_Retrospect of Public Events since the Departure of Napoleon for
Egypt--Invasion and Conquest of Switzerland--Seizure of
Turin--Expulsion of the Pope--The Neapolitans declare War
against France--The French enter Naples--Disgraceful Avarice
exhibited by the Directory--Particularly in their Negotiations
with the United States of America--Russia comes forward in the
general Cause--Her Strength and Resources--Reverses of the
French in Italy, and on the Rhine--Insurrections in Belgium and
Holland against the French--Anglo-Russian Expedition sent to
Holland--The Chouans again in the Field--Great and Universal
Unpopularity of the Directory--State of Parties in France--Law
of Hostages--Abbé Siêyes becomes one of the Directory--His
Character and Genius--Description of the Constitution proposed
by him for the Year Three--Ducos, Gohier, and Moulins, also
introduced into the Directory--Family of Napoleon strive to keep
him in the Recollection of the People--Favourable Change in the
French Affairs--Holland Evacuated by the Anglo-Russian
Army--Korsakow defeated by Massena--and Suwarrow retreats before
Lecourbe._
When Napoleon accepted what was to be considered as a doom of honourable
banishment, in the command of the Egyptian expedition, he answered to
those friends who advised him rather to stay and assert a pre-eminent
station in the government at home, "that the fruit was not ripe." The
seventeen months, or thereabouts, of his absence, had done much to
complete the maturity which was formerly imperfect. The French
Government had ceased to be invariably victorious, and at times had
suffered internal changes, which, instead of restoring the national
confidence, had only induced a general expectation of some farther and
decisive revolution, that should for ever overthrow the Directorial
system.
When Buonaparte sailed for Egypt, he left France at peace with Austria,
and those negotiations proceeding at Rastadt, which no one then doubted
would settle on a pacific footing the affairs of Germany. England alone
remained hostile to France; but the former being victorious on the sea,
and the latter upon the land, it seemed as if the war must languish and
die of itself, unless there had been a third element, of which the
rivals might have disputed the possession. But though the interests of
France, as well as of humanity, peremptorily demanded peace, her rulers,
feeling that their own tottering condition would be rendered still more
precarious by the disbanding their numerous armies, resolved to continue
the war in a new quarter.
Under the most flimsy and injurious pretexts, they attacked the neutral
States of Switzerland, so eminent for their moderation; and the French
troops, levied in the name of Freedom, were sent to assail that country
which had been so long her mountain fortress. The ancient valour of the
Switzers was unable to defend them against the new discoveries in the
art of war, by which the strongest defiles can be turned, and therefore
rendered indefensible. They fought with their ancient courage,
particularly the natives of the mountain cantons, and only gave way
before numbers and discipline. But these gallant mountaineers sacrificed
more than thrice their own amount, ere they fell in their ranks, as
became the countrymen of William Tell. The French affected to give the
Swiss a constitution on the model of their own, but this was a mere
farce. The arsenals, fortresses, and treasures of the cantons, were
seized without scruple or apology, and the Swiss were treated in all
respects like a conquered nation. The fate of this ancient and
unoffending people excited deep and general fear and detestation, and
tended more perhaps than any other event to raise the animosity of
Europe in general against France, as a country which had now plainly
shown, that her ambition could be bounded by no consideration of justice
or international law.[434]
The King of Sardinia, who had first acknowledged the superiority of
Buonaparte, and purchased his existence as a continental sovereign, by
surrendering all his fortresses to France, and permitting her troops to
march through his country as their own, had surely some claim to
forbearance; but now, without even a pretext for such violence, the
French seized upon Turin, the capital of this their vassal monarch, and
upon all his continental dominions, sending him and his family to the
island of Sardinia.[435]
[Sidenote: EXPULSION OF THE POPE.]
Another victim there was of the French grasping ambition, in whose fate
the Catholic world was deeply interested. We have seen already that
Buonaparte, though he despoiled the Pope of power and treasure, judged
it more prudent to permit him to subsist as a petty prince, than by
depriving him of all temporal authority, to drive him to desperation,
and oblige him to use against the Republic those spiritual weapons, to
which the public opinion of Catholic countries still assigned strength.
But the Directory were of a different opinion; and though the Pope had
submitted passively to every demand which had been made by the French
ambassador, however inconsistent with the treaty of Tolentino, the
Directory, with the usual policy of their nation, privately encouraged a
party in Rome which desired a revolution. These conspirators arose in
arms, and, when dispersed by the guards, fled towards the hotel of
Joseph Buonaparte, then the ambassador of the French to the Pope. In the
scuffle which ensued, the ambassador was insulted, his life endangered,
and General Duphot actually killed by his side. This outrage of course
sealed the fall of the Pope, which had probably long been determined
on. Expelled from his dominions, the aged Pius VI. retired to Sienna,
more the object of respect and veneration in his condition of a
dethroned exile, than when holding the semblance of authority by
permission of France. In place of the Pontiff's government arose the
shadow of a mighty name, The Roman Republic. But the Gauls were in
possession of the Capitol, nor did the ancient recollections, connected
with the title of the new commonwealth, procure for the Romans more
independent authority than was possessed by any of the other ephemeral
republican governments.[436]
In the fall of the Pope, and the occupation of the Roman territories by
a French army, the King of Naples saw the nation whom he feared and
hated, and by whom he knew he was considered as a desirable subject of
plunder, approach his frontiers, and become his neighbours. War he
perceived was unavoidable; and he formed the resolution to be the first
in declaring it. The victory of Nelson, and the interest which that
distinguished hero acquired at what might be called a female court, with
the laurels of the Nile fresh upon his brow, confirmed the Neapolitan
government in the resolution. Mack, an Austrian general, who had got the
reputation of a great tactician, and a gallant soldier, was sent by the
emperor to discipline and command the Neapolitan army. Nelson's falcon
eye measured the man's worth at once. "General Mack," said he, "cannot
move without five carriages--I have formed my opinion--I heartily pray I
may be mistaken." He was _not_ mistaken. The Neapolitan army marched to
Rome, was encountered by the French, fought just long enough to lose
about forty men, then fled, abandoning guns, baggage, arms, and every
thing besides. "The Neapolitan officers did not lose much honour," said
Nelson, "for God knows they had little to lose--but they lost what they
had."[437] The prescient eye, which was as accurate by land as by sea,
had also foreseen the instant advance of the French to Naples. It took
place accordingly, but not unresisted. The naked rabble, called
Lazzaroni, showed the most desperate courage. They attacked the French
ere they came to the city; and notwithstanding a murderous defeat, they
held out Naples for two days with their irregular musketry only, against
regular forces amply supplied with artillery. What can we say of a
country, where the rabble are courageous and the soldiers cowards? what,
unless that the higher classes, from whom the officers are chosen, must
be the parties to be censured.[438]
The royal family fled to Sicily; and in Naples a new classical-sounding
government was created at the command of the French general--The
Parthenopean Republic. The French were now possessed of all Italy,
excepting Tuscany, and that was exempted from their authority in name
only, and not in effect.
The French people, notwithstanding the success of these several
undertakings, were not deceived or flattered by them in a degree equal
to what probably their rulers expected. Their vanity was alarmed at the
meanness of the motives which the Directory exhibited on almost every
occasion. Even the dazzling pride of conquest was sullied by the
mercenary views with which war was undertaken. On one occasion the veil
was raised, and all Frenchmen who had feelings of decency, not to say of
probity or honour, remaining, must have held themselves disgraced by the
venal character of their government.
[Sidenote: NEGOTIATIONS WITH AMERICA.]
Some disputes existing between France and the United States of America,
commissioners were sent by the latter country to Paris, to endeavour to
restore a good understanding. They were not publicly acknowledged by
France in the character of ambassadors; but were distinctly given to
understand, that they could only be permitted to treat, on condition
that the States of America should lend to the Republic the sum of a
million sterling; to which was added, the unblushing demand of fifty
thousand pounds, as a douceur for the private pocket of the directors.
The astonishment of the envoys was extreme at this curious diplomatic
proposal, and they could hardly credit their ears when they heard it
repeatedly and grossly urged. "The essential part of the treaty," said
one of the French agents, "is, _il faut de l'argent--il faut beaucoup
d'argent_;" and to render the matter palatable, he told the Americans of
other countries which had paid large sums to obtain peace, and reminded
them of the irresistible power of France. The Transatlantic Republicans,
unmoved by these arguments, stoutly answered, "That it belonged only to
petty states to purchase independence by payment of tribute--that
America was willing and able to protect herself by arms, and would not
purchase with money what she possessed by her powerful means of
self-defence." They added, "that they had no power whatever to enter
into any engagements concerning a loan."
The agents of France lowered their tone so far as to say, that if the
commissioners would pay something in the way of fees, they might be
permitted to remain in Paris, whilst one of their number returned to
America to obtain instructions from their government; but not even to
that modification of bribery would the Americans listen. They would not,
according to the expression used in incendiary letters, "put five pounds
in a certain place." The treaty became public, to the scandal alike of
France and of Europe, which joined in regarding a government that made
war on such base principles, as standing, in comparison to those who
warred in the spirit of conquest, in the relation of footpads to
highwaymen. The only attempt made by Talleyrand towards explanation of
this singular transaction, was a shuffling denial of the fact, which he
strengthened by an insinuation, that the statement of the American
envoys was a weak invention, suggested to them by the English.[439]
Not to multiply instances, the rapacity and domineering insolence with
which the Directory conducted themselves towards the new republics, who
were at every moment made sensible of their total dependence on the
Great Nation--the merciless exactions which they imposed, together with
the rapacious peculations of many of their generals and agents, made
them lose interest almost as fast as they could acquire territory. Their
fair pretexts of extending freedom, and the benefits of a liberal
government, to states which had been oppressed by the old feudal
institutions, were now valued at no more than their worth; and it was
seen, that the only equality which republican France extended to the
conquered countries, was to render all classes alike degraded and
impoverished. Thus, the successes which we have hastily enumerated
rather endangered than strengthened the empire of France, as they
rendered her ambition the object of fear and suspicion to all Europe.
The Catholic nations beheld the degradation of the supreme Pontiff with
abhorrence--every king in Europe feared a similar fate with the
sovereigns of Sardinia and Naples--and, after the fate of Switzerland,
no people could rely upon a peaceful, unoffending, and strictly neutral
character, as ground sufficient to exempt them from French aggression.
Thus a general dread and dislike prepared for a new coalition against
France, in which Russia, for the first time, was to become an active
co-operator.
[Sidenote: SUWARROW.]
The troops of this powerful empire were eminently qualified for
encountering with the French; for, added to their hardihood, courage,
and discipline, they had a national character--a distinction less known
to the Germans, whose subdivision into different states, often at war
with each other, has in some degree diminished their natural spirit of
patriotism. Accustomed also to warfare on a great scale, and to
encounter such an enemy as the Turk, the Russians, while they understood
the modern system of tactics, were less servilely bigoted to it than the
Austrians. Their ideas more readily went back to the natural and
primitive character of war, and they were better prepared either to
depart from strict technical rules themselves, or to see them departed
from, and calculate the results. These new enemies of France, moreover,
were full of confidence in their own character, and unchecked in their
military enthusiasm by the frequent recollections of defeat, which
clouded the spirit of the Austrians. Above all, the Russians had the
advantage of being commanded by Suwarrow, one of the most extraordinary
men of his time, who, possessed of the most profound military sagacity,
assumed the external appearance of fanatical enthusiasm, as in society
he often concealed his perfect knowledge of good-breeding under the show
of extravagant buffoonery. These peculiarities, which would not have
succeeded with a French or English army, gained for him an unbounded
confidence among his countrymen, who considered his eccentric conduct,
followed, as it almost always was, by brilliant success, as the result
of something which approached to inspiration.[440]
The united forces of Austria and Russia, chiefly under the command of
this singular character, succeeded, in a long train of bloody battles,
to retake and re-occupy those states in the north of Italy, which had
been conquered in Buonaparte's first campaigns. It was in vain that
Macdonald, whose name stood as high among the Republican generals, as
his character for honour and rectitude among French statesmen, marched
from Naples, traversing the whole length of Italy, to arrest the
victorious progress of the allies. After a train of stubborn fighting,
it was only by displaying great military talent that he could extricate
the remains of his army. At length the decisive and desperate battle of
Novi seemed to exclude the French from the possession of those fair
Italian provinces, which had been acquired by such expense of life.[441]
On the Rhine, though her defeats were not of such a decided character,
France also lost reputation and territory. Jourdan proved no match for
the Archduke Charles, who having no longer Buonaparte to encounter,
asserted his former superiority over inferior French generals. His royal
highness finally compelled the French to recross the Rhine, while the
Austrian generals Bellegarde and Hotze, supported by a Russian division
under Korsakow, advanced to the line of the Limmat, near Zurich, and
waited the junction of Suwarrow to occupy Switzerland, and even to
menace France, who, in a great measure despoiled of her foreign
conquests, had now reason to apprehend the invasion of her own
territory.
In the Netherlands, the French interest seemed equally insecure.
Insurrections had already taken place in what they called Belgium, and
it seemed that the natives of these populous districts desired but
opportunity and encouragement for a general revolt. Holland, through all
its provinces, was equally disaffected; and the reports from that
country encouraged England to send to the coast an expedition,
consisting of British and Russian forces, to which two divisions of the
Dutch fleet delivered up their vessels, hoisting at the same time the
colours of the Stadtholder. Here was another risk of an imminent and
pressing description, which menaced France and its Directorial
government.
It remains to be added to the tale of these foreign calamities, that the
Chouans, or Royalists of Bretagne, were again in the field with a number
of bands, amounting, it is said, to forty thousand men in all. They had
gained several successes, and, though falling short of the chivalrous
spirit of the Vendéans, and having no general equal in talents to
Charette, were nevertheless sufficiently brave and well commanded, to
become extremely formidable, and threaten a renewal of all the evils
which had been occasioned by the former civil war.
Amidst these louring appearances, the dislike and disrespect with which
the directors were regarded, occasioned their being loaded with every
species of accusation by the public. It was not forgotten that it was
the jealousy of Barras, Rewbel, and the other directors, which had
banished from France the most successful of her generals, at the head of
a gallant army, who were now needed to defend the provinces which their
valour had gained. The battle of Aboukir, while it annihilated their
fleet, had insulated the land forces, who, now cut off from all
communication with their mother country, and shut up in an insalubrious
province, daily wasted in encounters with the barbarous tribes that
valour, and those lives, which, hazarded on the frontiers of France
might have restored victory to their standards.
To these upbraiding complaints, and general accusations of incapacity,
as well as of peculation, the directors had little to answer. What was a
still greater deficiency, they had no party to appeal to, by whom their
cause, right or wrong, might have been advocated with the stanch
adherence of partisans. They had undergone, as we shall presently show,
various changes in their own body, but without any alteration in their
principles of administration, which still rested on the principle of
_Bascule_, or see-saw,[442] as it is called in English; the attempt, in
short, to govern two contending factions in the state, by balancing the
one against the other, without adhering to either. In consequence of
this mean and temporizing policy, which is always that of weak minds,
the measures of the government were considered, not with reference to
the general welfare of the state, but as they should have effect upon
one or other of the parties by which it was divided. It followed also,
that having no certain path and plan, but regulating their movements
upon the wish to maintain an equality between the factions, in order
that they might preserve their authority over both, the directors had no
personal followers or supporters, save that most sordid class, who
regulate their politics on their interest, and who, though faithful
adherents of every settled administration, perceive, by instinctive
sagacity, the moment that their patrons are about to lose their offices,
and desert their cause on such occasions with all convenient speed.
[Sidenote: "THE MODÉRÉS."]
Yet the directors, had they been men of talent, integrity, and
character--above all, had they been united among themselves, and agreed
on one steady course of policy, might have governed France with little
difficulty. The great body of the nation were exhausted by the previous
fury of the revolutionary movements, had supped full with politics, and
were much disposed to sit down contented under any government which
promised protection for life and property. Even the factions had lost
their energy. Those who inclined to a monarchical form, were many of
them become indifferent by whom the sceptre was wielded, providing that
species of government, supposed by them most suitable to the habits and
character of the French, should be again adopted. Many who were of this
opinion saw great objection to the restoration of the Bourbons, for fear
that, along with their right, might revive all those oppressive feudal
claims which the Revolution had swept away, as well as the pretensions
of the emigrants to resume their property. Those who entertained such
sentiments were called _Modérés_. The ancient blood-red Jacobins could
hardly be said to exist. The nation had had a surfeit of blood, and all
parties looked back with disgust on the days of Robespierre. But there
existed a kind of white Jacobins; men who were desirous to retain a
large proportion of democratical principle in the constitution, either
that they might not renounce the classical name of a Republic, or
because they confided in their own talents, to "wield at will the fierce
democracy;" or because they really believed that a potent infusion of
such a spirit in the forms of government was necessary for the
preservation of liberty. This party was greatly inferior in numbers to
the others; and they had lost their authority over the populace, by
means of which they had achieved such changes during the early periods
of the Revolution. But they were bold, enterprising, active; and their
chiefs, assuming at first the name of the Pantheon, afterwards of the
Manège Club, formed a party in the state which, from the character of
the leaders, gave great subject of jealousy to the Directory.[443]
The rapacity and insolent bearing of the French Government having, as we
have seen, provoked a new war with Austria and Russia, the means to
which the directors had recourse for maintaining it were a forced loan
imposed on the wealthy, which gave alarm to property, and a conscription
of two hundred thousand men, which was alike distressing to poor and
rich. Both measures had been submitted to during the Reign of Terror;
but then a murmur cost the complainer his head. The Directory had no
such summary mode of settling grievances. These two last inflictions
greatly inflamed the public discontent. To meet the general tendency to
insurrection, they had recourse to a measure equally harsh and
unpopular. It was called the Law of Hostages, by which the unoffending
relatives of emigrants, or royalists, supposed to be in arms, were
thrown into prison, and rendered responsible for the acts of their
connexions. This unjust law filled the prisons with women, old men, and
children,--victims of a government which, because it was not strong
enough to subdue insurrection by direct force, visited the consequences
of its own weakness on age, childhood, and helpless females.[444]
Meantime, the dissensions among the directors themselves, which
continued to increase, led to various changes within their own body.
When Buonaparte left Europe, the Directory consisted of Barras, Rewbel,
Treilhard, Merlin, Reveillière Lepaux. The opposition attacked them with
so much fury in the Legislative Assemblies, Boulay de la Meurthe, Lucien
Buonaparte, François, and other men of talent leading the way, that at
length the directors appear to have become afraid of being made
personally responsible, by impeachment, for the peculations of their
agents, as well as for the result of the insolences by which they had
exasperated the friends and allies of France. Rewbel, he whose character
for talent and integrity stood most fair with the public, was removed
from office by the lot which announced him as the director who was to
retire. It has been said, some art was used to guide fortune on this
occasion. His name in the list was succeeded by one celebrated in the
Revolution; that of the Abbé Siêyes.
This remarkable statesman had acquired a high reputation, not only by
the acuteness of his metaphysical talent, but by a species of mystery in
which he involved himself and his opinions. He was certainly possessed
of great knowledge and experience in the affairs of France, was an adept
in the composition of new constitutions of all kinds, and had got a high
character, as possessed of secrets peculiarly his own, for conducting
the vessel of the state amidst the storms of revolution. The Abbé, in
fact, managed his political reputation as a prudent trader does his
stock; and, by shunning to venture on anything which could, in any great
degree, peril his credit, he extended it in the public opinion, perhaps
much farther than his parts justified. A temper less daring in action
than bold in metaphysical speculation, and a considerable regard for his
own personal safety, accorded well with his affected air of mystery and
reserve. In the National Assembly he had made a great impression, by his
pamphlet explaining the nature of the Third Estate;[445] and he had the
principal part in procuring the union of the three separate Estates into
the National Assembly. A flaming patriot in 1792-3, he voted for the
death of the unfortunate Louis; and, as was reported, with brutal
levity, using the celebrated expression, "_Mort sans phrase_." He was
no less distinguished for bringing forward the important measure for
dividing France into departments, and thus blending together and
confounding all the ancient distinctions of provinces.[446] After this
period he became passive, and was little heard of during the Reign of
Terror; for he followed the maxim of Pythagoras, and worshipped the Echo
(only found in secret and solitary places) when he heard the tempest
blow hard.
[Sidenote: CONSTITUTION FOR THE YEAR THREE.]
After the revolution of 9th Thermidor, Siêyes came in with the moderate
party, and had the merit to propose the recall of the members who had
been forcibly expelled by the Jacobin faction on the fall of the
Girondists. He was one of the committee of eleven, to whom was given the
charge of forming the new constitution, afterwards called that of the
year Three. This great metaphysical philosopher and politician showed
little desire to share with any colleagues the toil and honour of a task
to which he esteemed himself exclusively competent; and he produced,
accordingly, a model entirely of his own composition, very ingenious,
and evincing a wonderfully intimate acquaintance with political
doctrines, together with a multitude of nice balances, capacities, and
disqualifications, so constituted as to be checks on each other. As
strongly characteristic of the genius of the man, we shall here give an
account of his great work.
His plan provided that the constitution, with its powers of judicature
and of administration, should emanate from the people; but lest, like
that unnatural parent the sow, the people should devour their own nine
farrow, the functionaries thus invested with power were to be placed,
when created, out of the reach of the parents who had given them birth.
The mode in which it was proposed to effect this, was both singular and
ingenious. The office-bearers were thus to be selected out of three
orders of the state, forming a triple hierarchy. 1. The citizens of each
commune were to name one-tenth of their number, to be called the
Communal Notables. From these were to be selected the magistrates of the
communes, and the justices of peace. 2. The Communal Notables were again
to choose a tenth part of their number, who were called the Departmental
Notables. The prefects, judges, and provincial administrators, were
selected from this second body. 3. The Departmental Notables, in like
manner, were to elect a tenth of their number, computed to amount to
about six thousand persons; and from this highest class of citizens were
to be filled the most dignified and important situations in the
state,--the ministers and members of government, the legislature, the
senate, or grand jury, the principal judges, ambassadors, and the like.
By this system it will be perceived, that instead of equality, three
ranks of privileged citizens were to be established, from whose ranks
alone certain offices could be filled. But this species of nobility,
or, as it was called, Notability, was dependent not on birth, but on the
choice of the people, from whom, though more or less directly, all
officers without exception received their commissions. The elections
were to take place every five years.
To represent the national dignity, power, and glory, there was to be an
officer called the Grand Elector, who was to have guards, a revenue, and
all the external appendages of royalty; all acts of government, laws,
and judicial proceedings, were to run in his name. This species of
_Roi-fainéant_ was to possess no part of the royal authority, except the
right of naming two consuls, one for peace, and the other for war; and
the farther right of selecting, from lists of candidates to be supplied
by the three ranks of the hierarchy, the individuals who were to fill
official situations as they should become vacant. But having exercised
this privilege, the grand elector, or proclaimer general, was _functus
officio_, and had no active duties to perform, or power to exercise. The
two consuls, altogether uncontrolled by him or each other, were to act
each in their own exclusive department of peace or war; and the other
functionaries were alike independent of the grand proclaimer, or
elector, so soon as he had appointed them. He was to resemble no
sovereign ever heard of but the queen bee, who has nothing to do but to
repose in idleness and luxury, and give being to the active insects by
whose industry the business of the hive is carried on.
The government being thus provided for, the Abbé Siêyes's system of
legislature was something like that of France in the time of the
Parliament. There was to be a Legislative Body of two hundred and fifty
deputies; but they were to form rather a tribunal of judges, than a
popular and deliberative assembly. Two other bodies, a Council of State
on the part of the Government, and a Tribunate of one hundred deputies,
on the part of the people, were to propose and discuss measures in
presence of this Legislative Council, who then proceeded to adopt or
reject them upon scrutiny and by vote, but without any oral delivery of
opinions. The Tribunate was invested with the right of guarding the
freedom of the subject, and denouncing to the Convocative Senate such
misconduct of office-bearers, or ill-chosen measures, or ill-advised
laws, as should appear to them worthy of reprobation.
But, above all, Abbé Siêyes piqued himself upon the device of what he
determined a Conservative Senate, which, possessing in itself no power
of action or legislation of any kind, was to have in charge the
preservation of the constitution. To this Senate was given the singular
power, of calling in to become a member of their own body, and reducing
of course to their own state of incapacity, any individual occupying
another situation in the constitution, whose talents, ambition, or
popularity, should render him a subject of jealousy. Even the grand
elector himself was liable to this fate of _absorption_, as it was
called, although he held his crown of Cocaign in the common case for
life. Any exertion on his part of what might seem to the Senate an act
of arbitrary authority, entitled them to adopt him a member of their own
body. He was thus removed from his palace, guards, and income, and made
for ever incapable of any other office than that of a senator. This high
point of policy was carrying the system of checks and balances as far as
it could well go.
The first glance of this curious model must have convinced a practical
politician that it was greatly too complicated and technical to be
carried into effect. The utility of laws consists in their being of a
character which compels the respect and obedience of those to whom they
relate. The very delicacy of such an ingenious scheme rendered it
incapable of obtaining general regard, since it was too refined to be
understood save by profound philosophers. To the rest of the nation it
must have been like a watch to a savage, who, being commanded to
regulate his time by it, will probably prefer to make the machine
correspond with his inclinations, by putting backward and forward the
index at pleasure. A man of ordinary talent and honest disposition might
have been disqualified for public life by this doctrine of absorption,
just as a man ignorant of swimming would perish if flung into a lake.
But a stout swimmer would easily gain the shore, and an individual like
Buonaparte would set at defiance the new species of ostracism, and
decline to be neutralized by the absorption of the Senate. Above all,
the plan of the abbé destroyed the true principle of national
representation, by introducing a metaphysical election of members of
legislation, instead of one immediately derived from the direct vote of
the people themselves. In the abbé's alembic, the real and invaluable
principle of popular representation was subtilized into smoke.
For these, or other reasons, the commissioners of the year Three did not
approve of the plan proposed by Siêyes; and, equally dissatisfied with
the constitution which they adopted, he withdrew himself from their
deliberations, and accepted the situation of ambassador to Prussia,
where he discharged with great ability the task of a diplomatist.
[Sidenote: DUCOS--GOHIER--MOULINS.]
In 1799, Siêyes returned from Berlin to Paris, full of hope to establish
his own favourite model on the ruins of the Directorial Constitution,
and, as a preliminary, obtained, as we have said, Rewbel's seat in the
Directory. Merlin and Lepaux, menaced with impeachments, were induced to
send in their resignation. Treilhard had been previously displaced, on
pretext of an informality in the choice. Instead of them were introduced
into the Directory Roger Ducos, a Modéré, or rather a Royalist, with
Gohier and Moulins, men of talents too ordinary to throw any opposition
in the path of Siêyes.[447] Barras, by his expenses and his luxurious
mode of life, his connexion with stock-jobbers, and encouragement of
peculation, was too much in danger of impeachment, to permit him to play
a manly part. He truckled to circumstances, and allied himself with, or
rather subjected himself to, Siêyes, who saw the time approaching when
the constitution of the year Three must fall, and hoped to establish his
own rejected model in its stead. But the revolution which he meditated
could only be executed by force.
The change in the Directory had destroyed the government by bascule, or
balance, and that intermediate and trimming influence being removed, the
two parties of the Modérés and the Republicans stood full opposed to
each other, and ready to try their strength in a severe struggle.
Siêyes, though no Royalist, or at least certainly no adherent of the
House of Bourbon, stood, nevertheless, at the head of the Modérés, and
taxed his sagacity for means of ensuring their victory. The Modérés
possessed a majority in the Council of the Ancients; but the Society of
the Manège, Republicans if not Jacobins, had obtained, at the last
election, a great superiority of numbers in the Council of Five Hundred.
They were sure to be in decided opposition to any change of the
constitution of the year Three; and such being the case, those who
plotted the new revolution, could not attempt it without some external
support. To call upon the people was no longer the order of the day.
Indeed it may be supposed that the ancient revolutionary columns would
rather have risen against Siêyes, and in behalf of the Society of the
Manège. The proposers of a new change had access, however, to the army,
and to that they determined to appeal. The assistance of some military
chief of the first reputation was necessary. Siêyes cast his eyes upon
Joubert, an officer of high reputation, and one of the most
distinguished among Buonaparte's generals. He was named by the Directors
to the command of the department of Paris, but shortly after was sent to
Italy with hopes that, acquiring a new fund of glory by checking the
progress of Suwarrow, he might be yet more fitted to fill the public
eye, and influence the general mind, in the crisis when Siêyes looked
for his assistance. Joubert lost his life, however, at the great battle
of Novi, fought betwixt him and Suwarrow; and so opportunely did his
death make room for the pretensions of Buonaparte, that it has been
rumoured, certainly without the least probability, that he did not fall
by the fire of the Austrians, but by that of assassins hired by the
family of Napoleon, to take out of the way a powerful competitor of
their brother. This would have been a gratuitous crime, since they could
neither reckon with certainty on the arrival of Buonaparte, nor upon his
being adopted by Siêyes in place of Joubert.
Meanwhile, the family of Napoleon omitted no mode of keeping his merits
in public remembrance. Reports from time to time appeared in the papers
to this purpose, as when, to give him consequence doubtless, they
pretended that the Tower guns of London were fired, and public
rejoicings made, upon a report that Napoleon had been assassinated.
Madame Buonaparte, in the meanwhile, lived at great expense, and with
much elegance, collecting around her whoever was remarkable for talent
and accomplishment, and many of the women of Paris who were best
accustomed to the management of political intrigue. Lucien Buonaparte
distinguished himself as an orator in the Council of Five Hundred, and
although he had hitherto affected Republican zeal, he now opposed, with
much ability, the reviving influence of the democrats. Joseph
Buonaparte, also a man of talent, and of an excellent character, though
much aspersed afterwards, in consequence of the part in Spain assigned
him by his brother, lived hospitably, saw much company, and maintained
an ascendance in Parisian society. We cannot doubt that these near
relatives of Buonaparte found means of communicating to him the state of
affairs in Paris, and the opening which it afforded for the exercise of
his distinguished talents.
The communication betwixt Toulon and Alexandria was, indeed,
interrupted, but not altogether broken off, and we have no doubt that
the struggle of parties in the interior, as well as the great disasters
on the frontier, had their full influence in determining Buonaparte to
his sudden return. Miot, though in no very positive strain, has named a
Greek called Bambuki, as the bearer of a letter from Joseph to his
brother, conveying this important intelligence. The private memoirs of
Fouché pretend that that minister purchased the secret of Napoleon's
return being expected, from Josephine herself, for the sum of a thousand
louis, and that the landing at Frejus was no surprise to him. Both these
pieces of private history may be safely doubted; but it would be
difficult to convince us that Buonaparte took the step of quitting Egypt
on the vague intelligence afforded by the journals, and without
confidential communication with his own family.
[Sidenote: JOURDAN.]
To return to the state of the French Government. The death of Joubert
not only disconcerted the schemes of Siêyes, but exposed him and his
party to retaliation. Bernadotte was minister of war, and he, with
Jourdan and Augereau, were all warm in the cause of Republicanism. Any
of these distinguished generals was capable of leading the military
force to compel such an alteration in the constitution as might suit the
purpose of their party, and thus reversing the project of Siêyes, who,
without Joubert, was like the head without the arm that should execute.
Already Jourdan had made in the Council of Five Hundred a speech on the
dangers of the country, which, in point of vehemence, might have been
pronounced in the ancient hall of the Jacobins. He in plain terms
threatened the Modérés with such a general insurrection as had taken
place in the year 1792, and proposed to declare the country in danger.
He was answered by Lucien Buonaparte, Chenier, and Boulay, who had great
difficulty to parry the impetuosity with which the motion was urged
forward. Though they succeeded in eluding the danger, it was still far
from being over, and the democrats would probably have dared some
desperate movement, if any additional reverse had been sustained on the
frontier.
But as if the calamities of France, which of late had followed each
other in quick succession, had attained their height of tide, the
affairs of that country began all of a sudden to assume a more
favourable aspect. The success of General Brune in Holland against the
Anglo-Russian army, had obliged the invaders of Holland to retreat, and
enter into a convention for evacuation of the country on which they had
made their descent. A dispute, or misunderstanding, having occurred
between the Emperors of Austria and Russia, the Archduke Charles, in
order, it was alleged, to repel an incursion of the French into the
countries on the Maine, withdrew a great part of his army from the line
of the Limmat, which was taken up by the Russians under Korsakow.
Massena took the advantage of this imprudent step, crossed the Limmat,
surprised the Russians, and defeated Korsakow, whilst the formidable
Suwarrow, who had already advanced to communicate with that general,
found his right flank uncovered by his defeat, and had the greatest
difficulty in executing a retrograde movement before General Lecourbe.
The news of these successes induced the Republicans to defer their
attack upon the moderate party; and on so nice a point do the greatest
events hang, that had a longer period intervened between these victories
and the arrival of Buonaparte, it is most probable that he would have
found the situation of military chief of the approaching revolution,
which became vacant on the death of Joubert, filled up by some one of
those generals, of whom success had extended the fame. But he landed at
the happy crisis, when the presence of a chief of first-rate talents was
indispensable, and when no favourite name had yet been found, to fill
the public voice with half such loud acclaim as his own.
FOOTNOTES:
[434] Lacretelle, tom. xiv., p. 230; Madame de Staël, tom. ii., p. 211.
[435] Lacretelle, tom. xiv., p. 176; Montgaillard, tom. v., p. 126;
Jomini, tom. xi., p. 380.
[436] Botta, tom. ii., p. 571; Lacretelle, tom. xiv., p. 145; Thiers,
tom. x., p. 26; Annual Register, vol. xl., p. 38.
[437] See Southey's Life of Nelson.
[438] Jomini, tom. xiv., p. 316; Lacretelle, tom. xiv., p. 241.
[439] Annual Register, vol. xl., p. 244.
[440] "Suwarrow is a most extraordinary man. He dines every morning
about nine. He sleeps almost naked: he affects a perfect indifference to
heat and cold; and quits his chamber, which approaches to suffocation,
in order to review his troops, in a thin linen jacket, while the
thermometer is at ten degrees below freezing. A great deal of his
whimsical manner is affected: He finds that it suits his troops, and the
people he has to deal with. I dined with him this morning. He cried to
me across the table, 'Tweddell, the French have taken Portsmouth. I have
just received a courier from England. The king is in the tower, and
Sheridan protector!'"--TWEDDELL'S _Remains_, p. 135.
[441] Jomini, tom. xi., p. 275; Thiers, tom. x., p. 279.
[442] The term, it is scarcely necessary to say, is derived from the
childish amusement, where two boys swing at the opposite ends of a
plank, moving up and down, in what Dr. Johnson calls "a reciprocating
motion," while a third urchin, placed in the centre of motion, regulates
their movements.--S.
[443] Gourgaud, tom. i., p. 58.
[444] Thiers, tom. x., p. 269; Lacretelle, tom. xiv., p. 397.
[445] See _ante_, vol. i., p. 56.
[446] Gourgaud, tom. i., p. 61.
[447] "Ducos was a man of narrow mind, and easy disposition. Moulins, a
general of division, had never served in war: he was originally in the
French guards, and had been advanced in the army of the interior. He was
a worthy man, and a warm and upright patriot. Gohier was an advocate of
considerable reputation, and exalted patriotism--an eminent lawyer, and
a man of great integrity and candour."--NAPOLEON, _Gourgaud_, tom. i.,
p. 60.