York retreated to the Ar, and thence beyond the Waal. Venloo
fell October 27th, Maestricht November 4th, and the capture of
Nimeguen on the 9th, which the English abandoned after the
fall of Maestricht, opened to the French the road into
Holland. The Duke of York resigned the command to General
Walmoden, December 2nd, and returned into England. His
departure showed that the English government had abandoned all
hope of saving Holland. It had, indeed, consented that the
States-General should propose terms of accommodation to the
French; and two Dutch envoys had been despatched to Paris to
offer to the Committee of Public Welfare the recognition by
their government of the French Republic, and the payment of
200,000,000 florins within a year. But the Committee,
suspecting that these offers were made only with the view of
gaining time, paid no attention to them. The French were
repulsed in their first attempt to cross the Waal by General
Duncan with 8,000 English; but a severe frost enabled them to
pass over on the ice, January 11th, 1795. Nothing but a
victory could now save Holland. But Walmoden, instead of
concentrating his troops for the purpose of giving battle,
retreated over the Yssel, and finally over the Ems into
Westphalia, whence the troops were carried to England by sea
from Bremen. ... General Alvinzi, who held the Rhine between
Emmerich and Arnheim, having retired upon Wesel, Pichegru had
only to advance. On entering Holland, he called upon the
patriots to rise, and his occupation of the Dutch towns was
immediately followed by a revolution. The Prince of Orange,
the hereditary Stadtholder, embarked for England, January
19th, on which day Pichegru's advanced columns entered
Amsterdam. Next day the Dutch fleet, frozen up in the Texel,
was captured by the French hussars. Before the end of January
the reduction of Holland had been completed, and a provincial
[provisional?] government established at the Hague. The
States-General, assembled February 24th, 1795, having
received, through French influence, a new infusion of the
patriot party, pronounced the abolition of the Stadtholderate,
proclaimed the sovereignty of the people and the establishment
of the Batavian Republic. A treaty of Peace with France
followed, May 16th, and an-offensive alliance against all
enemies whatsoever till the end of the war, and against
England for ever.
{1309}
The sea and land forces to be provided by the Dutch were to
serve under French commanders. Thus the new republic became a
mere dependency of France. Dutch Flanders, the district on the
left bank of the Hondt, Maestricht, Venloo, were retained by
the French as a just indemnity for the expenses of the war, on
which account the Dutch were also to pay 100,000,000 florins;
but they were to receive, at the general peace, an equivalent
for the ceded territories. By secret articles, the Dutch were
to lend the French seven ships of war, to support a French
army of 25,000 men, &c. Over and above the requisitions of the
treaty, they were also called upon to reclothe the French
troops, and to furnish them with provisions. In short, though
the Dutch patriots had 'fraternised' with the French, and
received them with open arms, they were treated little better
than a conquered people. Secret negotiations had been for some
time going on between France and Prussia for a peace. ...
Frederick William II., ... satisfied with his acquisitions in
Poland, to which the English and Dutch subsidies had helped
him, ... abandoned himself to his voluptuous habits," and made
overtures to the French. "Perhaps not the least influential
among Frederick William's motives, was the refusal of the
maritime Powers any longer to subsidise him for doing nothing.
... The Peace of Basle, between the French Republic and the
King of Prussia, was signed April 5th 1795. The French troops
were allowed to continue the occupation of the Rhenish
provinces on the left bank. An article, that neither party
should permit troops of the enemies of either to pass over its
territories, was calculated to embarrass the Austrians. France
agreed to accept the mediation of Prussia for princes of the
Empire. ... Prussia should engage in no hostile enterprise
against Holland, or any other country occupied by French
troops; while the French agreed not to push their enterprises
in Germany beyond a certain line of demarcation, including the
Circles of Westphalia, Higher and Lower Saxony; Franconia, and
that part of the two Circles of the Rhine situate on the right
bank of the Main. ... Thus the King of Prussia, originally the
most ardent promoter of the Coalition, was one of the first to
desert it. By signing the Peace of Basle, he sacrificed
Holland, facilitated the invasion of the Empire by the French,
and thus prepared the ruin of the ancient German
constitution." In the meantime the French had been pushing war
with success on their Spanish frontier, recovering the ground
which they had lost in the early part of 1794. In the eastern
Pyrenees, Dugommier "retook Bellegarde in September, the last
position held by the Spaniards in France, and by the battle of
the Montagne Noire, which lasted from November 17th to the
20th, opened the way into Catalonia. But at the beginning of
this battle Dugommier was killed. Figuières surrendered
November 24th, through the influence of the French democratic
propaganda. On the west, Moncey captured St. Sebastian and
Fuentarabia in August, and was preparing to attack Pampeluna,
when terrible storms ... compelled him to retreat on the
Bidassoa, and closed the campaign in that quarter. On the side
of Piedmont, the French, after some reverses, succeeded in
making themselves masters of Mont Cenis and the passes of the
Maritime Alps, thus holding the keys of Italy; but the
Government, content with this success, ventured not at present
to undertake the invasion of that country." The King of
Sardinia, Victor Amadeus, remained faithful to his engagements
with Austria, although the French tempted him with an offer of
the Milanese, "and the exchange of the island of Sardinia for
territory more conveniently situated. With the Grand Duke of
Tuscany they were more successful. ... On February 9th 1795, a
treaty was signed by which the Grand Duke revoked his adhesion
to the Coalition. ... Thus Ferdinand was the first to desert
the Emperor, his brother. The example of Tuscany was followed
by the Regent of Sweden."
_T. H. Dyer,
History of Modern Europe,
book 7, chapter 7 (volume 4)._
ALSO IN
_C. M. Davies,
History of Holland,
part 4, chapter 3 (volume 3)._
_L. P. Segur,
History of the Reign of Frederick William II. of Prussia,
volume 3._
FRANCE: A. D. 1794-1796.
Brigandage in La Vendée.
Chouannerie in Brittany.
The Disastrous Quiberon expedition.
End of the Vendean War.
"Since the defeat at Savenay, the Vendée was no longer the
scene of grand operations, but of brigandage and atrocities
without result. The peasants, though detesting the Revolution,
were anxious for peace; but, as there were still two chiefs,
Charette and Stoffiet, in the field, who hated each other,
this wish could scarcely be gratified. General Thurieu, sent
by the former Revolutionary Committee, had but increased this
detestation by allowing pillage and incendiarism. After the
death of Robespierre he was replaced by General Clancaux, who
had orders to employ more conciliatory measures. The defeat of
the rebel troops at Savenay, and their subsequent dispersion,
had led to a kind of guerilla warfare throughout the whole of
Brittany, known by the name of Chouannerie. ['A poor peasant,
named Jean Cottereau, had distinguished himself in this
movement above all his companions, and his family bore the
name of Chouans (Chat-huans) or night-owls. ... The name of
Chouan passed from him to all the insurgents of Bretagne,
although he himself never led more than a few hundred
peasants, who obeyed him, as they said, out of friendship.']
_H. Von Sybel,
History of the French Revolution,
volume 4, page 238._
The Chouans attacked the public conveyances, infested the high
roads, murdered isolated bands of soldiers and functionaries.
Their chiefs were Scepeaux, Bourmont, Cadoudal, but especially
Puisaye ... formerly general of the Girondins, and who wanted
to raise a more formidable insurrection than had hitherto been
organised. Against them was sent Hoche [September, 1794], who
accustomed his soldiers to pacify rather than destroy, and
taught them to respect the habits, but above all the religion,
of the inhabitants. After some difficult negotiations with
Charette peace was concluded (15th February), but the
suppression of the Chouans was more difficult still, and Hoche
... displayed in this ungrateful mission all the talents and
humanity for which he was ever celebrated. Puisaye himself was
in England, having obtained Pitt's promise of a fleet and an
army, but his aide-de-camp concluded in his absence a treaty
similar to that of Charette. ... Stoffiet surrendered the
last.
{1310}
Not much dependence could be placed on either of these
pacifications, Charette himself having confessed in a letter
to the Count de Provence that they were but a trap for the
Republicans; but they proved useful, nevertheless, by
accustoming the country to peace." This deceptive state of
peace came to an end early in the summer of 1795. "The
conspiracy organised in London by Puisaye, assisted and
subsidised by Pitt, ... fitted out a fleet, which harassed the
French naval squadron, and then set sail for Brittany, where
the expedition made itself master of the peninsula of Quiberon
and the fort Penthièvre (27th June). The Brittany peasants,
suspicious of the Vendeans and hating the English, did not
respond to the call for revolt, and occasioned a loss of time
to the invaders, of which Hoche took advantage to bring
together his troops and to march on Quiberon, where he
defeated the vanguard of the émigrés, and surrounded them in
the peninsula. Puisaye [who had, it is said, about 10,000 men,
émigrés and Chouans] attempted to crush Hoche by an attack in
the rear, but was eventually out-manœuvred, Fort Penthièvre
was scaled during the night, and the émigrés were routed;
whilst the English squadron was caught in a hurricane and
could not come to their assistance, save with one ship, which
fired indiscriminately on friend and foe alike. Most of the
Royalists rushed into the sea, where nearly all of them
perished. Scarcely a thousand men remained, and these fought
heroically. It is said that a promise was given to them that
if they surrendered their lives should be spared, and,
accordingly, 711 laid down their arms (21st July). By order of
the Convention ... these 711 émigrés were shot. ... From his
camp at Belleville, Charette, one of the insurgent generals,
responded to this execution by the massacre of 2,000
Republican prisoners." In the following October another
expedition of Royalists, fitted out in England under the
auspices of Pitt, "landed at the Ile Dieu ... a small island
about eight miles from the mainland of Poitou, and was
composed of 2,500 men, who were destined to be the nucleus of
several regiments; it also had on board a large store of arms,
ammunition, and the Count d'Artois. Charette, named general
commander of the Catholic forces, was awaiting him with 10,000
men. The whole of the Vendée was ready to rise the moment the
prince touched French soil, but frivolous and undecided, he
waited six weeks in idleness, endeavouring to obtain from
England his recall. Hoche, to whom the command of the
Republican forces had been entrusted, took advantage of this
delay to cut off Charette from his communications, while he
held Stoffiet and the rest of the Brittany chiefs in check,
and occupied the coast with 30,000 men. The Count d'Artois,
whom Pitt would not recall, entreated the English commander to
set sail for England (December 17th, 1795), and the latter,
unable to manage his fleet on a coast without shelter,
complied with his request, leaving the prince on his arrival
to the deserved contempt of even his own partisans. Charette
in despair attempted another rising, hoping to be seconded by
Stofflet, but he was beaten on all sides by Hoche. This
general, who combined the astuteness of the statesman with the
valour of the soldier, succeeded in a short time in pacifying
the country by his generous but firm behaviour towards the
inhabitants. Charette, tracked from shelter to shelter, was
finally compelled to surrender, brought to Nantes, and shot
(March 24th). The same lot had befallen Stofflet a month
before at Angers. After these events Hoche led his troops into
Brittany, where he succeeded in putting an end to the
'Chouannerie.' The west returned to its normal condition."
_H. Van Laun,
The French Revolutionary Epoch,
book 2, chapter 2, and book 3, chapter 1 (volume 1)._
ALSO IN:
_A. Thiers,
History of the French Revolution
(American edition), volume 3, pages 144-145; 188-193;
230-240; 281-305; 343-345; 358-363; 384-389._
FRANCE: A. D. 1795 (April).
The question of the Constitution.
Insurrection of the 1st Prairial and its failure.
Disarming of the Faubourgs.
End of Sansculottism.
Bourgeoisie dominant again.
"The events of the 12th of Germinal decided nothing. The
faubourgs had been repulsed, but not conquered. ... After so
many questions decided against the democratists, there still
remained one of the utmost importance--the constitution. On
this depended the ascendancy of the multitude or of the
bourgeoisie. The supporters of the revolutionary government
then fell back on the democratic constitution of '93, which
presented to them the means of resuming the authority they had
lost. Their opponents, on the other hand, endeavoured to
replace it by a constitution which would secure all the
advantage to them, by concentrating the government a little
more, and giving it to the middle class. For a month, both
parties were preparing for this last contest. The constitution
of 1793, having been sanctioned by the people, enjoyed a great
prestige. It was accordingly attacked with infinite
precaution. At first its assailants engaged to carry it into
execution without restriction; next they appointed a
commission of eleven members to prepare the 'lois organiques'
which were to render it practicable; by and by, they ventured
to suggest objections to it on the ground that it distributed
power too loosely, and only recognised one assembly dependent
on the people, even in its measures of legislation. At last, a
sectionary deputation went so far as to term the constitution
of '93 a decemviral constitution, dictated by terror. All its
partisans, at once indignant and filled with fears, organized
an insurrection to maintain it. ... The conspirators, warned
by the failure of the risings of the 1st and 12th Germinal,
omitted nothing to make up for their want of direct object and
of organization. On the 1st Prairial (20th of May) in the name
of the people, insurgent for the purpose of obtaining bread
and their rights, they decreed the abolition of the
revolutionary government, the establishment of the democratic
constitution of '93, the dismissal and arrest of the members
of the existing government, the liberation of the patriots,
the convocation of the primary assemblies on the 25th
Prairial, the convocation of the legislative assembly,
destined to replace the convention, on the 25th Messidor, and
the suspension of all authority not emanating from the people.
They determined on forming a new municipality, to serve as a
common centre; to seize on the barriers, telegraph, cannon,
tocsins, drums, and not to rest till they had secured repose,
happiness, liberty, and means of subsistence for all the
French nation. They invited the artillery, gendarmes, horse
and foot soldiers, to join the banners of the people, and
marched on the convention. Meantime, the latter was
deliberating on the means of preventing the insurrection. ...
{1311}
The committees came in all haste to apprise it of its danger;
it immediately declared its sitting permanent, voted Paris
responsible for the safety of the representatives of the
republic, closed its doors, outlawed all the leaders of the
mob, summoned the citizens of the sections to arms, and
appointed as their leaders eight commissioners, among whom
were Legendre, Henri la Riviere, Kervelegan, &c. These
deputies had scarcely gone, when a loud noise was heard
without. An outer door had been forced, and numbers of women
rushed into the galleries, crying 'Bread and the constitution
of '93!' ... The galleries were ... cleared; but the
insurgents of the faubourgs soon reached the inner doors, and,
finding them closed, forced them with hatchets and hammers,
and then rushed in amidst the convention. The Hall now became
a field of battle. The veterans and gendarmes, to whom the
guard of the assembly was confided, cried 'To arms!' The
deputy Auguis, sword in hand, headed them, and succeeded in
repelling the assailants, and even made a few of them
prisoners. But the insurgents, more numerous, returned to the
charge, and again rushed into the house. The deputy Feraud
entered precipitately, pursued by the insurgents, who fired
some shots in the house. They took aim at Boissy d'Anglas, who
was occupying the president's chair. ... Feraud ran to the
tribune, to shield him with his body; he was struck at with
pikes and sabres, and fell dangerously wounded. The insurgents
dragged him into the lobby, and, mistaking him for Freron, cut
off his head and placed it on a pike. After this skirmish they
became masters of the Hall. Most of the deputies had taken
flight. There only remained the members of the Crête [the
'Crest'--a name now given to the remnant of the party of 'The
Mountain'] and Boissy d'Anglas, who, calm, his hat on,
heedless of threat and insult, protested in the name of the
convention against this popular violence. They held out to him
the bleeding head of Feraud; he bowed respectfully before it.
They tried to force him, by placing pikes at his breast, to
put the propositions of the insurgents to the vote; he
steadily and courageously refused. But the Crêtois, who
approved of the insurrection, took possession of the bureaux
and of the tribune, and decreed, amidst the applause of the
multitude, all the articles contained in the manifesto of the
insurrection." Meantime "the commissioners despatched to the
sections had quickly gathered them together. ... The aspect of
affairs then underwent a change; Legendre, Kervelagan, and
Auguis besieged the insurgents, in their turn, at the head of
the sectionaries," and drove them at last from the hall of the
convention. "The assembly again became complete; the sections
received a vote of thanks, and the deliberations were resumed.
All the measures adopted in the interim were annulled, and
fourteen representatives, to whom were afterwards joined
fourteen others, were arrested, for organizing the
insurrection or approving it in their speeches. It was then
midnight; at five in the morning the prisoners were already
six leagues from Paris. Despite this defeat, the Faubourgs did
not consider themselves beaten; and the next day they advanced
en masse with their cannon against the convention. The
sections, on their side, marched for its defence." But a
collision was averted by negotiations, and the insurgents
withdrew, "after having received an assurance that the
Convention would assiduously attend to the question of
provisions, and would soon publish the organic laws of the
constitution of '93. ... Six democratic Mountaineers, Goujon,
Bourbotte, Romme, Duroy, Duquesnoy, and Soubrany were brought
before a military commission ... and ... condemned to death.
They all stabbed themselves with the same knife, which was
transferred from one to the other, exclaiming, 'Vive la
République!' Romme, Goujon, and Duquesnoy were fortunate
enough to wound themselves fatally; the other three were
conducted to the scaffold in a dying state, but faced death
with serene countenances. Meantime, the Faubourgs, though
repelled on the 1st, and diverted from their object on the 2nd
of Prairial, still had the means of rising," and the
convention ordered them to be disarmed. "They were encompassed
by all the interior sections. After attempting to resist, they
yielded, giving up some of their leaders, their arms, and
artillery. ... The inferior class was entirely excluded from
the government of the state; the revolutionary committees
which formed its assemblies were destroyed; the cannoneers
forming its armed force were disarmed; the constitution of
'93, which was its code, was abolished; and here the rule of
the multitude terminated. ... From that period, the middle
class resumed the management of the revolution without, and
the assembly was as united under the Girondists as it had
been, after the 2nd of June, under the Mountaineers."
_F. A. Mignet,
History of the French Revolution,
chapter 10._
ALSO IN:
_Duchesse d'Abrantes,
Memoirs,
chapters 12-14 (volume l)._
_T. Carlyle,
The French Revolution,
volume 3, book 7, chapters 4-6._
_G. Long,
France and its Revolutions,
chapter 53._
FRANCE: A. D. 1795 (June-September).
Framing and adoption of the Constitution of the Year III.
Self-renewing decrees of the Convention.
Hostility in Paris to them.
Intrigues of the Royalists.
"The royalist party, beaten on the frontiers, and deserted by
the court of Spain, on which it placed most reliance, was now
obliged to confine itself to intrigues in the interior; and it
must be confessed that, at this moment, Paris offered a wide
field for such intrigues. The work of the constitution was
advancing; the time when the Convention was to resign its
powers, when France should meet to elect fresh
representatives, when a new Assembly should succeed that which
had so long reigned, was more favourable than any other for
counter-revolutionary manœuvres. The most vehement passions
were in agitation in the sections of Paris. The members of
them were not royalists, but they served the cause of royalty
without being aware of it. They had made a point of opposing
the Terrorists; they had animated themselves by the conflict;
they wished to persecute also; and they were exasperated
against the Convention, which would not permit this
persecution to be carried too far. They were always ready to
remember that Terror had sprung from its bosom; they demanded
of it a constitution and laws, and the end of the long
dictatorship which it had exercised. ... Behind this mass the
royalists concealed themselves. ... The constitution had been
presented by the commission of eleven. It was discussed during
the three months of Messidor, Thermidor, and Fructidor
[June-August], and was successively decreed with very little
alteration."
{1312}
The principal features of the constitution so framed, known as
the Constitution of the Year III., were the following: "A
Council, called 'The Council of the Five Hundred,' composed of
500 members, of, at least, thirty years of age, having
exclusively the right of proposing laws, one-third to be
renewed every year. A Council called 'The Council of the
Ancients,' composed of 250 members, of, at least, forty years
of age, all either widowers or married, having the sanction of
the laws, to be renewed also by one-third. An executive
Directory, composed of five members, deciding by a majority,
to be renewed annually by one-fifth, having responsible
ministers. ... The mode of nominating these powers was the
following: All the citizens of the age of twenty-one met of
right in primary assembly on every first day of the month of
Prairial, and nominated electoral assemblies. These electoral
assemblies met every 20th of Prairial, and nominated the two
Councils; and the two Councils nominated the Directory. ...
The judicial authority was committed to elective judges. ...
There were to be no communal assemblies, but municipal and
departmental administrations, composed of three, five, or more
members, according to the population: they were to be formed
by way of election. ... The press was entirely free. The
emigrants were banished for ever from the territory of the
republic; the national domains were irrevocably secured to the
purchasers; all religions were declared free, but were neither
acknowledged nor paid by the state. ... One important question
was started. The Constituent Assembly, from a parade of
disinterestedness, had excluded itself from the new
legislative body [the Legislative Assembly of 1791]; would the
Convention do the same?" The members of the Convention decided
this question in the negative, and "decreed, on the 5th of
Fructidor (August 22d), that the new legislative body should
be composed of two-thirds of the Convention, and that one new
third only should be elected. The question to be decided was,
whether the Convention should itself designate the two-thirds
to be retained, or whether it should leave that duty to the
electoral assemblies. After a tremendous dispute, it was
agreed on the 13th of Fructidor (August 30), that this choice
should be left to the electoral assemblies. It was decided
that the primary assemblies should meet on the 20th of
Fructidor (September 6th), to accept the constitution and the
two decrees of the 5th and the 13th of Fructidor. It was
likewise decided that, after giving their votes upon the
constitution and the decrees, the primary assemblies should
again meet and proceed forthwith, that is to say, in the year
III. (1795), to the elections for the 1st of Prairial in the
following year." The right of voting upon the constitution was
extended, by another decree, to the armies in the field. "No
sooner were these resolutions adopted, than the enemies of the
Convention, so numerous and so diverse, were deeply mortified
by them. ... The Convention, they said, was determined to
cling to power; ... it wished to retain by force a majority
composed of men who had covered France with scaffolds. ... All
the sections of Paris, excepting that of the Quinze-Vingts,
accepted the Constitution and rejected the decrees. The result
was not the same in the rest of France. ... On the 1st of
Vendémiaire, year IV. (September 23, 1795), the general result
of the votes was proclaimed. The constitution was accepted
almost unanimously, and the decrees by an immense majority of
the voters." The Convention now decreed that the new
legislative body should be elected in October and meet
November 6.
_A. Thiers,
History of the French Revolution
(American edition), volume 3, pages 305-315._
ALSO IN:
_H. Von Sybel,
History of the French Revolution,
book 12, chapter 4 (volume 4)._
_H. C. Lockwood,
Constitutional History of France,
chapter 1, and appendix 3._
_J. Mallet du Pan,
Memoirs and Correspondence,
volume 2, chapter 8._
FRANCE: A. D. 1795 (June-December).
Death of the late King's son (Louis XVII.)
Treaty of Basle with Spain.
Acquisition of Spanish San Domingo.
Ineffectual campaign on the Rhine.
Victory at Loano.