32] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1797. 
lution been effected in favour of 
Lewis, deeds of a most atrocious 
nature were to have ensued. That 
princewas, at his restoration, to have 
assumed the mask of clemency, and 
to have issued’an act of oblivion/; 
but this was_to have been declared 
null and void by the parliament, 
after his power had been firmly set- 
tled, and the ancient courts of judi- 
cature re-established: other acts. of 
perfidy were to have accompanied 
thisone. The leading members of 
the present legislature were to have 
been taken into favour, and pro- 
moted: but condemned to punish- 
mient on the firstopportunity, Otlrer 
“frauds and barbarities were men- 
tioned, such as exposing La Fayette 
in an iron cage, and sentencing to 
the gallies the inferior actors in 
the revolution. If the strength of 
the royalists proved insufficient for 
their purposes, the jacobins and ter- 
rorists were to have been resorted 
to, for aid, on plausible pretexts. 
Such were the principal charges 
against the four persons arrested. 
As their answers-did not invalidate 
them, they were ordered, by the 
directory, to be tried before a mi- 
litary tribunal, as falling under 
the accusation of having levied 
forces to be employed against the 
Siate, 
The chief agent among them ap- 
peared to be Dunant. He gave in 
a declaration of the proseedings re- 
lating to this conspiracy, that repre- 
sented it, as well as his agency 
therein, in so remarkable, and, at 
the same time, in so strange and 
perplexed alight, that it excited 
great doubt of his veracity. He 
assumed the character of a man re- 
solved to communicate all the 
transactions to which he was privy, 
and in which he bad been concerned, 
relating to France. He detailed, 
in the minutest manner, the multi-+ 
plicity of intrigues carried on, at- 
home and abroad, against the repub- 
lic, specifying facts and persons’ 
with the most circumstantial accu- 
racy. His object, by making these 
discoveries, was, he said, to frustrate 
the attempts of the enemies to the 
commonwealth, and to enable it the 
more readily to crush them, by be- 
ing forewarned in time. The part. 
that England acted in these transac- 
tions was very particularly describ- \ — 
ed. According to his report, the 
British ministry was at the bottom 
of every design meditated against 
France, and spared no expence to 
forward their execution. Nothing, 
in short, was omitted, on the part’ 
of this ancient rival, to overturn its 
present, and to restore its former 
government. But notwithstanding 
the utility, which the royal cause 
expected te derive from England, » 
the king, he said, meaning Lewis 
XVIII. and his council, had alway 
been of opinion, that the services ¢ 
England were perfidious, and tend- 
ing to no other end than the ruin of 
France. This declaration made. 
much noise at the time, and gave 
occasion to a variety of specula~ 
tions, o 
The detection of this conspiracy 
coinciding with the period immedi- — 
ately preceding the annual change 
of one-third of the legislature, a- 
wakened the suspicions of govern- 
ment, and induced them to imagine 
that their opponents would exercise 
all their influence throughout the — 
nation, to render the ensuing elec-. 
tion of members, to replace those 
that vacated theirseats, unfavourable 
to the views of the present rulers, 
Herein they were not deceived. 
Every Species of opposition, vio- 
lence | 
q 
