18] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



CHAP. II. 



The Village of St. Cloud filled with Troops, and Spectators from Paris 

 — The Tiro Councilscoiistitiiled there. — Jlesignatioiis oftltc Directorial 

 Office. — Motion in the Council of Elders fur inquiring into the Reasons 

 for their Translation to St. Cloud. — A Debate on this subject sus~ 

 jjended 61/ a Motion for Messages to the Council of Five Hundred and 

 the Dircctorij, which was agreed to. — Buonaparte comes into the Hall 

 and addresses a Speech to the Council of Elders, in which he slates the 

 Danger of the Countrji, and invites them to associate their Wisdom with 

 the Force they had placed under his Command for its Salvation. — Op- 

 position to Bi(onaparte,and a Change in the Constitution. — Buonaparte 

 goes out and harangues the Soldiers and the People. — Returns, aiid in- 

 sists on the Necessity of taking Measures for the Realization of sacred 

 Principles that had hitherto been onli/ chimerical. — Motion by Dal- 

 phonsc for renewing the Oath of Fideli/i/ to the Constitutio?i. — This 

 Motion opposed, and the defects oftlte Constitution briefltf stated. — The 

 Council of Elders adjourned till nine o'Clock in the Evening. — P7'o- 

 ceedings in the Couticil of Five Hundred. — Motion for a Conwiitteefor 

 making a Report on the actual Stale of the nation. — And propo,m)g 

 Measures for the public Interest. — Suspicions c.xprcs.Ked of an intended 

 Dictatorship, and Cries for maintaining the Constitution. — Tlie actual 

 ConstitulioH of France distinguished from certain Republics, — Motion 

 for renewing the Oath of Fidelitij to the Constitution. — /Agreed to, — 

 And the Ceremou}! performed with, lite greatest sang froid, even bi/ the 

 moderate Parti/. — Message from the Elders. — Buonaparte appears in 

 the Council of Five Hundred. — Uproar and Violence. — Lucien Buona- 

 parte, together witli his Robes, lays a.iide the Office of President. — 

 Threatened by the adverse Party. — Carried out of the Ilall by a Party 

 of Grenadiers. — 'ilie Soldiers harangued by both the Buonapartes. — 

 The Council of Five Hundred dispersed, and the Legislature thus dis- 

 solved by a 7nilitary Force. 



THE committees of inspectors, repnireil the following day, at noon, 



those of the five hundred, as Sieves and l^ucos arrived at the 



well as of the elders, with the ex- same time, and retired to an apart- 



directors Sieves and Ducos, and men t destined for the executive di- 



other persons of consideration and rectory. Soon after, came the ge- 



influence, passed the night at the neral Buonaparte Berthier,Murat, 



Thuilleries, to prepare measures for Marniont, and the whole staft'. The 



the sitting at St. Cloud, whither the court of the castle in which the 



legislature, according to the decree, councils were assembled, and the 



