HISTORY OF EUROPE. [27 



CHAP. III. 



Effects of what passed inllic Council of Five Hundred 0)i the Deliberations 

 and Measures of the Council of Elders — Meeting of the moderate Parti) 

 in the late Council of Five Hundred. — Speech of Eucien Buonaparte 

 on the critical State of the Nation. — A Committee of Five appointed 

 to report on the Measures proper to be adopted in the present Crisis. — 

 The Council addressed by the Chuiriuun of the Committee, bij Boulaij 

 de la Meurlhc, and again by Lucieii Buonaparte. — The Council 

 adjotirned, and the Session terminated. — Rcjlections. 



IT has already been mentioned 

 that the council of elders, before 

 its adjournment from five to nine 

 o'clock in the evening, had resolved 

 itself into a committee of the whole 

 house. Their deliberations on the 

 present juncture of afiairs, were 

 interrupted by the beating of 

 drums, and shouts from the court 

 of the palace, and at the same time 

 by the arrival of deputies from the 

 Orangery, announcing the outrage 

 committed on the national repre- 

 sentation, and the dissolution of the 

 council of five hundred, by military 

 force. The president of the coun- 

 cil, Le Mercier, said, that assassins, 

 armed with poniards, were not 

 worthy of the name of re])resenta- 

 tivcs. Another of the deputies be- 

 gan to reply, but the council deter- 

 mined to hear none but those of 

 their own body. Tlie struggle be- 

 tween Buonaparte and the council 

 of five hundred being terminated 

 in the manner we have seen, a com- 

 mission of five elders brought for- 

 ward their report of the measures 

 proper to be adopted iu the present 



moment. It stated, that the coun- 

 cil of elders had become the organ 

 of the nation, and from what had 

 just passed, the whole of the na- 

 tional representation ; that it was 

 their duty, since it was in their 

 power, to provide means for the 

 safety of the country, and for li- 

 berty ; that the executive power 

 existed no longer, since military 

 power was nothing more tlian the 

 organ of the executive power, es- 

 sentially civil. In consideration of 

 these, and this farther circumstance, 

 that four members of the directory 

 had given in their demission, and 

 tliat the other was under an an^est, 

 the five elders proposed, that an 

 executive provisionary commission, 

 composed of three members, should 

 be appointed ; that the legislative 

 body should be adjourned to the 

 twenty-first of December ; that an 

 intermediary commission, for pre- 

 serving the rights of the national 

 representation, should be formed, 

 which should liave the power of con- 

 voicing the legislative body sooner, 

 if it thought proper ; and tliat the 



