acted, to extend the fame prohibition of Holland.

The executive directory ought to enable you to obferve at the fame time, that the uncertainty respecting the refolution you will deem proper to take on that fubject, ftops the progrefs of the happy effects, which had been produced by the fole propofition of feconding the measures taken by the Dutch, by reducing a pound fterling to 21 livres, 10 fous, which had been raised at that epoch to 24 livres, 5 fous, by the exchange. They ought finally to remark, that if the prohibition they requeft is not decreed foon, if the delays on that point, or the modifications which deftroy the main end of the principal object, fhould occafion the revocation of the measures taken by the Dutch, England will foon fee vanifh the embarraffment the feels to procure the fupplies fhe ftands in need of, if the withes to profecute the war, and that the British commerce would even then feel a mighty intereft to fee it prolonged.

The determination which you are about to take, citizens reprefentatives, will thus have a moft ftriking influence on the fuccefs of the negociations which occupy that government at this moment for the restoration of peace. (Signed) REVELLIERE LEPEAUX, prefident.

LAGARDE, fec. general.

On the ad of November, the Council of Five Hundred paffed the following Refolutions.

ART. 1. All articles manufactured in England, or in English eftablishments, fhall continue to be

prohibited throughout the whole of the republic. From the date of the publication of this law, all perfons are forbidden to expofe fuch articles to fale, or to give notice that they are to be fold.

2. No article, containing articles of English manufacture, fhall, under any pretext, enter the ports of the republic.

3. The neceffity of putting into a port fhall not furnifh a plea for any deviation from the preceding article, where the veffels exceeds ten tous in burden.

4. With respect to veffels above ten tons, proved to have been forced into port, the captain, on the moment of his arrival, thall produce to the commiffioners of the customs an exact statement of the quantity, quality, and value of English merchandize according to the inventory; it fhall be de pofited in a magazine with three keys; one to be kept by the captain, the other by the commiffioners, and the third by the municipal agent of the commune; and the thip fhall not depart till the captain has proved that they have been all re-embarked exactly as they were delivered.

5. Articles of English manufac ture in veffels taken from the enemy, or fhipwrecked, or thofe which arife from confiscation, fhall be depofited in magazines till they are again exported.

6. Every perfon who fhall have occafion to vifit a magazine where English manufactures are depofited, fhall, within three days after the publication of the law, give in to the municipal adminiftration of the canton a detailed account of their quantity, quality, and value. 7. Within the extent of three

leagues

leagues from the frontiers, by land or fea, the preceding declaration to be made to the neareft office of cuftoms, and the goods depofited in magazines appointed for the purpose.

VIII. After the expiration of the period fixed to make the declaration, the officers of the cuftoms, accompanied by a municipal adminiftrator, may vifit the houses fufpected to contain or conceal articles fabricated in England. Vifits during the day may also be made by the proper officers, to difcover whether any articles prohibited by this decree are concealed in magazines; and if any fuch are found, the whole houfe of the owner of the magazine may be fearched.

IX. All military corps ftationed on the frontiers, and all public functionaries, are enjoined to ftop any article of English manufacture found on the territory of the republic.

X. Violations of this decree to be punished with arreft (the criminal to be brought before the tribunal of correctional police) and confifcation of the goods, veffels, carriages, horfes, and beafts of burden; and the delinquent, befides, to be condemned to pay not less than double the value of

the object feized; and imprifonment for a period not less than five days, nor more than three months. In cafe of a repetition of the offence the fine to be double, and the imprisonment for the space of fix months.

XI. The value of the goods confifcated fhall be given as a reward to the feizers, or to thofe who have affitted in the arreft.

A fixth of the confifcation is granted as an indemnity to the VOL, XXXVIII.

municipal administrators and cont miffioners of the executive directory, in all cafes where their prefence is appointed by the law.

XII. Of English manufacture are confidered all goods, whether directly brought from England, or coming indirectly from other

countries.

1. All kinds of cloth and stuffs of wool and cotton, or mixtures of thefe materials; tamboured nankeens, muflins, ftriped woollen and cotton cloths, and English tapestry.

2. All kinds of cotton or woollen caps, fimple or mixed.

3. Buttons of every kind.

4. All kinds of metal; all wrought iron, cutlery, clock-work, fteel, copper, tin, white iron, polifhed or rough, pure or mixed.

5. Tanned leather, dreffed hides, or plain for carriages or boots, harnefs, and all fadlery wares.

6. Riband, hats, gauzės, known as English wares..

7. All kinds of fkins for gloves or breeches, and thefe articles in a manufactured state.

8. All kinds of glafs and cryftal, except vafes of glafs ufed in chymiftry, and glaffes for fpectacles and watches.

9. Refined fugars.

10. All kinds of pottery known by the name of pipe-clay.

XIII. The refined fugars comprehended in the preceding article actually in the interior, are not fubject to thefe declarations, and to be lodged in the magazines according to the preceding articles.

XIV. All the objects of foreign manufacture different from those pointed out in Article XII. of which the import is not prohibited by former laws, fall not be

S

admitted

admitted unless accompanied with certificates, that they are the produce of countries, at peace with France.

XV. Certificates fhall be delivered by the French confuls, or by the public offices; they fhall contain a formal atteftation that the articles have been manufactured in the faid country, and shall mention the name of the artist.

XVI. In addition to the penalties above pronounced, the names, firnames, ages, profeffions, and places of abode of the violators of the law and of their agents, fhall by the fpecial interference of the minifter of the interior, be fuck up in all public places, and inferted in the periodical papers, under the general title of brokers of EngJand, destroyers of French industry. For this purpofe the commiffioners of the executive directory, with the tribunals of correctional police, fhall be bound to fend to the minifter of the interior the names, firnames, ages, profeffions, and places of abode, of all thofe against whom they shall have pronounced fentence in conformity to the prefent law.

XVII. All the regulations of the former laws, contrary to the prefent, are repealed.

The above refolutions were afterwards fanctioned by the council of ancients.

fervice experiences the utmoft dif. trefs. The pay of the troops remains unfettled; the defenders of the country fuffer all the horrors of nakednefs; their courage is decreafed by the painful fenfe of their wants; the difguft arifing from them naturally occafions defertion; the hofpitals are in want of fuel, medicines, and all other neceffaries; the public alms and work houfes experience the fame want, and for this reafon they rejet the needy and infirm citizens, who ufually found an afylum in them. The creditors of the flate, the contractors, who daily fupply the wants of the armies, with great difficulty obtain only a small part of the fums due to them, and the diftrefs which they experience on this account deters others who might fupply thefe wants with more exactnefs, and on terms more advantageous for the republic. The public roads are impaffable, and the communications interrupted. The falaries of the public functionaries remain unpaid. From one end of the republic to the other, the judges and adminiftrators are reduced to the dreadful dilemma, either to expose themfelves and their families to the utmoft mifery, or difgracefully to fell themfelves to intriguers. The difaffected agitate every part of the republic; murder and affaflination are organized in many

20 Frimaire, Dec. 10. THE multiplied wants of the republic call imperiofly upon you to difplay and employ all her refources. You are not ignorant, that every branch of the public

police, without activity and without force from want of provifionary means, is unable to check thefe diforders.

It is in your power to make this afflictive picture disappear; you can diffufe new life through all the parts of the public adminiftra

rica,

tion, and re-establish the focial harmony, the fprings of which are impeded, but not deftroyed.

An important work, a fimple work, but which tends directly to the end which you will with to propofe to yourselves, has already been prefented to you on this fub ject, and you have adopted it. Wife principles, equitable bafes, have been fubmitted to you for the eftablishment of contributions, and means fufficient to provide for the ordinary and extraordinary expences, which the confolidation of the republic and the happiness of the people require.

But until the laws which you are to lay down on those bafes are enacted, until the reimbursements are in activity, until by a certainty of receipts the neceffary order can be established for giving an invariable application to every branch of the public revenue; waiting the happy inftant which is near, if you choofe, you ought by a provifional refource to folter and re-animate all; you must reftore motion to the divers departments of adminiitration, which all hold together, and fecond each other, and which it becomes indifpenfable to extricate from the dangerous ftate of decline in which they are plunged.

(Here the directory points out the employments of the arrears due upon the last fourth part of the national domains fold by the law of the 28th ventofe, as the means of obtaining that defirable end every purchafer of national domains, by virtue of the faid law, who has not paid the whole amount of his purchase, is to pay the fame in bills payable to order, and in ready fpecie, ten days after the pro

mulgation of a law to be passed for the purpofe, in his department; thofe fums are to be paid at the expiration of each term of payment ftipulated, unless the purchafer will come forward fooner with his payments, and thus benefit his capital by receiving interest. The bills or fecurities are to be mortgaged upon the property bought by the purchafer, who, in cafe of default, is to fuffer forfeiture; the estate is, of courfe, to be put up to fale by auction. If any administration neglects to enforce this payment, by putting up the eftate to fale, its members are to be perfonally refponfible. The bills thus iffued by the purchafers of national domains as aforefaid, are not to have any forcible circulation, but they are to pafs by confidence, at the refponfibility of the drawers and endorfers, for metallic fpecie, their actual and natural value being mortgaged and fecured upon the value of the eftates in payment of which they were iffued.)

BARRAS, prefident.

it. It is by fubmiffion to the law that you are to find your liberty fecured, the deftruction of faction accomplished, and the conclufion of your miferies.

Profit at length by the leffons of experience; let the fources of divilion among you, which have been the fpring of all your miferies, be dried up; and the fpirit of party, which has been ever the forge in which your fetters have been formed, give place to the bonds of fraternity? and, above all things, let what has paffed teach you not to give credit to men, unless when they speak the language of princiciple; and let him, who would hereafter fubftitute his will for law, be confidered as a traitor, and abandoned to the vengeance of free

men.

It was a boundless confidence repofed in one of your fellow-citizens, who was far from deferving it, that miled you fo much as to caufe you to betray your dearefi interetts, to detach yourfelf from your mother-country, not only at the moment when he was beftowing on you the cftimable boon of liberty, but while fhe was lavishing her treafures for the increase of your induftry, for the formation of your havens, and for the cultivation of your fields. It was a blind obedience to the will of a mean, ainbitious man, that led you to the commiffion of the most atrocious crime that republicans could commit, that of fubmitting to a king.

Citizens, you have great crimes, for which you fhould make reparation. The ftigma with which you are branded can only be done away by a conduct fuch as to juftify the generofity with which the French

republic has treated you, in restoring you to the plenitude of your rights. May you make fuch use of this indulgence, as is worthy of men who with for freedom, without acquiring it by the horrors of anarchy! who are difpofed to fubmit, without meannefs, to the laws, and to acknowledge no other authority than that which may emanate from the republic.

The fatal error, of which during three years you have been the victims, thould inftruct you how far you ought to give credit to the profeffion of those who are the enemies of the republic. The English could not prevail on you to betray your duty but by a promise to preferve your liberty; and yet, while they loaded you with contempt, they plunged you in flavery. They were bound to have prevented crimes by the punishment of thofe who committed them; yet they encouraged every wickedness, by giving impunity to affaffins. They had worn to defend you againft the French, whofe juft indignation you had provoked; yet, when their intereft called them elsewhere, they abandoned you to the mercy of the republic, which you had miftrufted.

What a contraft does the generous conduct of republicans form to that of their enemies! They return to you with the olive-branch of peace in their hands-they forget the injuries which they have fuffered-and if ever the recollection of them croffes their minds, it is only when they are anxious to caution you against new errors, by which new attempts may be made to feduce you from your duty. Let not thofe days of horror and of calamity pafs from before your