- 
260 | 
it. It is by submission to the law 
that you are to find your liberty 
secured, the destruction of faction 
accomplished, and the conclusion 
of ‘your miseries. 
Profit at length by the lessons of 
experience ; let the sources of divi- 
sion among you, which have been 
the spring of all your miseries, be 
dried up; and the spirit of party, 
which has been ever the forge in 
which your fetters have been form- 
ed, give place to the bonds of fra- 
ternity ; and, above all things, let 
what has passed teach you not to 
give credit to men, unless when 
they. speak the language of prin-) 
ciple; and let him, who would 
hereafter substitute his will for law, 
be considered as a traitor, and a- 
bandoned to the vengeance of free. 
men. 
It was a boundless confidence re- 
posed in one of your fellow-citi- 
zens; who was far from deserving 
it, that misled you so much as to 
cause you to betray your dearest 
interests, to detach yourself from 
your mother-country, not only at 
the moment when she was bestow- 
ing on you the estimable boon of 
liberty, but while she was lavish- 
ing her treasures for the increase of 
your industry, for the formation of 
your havens, and for the cultiva- 
tion of your fields. It was a blind 
obedience to the will! of a mean, 
ambitious man, that led you to 
the commission of the most atroci- 
ous crime that republicans could 
commit, that of submitting to a 
king. - 
Citizens, you have great crimes, 
for which you should make repara- 
tion. The stigma with which you 
ate branded can only be done away 
by a conduct such as.to justify the 
generosity with which the French 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1796. 
republic has treated you, in restor- 
ing you to the plenitude of your 
rights. May you make such use 
of this indulgence, as is worthy o 
men who wish for freedom, with- 
out acquiring it by the horrors of 
anarchy ! who are disposed to sub-] 
mit, without meanness, tothe laws, 
and to acknowledge no other au- 
thority than that which may ema- 
nate from the republic. . 
The fatal error, of which during}, 
three years you have been the vic-}) 
tims, should instruct you how far: 
you ought to give credit to the pro- 
fession of those who are the ene- 
mies of the republic. The English: 
could not prevail on you to betray 
your duty bit by a promise to pre- |) 
serve your liberty ; ; and yet, while 
they loaded you with contempt, 
they plunged you in slavery. They 
were bound to have prevented 
crimes by the punishment of those 
who committed them; yet they 
encouraged every wickedness, by 
giving impunity toassassins. They 
had sworn to defend you against 
the French, whose just indignation: 
you had provoked ; yet, when their 
interest called them elsewhere, they 
abandon:d you to the mercy of 
the republic, which you had mis- 
trusted. 
What a contrast does the gene- 
rous eonduct of republicans form 
to that of their enemies! They re- 
turn to you with the olive-branch 
of peace in their hands—they for- 
get the injuries which they have suf- 
fered—and if ever the recolleGion. 
of them crosses their minds, it is 
only when they-are anxious to 
caution you against new errors, by 
which new attempts may be made 
to seduce you from your duty. 
Let not those days of horror and of. 
calamity pass from before your 
sight, 
