STATE PAPERS. 



609 



tiertalned tho hope of a durable 

 peace. Every thing has remained 

 calmer since a jealous power has 

 rekindled the torches of war ; but 

 in this last epoch, the union of in- 

 terests and sentiments has shewn 

 itself more full and entire ; the 

 public mind has developed itself 

 with more energy. In the new de- 

 partments which the first consul 

 has traversed, he has heard, as well 

 as in the old, the accents of a truly 

 French indignation ; he recognized 

 in their hatred against a government 

 hostile to oar prosperity, even more 

 than in the bursts of public joy and 

 personal att'eCtion, their attachment 

 to the country, and tKeir devotion 

 to his destiny. In all the depart- 

 ments, the ministers of worship hare 

 exerted the influence of religion to 

 consecrate this spontaneous move- 

 ment of the minds of individuals. 

 Depots of arms, which fugitive re- 

 bels had committed to the earth, in 

 order to take them up again at a 

 future opportunity, which a cul- 

 pable foresight suggested to them, 

 have been discio'^ed at the first 

 signal of the danger, and delivered 

 to the magistrates for the purpose 

 of arming our defenders. The 

 British government will attempt to 

 throw, and perhaps has already 

 thrown, on our coasts some of these 

 monsters whom it nourished in its 

 bosom during the peace, in order 

 to tear in pieces the land which 

 g.ve them birth ; but they %viH no 

 longer find in it tlio^e impious bands 

 which were the instruments of their 

 former crimes ; terror has dissolved 

 them, or justice has purged our 

 territory of them ; they will find nei- 

 ther that credulity which they abus- 

 ed, nor that animosity the poniards 

 of which they whetted. Experience 

 bos enlightened every mind ; the 

 Vol. XLVI. 



moderation of the laws, and the 

 administration of them has recon- 

 ciled every heart. Surrounded every 

 where by the public force, over- 

 taken every where by the tribunals, 

 these dreadful men will in future 

 neither be able to make rebels, nor 

 to reorganize with impunity their 

 hordes of brigands and assassins. — 

 It is but now that a miserable at- 

 temjjt has been made in La Vendee; 

 the conscription was made the pre- 

 text for it ; but citizens, priests, 

 soldiers, all classes exerted them- 

 selves for the common defence ; 

 fho«e who in other times were the 

 movers of disturbances, came to 

 orter their aid to the public autho- 

 rity, and to give their persons and 

 their families, as pledges of their 

 fidelity and devotion. Finally, what 

 chara6terizes, above all things, the 

 security of the citizens, the return of 

 social aii"e(ftions, is that, beneficence 

 displays itself every day more and 

 more. On every sid(! donations are 

 ofi^Tcd to the unfortunate, and 

 foundations are made for useful 

 establishments. The war has not 

 interrupted the intentions of the 

 peace ; and the government has 

 pursued with constancy every thing 

 that tends to establish the constitu- 

 tion in the manners and disposition 

 of the citizens, every thing likely 

 to attach all interests and all hopes 

 to its duration. Thus, the senate 

 has been placed in that elevation to 

 which its institution called it; an 

 endowment such as the constitution 

 had fixed, encircles it with an im. 

 posing grandeur. The legislative 

 body wdl no longer appear, ex- 

 cept surrounded with the majesty 

 which its functions demand ; it wiil 

 no longer be looked for in vain, 

 except in its sitting. An annual 

 president will be the centre of its 

 H r motion 



