HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
“emigrants had been suffered to re- 
turn. The places of their meeting. 
were even pointed out. But why 
did not the police do its duty : why 
were those connivances and par- 
tialities to some individuals tolerat- 
ed, the traffic in. which was pub- 
licly reported ? It belonged to the 
council to require from the directory 
‘an account of those abuses. 
He then adverted to the assassi- 
ations and partial judgments of the 
‘tribunals, complained of by the di- 
Tectory. ‘I'rne it was, he acknow- 
dedged, that blood had flowed in se- 
-veral departments. But there were 
laws against assassination, and i:{was 
the business of the directory to en- 
force them. If partiality had been 
exercised in the tribunals, the laws 
were also competent to its punish- 
ment, and the directory ought to 
‘denounce the guilty. Complaints, 
therefore, -were nugatory, as it was 
-in the power of the government to 
‘remove them, Nor was the pro- 
‘tection claimed, for the purchasers 
of national property, less secured to 
_ them, by the constitution, than to all 
other proprietors: and it’ was the 
duty of the executive, to watch 
over the safety of every part of the 
‘community. 
' The council, he said, had been 
informed of journals breathing mut - 
der, and the return of royalty. He 
would not deny that numbers of 
them were ful] of faction arid se- 
“dition. But the legislature was evi- 
dently solicitous for the suppression 
oa those licentious proceedings, and 
-alaw was in preparation for that 
purpose. - Pr oe 
Nor would he deny the defici- 
\ ciences in the public revenue, and 
that want of order and econo.ny 
_ had thrown the finances into dis- 
prder. But had the army any rea- 
[73 
son to reproach the legislative body? 
Had not their payment and. sup- 
port been attended to in “pres 
ference to every other expence ? 
Had then, he'said, the forced loans, 
the assignats and mandats, the na- 
tional estates at home, the contribn- 
tions abroad, been found insufficient? 
Rather let it be acknowledged, 
were his words, “ that the public 
resources have been exhausted, by 
being distributed through too many 
hands, and imprudently confided 
to unskilful or stispicious manage- 
ment.” 
Peace alone, he asserted, could 
extricate France from its embarrass« 
ments, How criminal, therefore, 
must those be, who strove to place 
it at adistance. But. the legisla- 
ture had evinced every disposition 
to accelerate it. Future historians 
would examine whether trans- 
actions in Italy had not contributed 
to retard it. But could France, in 
justice, blame its generals, for giv- 
ing liberty to millions of men? and 
when these had been put in pos- 
session of their liberty, ought France 
to refuse them its friendship and al- 
liance ? 
Still, however, he contended, 
the legislature should not be silent 
upon these transactions. The di- 
rectory ‘had certainly exceeded 
its constitutional powers. If war 
was! to be waged against the Italian 
states, who, without the assent of 
the legislative power, had the right 
of declaring it? Who, without its 
approbation, could fiame treaties of 
commerce, of subsidies, or of alli- 
ance with those states? The govern- 
ments, established in Italy, must re- 
main unstable, and the liberty of the 
people would have no fixed sup- 
port, without the formal concur 
rence of the legislature. 
Ie 
