XXI. Convention, as now constituted, had governed BOOK France with glory and success since the period of the fall of the tyrant Robespierre. The in- 1795 surrection was confined to Paris; for some of the neighbouring communes were disarmed as they were on their march to join the sections. The Convention, now triumphant, declared that the majority of votes in the departments were in favor of the laws of Fructidor. Alarmed, notwithstanding, at the spirit and strength of the opposition they had just overcome, many of the members seemed well inclined to postpone the establishment of the new constitution, and to continue for a certain time the revolutionary system. Some were even suspected of an intention to revive the reign of terror; and a committee of five members, M. Tallien being of the number, was actually appointed to consult on what measures should be adopted to save the country; but the consternation of the Assembly gradually subsided, and the patriotic boldness of a single individual had a great and happy effect: Thibeaudeau, the member alluded to, in an indignant speech, with energy protested that he would perish rather than survive the new tyranny which was preparing for his country. He demanded that the new commission should be immediately broken, and that the constitution should be the law of XXI. BOOK the land on the day appointed. This declara tion, seconded by Lepaux, rouzed the Conven 1795. tion to a just sense of what they owed to their fame and to their duty: the report of the commission for the permanence of the Assembly was rejected, and the commission itself annulled. Dissolution of the Convention. This Assembly concluded its sittings very. nobly; for the last decrees which it passed were for the abolition of the punishment of death at the return of peace, and for granting a general amnesty, though limited perhaps by too many exceptions: and on the 27th of October (1795), the day appointed by law, the president declared that "the NATIONAL CONVENTION was DISSOLVED." Such was the extraordinary termination of an assembly, whose merits and demerits, whose glorious acts, and whose criminal excesses, will long be the theme of history. With a daring hand she signed the deathwarrant of the successor of an hundred kings, and broke the sceptre which the superstition of fourteen centuries had consecrated. Standing greatly alone against a confederacy of crowned despots, she brought her armed myriads into the field, and compelled her enemies to flee with shame and confusion from the land which they had, in their vain and foolish imaginations, al ready conquered, and of which they were eager XXI. 1795€ to divide the spoils. But the magnanimity of BOOK this assembly was sullied by licentiousness, and contaminated by cruelty: their actions will excite the admiration of every age; and a distant posterity will perhaps pardon, while it deplores, their frailties and their faults. On the meeting of the new legislature, the first object was to elect the five members of the executive directory; and such was the impression made by the late violent and lawless proceedings, that the majority of the two councils were unfortunately disposed to elect ardent spirits, more distinguished by their courage and vigor than their wisdom and moderation, and who had formerly been accounted of, or inclined to, the Mountain party, though adverse to the tyranny of Robespierre, and friendly to the establishment of a free constitution. The highest upon the list was however Reveillière Lepaux, of the profession of the law, one of the Gironde deputies proscribed in consequence of the revolution of the 31st of May 1793. The next was Reubel, also of the law, who had lately been employed in negotiating the treaty with Holland. Letourneur de la Manche was the third: he had distinguished himself as a man of ability; his character was fair; and he had, previous to the revolution, acted as an officer of engineers. The fourth was Barras, formerly a XXI. BOOK Viscount, and bred up from early life in the mili tary service he had the recent merit of sup1795. pressing the late dangerous insurrection; and, in the preceding year, had also conducted with success the Conventional arms against the desperate efforts of the Robespierrean faction. The last upon the list was the celebrated Carnot, minister of war: he had been of the infamous Committee of Safety, during the reign of terror; but he had entirely confined his attention to the business of his peculiar department, which he had conducted with such splendid success, that it was said of him, almost without a figure, " that he had organised Victory, and rendered her permanent.”—Carnot was chosen upon a second ballot; the profound and philosophic Sieyes, who was first nominated, with his characteristic caution, declining to take upon him the office. Next to Mirabeau, Sieyes was, by the most discerning judges, accounted the greatest and rarest genius which the revolution had as yet produced: he saw the radical defects of the new constitution too clearly to be willingly concerned in the execution of it, and reserved himself for more favorable and fortunate times. The palace of the Luxembourg was appointed for the residence of the executive power, and henceforth took the name of the Directorial Palace. The miscellaneous occurrences of the preced-, ing year, in relation to England, still remain to XXI. 1795. Commerce tween Great America. be narrated. In the month of November 1794 BOOK a treaty of amity and commerce was signed by Mr. Jay and lord Grenville between the crown of Great Britain and the United States of Treaty of America. This treaty, containing twenty-eight signed bearticles, was framed with remarkable caution, Britain and accuracy, and ability; and on the part of England, at least, it was a very salutary and laudable measure but it established certain provisions so injurious to France, that it may justly be doubted whether, on the part of America, the measure was either just, considering the treaty of alliance subsisting with that nation, and faithfully observed by it, or politic, looking forward to the effects of the resentment it was calculated to excite. The French, whose commerce with the West Indies had been, since the commencement of the war, carried on chiefly through the medium of American vessels, saw with indignation the frequent seizures of their property by the English cruizers, in violation of the fundamental principle upon which the famous armed neutrality, during the last war, was founded, viz. that neutral bottoms make neutral goods. This principle had been recognized by France in her treaties of commerce, amity, and alliance, with America; and they now justified their occasional deviations from it only by the necessity of following the example set by the |