>8] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



assembly should be adjourned till 

 nine in the evening, as above stated, 

 when the present measures should 

 be taken into consideration. — These 

 propositions, after some little debate, 

 were agreed to ; and being adopted 

 by whatever could be collected, on 

 the spot, of the council of five hun- 

 dred, a kind of rump''' parliament 

 formed the basis of a provisional 

 arrangement, to take place of the 

 legislature and government now 

 dissolved, until a new constitution 

 should be established. Though the 

 council of elders declared them- 

 selves to be the whole of the national 

 representation, and competent of 

 themselves to take measures suitable 

 to the occasion, theyjudgedit proper 

 to sanction their proceedings, as 

 much as possible, by every appear- 

 ance of legal formality. For this 

 purpose, it was concerted with their 

 fi-iends in the other council, that as 

 many of the council of five hundred 

 as had remained at St. Cloud, who 

 were all of them of the moderate 

 party, should assemble together in 

 the evening, and resume their de- 

 liberations. These members ac- 

 cordingly returned to the Orangery 

 between the hours of six and seven, 

 the time appointed by the elders, 

 and the council was opened under 

 the presidency of Lucian Buona- 

 parte. 



A deputy of the name of Barrin- 

 ger opened the council, with a re- 

 view of the events of the day, and 

 after bestowing the highest praise 

 on the conduct of the troops, the 

 prudence of the officers, and the 

 wisdom of the general, moved that 

 ''the commander-in-chief, Buona- 

 parte, the generals Lefebre, Ber- 

 thier, Miirat, Serrurier, Leclerc, 



Bournonville, Money, St. Remi, 

 Andr6ossi,Solignac, admiral Bruix, 

 Louis Buonaparte, chief of a squa- 

 dron, Eugene Bcauharnois, aid-de- 

 camp, with other ofiicers mentioned 

 by name, the soldiers of the guard, 

 the soldiers of the line, the grena- 

 diers, who, with their bodies, had 

 formed a shield for Buonaparte, had 

 deserved well of their country, by 

 saving a majority of the legislative 

 body and the republic, attacked by 

 a minority, consisting of assassins." 

 I'his motion was agreed to, and a 

 correspondent resolution was passed 

 unanimously. After this, a plan, 

 or project, as it was called, for an 

 intermediary government, was pre- 

 sented by Chazal, and was submit- 

 ted to the consideration of a special 

 commission of five members, Avho 

 were to make a report during the 

 sitting. While this report was in 

 a state of preparation, Lucian Buo- 

 naparte descending from the pre- 

 sident's chair, to the tribune ad- 

 dressed the council as follows : — 

 " Representatives of the people, 

 the republic ill-governed, distracted 

 in every respect, weakened by the 

 destruction of its finances, is falling 

 on all sides ; without confidence 

 or resources, without strength or 

 union in the government ; incer- 

 titude and intestine war every 

 where reviving ; no assurance to 

 foreign powers, and besides, no 

 hopes of peace. 



" The hearts of all good citizens 

 feel the evil ; every one wishes for 

 the remedy. The wisdom of the 

 council of elders is awakened ; but 

 their- attention still fixed on the late 

 attempts of an execrable faction, 

 they have transferred the sittings of 

 the legislative body out of Paris. 



* The long parliament of England, under the reign of Oliver Cromwell was so 

 palled, after it was^Ji«'^c(/ by Colmel Pride, 



