first decade of Fructidor. The fingular and uncommon circumstances in which they are placed, oblige them to lay before you the refults of this diftribution, which will convince you of the indifpenfable neceffity of rendering the means difpofable, which are requifite to prevent the impending difafters. Deducting 63,888,967 livres, and 75 centimes, which remain to be paid on warrants already iffued for urgent fervices, and payments become due, the moft preffing demands amount to 21,002,790 livres 54 centimes. This fum confifts of the following articles:

To pay the troops
To fuftenance
To penfions and di-
vidends
To conftitutional fala-
ries
To falaries and pen-
fions
To fundries

L. C. 7,128,309 3 3,944,916 95

930,000 0

986,943 83

5,040,990 0 7,001,629 29 The ways and means, as ftated by the National Treafury, prefent, at first fight, instead of difpofable funds, a deficit of 3,793,681 livres which it would be neceffary to cover previous to affigning any fums of money for the service of the different departments. It has been calculated that the above deficit may in a great measure be covered by the prefumptive funds calculated as exifting in the public chefts of the departments; and that by adding to the funds actually exifting in the public treafury thofe which appear moft difpofable, the fuppofition might be admitted, that a balance of about 800,000 livres might remain for the fervice of the decade, independently of fuch fums as muft unavoidably be paid at Paris

on the arrears of the preceding decade. A calculation has afterwards been formed of those articles of expence which it is indifpenfably neceffary to meet for the execution of the laws, as well as for the maintenance of the public fervice. Under these head's have been claffed the pay and fuftenance of the land and naval forces, dividends and penfions, the conftitutional indemnifications of the legislative body; 63,703 livres 14 fous for the payment of bills of exchange accepted by the national treasury, and 50,000livres for the most urgent expence to be made at Paris for the home department. Thefe objects amount to a fum total of 8,850,729 livres 87 centimes. To find this fum, it has been fuppofed that the national treasury can furnish 850,929 livres 87 centimes, actually in its poffeffion; that it is to receive in the courfe of the decade one million, and that the effective receipts in the departments during the laft decade, must be fuppofed to amount to feven millions. This calculation is moft furely exaggerated: it violates all proportion, and exceeds all probability, and the fubfifting circumftances would alone authorize its admiffion; and yet, citizens reprefentatives, you cannot but perceive that this is the chief refource for meeting the most urgent and most indifpenfable expence. To this meffage are annexed the copy of a letter from the national treasury, dated the 1ft Fructidor (August 17) proving the neceffity of the repartition for this decade being made according to a prefumptive estimate of the revenue, the statement of ways and means for the first decade of Fructidor, transmitted by the national treasury, and another of the

divifions and diftributions containing a detailed account of the demands, founded on the registers of the different commiflaries. The Directory refer to thofe authentic papers all those who fhall prefume to queftion the truth of the refults they offer. Who contradicts the following facts is either groflly mif taken, citizens reprefentatives, or endeavours to deceive you:-1. The national treasury does not poffels one million of difpofable funds for the prefent decade. 2. In order to find the above-ftated fum, it is indifpenfably neceffary to fuppofe the receipts in the departments amount to 7,000,000; and that, moreover, the national treasury is to receive one million at Paris. 3. This fuppofition is exaggerated, but must be admitted. 4. The law of the Vendemiaire and 9th Thermidor, enact that the pay and fuftenance of the troops fhall be paid in preference to every other demand. The aggregate fum of thefe two articles of expence amounts to 7,073,226 livres 73 centimes. 5. The law of the 15th Vendemiaire affigns to the stockholders a fixth of the taxes; the national treasury demands under this head 900,000 livres. 6. The law which fixes the expence of the legiflative body ordains that the conftitutional indemnification of its members fhall be paid every month. 7. The engagements contracted by the national treafury, with refpect to accepted bills of exchange, demand the fum of 63,703 livres 24 centimes. 8. The fafety of Paris, the imperious force of the fupreme law, demands that the minifter of the interior be able to difpofe of 50,000 livres. 9. These articles abforb all the funds which may be confidered as difpofable.

10. Except the falaries of the legiflative body, there remains no money to difcharge all other conftitutional and other falaries and penfions; nor are any funds left for the hofpitals, the repair of dykes, roads, canals, &c. 11. The Directory cannot extend its diftribution to any fum exceeding the above amount: and it is to the want of difpofeable funds that ought to be imputed the failure of all the other branches of the public fervice, and the danger with which they are threatened. 12. If the national treafury is defired, by means of negotiations, to augment the refources, it is obliged to return in answer, That it does not poffefs any thing which may ferve for that purpose. 13. The pay of the army is confiderably in arrear. This is a certain and acknowledged fact. 14. The future fuftenance of the troops is compromised. 15. No funds remain to be difpofed of for the relief of hofpitals. The Executive Directory can perceive no poffible refource that may be applied to affift them. The decifion which it is enabled to make with respect to the urgency of the payments, make no alteration in the deplorable fituation in which they are placed. The Directory confidered itself bound to lay before you these statements. It has fulfilled that duty; but it does not apprehend that this expofition can fhake the courage and perfeverance of the friends of the Republic. It, on the contrary, finds a powerful motive, in the true picture which it has drawn, to hope that your deliberations on the finances will render those resources effective which can be brought into action. Thefe refources poffefs the great advantage of being ade

quate

and falaries.

The Directory, after preffing the neceffity of the council's immediately taking into their confideration proper measures for the restoration of public confidence and credit, concludes in the following manner: Our fituation is fuch, citizens reprefentatives, that the fmallest delay increases the danger to which the nation is expofed. The Executive Directory invites you to obtain an exact account of the state of the finances; of the neceffary wants of the public treafury; of the real, and by no means exaggerated, product of the means which yet can be made ufe of, and of the resources which can be employed. You will find in the refult of your examination, proofs of the truths to which the Directory has called your attention in all its meffages. The exifting means are infufficient; thofe which new laws have it in their power to produce will be adequate to meet all our expences; and the

moment of bringing them into action is arrived.

(Signed) CARNOT, Prefident. LAGARDE, Sec. Gen.

Meffage to the Council of Five Hundred, and Elders, dated Sept. 4, 1797.

Citizens Reprefentatives,

THE Executive Directory haftens to communicate to you the measures it has been forced to take for the fafety of the country, and the maintenance of the conftitution. With this view it tranfmits to you all the papers it has collected, as well as thofe it publifhed before you were affembled. If it had withheld itfelf from action one day more, the Republic would ha been delivered up to its enemies The halls themselves in which you meet, were the points of union of the confpirators; it was from thence that they yefterday emitted their cards and certificates for the delivery of arms; it was from thence that they correfponded with their accomplices laft night; and, finally, it is there, or in the environs, that they ftill endeavour to make feditious and clandeftine affemblages, which the police is now employed in difperfing. It would have been to commit the public fecurity and that of the faithful reprefentatives, to have allowed them to be confounded with the other enemies of the country. You fee, citizens representatives, that the conduct of the Directory was marked out by the inftant neceffity of being beforehand with thefe confpirators, who were deftroying the government, who wished to deprive the French of the fruit of their triumphs, and to make this magnanimous na

tion bow at the feet of the king it has fubdued. In affairs of ftate, extreme measures can be estimated by circumftances alone: you will form a judgment of thofe which have determined the Executive Directory, and which have produced the happiest confequences. The 18th Fructidor (September 4) will be a celebrated day in the annals of France; it is the more memorable because it enables you to fix for ever the deftinies of the Republic. Lay hold of this occafion, Citizens Reprefentatives; convert it into a great epoch, reanimate patriotism, revive public fpirit, and haften to clofe up the abyfs in which the friends of kings had flattered themflyes they would bury even the remembrance of our liberty.

P. S. The Executive Directory will transmit to you without delay other papers, from which it refults that Imbert Colomes, one of the new third of the Council of Five Hundred, was the principal agent of the foi-difant Louis XVIII, at Lyons.

measures which are to be taken, if you put off your decifion for a moment, all will be loft, both you and the Republic. The confpirators have been upon the watch. Your filence has given them courage and audacity; they are intriguing afresh, and are misleading public opinion by infamous libels. The journalifts of Blackenbourg and London continue to diffeminate their poifon. The confpirators do not attempt to conceal the fact, that their plot extends to the legislative body itself. They already fpeak of punifhing the republicans for the commencement of the triumph they think they have obtained. Is it poffible to hefitate ftill as to the measure of purging the foil of the very few known and avowed chiefs of thefe royalift confpirators, who wait for the convenient opportunito deftroy the Republic, and to devour you yourselves! You are at the brink of the volcano; it is about to fwallow you up; you may clofe it; and can you hefitate? Tomorrow it will be too late. The leaft hesitation is the death of the Republic. You will be told of principles; formalities will be re'forted to; excufes will be invented; delays will be called for; time will be gained; and the constitution will be affaffinated, under pretext of keeping within its limits. This commiferation, implored in favour of certain men, to what will it lead you to fee these very men take out of your hands the thread of their criminal confpiracies, and collect in your bofom the horrible firebrands of civil war, to fet fire to the country. What a mifconceived pity! what a fatal fentiment! what limited views would, in that cafe, draw the attention of the

councils,

is the danger of anarchy, that if it triumphs, it leads to royalty through calamities and crimes, and can only be fubdued by caufing the public authorities to affume a carriage invariably more or lefs favourable to the partifans of defpotifm. This laft maxim has been but too much verified during fifteen months paft; and royalifm, ftrengthened by the defeat of a few brigands, whofe rage it had itself organized, and whofe attempts it had directed, would, fince the commencement of that period have made a progress if not more extensive, at least more rapid, provided one of its orators had not been in too much hafte to point out the aim in view. This orator, named Lemerer, has been, as well as Merfan, acknowledged by Duverné de Prefle to be known and established intermediary agent between a part of the legislative body and the agents of the pretender. When, in the month of Fructidor, of the 4th year, Lemerer undertook, in one of the national tribunes, to point out the constitution of 1791 as the object of the regret of his party; when he rafhly infulted the triumph which liberty obtained on the 10th of Auguft, 1792, the eyes of all the faithful deputies were inftantly opened, and from that time to the 1ft of Prairial laft, they conftantly oppofed to every counterrevolutionary propofition, their zeal, their energies, and their votes. Obliged to adjourn on the 1ft Prairial, the epoch of its legiflative fway, royalifm gave a new direction to its efforts. It encircled the feat of government more closely than ever; and by establishing agents, guards, and emiffaries on all fides; by organizing their connections, their fubordination, and their correfpon

dence; by, in fome measure, fetting up a counter-revolution in each department and in each commune, it fought at once to pave the way for the elections, and to fecure a military force which it might bring into action at its pleafure. Such, citizens, from the month of Pluviose, was the power of royalism, that the difcovery of the confpiracy of Brottier, Dunan, and Villernois, merely augmented its audacity, and fortified its means even by their manifef tation. Never did confpirators, fo fully convicted by their writings and confeffions, find more apologifts, fupporters, and protectors, who did not hesitate to manifeft the lively intereft they took in their caufe. In ferving them, it was found to be more useful than dangerous to difplay the full extent of the different refources of the party under which they acted. It cannot be doubted, citizens, but that in the majority of the departments the elections were the work of this party. In proof of this you have only to refer to the debates of the military tribunal; to the two declarations which Duverne de Prefle has placed in our hands, and which we publish this day; and, finally, to the fentiments and conduct of the new deputies, whom corruption and intrigue gave to the Republic. Emigrants inundating Paris and the departments more and more; republicans either butchered or forced to fly from their homes: fuperftition and fanaticifm recalled by thofe even who, under the monarchy, contributed the most effectually to profcribe them; the patriotic inftitutions abandoned and infulted; the fymbols of royalifm difplayed audacioufly; the licentioufnefs of the prefs carried to an unexam