322 
bind them down to flavery, and to 
_overthrow the republican conftitu- 
tion of the third year; to manifeft 
to them the fentiments and the 
hopes of the legiflature, and at the 
fame time to guard againft the ma- 
noeuvres which the accomplices of 
the confpirators may attempt, in or- 
der to deceive them,— 
Declare that there is urgency, 
and adopt the following refolu- 
tion:— 
Article I. The legiflative body 
makes to the departments and to 
the armies the following addrefs : 
« Frenchmen, we owe to you the 
truth: we are about to tell you the 
truth. 
“© A confpiracy, which has for its 
obje& to eftablifh in France a 
throne, and with privileges and 
vexations, a thoufand times more 
odious than thofe which were abo- 
lifhed by your will; a confpiracy 
conftantly unmafked, and yet never 
deftroyed, had again brought the 
republic to the brink of an abyfs. 
The government, by its wifdom 
and its firmnefs, difconcerted the 
action at ihe moment when it was 
on the point of breaking'out. One 
night more, and an eternal mourn- 
ing would have covered our coun- 
try! One night more, and an ar- 
bitrary defpotifm would have raifed 
her hideous head, and fealed her 
ufurpation on the bodies ofall thofe 
who had riore or lefs ferved the 
caufe of liberty! Men, who had no 
other ambition of popular power 
than to exercife it againft the peo- 
ple, laboured for a long time in the 
execution of this execrable project ; 
for the moft part chiefs of the in- 
furgents of Vendemiaire, hardened 
by impunity, refumed the thread of 
their intrigues; they {till corref- 
wonded more audacioufly than ever 
o 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1797+ 
with the agents of the pretender, 
Louis XVIII. The confeffions of 
one of thefe royal agents (Duverne 
Duprefle) bear teftimony tothe faét. 
Their letters taken at Venice, their 
correfpondence with the emigrants 
and the principal rebels, prove it. 
All the documents are made pub- 
lic. Their means were,—1ft. The 
extinétion of all public national 
{pirit! 2d. The affaflination of 
every man whom they branded with 
the title Su/pected of Patriotifm, and 
the impunity granted to the aflaf- 
fins by the tribunals fold to royal- 
ifm. $d. The extinétion of the 
financial refources of the  ftate. 
4th. The vilifying of the govern- 
mentand the republican inftitutions. 
5th. Civil war to be kindled in dif- 
ferent points of the republic. 6th. 
Internal fafety to be deftroyed, and 
all the roads intercepted. 7th. By 
the ftarving of the national credi- 
tor, the artifan, and the foldier. 
And finally, — 8th. By the active 
fabrication of all forts of laws fub- 
verfive of the conftitution. 
“ This end, and all thefe means, 
will not aftonifh you, as you will 
learn by the authentic documents 
found, that their nominations, or- 
dered beforehand, and regulated 
by particular offices of counter- 
revolution in all the departments, 
were founded on a general plan, 
formed and organized under the 
naine of the Society of Legitimate Sons ; 
a fociety, one of whofe rules was 
the moit abfolute, the moft blind 
devotion of its members to the or- 
ders that*fhould be given them by 
their unknown chiets. It was by 
thefe means, French citizens, that 
you have feen fpring out all at 
once, from the bofom of your pri- 
mary and electoral affemblies, this 
erowd of delegates, hitherto un- 
known 
