48] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



monarchy and since the first revo- 

 hition, on anticipations, paying in 

 bills, and contracts with the great 

 officers of the revenue. 



It does not appear for certain 

 what was the real motive that in- 

 duced the consul, in the midst of a 

 career of conciliation, moderation, 

 and justice, to condemn fifty-nine 

 jacobins, excluded deputies and 

 others to banishment, thirty-seven 

 to Cayenne, and the rest to the 

 neighbourhood of the Isle of Ole- 

 ron. By an article in the law 

 enacted at St. Cloud on the tenth 

 of November, the consuls were 

 charged with the re-establishment 

 of the public tranquillity. But this, 

 in the present tone of the nation, 

 could not be in danger from any 

 machinations against the array and 

 government. Perhaps the sentence 

 of banishment against the leaders 

 of the jacobins was intended to im- 

 press a conviction that a plan of as- 

 sassination had been really ftnmed, 

 and to magnify the clemency of the 

 consul in sparing his greatest ene- 

 mies. Certain it is, that the de- 

 cree of banishment was quickly 

 changed into an order for placing 

 the same individuals under the in- 

 spection of the minister of police, 

 and it was soon thereafter totally 

 repealed, without the exception 

 even of Arena, who had attempted to 

 assassinate Buonaparte. Thedecrees 

 against priests of the nineteenth of 

 Fructidor (5th September), of the 

 fifth year, were repealed, in as far 

 as they related to priests of either of 

 thetwo foUowingclasses: 1 st,Those 

 who had taken all the oaths pre- 

 scribed by the la >vs for ministers of 

 worship, and at the periods of time 

 which the laws require. — 2. Those 

 who had married. Religious liberty 

 was restored in its fullest extent, on 



condition of the ministers swearing 

 fidelity to the new constitution. 

 The decrees forbidding the places 

 of public worship to be used, ex- 

 cept on deccidi, were repealed. The 

 churches wliich had not been sold, 

 were opened for public worship. The 

 body of the late pope, which had 

 lain unburied at Valence, was or- 

 dered to be interred with the usual 

 funeral honours due to his rank. 

 By a law of the twenty-fourth of 

 December, a power was vested 

 in the consuls of admitting the re- 

 turn of persons condemned to ex- 

 portation by an act of the legisla- 

 ture to deportation, in consequence 

 of the violence of the fourth of 

 September, 1799j without a pre- 

 vious trial. It left to the wisdom 

 and prudence of government the 

 right of re-admitting, at the most 

 convenient periods, those whom it 

 might deem incapable of disturb- 

 ing the public tranquillity, and to 

 subject tlie interior of the country to 

 whatever superintendency it might 

 think proper. Thousands were 

 struck oft" from the list of emigrants 

 and hastened to return to their na- 

 tive country. All the vexatious 

 laws which excluded the nobles, 

 and relations of emigrants, from 

 public employments were abroga- 

 ted, and several persons of this class 

 were nominated to various func- 

 tions. Most of the members of the 

 new government were of late, of 

 the council of five hundred, or of 

 elders. But there were likewise 

 some who had been members of the 

 constituent assembly and the con- 

 vention. In the latter end of the 

 year 179^; a number of emigrants, 

 fiying from their country by sea, 

 were shipwrecked on the coast of 

 Picardy, near Calais. By the or- 

 ders of Merlin, minister of the 



