dreadful night, they were listening in anxious suspense, and silent horror and resignation, constantly expedling the fatal moment to arrive. At last they were sent on board a cutter, where Pichegru and tliree others were separated from their companions bv tlie captain, who himself ordered them to go down into the boatswain's store-room, saying, ♦' as for you four gentlemen, this is to be your lodging," and thus they remained for fifty-two days, in the profoundest darkness,, in that horrid dungeon, iufeded by the exhalations of the hold, and by the cables, without hammocks or cover- ing, or any thing on which to lay their heads, though unable to hold themselves upright. At noon every day a biscuit to each was hroughr, and a bucket full of gourgones, or large beans boiled, filled with vermin, filth, and hair, and without any seasoning, was set down lor them. This 344 PICHEGRU. This was their daily allowance, and the only food that was given them during the whole voyage. The deta'chments which had been put on board the cutter to tj,uard them, consisted of men se- ]e£l:ed from among the revolutionary bands of the Committee of Nantes, so famous in the annals of terror, for the massacres and the drownings of tiie priests who were sentenced to deportation. They 'Were heard to relate to eacli other their various and infamous exploits. One boasted of having, during a march, assassinated his captain- in the back, and thrown him into a ditch, because he suspeded him of aristocracy ; another coolly enumerated how many priests he had drowned in the Loire ; a third explained to his comrades how the drownings were performed, and the grimaces of the unfortunate wretches at the moment of submersion : several of them boasted of having killed with their oars those who, after passing through the trap-door in the dro\^ning vessels, endeavoured to save iheir lives by swimming; and if these monsters suspended for a moment their horrid conversation, it was to sing disgust- ing songs. They chose the time of their priso- ners' resting, to place themselves by the hatchway, and howl out their obscenities, their blasphemies, and their songs of caimibals. 0£ PICHEGRU. U5 Of the transported, Plchegiu was die only- one vvlio was not sea-sick, but he suffered- so mucli the luorc from hunger. It produced pa- roxysius of rage ; and the coarse food, which he cat in too small quantities, only excited his raven- ous a])petite. One day the hunger and impa- tience of this general furnished the captain of the cutter, La Porte, with a pretext to add to the vex- ations he infli6led on the four prisoners of the store-room. The cabin boy, who waited on tliem, persisted, notwithstanding their prayers and menaces, in always bringing them their bucket of beans so filthy, that they could not touch them i Pichegru therefore pushed the boy once, when lie brought a bucket alrnost covered v/ith haiis^ The boy fell into the bucket, and being scalded, cried aloud, and called for help. Pichegru ac- cused himself of the fa£t, but his felJow pri- soners would not allow that he alone was cuL pable, and the captain ordered i/icm a// your to bs put in irons, in wiilch condition they suiFered se- verely for six days ; nor was the captain thea disposed to relieve them, had not fear, from the murmurs of some of the sailors, who compas- sionated the fate of then* enchained four fellow citizens, of %vhom three had been republican generals^ compelled him to that measure. At 3-lQ PICHEGRU. At length they landed In Cayenne, and hopecTy having escaped from ihe presence of their ty- rants, to range there at liberty. They were, however, mistaken ; wherever a French republi- can commands, tyranny and oppression are fek^ and their companions, wretchedness and misery, must be expedled. Instead of enjoying even the shadow of liberty in the deserts of this unhealthy country, they were sent to the fort of Sinamary,. on the pestilential banks of the river of tliat name. Even in this miserable abode, their per- secutors harassed them by a refinement of cruelty ; they were closely confined in dungeons, used as prisons for fugitive negroes and criminals, con- taining neither beds, tables, nor chairs, nor any one piece of furniture. No European, perhaps, liad ever before been thrown into such a Jen, in such a climate, there to be given as a prey to scorpions, millepedes, gnats, musquitos, and many other species of insecSts, equally numerous, dan- gerous, and disgusting ! they were not even se- cure from serpents that frequently crept into the fort. Pichegru found one of an uncommon size, which he killed ; it was thicker than his arm, and lay concealed in the folds of his cloak, ■which served him. for a pillow in his hammock. They were, besides, totally destitute of clothes, linen,. PICHEGRU. 347 Uncn, and money, and their vi61uals were woise than tliose given to the negioes. Pichegru still retained his accustomed firmness, and shev;ed that confideuce, that presentiment, as it were, of future amehoaration, which naturally communicates itself to others. His principal oc- cupation was inspiring courage and constancy in his fellow-sufferers : his only amusement was tearniag English. He preserved, amidst all his pursuits, his military tone and manners, by which he endeavoured to overcome the tedious mono- tony of imprisonment. He was often singing, especially such fragments as were applicable to his situation ; not plaintive or romantic effusions, but such as abounded in the energy of vehement expression and awakened military ardour. He supported witli fortitude, and without complaint, his present evils, and contemplated tlie vile in- struments of his misfortunes with contempt. The only day he seemed afBided was, when an Ame- rican vessel brought the news <' that the usurpation over his country was completed, all good citizens oppressed, the revolutionary laws rigorously en- forced, and the tiibunals of blood re-established under the name of Military Commissions." He then deplored with the other prisoners, the fate of dieir wretched and degraded country. U an ho- nest S4S PICHEGRU. nest man, struggling with misfortunes, is ihc noblest work of God, a hero and a patriot in fet- ters is an angel upon earth. After eight months endurance of all the suffer- ings of captivity and of wants, of insults and of torments, Pichegru, with seven other prisoners, at last escaped his oppressors, the dangers of the ■waves, and the horrors of famine, having at the moment when he was arrested, and during the voyage to his place of deportation and his impri- sonment at Cayenne, condudled himself with tliat Jioble fortitude which elevates misfortune, and commands respect even from republican despots. He first landed in the Dutch colony of Surinam, and afterwards, on the 28th of September, 1798, he disembarked in England, where royalty re- ceived the republican exile, generosity rewarded talents, and hospitality smoothed misfortunes *. It is hoped, that the particulars of Pichegru proscribed, are to loyal men as interesting as those of Pichegru victorious, as they truly paint the cruelties of republican rulers, the ingratitude * The particular fafts mentioned concerning the revolution of the 4th September, 1797, and Pichegru's deportation, are derived from Di(flionnaire Biographique, Carnot's Reply, Job Aime's Nar- rative, Secret Anecdotes of the 18th Frudidor by De la Rue, Ra- lael's Narrative, .and Recueil d'Aoecdotes, of PICHEGRU. 34g of repuhlican citizens, and tlie injustice of re- publican governments ; they exiiibit the immoral, barbarous, and infamous conduct of most men, of inferiors, as well as of superiors, who have en- gaged or are employed in keeping up the cause of the French rebellion ; and if It has surprized foreigners, that some Frenchmen, in the name of liberty, have usurped power to become tyrants, it is no less astonishing, tliat those upstart tyrants have found slaves base enough to obey their di6lates, and, cruel enough to execute, and often aggravate their commands ; and tliat the same great nation contains such a number of va- rious, vicious, and vile men, that Robespierre's guillotine, the Diredorial deportation, and the Consular sliooiing and poisoning, have never wanted tit subjeds to carry into eifcct their in- liuman and merciless decrees. Of Pichegru's talents as a general, even Buona- parte, or his military sycophants, have not dared to throw out any doubts; of his principles as a politician, nothing is known but what does ho- nour to the commander as well as to the senator, and inspires admiration of the patriot. The con- quest of Alsace, Brabant, Flanders, and Holland, convince every body of the former; whilst vague accusations, invented by envy or forged by jea- '^ ^^ lousv, 350 PICHEGRU. lousy, without proofs as without fails, are unable to diminish known patriotism and irreproachable opinions ; and whatever calumny or fidlion have proclaimed, exaggeration propagated, treason dis- covered, or fear disclosed, all moderate and just men, even in Prance, acknowledge that Pichegru is really and more sincerely attached to the ho- nour and happiness of his country, than Buona- parte, or any other republican ruler or general ; and though he does not agree with the Corsican, and approve an unjust and perhaps impolitic ag- grandizement, at the exj-^ence of good faith and of the tranquillity of Euro[)e ; liis moral and po- litical notions, " that it is not the extent of a country, or the number of its inhabitants, which constitute the greatness and prosperity of a na- tion," has as many, if not more, adiierents, than the Machiavelism and extravagant ambition of his unprincipled antagonist; and all loyal Frenchmen prefer, with Pichegru, " rather to enjoy liberty with twenty millions of freemen, than, under the artificial and oppressive grandeur of an adven- turer, to suffer bondage with thirty millions of slaves." In a work attributed to a person who was not a friend, or j-artial to Pichegru, is the following phrase: " Pichegru's unly occupation is his coun- try, PICHEGRU. 351 trv, and he is always disposed to answer those who speak to him in favour of such men or of sucli ta(flion — make the happiness of France, and you may depend upon me as one of your party. ''^ This was written some tew days betore the 4th of Sep- tember, 1797, when Buonaparte denounced, and Barras and the Diredtory condemned, and Frenchmen transported, Pichegru, as a traitor and as a conspirator *. Egotism is the chief passion of French republi- cans J it has caused them to commit murders, and to issue proscriptions ; to plunder and enslave France and Europe; to sacrifice parents, rela- tives, and friends ; to betray and butcher their king; to desert and deny their God; to adore Marat, to worship Robespierre, to praise Barras, and to prostrate themselves before a Buonaparte. According to this true definition of Gallican re- publicanism, Picliegru is certainly no republican; and he had, besides, the honour and courage to continue poor in a comnonweaith, where, amongst rapacious upstarts, it was su.^picious and ridicu- lous, a folly and a ciime, not to be rich. Pichegru is scout, atwkiic, near six feet high. • Secret Anecdotes of the iStli Frudlidor, by De la Rue, and Recueil d'Anecdotes. H h 2 and 352 PICHEGRU. and of a strong constitution, well fitted by nature to encounter and endure the fati<.nies of war. Upon a first Interview, there is something severe about him, but his austerity wears off after a little intercourse, and he soon inspires the greatest con- fidence. His politeness is without affedlation, and not a formal etiquette, often signifying nothing but duplicity and imposture. He is frankly conde- scending, liberally obliging, and naturally good and benevolent ; but he possesses not the agreeable littleness and the trifling meanness which makes the fortune of republican courtiers as much and as often as those of a monarch. His moral cha- ruiSler is excellent, frank, candid., humane, and polite, cordial to his friends, and pleasing with his acquaintances. To his officers he was always complaisant, and with his soldiers, stri^r, but just and generous. Witli a sanguine disposition, he is cool and deliberate in his condu6t, and the ex- tent and versatility of his talents have obtained the same approbation and success in the senate as in the field. There are some striking resemblances between Pichcgru and Moreau, two republican generals as' much above the petty Buonaparte by their ex- ternal form and internal worth, as bv their talents and merit :■ they are both about the same age, and of PICHEGRU. 353 of the same size; and both have natural genius and a cultivated education ; but tlieir charaileis, without being quite opposite, are very difEerent. More^u is more insinuating, his manners more agreeable, and his person more graceful. Nobody is an iio.ur in Pichegru's company without placing confidence in liini, and judging him a man of honour, ot prohicy, and of generosity : at first sight, Moreau infuses the same sentiments ; every day's intercourse wich Pichcgru increases our esteem for him ; with Moreau it does not aug- ment, it does not ever, always continue the same. ]f exception is made of the Corsican courtiers and satellites, Pichegru is universally honoured and beloved in France : Moreau's admirers are more numerous than tliotc of Buonaparte, but not so numerous as those of Pichegru. in 1796, when Buonaparte was promoted to the connnand of the armv of the Alps, this army, as v^ell as those commanded by Moreau on the Upper Rhine, and by Jourdan on the Lower Rhine, consisted chiefly of oflicers iuitrucfed, and soldiers disciplined by Pichegru; tiiat Buona- parte, with such an army, accustomed to success, and .elevated by victory, should defeat the less nu- merous, dispirited, divided and betrayed Austrjans and Sardinians, was not surprizing • but that the H h 3 general. 354 PICHEGRU. genera], to whom all those advantages miglit be ascribed, should experlewcc from the base jealousy of the base Buonaparte, envy, hatred, and persecution, instead of praise, amity and gratitude, is surprizing, even in the abominable a;inals of the French rebellion. Buonaparte's extorted addresses from this very army, and liis f or ved accusations, were the only fa "ls the infamous Barras and his accomplices condescended to pub- lish, 'in vindication of their revolutionary pro- scription of Pichegru, and tliey are the nominal reasons why Buonaparte yet maintains Pichegru upon the list of the true legion of honour — the list' of the emigrants* . Notwithstanding what Buonaparte has done to injure Pichegru, and to undermine his reputation, he is yet regretted and beloved by the French army, and pitied, praised, and esteemed by the French nation, as the only republican general who has not sullied his vidories either with rapine or murder, by plunder or confiscations. These are unpardonable crimes in the opinion of the guilty * A friend of France, and of Pichegru, asked Buonaparte, in May 1802, to recall Pichegru ; and received for an answer, *• France is not great enough to contain us both." — Les Nouvelles ala Maine, Prairkl an S. No viii. Corsican, PICHEGRU. 355 Corsican, who fears the unfortunate Pichegru in exile, more tlian the fortunate Moreau in the neighbourhood of his usurped throne ; because Buonaparte knows, that esteem founded upon Bierit is more to be a[)prehended than fortune founded upon chance : he knows that even the pure Moreau has hurt his credit, by falsely de- nouncing his friend and benefadtor Pichegru, to whom he is indebted for his nrst military instruc- tion and promotion, and by continuing to serve the republican assassins of his loyal father. Whilst in 1794, Pichegru commanded the army of the North, and the National Convention ordered no quarter to be given to EngUslimen, at the risk of his own life Pichegru spared the lives of Britons. The murder of the Turkish pri- soners at Jaffa in 1799? tells the world how Buo- naparte would have adted with Englishmen in 1 794. All the conquests of Pichegru did not cost the lives of so many Frenchmen as Buonaparte's two battles of Lodi and of Arcole. Pichegru was the father and friend of his soldiers ; Buona- parte is their oppressor, destroyer, and poisoner: Pichesru was more careful of the life of a soldier than of his own ; Buonaparte willingly sacrifices all the soldiers of France to advance iiis outrage- ous ambition : Pichegru served his countrymen from 356 PICHEGRU. from rhe love of his countiy ; the Corslcan Buo- naparte has served Fiance to be enabled to enslave Frenchmen : Pichegru owed his promotion to his own merit ; Buonaparte to his own crimes and to the intrigues of B .rras : to the vic^tories of Piche- gru, France is indebted for Br.ibant, Flanders, and the new provinces on this side of ihe Rliine; to Buonaparte, or rac'iier to his intrigues and breach of treaties, France owes Piedmont, and nothing but Piedmoiit : poverty and proscription are the rewards of the great nation for Pichegru's virtue and services : with an usurped throne and an unlimited power has Buonaparte recompensed himself, his plots and crimes, at the expence of the honour and freedom ot t!;e gieat nation: to all good a;id virtuous men, liowever, the ho- nour. ible exile of Pichegru is preferable to the guilty usurpation of Buonaparte. In tew words, between Pichegru and Buonaparte every thing is opposite ; nothing is conuuon between them ; the distance is as <:reat as between virtue and vice. Buonaparte falsely accuses Pichegru of having carried arms against his own country ; when Pi- chegru has not even carried arms against thefo- m^72t'r tyrannizing over his countrymen : Buona- parte says Pichegru is a royalist ; Pichegru loves his country and mankind^ and wishes therefore rather for PICHEGRU. 357 for a monarchy under a legal sovereign, than a mo^ narchlcal republic and reptiblican tyranny under a Ccrs'icafi usurper. If brilliant talents, employed bravely, nobly, and successfully ; if modesty in prosperity, and fortitude in adversity ; if a genuine love of liberty, a real spirit of patriotism, a tender affedlion for bis kindred and his countrymen, a regard for tbeir lives, a solicitude for their safety, and a feeling which advances from private to public life, until it expands into universal philanthropy, constitute true greatness, General Pichegru is a great man. THE ( 358 ) THE CONSULAR TRIBUNE RIOUFFE. IT has been justly observed before, and de- serves to be repeated again, that no good man can see and read without indignation, on what names both of ancient and modern times, the utmost exuberance of praise has been lavished, and by what hands it has been bestowed. Particularly in France since the Revolution, it has never yet been found that the tyrant, the plunderer, the poisoner, the murderer, the oppressor, the most CRUel of the cruel, the most hateful of the hate- ful, the inost profligate of the profligate, have been denied any celebrations, which they were willing to purchase, or that wickedness and tolly have not found correspondent flatterers through all their subordinations. Amongst the thousands of degraded French ci- tizens who have thus dishonoured themselves, the Consular Tribune Honore Riouffe stands fore- most- RIOUFFE. 35§ most. He was formerly a man of letters, fawn- ing, flattering, complimenting ami bowing to every man in power, in hope of getting a place or a pension. In 1786, he complimented M. de Calonne, as a modern Sully; in 1787, his successor. Cardinal de Bricnne, as the modern Richelieu ; and in 1788, Cardinal de Brieiine's successor, M. Neckar, as the modern Colbert: in 1789, he called La Fayette the French Washington, and Mirabeau the French Franklin ; in 1790, he addressed himself to Abbe Maury, as the French Demosthenes; in 1791, he called Brissot the French Cato, and Roland the French Aristides ; in 1792, he complimented Marat ' as the French Erutus, Danton as the French Tullius, and Santerie as the French Marlborough ; in 1793, he flattered Robespierre as a French Gracchus, and Henriot as the French Eugene; in 1794, he styled Tallien the Republi- can Christ ; and in 1795, Barras the Republicain Solomon; in 1796, he made La Reveiliiere the Republican Moses, Rewbcll the French Solon, and Carnot the modern Vauban ; during 1797 and 1 798, Buonaparte was regularly complimented once in the month, either as an Alexander, Scipio, Cassar, Gustavus Adolphus, or Charles XII. ; in 1799, he addressed him, after his usurpation, as the S0O FvIOUFFE. the French Lycuigus, and the Henry IV. >YZ//t/as since, by his orders, been several times laid under contributions, and he detests alike America and England ; and iheir ruin is his incessant and daily contrivance and study. By his intrigues with his old accomplices, the Diredors, Barras, Rewbel, and La Reveil- le re, TALLEYRiVKD. 375 Here, he was, in 1797, promoted to the ministry of the foreign department in France. His nego- tiations this year, and in 1798 at Rastadt, prove his abilities to intrigue, to embroil, to divide, and to profit by his nefarious deeds. To tranquillize the jealousy of the Directory, and at tl:e same time to employ and gratify the ambition of Buonaparte, lie brought forward, in the autumn 1 797, the old scheme of former French ministers — the conquest of Egypt ; and his emis- saries prepared the treason that delivered up Malta to Buonaparte, in June 1798. . After the victory of Lord Nelson, at Aboukir^ Talleyrand became unpopular ; and the issue, in 1799, of the Congress at Rastadt, and the un- successful campaign which followed, augmented the hatred of the jacobin facflion against him, and he was obliged to resign : such vv'as, however, still his influence with the Diredtory, that he chose Rheinhard for his successor, a person whom he governed as much in 1799, as he had aone Chauvelin in 1 792, to whom this Rhein- hard was then Secretarv. When Buonaparte with such treachery had deserted his avmy in Egypt, Talleyrand and Sieyes prepared the revolution which seated him upon the throne of the Bourbons. No sooner was 376 TALLEYRAND. was the Cojsican proclaimed First Consul, than he reinstated Talleyrand in his former place as minister. In the beginning of 1800, by promises, bribes, and negotiations, Talleyrand pacified the Royal- ists of La Vendee, and afterwards, by treachery, delivered them up to arrest, transportation, and deatli. The treaties of Limeville, of Amiens, and of Ratisbon, Talleyrand calls his political chef d'oeuvres^ or master-pieces : time will soon dis- cover if these two treaties will not follow the fate of the third, already made impraflicable by French encroachment, intrigues, pretensions, and inso- lence. When a bishop, Talleyrand was a jobber : since he possesses the key to all the political trans- adlions which so much influence the finances of all countries, his speculations in different funds have procured him a fortune greater than he darei to acknowledge^ or Buonaparte suspe^s. This for- tune has been considerably augmented by his many negotiations, in particular those about the throne in Tuscany *, the indemnities iu Ger- many, and Louisiana in America. * An idea may be foimed of Iiis fortune, when, for that trans- adlion alone, he received one iMi.i,ioii hi\ ks.5. Because TALLEYRAND. S77 Because the former kings of F'rance, Louis XIII. Louis XIV. and Louis XV. made their ministers, Richelieu, Maz.arine, and Fleury, C3r» dinals; Buonaparte proposed to Talleyrand, in 1802, to procure him the same dignity. Talley-^ rand had, however, given his promise to marry his former mistress, the divorced wife of a Mr. Grand ; when, therefore, this proposal was made, he cunningly answered, that those cardinals were prime ministers, that the great Henry IV. had no cardinal for a minister, but a friend in his mini- ster Sully. The same day he obtained the con- sular permission to marry Madame Grand. From debauchery, intemperance, and ghutony, Talleyrand's constitution is entirely broken, and his health destroyed; and the invalid suffers daily for the excesses and the vices of which he has been guilty. Talleyrand's inveteracy against England is proverbial; but it does not originate from the love" of his own country, but from envy to the prosperity of England. He would willingly sign the ruin of France, was he certain that of Eng- land should follow. Of Talleyrand's hatred towards this country, and of the plans and plots of Buonaparte, during a peace, to prepare the ruin of the British em- pire» 378 TALLEYRANIT, pile, it any proofs are required, the folicwing extraiSl from a memorial presented to the Chief Consul by Tnlleyrancl, on the 13th Frimaire, year xi, or December 4th, 1802, must remove the doubts, even of the most prejudiced, in favour of the repubhcan ruler and his republican mini- ster : Talleyrand begins by telling the Chief Con- sul, that the present memorial is merely a copy of one presented to the ministers of Louis XV. after the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, to dissuade them from that fatal and dishonourable war to France which ended in 1762. He says, "by the ignorance of the ministers, the bribes of Austria, the intrigues of Bernis, the influence of Pompadour, and the weakr^s of Louis XV. those strong reasons for peace were not listened to i, the consequence is known, but it is not known that this impolitic war alone prevented \ the total ruin of England during the following, or American war, and preserved that country from being what, if we are prudent, it sooner or later must be, an invaluable Naval and Military Station of France, and which shall secure us the empire of the world." Talleyrand then enters into the particulars of the many and irresistible m^ans France, during the peace» TALLEYRAND, 379 -peace, possesses " to foment troubles, to spread discontent, to tarnish the honour, to under- mine the resources, to weaken the strength, to lull asleep the public spirit, and to cool the patriotism of the inhabitants of the British em- pire ; and by a gradual train of intrigues, in- sults, demands, insurreflions, vexations, mur- murs, alarms, and bankruptcy, prepare even the warmest English patriot to see with indifference, if not with approbation, an union with France, which will put an end to all difficulties, and pro- cure Englishmen the same tranquillity, honour, and happiness Frenchmen enjoy under the mild, but firm government of the Chief Consul. * " But," says he, *' powerful as France is upon the Continent by its conquests, by its influence, by the vigour of its Government, and by the vic- tories of its armies ; in regard to England it is not in a better position of strength than in 1 755, be- cause, with the knowledge of our means, and with the great abilities of our ruler, we are unable direSlly to injure England, our navy being more reduced, and our naval officers more ignorant than in 1755, but indire^ly, and in a time of peace, to lay the infallible foundation for the future subjedl;ion of England, France at no former pe- riod bad so many certain and undoubted under- hand 380 TALLEYRAND. hand methods. A war at present may lessen, if not destroy them, but every year's continuance of peace will preserve, augment, and fix them. ' *' Ought we not to wait, at least ten years, be- fore we renew the war with England? till we are in a condition effedlually to support our claims, our views, and our plans? The English will do our business, if we permit them. Their religion is pleasure, and their pleasure debauchery. They have plunged themselves into an excess of luxury and intemperance. T/iey have begun tc neglefl their navy, and to disband their artificers, who go to France, Spain, and Holland for main- tenance. *' While their individuals squander their riches, the State groivs parsimonious, and begins to save In those articles on which It cannot be too profuse. " They are even near reducing their tri- vial army, and their patriots speak of entrusting, what they call their liberty and property, to the valour of a militia. What a field is this for our policy? Is it our business to awaken or arouse them from their lethargy ? If we do, the conse- quence is obvious — We teach them to believe a real truth, ' That they cannot strengthen them- selves too much by sea or land.' Then an army ceases to be the object of public complaint, of public ' TALLEYRAND. 3S1 public dislike — and the people begin to think that, as they must have one, it is better to have aa army of English than of PVenchmen. Then their young nobility will continue to apply themselves to the military profession, and think themselves honoured by that profession, in which alone consist the defence and security of their country. " This may be fatal to us, for the sooner we go to war, the sooner their eiFeminacy will wear off, and their ancient spirit and courage re- vive. They will not then become more wealthy, but they will get more wisdom, which is better. The military virtues and the manly exercises may become fashionable, and the nation which now seems immersed in debauchery and corruption, may yet think seriously, and be once more what it has often been, the terror of Europe. — This is not an unnatural supposition — they easily glide from one extreme to another — it is their natural temper, and their whole history is one contiifued proof of it. •< The ashes of La Vendee still smoak — it requires only a spark to kindle a civil war in the bosom of our country. The returned emigrants are as yet quiet, but they have not foigot their former principles, and the wrongs they have suf- voL. I. l1 fered 3S2 TALLEYRAND. fered from the Revolution. Let not a new \var give the Bourbons an opportunity to remind them of it. The most dangerous of the Bourbons re- side in England ; let not the renewal of a war permit England to use them, their name and in- fluence, to trouble and invade France. " We command at present all the Continental Powers J but we know they wear with disgust and complaint, the fetters we have imposed. Let not a war with England givi them occasion to shake them off, and to command us in their turn. ' *' The general weakness and supineness that for ever attend immoderate wealth and luxury^ hide from the English the knowledge of their own strength, real povi'cr, and true interest. Suffer them not to relapse into virtue and understanding. Plunge them not too deep into difScultiej, and they will never emerge from folly into real wis- dom. " We have already insulated diem from the Continental politics — Leave them in -peace — and the insulation of their trade shall soon follow. We have already made them feared, envied, and. hated every where on the Continentr— Z^^-y^ them in peace, and they shall soon be despised, negledted, and unpitied. , " Leave TALLEYRAND, 383 *• Leave them in peace, and they will soon return to their amusements of ele6tions, races, party, and fa6lion — Leave them in peace, and their ministers must be directed by popular clamour, which we can always excite and encourage. — Leave them in peace, and their navy will once more be laid up to rot, and their seamen and artificers once more turned over to us, to Spain, and to Holland ! — Leave them in peace, and the greatest part of their army will soon be reduced, and the small remains will soon become a mere militia in pay. — Leave them in peace, and we shall not fear the defe6lion of Russia or Prussia, or any of our present Allies, which otherwise would much hurt, and, perhaps, ruin our present system. Leave them in peace, and they will never think of scliemes for increasing their population, or for making every part of their dominions of real use to every other. — Leave them in peace, and most of their nobility and gentry will continue to squan- der away amongst us their great riches, and aug- ment our resources, to enslave their country.— Leave them in peace, and before the year 25, France shall command the departments of the Thames, and of the Tweed, as it already does the departments of the Rhine and of the Po. L 1 3 " Pur- 3S4 TALLEYRAND. " Pursue, Citizen Consul, this plan steadily, for ten or fifteen years, constantly dire6ling the riches of the country to the raising a navy, equal or superior to England, and then, and not till then, shall we be able to strike the blow we have for above one hundred and fifty years been meditating, the Conquest of the British Islands.''^ (Signed) C. M. Talleyrand. This memorial the author received from a friend at Pans, within three weeks of its presen- tation to Buonaparte ; and thoifgh the Moniteur has mentioned it after its insertion in some of the English papers, its authenticity was never contra- didUd ; on the contrary, one of Talleyrand's chief des bureaus, in the cabinet of Secret State Papers, was dismissed on the totally unfounded suspicion of having transmitted it to somebody in this country. Talleyrand has talents, and the Revolution, fortune, and circumstances, have procured him opportunities to exhibit them to the greatest ad- vantage ; under a regular government lie would have been but an indifferent minister ; under a revolutionary tyranny he is a great statesman and a political oracle ; and those very vices which would have injured him under the one, are Cn^ piin- TALLEYRAND. SS3 principal cause of his great success under the other. Eut an impartial posterity, without our passions and our interest, will place him in his true rank, in that of a traitor, a rebel, and ajl APOSTATE. END OF VOL. I. Printed by B.M'Millan, Bo iv- Street, Covent* Garden. LATELY PUBLISHED Bt JOHN MURRAY, 32, FLEET-STREET, THE PARALLEL between ENGLAND and CARTHAGE ; and between FRANCE and ROME, examined by a Citizen of Dublin; 8vo. price IS. 6d. *' Proud and cruel nation ! every thing must be yours and at your disposal ! you are to prescribe to us with whom we shall make war ; with whom we shall make peace ; you are to set us bounds ; to shut us up within hills and rivers. But you are not to ob- serve the limits which yourselves have fixed." Livy. 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