HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
teliance on the sclf-denying princi- 
ples they now soc:refully professed. 
For this reason it was judged more 
consistent with the public peace and 
security; to fix them in secondary 
employments, than to constitute 
them the principal personages in 
the republic. Louvet, Legendre, 
Freron, Cambaceres, to mention no 
others, were individuals who an- 
swered exactly thisdescription, Full 
of courage aid parts, but no less of 
artifice and tergiversation, they had 
on several occasions acted undaunt- 
ediy and faithfully for the service 
of the state; but they had also 
exhibited so much unsreadiness in 
their principles, and such variations 
in their conduét, that they had tor- 
feited that confidence which can 
only be secured by an unquestion< 
able stability in both. : 
The members of ihe directory 
Were installed in their high offices 
With great pomp. Guards and all 
the magnificence cf royalty were an- 
nexed to them; and their appearance 
in public, and upon days of aadi- 
ence, was ina styleof grandeur, nos 
thing differing from that of the so- 
vereigns of Europe. To a great 
number of people this was very ac- 
ceptable; it retraced the former 
splendour of the monarghy, and ens 
couraged those arts that conduce to 
the elegance of social life. It also 
roved an incentive to those am- 
itious spirits, whose chief motive 
for exerting their abilities is the 
prospect of rising to such personal 
distin¢tions as may point them out 
to the gaze of the multitude; and 
the number of these is much more 
considerable -in France than, ap- 
eyenly: in any other country of 
arope. During the regal govern- 
ment, a prodigious proportion of 
the military had no other reward to 
-[iig 
expect for their services than ex. 
ternal decoration ; and such was the 
temper ofthe French, that the highest 
value was set upon them, and they 
were.preferred to more substantial 
recompense. To preserve such a 
spirit, appeared worthy of con. 
sideration to those who framed the 
new constitution; but there were 
others who professed an utter dis. 
like to what they called the relics 
of royalty; they viewed them as 
incentives and temptations torestore 
it, and would willingly have banish. 
ed all formalities from the exercise 
of government, and have stripped 
it of every appendage that’ was 
not indispensably requisite for the 
transaCtion of business. These were 
the rigid republicans, who were ges 
nerally men of austere manners, foes 
to expensive gaieties, and desirous 
to reduce both public and private 
life to the rules of the plainest sim+ 
plicity; through their influence, 
titles had been abolished, and the 
forms of social intercourse divested 
of complimentary phrases ;_ no dis. 
tin@tions remained but those of pub. 
lic funGtions, and even to those ng 
epithets were added; the official 
appellation was deemed sufficient, 
and to covet more was reputed the 
mark of a vain and frivolous dispo- 
sition. To these men the superb 
ceremonial that encompassed the 
directory wasextremely odious, and 
they laboured ail in their power to 
depreciate it in the estjmation of 
the public. The maxims they had 
so zealously inculcated came now 
to their aid: baving for years ins 
veighed against the luxurious pomp 
of courts, they had taught the 
people to look upon it as the trap- 
pings of vanity, purchased at the 
expence of the community. In pury 
suance of these maxims, their pro- 
{1 4] selites 
