84] 
had taken the oath of hatred to roy- 
alty, and fidelity to the republic. 
They were not, in the first twenty- 
four hours atter their meeting, to 
pronounce a verdict, unless unani- 
mous. Ifafter that space of time 
they declared that they could not 
decide unanimously, the decision of 
the majority was to be valid. Jour- 
nals and other public papers were 
placed, fora year, under the inspec- 
tion of the police, which might, by 
its own authority, prehibit their 
publication. The law was repealed 
that prohibited societies wherein 
political questions were discussed : 
but every society, in which princi- 
ples inimical to the constitution of 
the third year were professed, was to 
be shut up, and the members of it, 
asserting suck principles, to be prose- 
cuted. The laws recently enacted, 
relatively to the establishment and 
organization of the national guard, 
were abrogated, and the power of 
putting a commune in a state of 
siege, lately taken from the direc- 
tory, was restored to it. The de- 
crees enacting the banishment of 
the Bourbons, including the widow 
of Orleans, and the confiscation of 
their effects, were confirmed, and 
all: provisions to, the contrary res- 
cinded; the directory was empow-~ 
ered to fix the place of their exile, 
and to allow them, out of their 
estates, a sufficiency to maintain 
them. 
Such wete the principal resol :- 
tions adupted by the council of five 
hundred, in their sitting of the fifth 
of September. They put an effec- 
tual stop to all the efforts that had 
- been clandestinely prepared by the 
opposition; and frustrated, at once, 
all the expectations ofits adherents, 
Its chiefs ‘and leaders, who were all 
men of courage and capacity, being 
ANNUAL REGIS 
* Having thus provided for their 
T ER; 1 1797. 
thus unexpectedly seized, the body, 
of which they were the head, was 
rendered instantly incapable of ac-_ 
tion. Whatever organization’ it 
might have previously received, the 
boldness as well as the suddenness 
of the blow, struck by their more | 
active and expéditious . enemies, 
seemed to. have wholly deprived. 
them of spirit and energy. 
Among the members of the le- | 
gisiature, thus deprived of their | 
liberty, were, besides Barthelemi A 
and Carnot, two persons “of noted 
talents, general Pichégru, Boissy 
d’Anglas, ~ Dumelard, Gilbert, Des-— 
molieres, Villaret Joyouse, a naval 
officer of great merit, Pastoret, 
Vaublanc, Troncon Ducaudfat, 
‘These were all men of conspicuous 
resolution and abilities. Cochon, 
late minister of the police, and ge- 
neral Miranda, who had figured in 
the army, were also in the list of 
prisoners, So vigilant and deter- 
mined had been the conduct of the 
three directors, who assumed the 
supreme power on this critical oc 
casion, that not one person remain=— 
edat large, of all their opponents, of | 
sufficient consideration hice them | 
disquietude. On the representa- 
tions of some of their friends in 
the council, Thibaudeau, Doulert, 
and four other of their colleagues, 
who had been arrested, were set at 
liberty. But these were the only 
persons in whose favour any soli- 
citations, however ardently urged, 
could prevail upon the council to 
shew any farther Jenity. 
a 
own security, and that of their 
party, the next step, of which the 
three directors .saw the immedia 
necessity, was to fill up the place 
vacant. in their own office. To this 
intent they sent a message, on the 
sixth 
