20] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



twenty-second of Floreal, and the 

 thirtieth of Praireal? The consti- 

 tution ! is it any thing else than a 

 pretext and cloak for all manner 

 of tyranny ? The time for putting 

 a period to these disasters is now 

 come. You have charged me to 

 present you with the means. Had 

 1 liarboured personal designs, or 

 views of usurpation, I should not 

 have waited till this day, in order 

 to realize them. Before my depar- 

 ture, and since my return, I have 

 been solicited by tlie heads of dif- 

 ferent parties to take possession of 

 tlie public authority. Barras and 

 Moulins proposed to me to seize 

 the government. I could make 

 discoveries which would instantly 

 confound the greater part of my 

 calumniators. All the rights of the 

 people have been atrociously vio- 

 lated ; and still under the mask of 

 a regard for the constitution. It is 

 for your wisdom and firmness to 

 re-establish those sacred rights, and 

 to use means for saving the country." 



Cornudct, a member of the com- 

 mittee of inspection, stated, that 

 from what had already been said, 

 respecting conspirators and con- 

 spiracies, no doubt could be enter- 

 tained of the reality of their exist- 

 ence, and that he himself had 

 taken an active part in the measures 

 of public safety which were pro- 

 posed, from tlie intimate knowledge 

 he had of the criminal overtures 

 which had been made to Buona- 

 parte, and of the projects connected 

 witli them. 



Huouapartc, while Coinudet was 

 speaking, lieated by the unexpected 

 oppositiftn he had met with in the 

 council of ciders, went out of the 

 liall, and going from one place to 

 another, harangued the soldiers and 

 the people : " Turn,'' said he. 



" your bayonets against me, when- 

 ever you find me an enemy to li- 

 berty!" 



Fargues recommended, as an an- 

 swer to all calumnies and suspi- 

 cions, that the speech which had 

 just been made by the general, 

 should be published. Laussat gave 

 it as his opinion that all discoveries 

 should be made, not in a secret 

 committee, but in the most public 

 manner. " And I too," said Cor- 

 nudet, "am of this opinion, since it 

 has become necessary. But let it 

 be recollected that the measures to 

 be taken for the public safety are 

 not to be taken by us only, or with- 

 out their being seconded by the 

 council of five hundred : and the 

 more especially, that in a cpiestion 

 which involves tlie general safety, 

 the whole French people are enti- 

 tled to a share in the magistracy." 



Buonaparte, having returned to 

 the hall of the elders, declared, that 

 if it should be thought necessary to 

 name the conspirators, he was ready 

 to name them. Several members re- 

 commended a secret committea — 

 No ! no ! said others, let the gene- 

 ral have a public hearing. Buona- 

 parte then said, " It is time to 

 speak out ; and I have no designs 

 that I wish to keep secret. I am 

 not the instrument of any faction, 

 I am the servant of the French peo- 

 ple. The constitution, too often 

 violated, is utterly inadequate to 

 the salvation of the people. It is 

 indispensably necessary to have re- 

 course to means fitted to cany into 

 execution the sacred principles of 

 the sovereignty of the people, civil 

 liljerty, freedom of speech, as of 

 thought ; and, in a word, the re- 

 alization of ideas hitherto only chi- 

 merical." The general consoled 

 wives and mothers with the assu- 



