154] 
paratively to what had been ex- 
pected, and loudly demanded, that 
the public was entirely disappoint= 
ed: the more indeed, that some,who 
were deemed the principal promo- 
ters of those criminal transactions, 
found means to escape the venge- 
ance of the law. 
Before this tribunal were also 
brought those citizens of Paris, who 
had taken up arms to oppose that 
decree of the convention, by which 
two-thirds of its members were to 
be returned deputies to the new 
legislature. Lenity being now, 
to use a very common phrase, be- 
come the order of the day, they 
were acquitted, to the great joy of 
their fellow citizens, who now sin- 
cerely repented the violent measures 
they bad been persuaded to adopt 
upon that occasion, through the in- 
trigues of men who bad much 
more in view, the attainment of 
their private ends, than the pub- 
lic objects which they pretended to 
haveso much at heart. These, the 
people of Paris were at present 
convinced, would have been much 
more effectually accomplished by 
the steady and persevering strength 
of argument and remonstrance, in 
which they would have probably 
been graduaily.joined by multitudes 
in all the departments. But had 
they failed in these endeavours, still 
they would not have been the dupes 
and victims of private ambition, 
and shed their blood for men who, 
like most aspiring characters, would, 
if successful, have forgotten their 
services, and repaid them with in- 
gratitude. 
After baving thus, in some de- 
gree, satisfied the demands of the 
naion, the directory now turned its 
atiention to a business. which re- 
quired more than ever the cares 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1796. 
and exertions of government: this 
was the department of the finances, 
which having, since the foundation 
of the republic, been supported by 
the most extraordinary and unprece- 
dented means, were now beginning 
to totter, and to threaten instant 
ruin, 
Thecredit, at first given to the 
assignats, had long been gradually 
falling, and they were now become 
of no value. Jt was therefore in- 
dispensible to replace them by a 
currency of more estimation. ©The 
specie of the nation was either bid- 
den by those who would. not part 
with their hoards, or in those ava- 
ricious hands that had accumulated 
it for the purpose of swelling its 
value in pecuniary transactions with 
those who wanted it. The means 
of bringing it forth, in the ordinary 
occurrences of society, were studi- 
ously sought, bat could not be found, 
while those terrors and uncertainties 
continued, that made every man 
tremble for his property. The esta- 
blishment of the new constitution 
was beginning to remove these ap- 
prehensions : but they still retained 
much of their influence, and the 
scarcity of hard money was still an 
universal complaint. 
_In order to remedy the depreciation 
and indeed the inutility of assignats, 
government procured the passing ofa- 
decree, on the 25th of March, which 
it hoped might tend to expedite the 
sale of the national property in lands, 
Twenty-two years purchase was the 
price at which they had been fixed 
since the year 1790, when the na= 
tional assembly first had recourse to 
this method of supplying the wants. 
of the state. By the decree now 
passed, a new fabrication of paper 
money was issued, to the amount of 
two thousand four hundred millions 
of 
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