98 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1794. 



manner they attempted to concen- 

 trate tlie powers of government in 

 a small number of their satelHtes, 

 destined to be the instruments of 

 those violences and cruelties which 

 were be toexercised against all well- 

 .meaning persons, and against the 

 nation at larnr. 



The unjust decree which ordered 

 my arrest, and my transfer to the 

 bar of the assembly, was the first at- 

 tempt directed by them againstyour 

 liberty. You unanimously declared 

 yourselves, and humbly remonstra- 

 ted, against an act designed to faci- 

 litate the execution of the enemy's 

 plots : finally, you, in a general 

 assembly, declared your indigna- 

 tion at tills act of injustice; and you 

 adopted, at that moment, such re- 

 solutions as were consistent with 

 your own dignity, and with the 

 public welfare. 



I accepted, as a distinguishing 

 proof of your confid'.'ncc, the com- 

 mission you were pleased to confer 

 upon me, for providing in thosecr:- 

 tical circumstances for the mainte- 

 rance of your safety and liberty : 

 anxious that you should not be ex- 

 posed to any danger, unless indig- 

 nation and necessity commanded you 

 to resist, I tried every means which 

 prudence and mnderiuion suggested 

 to me at that time-; but neither 

 your just reclamations, nor my in- 

 nocence, were sufScicnt to recal to 

 sentiments of rectitude and huma- 

 nity a violent and sanguinary fac- 

 tion, irritated by the noble resist- 

 ance you had made, and resolved 

 to accomplish your destruction : for 

 wliich purpose the subversion of the 

 government was ordered, and the 

 members of it proscribed, conjointly 

 with many other zealous patriots : 

 the nation was declared in a state of 

 rebellion : orders were given to re- 

 duce it by force of arms, and to 



treat it with the bloody rigour of 

 revolutionary laws. 



Rousfd by these causes, by the 

 endless successionof destruction and 

 ruin, which characterizes the con- 

 duct of those persons who exercise 

 the powersof government in France, 

 and by the destruction of all reli- 

 gion, and of every form of worship, 

 enforced and proclaimed among the 

 people with unexampled impiety, 

 every Corsican felt the necessity of 

 scjniratiiig from the French, and of 

 guarding against the poisonous in- 

 fluence of their errors. 



The acts of hostility committed 

 by the French, and those Corsican 

 traitors who had taken refuge in the 

 garrisons of Calvi, St.Fiorcnzo, and 

 Bastia, compelled us to repel them 

 by force of arms. I have seen with 

 in finitesatisfaction, during thecourse 

 of a whole year, that your ancient 

 bravery and attachment to your 

 country were not in the least dimi- 

 nished. In various encoiniters the 

 enemy have been defeated, although 

 numerous and supported by artille- 

 ry : you have treated the prisoners 

 taken in the heat of battle, with ge- 

 nerosity ; while the enemy have, in 

 cold blood, massacred our prisoners, 

 who were so unfortunate as to fall 

 into their hands : in all these agita- 

 tions wc have kept ourselves united, 

 and exempt from the horrors of li- 

 centiousness and anarchy ; a happy 

 presage of your future fate, and an 

 irrefragable proof that you are de- 

 serving of true liberty, and that you 

 will know how to preserve it unsul- 

 lied by licentiousness and dissentions. 



In such a t-tate of things, a be- 

 coming diSdeuce made me, never- 

 theless, apprehend that the enemy 

 would increase in force, and attempt 

 to carry into execution the destruc- 

 tive plans they had formed against 

 you : under these circumstances I 



felt 



