56 CARNOT. 



paper-money, and paper-money then was of no value. 

 From one end of France to the other, famine had thrown 

 people into an extreme state of irritation, which daily 

 manifested itself in sanguinary disorders. The army 

 offered a no less deplorable aspect : it was deficient in 

 means of transport, in clothing, in shoes, in munitions. 

 Misery had engendered a want of discipline. Pichegru 

 was weaving criminal relations with the Prince of Conde, 

 allowed himself to be beaten at Heidelberg, compromised 

 the array of Jourdan, evacuated Mannheim, raised the 

 siege of Mayence, and ceded the frontier of the Rhine 

 to the Austrians. War recommenced in La Vendee ; 

 the English threatened us with a descent in the Pays- 

 Bas, and on our own coasts. In a word, on our Alpine 

 frontier, Scherer and Kellermann painfully sustained a 

 defensive war against the united forces of the Emperor of 

 Austria, the King of Sardinia, and the confederated 

 Italian princes. 



Gentlemen, the great strength of mind, united to the 

 most ardent patriotism, was requisite, under such cruel 

 circumstances, to induce men to accept the burden of 

 public affairs. Let us add that Carnot was so little blind 

 to the faults of the Constitution of the year IIL, and, 

 above all, to the inconveniences of a multiple executive 

 power, that he had publicly pointed them out in the 

 midst of the Convention, at the time when this constitu- 

 tion was discussed. He then exclaimed : " The destinies 

 of the state will henceforward depend only on the personal 

 character of five men. The more these characters differ, 

 the more dissimilar will be the views of these five direc- 

 tors, and the more will the state have to suffer from their 

 alternate influence." The majority disdained tliese just 

 apprehensions ; faithful to a line of conduct from which 



