30] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



present situation and the means of 

 ameliorating it. 



" This morning, assassins clothed 

 with the robe of office made these 

 roofs resound with the exclama- 

 tions of rage and the accents of fury. 

 Your courage and that of the sol- 

 diers of the country have arrested 

 them ; but let us finish depicturing 

 to the astonished world the hideous 

 physiognomy of these children of 

 terror. What has been said on tliis 

 night (the nineteenth Brumaire, 

 tenth of November) in the midst of 

 this hall will be repeated to after 

 ages. ■ 



" While your committee is em- 

 ployed in devising measures of 

 public safety, permit me for the 

 last time to alhide to those who 

 have vowed its destruction. 



" They incessantly talk of at» 

 tempts against the constitution, and 

 of violated oaths; — those very men, 

 who, when the idea of giving peace 

 and happiness to the people of France 

 was agitated, afl'ected so many 

 political scruples. What did they 

 say, what did they do a few montlis 

 ago ? Had they then forgot their 

 oaths, when conspiring in obscurity, 

 and assembling all the elements of 

 revolution, they struck discord and 

 dismay into the bosom of their coun- 

 tiy, and devoted every honourable 

 man to proscription ? Did they 

 think that we had forgotten, that 

 France had forgotten, those days of 

 sorrow and woe, when terror hung 

 dark and dismal on the black liori- 

 z(m ? Did they think that we had 

 forgotten their projects of new con- 

 ventions, new revolutionary com- 

 mittees, new carnage and devasta- 

 tion ? What did they then think 

 of their present oaths ? Speak ! 

 The people of France listen. But 

 since they dare to disguise them- 

 selves under the mask of virtue, I 



will tear it from them, and present 

 to astonished, alFrightened, France, 

 their hideous blood-stained coun- 

 tenances, livid with imagined hor- 

 rors, writhing in the very contriv- 

 ance of the miseries which our 

 courage has prevented. 



" I'hey speak of virtue, of the 

 constitution, of oaths ! Let them 

 answer. I dare them to the test. 

 Where were their oaths, when in 

 the caverns of the manege, forget- 

 ting their chai'acter as representa- 

 tives of the peoj)le, they mingled 

 with cut-throats and murderers to 

 point the dagger against our 

 breasts .'' Where was their rever- 

 ence, their professed respect, even 

 for the constitution, when, in the 

 midst of their bravos and assassins, 

 they exclaimed that the people of 

 France must save themselves, and 

 that our lives no longer belonged to 

 the nation.'' — Audacious conspira- 

 tors ; they promjitcd Insun-ection, 

 and now ! the vile cameleons, they 

 invoke the sanctity of that consti- 

 tutional charter, on which they 

 had already impressed their blood- 

 stained hands, and set their seal of 

 destruction ! ! ! 



" They hoped again to let loose 

 the torrent of their odious domi- 

 nation, and then they thought the 

 constitution but a feeble bari-ier to 

 oppose their progress ; but, on the 

 other hand, when It was proposed to 

 give peace to France, the constitu- 

 tion, forsooth, was an invincible ob- 

 stacle ! Thus, ever changing their 

 disguise, the national character still 

 remained the same. It was the 

 hideous assemblage of guilt, of 

 meanness, and of tyranny. 



" But this day must unmask 

 them entire and for ever. We 

 have been silent respecting their 

 paricldal conspiracies, because we 

 thought they would prefer being 



