electoral power had already displayed itself at the conclusion
of the elections of the Year V. The elections were made for
the most part under the influence of the reactionary party,
which, whilst it refrained from conspiring for the overthrow
of the new Constitution, saw with terror that the executive
power was in the hands of men who had taken part in the
excesses and crimes of the Convention. Pichegru, whose
intrigues with the princes of the House of Bourbon were not
yet known, was enthusiastically made President of the Council
of Five Hundred, and Barbé-Marbois was made President of the
Ancients. Le Tourneur having become, by lot, the retiring
member of the Directory, Barthélemy, an upright and moderate
man, was chosen in his place. He, as well as his colleague,
Carnot, were opposed to violent measures; but they only formed
in the Directorate a minority which was powerless against the
Triumvirs Barras, Rewbel, and La Réveillère, who soon entered
upon a struggle with the two Councils. ... There were,
doubtless, amongst [their opponents] in the two Councils, some
Royalists, and ardent reactionists, who desired with all their
hearts the restoration of the Bourbons; but, according to the
very best testimony, the majority of the names which were
drawn from the electoral urn since the promulgation of the
Constitution of the Year III. were strangers to the Royalist
party. 'They did not desire,' to use the words of an eminent
and impartial historian of our own day [De Barante, 'Life of
Royer-Collard'], 'a counter-revolution, but the abolition of
the revolutionary laws which were still in force. They wished
for peace and true liberty, and the successive purification of
a Directorate which was the direct heir of the Convention. ...
But the Directorate was as much opposed to the Moderates as to
the Royalists.'
{1320}
It pretended to regard these two parties as one, and falsely
represented them as conspiring in common for the overthrow of
the Republic and the re-establishment of monarchy. ... If
there were few Royalists in the two Councils, there were also
few men determined to provoke on the part of the Directors a
recourse to violence against their colleagues. But as a great
number of their members had sat in the Convention, they
naturally feared a too complete reaction, and, affecting a
great zeal for the Constitution, they founded at the Hotel
Salm, under the name of the Constitutional Club, an
association which was widely opposed in its spirit and
tendency to that of the Hotel Clichy, in which were assembled
the most ardent members of the reactionary party [and hence
called Clichyans]. ... The Council of Five Hundred, on the
motion of a member of the Clichy Club, energetically demanded
that the Legislative power should have a share in determining
questions of peace or war. No general had exercised, in this
respect, a more arbitrary power than had Bonaparte, who had
negotiated of his own mere authority several treaties, and the
preliminaries of the peace of Campo Formio. He was offended at
these pretensions on the part of the Council of Five Hundred,
and entreated the Government to look to the army for support
against the Councils and the reactionary press. He even sent
to Paris, as a support to the policy of the Directors, General
Augereau, one of the bravest men of his army, but by no means
scrupulous as to the employment of violent means, and disposed
to regard the sword as the supreme argument in politics,
whether at home or abroad. The Directory gave him the command
of the military division of Paris. ... Henceforth a coup
d'état appeared inevitable. The Directors now marched some
regiments upon the capital, in defiance of a clause of the
Constitution which prohibited the presence of troops within a
distance of twelve leagues of Paris, unless in accordance with
a special law passed in or near Paris itself. The Councils
burst forth into reproaches and threats against the Directors,
to which the latter replied by fiery addresses to the armies,
and to the Councils themselves. It was in vain that the
Directors Carnot and Barthélemy endeavoured to quell the
rising storm; their three colleagues refused to listen to
them, and fixed the 18th Fructidor [September 4] for the
execution of their criminal projects. During the night
preceding that day, Augereau marched 12,000 men into Paris,
and in the morning these troops, under his own command,
supported by 40 pieces of cannon, surrounded the Tuileries, in
which the Councils held their sittings. The grenadiers of the
Councils' guard joined Augereau, who arrested with his own
hand the brave Ramel, who commanded that guard, and General
Pichegru, the President of the Council of Five Hundred. ...
The Directors ... published a letter written by Moreau, which
revealed Pichegru's treason; and at the same time nominated a
Committee for the purpose of watching over the public safety.
... Forty-two members of the Council of Five Hundred, eleven
members of that of the Ancients, and two of the Directors,
Carnot [who escaped, however, into Switzerland] and
Barthélemy, were condemned to be transported to the fatal
district of Sinnamari. ... The Directors also made the editors
of 35 journals the victims of their resentment. They had the
laws passed in favour of the priests and emigrants reversed,
and annulled the elections of 48 departments. Merlin de Douai
and François de Neufchâteau were chosen as successors to
Carnot and Barthélemy, who had been banished and proscribed by
their colleagues. That which took place on the 18th Fructidor
ruined the Constitutional and Moderate party, whilst it
resuscitated that of the Revolution."
_E. de Bonnechose,
History of France, 4th period,
book 2, chapter 4 (volume 2)._
"During these two days, Paris continued perfectly quiet. The
patriots of the fauxbourgs deemed the punishment of
transportation too mild. ... These groups, however, which were
far from numerous, disturbed not in the least the peace of
Paris. The sectionaries of Vendemiaire ... had no longer
sufficient energy to take up arms spontaneously. They suffered
the stroke of policy to be carried into effect without
opposition. For the rest, public opinion continued uncertain.
The sincere republicans clearly perceived that the royalist
faction had rendered an energetic measure inevitable, but they
deplored the violation of the laws and the intervention of the
military power. They almost doubted the culpability of the
conspirators on seeing such a man as Carnot mingled in their
ranks. They apprehended that hatred had too strongly
influenced the determinations of the Directory. Lastly, even,
though considering its determinations as necessary, they were
sad, and not without reason: for it became evident that that
constitution, on which they had placed all their hope, was not
the termination of our troubles and our discord. The mass of
the population submitted and detached itself much on that day
from political events. ... From that day, political zeal began
to cool. Such were the consequences of the stroke of policy
accomplished on the 18th of Fructidor. It has been asserted
that it had become useless at the moment when it was executed;
that the Directory, in frightening the royalist faction, had
already succeeded in overawing it; that, by persisting in this
stretch of power, it paved the way to military usurpation. ...
But ... the royalist faction ... on the junction of the new
third ... would infallibly have overturned everything, and
mastered the Directory. Civil war would then have ensued
between it and the armies. The Directory, in foreseeing this
movement and timely repressing it, prevented a civil war; and,
if it placed itself under the protection of the military, it
submitted to a melancholy but inevitable necessity."
_A. Thiers,
History of the French Revolution
(American edition), volume 4, pages 205-206._
FRANCE: A. D. 1797-1798 (December-May).
Revolutionary intrigues in Rome.
French troops in possession of the city.
Formation of the Roman Republic.
Removal of the Pope.
"At Rome a permanent conspiracy was established at the French
Embassy, where Joseph Bonaparte, as the ambassador of the
Republic, was the centre of a knot of conspirators. On the
28th of December, 1797, came the first open attempt at
insurrection. General Duphot, a hot-headed young man, one of
the military attaches of the French Embassy, put himself at
the head of a handful of the disaffected, and led them to the
attack of one of the posts of the pontifical troops. In the
ensuing skirmish a chance shot struck down the French general,
and the rabble which followed him dispersed in all directions.
It was just the opportunity for which the Directory had been
waiting in order to break the treaty of Tolentino and seize
upon Rome.
{1321}
Joseph Bonaparte left the city the morning after the émeute,
and a column of troops was immediately detached from his
brother's army in the north of Italy and ordered to march on
Rome. It consisted of General Berthier's division and 6,000
Poles under Dombrowski, and it received the ominous title of
l'armée vengeresse--the avenging army. As they advanced
through the Papal territory they met with no sympathy, no
assistance, from the inhabitants, who looked upon them as
invaders rather than deliverers. 'The army,' Berthier wrote to
Bonaparte, 'has met with nothing but the most profound
consternation in this country, without seeing one glimpse of
the spirit of independence; only one single patriot came to
me, and offered to set at liberty 2,000 convicts.' This
liberal offer of a re-inforcement of 2,000 scoundrels the
French general thought it better to decline. ... At length, on
the 10th of February, Berthier appeared before Rome. ...
Wishing to avoid a useless effusion of blood, Pius VI. ordered
the gates to be thrown open, contenting himself with
addressing, through the commandant of St. Angelo, a protest to
the French general, in which he declared that he yielded only
to overwhelming force. A few days after, a self-elected
deputation of Romans waited upon Berthier, to request him to
proclaim Rome a republic, under the protection of France. As
Berthier had been one of the most active agents in getting up
this deputation, he, of course, immediately yielded to their
request. The French general then demanded of the Pope that he
should formally resign his temporal power, and accept the new
order of things. His reply was the same as that of every Pope
of whom such a demand has been made: 'We cannot--we will not!'
In the midst of a violent thunder-storm he was torn from his
palace, forced into a carriage, and carried away to Viterbo,
and thence to Siena, where he was kept a prisoner for three
months. Rome was ruled by the iron hand of a military
governor. ... Meanwhile, alarmed at the rising in Italy, the
Directory were conveying the Pope to a French prison. ...
After a short stay at Grenoble he was transferred to the
fortress of Valence, where, broken down by the fatigues of his
journey, he died on August 19th, 1799, praying for his enemies
with his last breath."
_Chevalier O'Clery.
History of the Italian Revolution,
chapter 2, section 1._
ALSO IN:
_C. A. Fyffe,
History of Modern Europe,
volume 1, chapter 4._
_J. Miley,
History of the Papal States,
book 8, chapter 3 (volume 3)._
_J. E. Darras,
History of the Catholic Church, 8th period,
chapter 6 (volume 4)._
_T. Roscoe,
Memoirs of Scipio de Ricci.
volume 2, chapter 4._
FRANCE: A. D. 1797-1798 (December-September).
Invasion and subjugation of Switzerland.
Creation of the Helvetic Republic.
See SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1792-1798.
FRANCE: A. D. 1797-1799.
Hostile attitude toward the United States.
The X, Y, Z correspondence.
Nearness of war.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1797-1799.
FRANCE: A. D. 1798 (May-August).
Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt.
His seizure of Malta.
Pursuit by the English fleet under Nelson.
The Battle of the Nile.
"The treaty of Campo Formio, by which Austria obtained terms
highly advantageous to her interests, dissolved the offensive
and defensive alliance of the continental powers, and left
England alone in arms. The humiliation of this country was to
be the last and the greatest achievement of French ambition.
... During the autumn and winter of this year [1797-8],
preparations for a great armament were proceeding at Toulon,
and other harbours in possession of the French. The army of
Italy, clamorous for a promised donation of 1,000,000,000
francs, which the Directory were unable to pay, had been
flattered by the title of the army of England, and appeased by
the prospect of the plunder of this country. But whatever
might be the view of the Directory, or the expectation of the
army, Bonaparte had no intention of undertaking an enterprise
so rash as a descent upon the coast of England, while the
fleets of England kept possession of the seas. There was
another quarter from which the British Empire might be menaced
with a better chance of success. India could never be secure
while Egypt and the great eastern port of the Mediterranean
were in the possession of one of the great maritime powers.
Egypt had been an object of French ambition since the time of
Louis XIV. ... It was for Egypt, therefore, that the great
armament of Toulon was destined. The project was not indeed
considered a very hopeful one at Paris; but such was the dread
and hatred of the ruling faction for the great military genius
which had sprung out of the anarchy of France, and of the
30,000 creditors whom they were unable to satisfy, that the
issue of the expedition which they most desired was, that it
might never return from the banks of the Nile. ... The fleet,
consisting of thirteen ships of the line, with several
frigates, smaller vessels, and transports conveying 28,000
picked troops, with the full equipment for every kind of
military service, set sail on the 14th of May. Attached to
this singular expedition, destined for the invasion of a
friendly country, and the destruction of an unoffending
people, was a staff of professors, furnished with books, maps,
and philosophical instruments for prosecuting scientific
researches in a land which, to a Christian and a philosopher,
was the most interesting portion of the globe. The great
armament commenced its career of rapine by seizing on the
important island of Malta. Under the shallow pretence of
taking in water for a squadron which had left its anchorage
only two days, a portion of the troops were landed, and, after
a show of resistance, the degenerate knights, who had already
been corrupted, surrendered Malta, Gozo, and Cumino, to the
French Republic. A great amount of treasure and of munitions
of war, besides the possession of the strongest place in the
Mediterranean, were thus acquired without loss or delay. A
conquest of such importance would have amply repaid and
justified the expedition, if no ulterior object had been
pursued. But Bonaparte suffered himself to be detained no more
than twenty-four hours by this achievement; and having left a
garrison of 4,000 men in the island, and established a form of
civil government, after the French pattern, he shaped his
course direct for Alexandria. On the 1st of July, the first
division of the French troops were landed at Marabou, a few
miles from the city. Aboukir and Rosetta, which commanded the
mouths of the Nile, were occupied without difficulty.
Alexandria itself was incapable of any effectual defence, and,
after a few skirmishes with the handful of Janissaries which
constituted the garrison, the French entered the place; and
for several hours the inhabitants were given up to an
indiscriminate massacre.
{1322}
Bonaparte pushed forward with his usual rapidity, undeterred
by the horrors of the sandy desert, and the sufferings of his
troops. After two victories over the Mamelukes, one of which
was obtained within sight of the Pyramids [and called the
Battle of the Pyramids], the French advanced to Cairo; and
such was the terror which they had inspired, that the capital
of Egypt was surrendered without a blow. Thus in three weeks
the country had been overrun. The invaders had nothing to fear
from the hostility of the people; a rich and fertile country,
the frontier of Asia, was in their possession; but, in order
to hold the possession secure, it was necessary to retain the
command of the sea. The English Government, on their side,
considered the capture of the Toulon armament an object of
paramount importance; and Earl St. Vincent, who was still
blockading the Spanish ports, was ordered to leave Cadiz, if
necessary, with his whole fleet, in search of the French; but
at all events, to detach a squadron, under Sir Horatio Nelson,
on that service. ... Nelson left Gibraltar on the 8th of May,
with three ships of the line, four frigates, and a sloop. ...
He was reinforced, on the 5th of June, with ten sail of the
line. His frigates had parted company with him on the 20th of
May, and never returned." Suspecting that Egypt was
Bonaparte's destination, he made sail for Alexandria, but
passed the French expedition, at night, on the way, arrived in
advance of it, and, thinking his surmise mistaken, steered
away for the Morea and thence to Naples. It was not until the
1st of August that he reached the Egyptian coast a second
time, and found the French fleet, of sixteen sail, "at anchor
in line of battle, in the Bay of Aboukir. Nelson, having
determined to fight whenever he came up with the enemy,
whether by day or by night, immediately made the signal for
action. Although the French fleet lay in an open roadstead,
they had taken up a position so strong as to justify their
belief that they could not be successfully attacked by a force
less than double their own. They lay close in shore, with a
large shoal in their rear; in the advance of their line was an
island, on which a formidable battery had been erected; and
their flanks were covered by numerous gun-boats. ... The
general action commenced at sunset, and continued throughout
the night until six o'clock the following morning, a period of
nearly twelve hours. But in less than two hours, five of the
enemy's ships had struck; and, soon after nine o'clock, the
sea and shore, for miles around, were illuminated by a fire
which burst from the decks of the 'Orient,' the French
flag-ship, of 120 guns. In about half an hour she blew up,
with an explosion so appalling that for some minutes the
action was suspended, as if by tacit consent. At this time the
French Admiral Brueys was dead, ... killed by a chain-shot
before the ship took fire. Nelson also had been carried below,
with a wound which was, at first, supposed to be mortal. He
had been struck in the head with a fragment of langridge shot,
which tore away a part of the scalp. ... At three o'clock in
the morning four more of the French ships were destroyed or
taken. There was then an interval of two hours, during which
hardly a shot was fired on either side. At ten minutes to
seven another ship of the line, after a feeble attempt at
resistance, hauled down her colours. The action was now over.
Of the thirteen French ships of the line, nine had been taken,
and two had been burnt." Two ships of the line and two
frigates escaped. "The British killed and wounded were 895.
The loss of the French, including prisoners, was 5,225. Such
was the great battle of the Nile."
_W. Massey,
History of England during the Reign of George III.,
chapter 39 (volume 4)._
ALSO IN:
_E. J. De La Gravière,
Sketches of the Last Naval War,
volume 1, part 3._
_R. Southey,
Life of Nelson,
chapter 5._
_Despatches and Letters of Lord Nelson,
volume 3._
_Bonaparte,
Memoirs Dictated at St. Helena,
volume 2._
_A. T. Mahan,
Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and
Empire,
chapter 9 (volume 1)._
FRANCE: A. D. 1798-1799 (August-April).
Arming against the Second European Coalition.
The conscription.
Overthrow of the Neapolitan kingdom.
Seizure of Piedmont.
Campaigns in Switzerland, Italy, and on the upper Danube.
Early successes and final reverses.