day, amount to the fum of four hundred and five millions. The fums paid in the aforefaid period, fuch as annuities and penfions, and the falaries in myriogrammes, amount to twenty or twenty-five millions; the total fums of which the payment has been authorised by the legislative body to about four hundred and twenty-five millions.

Of this fum, the minifters have fill feventy millions to difpofe. The minifter of finance has fufpended the payment of thirty-eight millions, on orders of payment delivered to him. That fum may, to a certain degree, be confidered as if it had not been appointed to be paid; and thence it refults that the expences actually difburfed, whether by the authority of the two councils of the legislative body, by the minifters, or by other perfons, amount only to three hundred and feventeen millions. The expences of the campaign of Italy are not included in this fum, except fome fums particularly authorised; becaufe as the army lives on the produce of the contributions which it caufes to be levied, the account will be regulated definitively. But the army of Italy conftitutes not the fole force which the republic fupports; it has befides under its ftandards, the armies of the Rhine and Mofelle, the Sambre and the Meufe, the garrifons of the interior, the extraordinaries of the marine, &c. and when the political fituation of the republic is confidered with impartiality, it, fhould be matter of furprise to see ourselves arriving within two months of concluding the year with a fimple au thority for the expence of three hundred and feventeen millions,

whereas previous to the revolution, much greater fums were expended in ordinary periods.

Doubtless, the fum total of the expences is not yet exactly known, nor confequently fettled; but what we already know and perceive, fupports the force of this obfervation.

This ftate of things will appear ftill more aftonishing, when you confider that of these three hundred and feventeen millions expended, more than eighty are still due to the parties who fhould receive them, and that their titles confift either in a pledge on the value of national property, or on the produce of contributions to be brought in; thence it refults, that if, on the one hand, the authorised expences amount to three hundred and feventeen millions, the payments made amount only to two hundred and forty, or two hundred and fifty millions. All the chefts however are empty. We exift only from day to day; and this pofition, well known to the national treasure, ought to prevail over all the hypothetical calculations which may be prefented to attempt to destroy it. Its exactnefs is befides demonstrated by all the statements of monies already received, and of those to be received, which the commiffaries of the national treasury have prefented almost every month. You will thence fee, Citizens Reprefentalives, that whatever efforts we usę, we cannot calculate, by the existing laws, on more than twenty-four or twenty-five millions; you must also forefee that the amount of the two or three following months will not arrive, by reafon of the flowness experienced in the receipt of direct contributions during the harvest. If calculations apparently higher

are

are prefented, they give only nominal estimates; but it is not with them that the public fervice can be maintained. What imports it, in reality, that the receipts amount to fifty millions (if you will) per month, if we must deduct therefrom ten millions remitted by orders of difcharge, as many in bons de requifition, two millions en cotte nationale, three millions in charges, which are reckoned neither in the accounts of receipt nor expediture; as then there remain only twenty-five at difpofal.

It has been complained, that, in order to fuftain the public fervice, bons have been given, payable out of the contributions to be levied; but with regard to fums failed, there refulted fome inconveniences. What measure is exempted from inconvenience, when the receipt is below the expenditure? The Executive Directory has endeavoured to stop this proceeding, by deciding that, in future, no order of payment fhall be delivered but on disposable funds. To commence putting this measure in practice, there was of public treafure only 759,970 livres; it was neceffary, from the want of documents, to confider as already collected, all the prefumed incomes of a whole decade. Making a due diftribution of this fum, there remains difpofable for the fervice of ten days, after deducting the pay of the fubfiftence of the army, the annuities, penfions, and indemnification of the legislative body, only 234,000 livres. That fum being evidently infufficient, the commiffioners of the treasury, have been required to endeavour to procure 500,000 livres by negotiation; they replied, that they were unable to procure it; and if they had not

been able to announce, at the fame time, that we might calculate on 400,000 livres, ariling from an anterior operation, we fhould have found ourselves under an impotibility of making fupplies which could not be fufpended without endangering the public fafety.

The Executive Directory has often already fubmitted to you, Citizens Reprefentatives, its obfervations on this fubject; it dreads not making known the ftate of the public fortune, because it is convinced of the poffibility of recruiting it, fo as to re-animate the confidence of good citizens, to strike defpair into our internal enemies, to astonish our external, and finally to demonstrate that the revolution has not been made in France to terminate in that ftate of diftrefs which is now experienced in that country.

You will obferve, Citizens Reprefentatives, that we are reduced to re-affefs the landed contribution which ought to have been leviable ten months ago; that the law which was to produce fixty millions by the perfonal contribution of the 5th year, is not yet made; that, the great communes have not at their difpofition the fupplementary means which are neceffary for their local expences, and that we are under the neceflity of remitting to the commune of Paris, that it may provide for its local expences almost all the taxes of the department of the Seine; that the indirect contributions announced fince the beginning of the year are not even yet put in a train of difcuffion; that the improvements which may be attain ed from enregiftering ftamps, mortgages, and pofts, are yet but mere projects; that the refources which may be drawn from mortgaged lands

and rent charges not feudal, are ftill entire.

The utility and the neceffity also of these objects have been long acknowledged: fince it has been proposed to submit them to your deliberations, the hopes conceived from them had sustained the fervice; that refource does no more exift; other means are become indifpenfable; without authorifing them, the fervice of the next decade will be impoffible.

It is the duty of the Executive Directory to declare to you that it has arrived to the point of that crifis which it announced a long time ago, and that it has retarded it, by all the means in its power to use. You will find in your wifdom the means of obviating the incalculable evils that muft refult, if the public treasury does not receive prompt and efficacious fuccours.

The Executive Directory invites you, Citizens Representatives, to take into confideration the request that it has made to you.

The following facts prove how urgent it is :

We learn that the pay of the army is in arrear.

There are only 234 thoufand francs for urgent purpofes, which require ten millions.

There is more than five due to perfon in employment, the major part of whom have not yet received the whole of what was due to them in the month of Germinal.

The repairs of roads and public monuments are about to be fufpended.

The providers of bread to the prifons must stop.

The fervice of the hofpitals is exposed to the fame danger.

There is no effective reserve.

There remains nothing difpof

able.

It is to you, Citizens Reprefentatives alone that it belongs to find remedy.

(Signed) CARNOT, Prefident. LAGARDE, Secretary General.

Meffage from the Executive Directory to the Council of Five Hundred, of the 14th Thermidor (Aug. 1.)

Citizens Representatives, THE Executive Directory has juft given the fecond decifion on the urgent payments to be made in the fecond decade of Thermidor the demands, originating from the most preffing wants, amounted to about twenty millions. In order to maintain the public fervice, it was neceffary to confider the prefump. tive receipt of the departments during the laft decade, and that of the national treafury during the prefent, as funds actually to be difpofed of.

The fum total of thefe funds it has not been poffible to rate higher than at 6,620,000 livres, which have been diftributed in fuch manner as appeared most conformable to the fubfifting laws, and the fupport of the public fervice, under the difficult circumstances wherein we are placed. There 'remains a deficit of about fourteen millions for the next decade, to which is to be added the expence of the ten following days. Whatever calculations may be made, Citizens Representatives, it must be evident to you, that our present means are not fufficient. From the ftatement tranfmitted to you a few days fince by the national treasury, it is clear that we cannot expect to receive twenty-three millions in fpecie during the month of Ther

midor. With means fo feeble, it will be impoffible to maintain the public fervice; and the difficulties it labours under renders its fituation worfe every day. This ftate of things deferves your attention the more, as it might be altered by making ufe of the refources which the republic has yet left. The perfuafion, Citizens Reprefentatives, that these refources ftill exift, has hitherto fupported our courage and animated our hope; but it is time to improve them. The minister of finances has pointed out fome of them in the report annexed to this meffage. The Directory has met with frequent opportunities to invite you to examine into thefe refources, and the danger of the prefent moment obliges them to repeat this requeft. From a conviction that the adoption of proper meafures for reftoring public credit would produce the most fortunate change, the Directory fincerely wifh that you may take them into speedy confideration.

we have been at a fimilar period, during the two preceding decades.

It requests, above all, that you would compare the urgency of the public wants, the evils refulting from them, the anxiety which they diffufe, and the apprehenfion which they infpire on the fubject of the common fafety, with the advantages that could be enfured, were the refources which are ftill in the poffeffion of the republic made difpofable.

Take away, Citizens Reprefentatives, every thing that prevents you from enfuring the neceffary returns for the maintenance of the military fervice, the pay and fubfiftence of the troops, the payment of the public creditors, the falaries of the public functionaries, already feveral months in arrear, and the difcharge of the expences which the government cannot poftpone, without compromifing the conduct which it ought to obferve for the performance of its duty, the internal and external fafety of the republic.

The refources which can be brought into action are of two kinds. The one requires fome previous measure before they can be made difpofable; the other may serve as fecurities for contracts, the execution of which would furnish a fufficient delay for the attainment of the firft.

But they both call for an immediate determination; and if no use be made of them, they are of as little moment as if they never exifted. A proper ufe of them may, and can, extricate the finances from the dangerous crifis to which they are at prefent reduced. The peril is imminent; but if you enact the laws which have been demanded of you, which the public opinion calls

for, and the commiffions charged with the examination of them have pronounced to be neceffary, the dangers with which we are threat ened will disappear. Our enemies know that France, with her prefent conftitution, has only to exprefs a with to ameliorate her finances, that the means of courfe will follow, and that, if these means be well employed, they muft produce the defired effect. It is time, Citizens Representatives, to justify that opinion, by deliberations that will give validity to it. The fafety of the country is intimately connected with them. Let the fituation of our finances be once ameliorated, and peace will naturally find its way back to our territories. Under its aufpices all the French will reap the fruits of their glorious efforts in the caufe which they have made triumph.

The Executive Directory, Citi zens Reprefentatives, renews its most preffing invitations that you may take into your difcuffion the laws relative to the finances and the receipts, which may place the revenue on a par with the indifpenfable difbursements of the ftate.

Ferte-Alais, in the expectation that the report of the committee of infpectors, upon which that message had been adopted, would be printed. It is not yet printed; but the Directory, who in the mean time have been collecting the documents they were defirous of procuring refpecting the route of thefe troops, confider it their duty to tranfmit to you fuch information as has reached them.

Citizen Lefage, Commiffary of War, has made the following declaration upon this fubject:

"Citizen Lefage, Commiffary of War for the army of the Sambre and Meufe, charged with the police of the divifion of chaffeurs commanded by General Richepause, certifies, that after the said General had given to him, at Durenne, the itinerary of the route which this divifion was to obferve in going to Chartres (an itinerary which was entirely written by General Richepaufe, but not figned by him) he received at Aix la Chapelle the order of proceeding in that deftination, and preparing, beforehand, at the places pointed out, the ne. ceffary provifions and quarters for four regiments which compofed that divifion, but which were only to arrive in fucceffion at three refting places; that, without examining the itinerary which had been given to him, or knowing that Ferte-Alais was within the conftitutional limits of Paris, he expedited the order for the route, in confequence of which he troops were to march-that he followed the route to Rheims-that, being there affured that the letters he had written to Charleville, with directions to the municipalities of the places through which the troops

wert