622 



ANNUAL TIEGISTER, 1804. 



partisans in the army; for I am 

 thoroughly persuudcd, tliat it is 

 through the army alone that one 

 can reasonably iiope to gain tlie 

 change so much desired." JIow 

 Tain these hopes were, is suffioicr.tly 

 chara6terized by the striking unani- 

 inity that prevails every where, now 

 that the danger is discovered with 

 which France was menaced. — Hut 

 the attempt to commit a crime, the 

 Lare idea of which is an outrage to 

 humanity, and the execution of 

 which would not only have bi'cn a 

 national calamity, but, I may add, 

 a calamity for all Europe, demands 

 not only a reparation for the past, 



but a guarantee for the fuhire. — 



A solitary scattered banditti, a prey 

 to want, without harmony, and 

 without support, is always weaker 

 than the laws which are to punish 

 it, or the police which ought to in- 

 timidate it. But if they have the 

 power of uniting, if they could cor- 

 respond with each other, and the 

 brigands of other countries, if in a 

 profession the most honourable of 

 all, in as much as the tranquillity 

 of empires and the honour of sove- 

 reigns depend thereon, there should 

 be found men authorized to make 

 use of all the power their station 

 affords, to practise vice, corrup- 

 tion, infamy, and villainy, and to 

 raise from out of the refuse of hu- 

 man nature an army of assassins, 

 rebels, and forgers, under the gora- 

 mand of the most Immoral and most 

 ambitious of all governments ; there 

 would be no security in Europe 

 for the existence of any state, for 

 public morality, nor even for the 

 continuance of the principles of 

 civilization. It is not my duty to 

 discuss the means you may possess 

 to secure Europe, by guaranteeing 

 her against such dangers. 1 con- 

 3 



tent myself with informing and 

 proving to you, that tlicre exists 

 at JNlunich an Englishman, called 

 Drake, invested with a diplomatic 

 chara6tcr, who, proiiting of this 

 guise and of the vii'inity of that 

 place, directs dark and criminal ef- 

 forts to the heart of the republic ; 

 who recruits for agents of corrup- 

 tion and rebellion ; who resides be- 

 yond the environs of the town, 

 tJiat his agents may have access to 

 him without shame, and depart with- 

 out being exposed ; and who di- 

 rects and pays men in France, 

 charged by him with paving the way 

 to an overthrow of the government. 

 — This new species of crime, escap- 

 ing, from its nature, the ordinary 

 means of suppression, which the 

 laws put in my ])owcr, I must con- 

 fine myself to the unmasking it to 

 you, and pointing out to you, at the 

 same time, the sources, circum- 

 stances, and consequences. Health 

 and respciS. 



Regnicr. 



Second Report of the Grand Judge, 

 respeclitig the Plots of the Person 

 named Drake, Minuter from Eng- 

 land at Munich, and of the Per- 

 sonnamed Spencer Smith, Minister 

 frem England at Stutgard, against 

 France and the Person of the 

 First Consul : dated Paris, April 

 Wth, 1804, and signed Regnier. 



' Citizen First Consul, 



My conjettures are verified ; Mr. 

 Drake is not the only agent of Eng. 

 land, whose political mission is 

 merely the plausible mask of a 

 hidden ministry of sedu6tion and 

 insurrc6tion. I have the honour 

 to place before your eyes, papers, 

 which prove that Mr. Spencer Smith, 



diplomatic 



