HISTORY OF EUROPE. [71 



"be finished at once: for the great 

 difficulty was not to find them." 



Such was the state of affairs, 

 in Britanny and Normandy, as 

 appears from the date of Hedo- 

 ville's letter, in the earlier part of 

 December, 1799' About the same 

 time, a great number of conscripts, 

 who had hid themselves in the 

 woods, between Chateau Regnaud 

 and Tours, in order to evade the 

 republican armies, joined the loy- 

 alists, who extended themselves 

 from this quarter into the depart- 

 ments of the Loire and Chair, and 

 those of tli£ Indre and Loire. At 

 the same juncture precisely, a bat- 

 talion of conscripts, at Chalons, re- 

 fused toobey the orders of the minis- 

 terof war. During these transactions 

 a report was very generally spread, 

 that the whole of the royalists had 

 laid down their arms. But this 

 report was yet premature. It was 

 founded on the pacific disposition 

 expressed by Buonaparte, who had 

 sent addresses, fraught with these, 

 not only to the royalist chiefs and 

 provinces, but to the emperor, Prus- 

 sia, Russia, Great Britain, and all 

 the powers of Europe. On every side 

 preparation was made for a renewal 

 of the war. In these circumstances 

 of preparations, expectations, and 

 anxious suspense, the language 

 held by Buonaparte, to the disaf- 

 fected departments, was this: 

 " An impious war threatens, a 

 second time, to inflame the depart- 

 ments of the west. It becomes the 

 duty of the first magistrates of the 

 republic to aiTCst its progress, and 

 extinguish it in its hearth. But 

 they are loath to employ force until 

 they have exhausted the means of 

 persuasion and justice. The artifi- 

 cers of these troubles arc the sense- 

 less partisans, of two men who have 



no honour, and vvlio neither derive 

 their rank from their virtues, nor 

 their misfortunes from their achieve- 

 ments. They are farther traitors 

 sold to the English, or robbers who 

 foment civil discord only as the 

 means of sheltering them from the 

 punishment due to their crimes. — 

 With such men it is not the duty of 

 government to keep any measures, 

 or to make any declaration of its 

 principles. It is to citizens dear to 

 their country, who are seduced by 

 their arts; it is to these citizens 

 that the lights of the truth is due. 



" Unjust laws have been promul- 

 gated and executed; arbitrary acts 

 have alarmed the security of the ci- 

 tizens, and the liberty of conscience. 

 Every where random inscriptions 

 on the list of emigrants have struck 

 citizens, who had never quitted 

 their country or even their homes. 

 In a word, the great principles of 

 social order have been violated. 



" It is in order to remedy these 

 acts of inj ustice,and these errors, that 

 a government founded on the sacred 

 basis of liberty, equality, and a 

 system of representation, has been 

 proclaimed to, and recognized by, 

 the nation. The constant inclina- 

 tion, as well as the interest and the 

 glory of the first magistrates, which 

 the nation has given to itself, will 

 be, to close all the wounds of 

 France: and never yet has this 

 disposition been falsified by any act 

 originating with them. 



"The disastrous law of the forced 

 loan, and the still more disastrous 

 law of hostages have been repealed. 

 Individuals exiled without trial 

 have been restored to their country 

 and to their families. Every day 

 has been marked, and shall be, by 

 deeds of justice. The council of 

 state labours incessantly for the re- 



