A

· The Frenchi

, on leaving the right This action, for the time it lasted, side of the Rhine, had provided the and from the 'mutual animosity of fortress of Kehl with a garrison, the combatants, was reputed the composed of select officers and sol. most destructive of any ihat had yet diers. Moreau's intention was to happened during this war. Such bod the Austrians such employment; was the fury of both the French and in the siege of this important place, Austriaos, that they were wholly that they should not have leisure to intent upon slaughter. Few pria turn their attention to any other ob- soners were made; and the killed ject in that quarter. His project and wounded, on both sides, was succeeded so well, that, till the computed at four thousand, the loss commencement of the ensuing year, being nearly equal. their whole time and strength were The month of December was conspent in eiforts to reduce this for sumed in operations of this kind, tress. Herein they lost numbers of which occasioned the loss of numtheir best men. Very serious bers, and served only to exercise action took place on the twenty-se- the skill and bravery of both par. cond of November. The garrison ties. It was not till the opening of made a general sally, and, driving the next year, that, after a valiant the besiegers from their line of ciro defence of two months, the fortress cumvallation, spiked all their can. of Kehl surrendered to the Austrinon, and, after making a great ans, who thereby became possessed slaughter, carried off a large number of a heap of rubbish and ruins. The of prisoners.

garrison carried away the very palliIn order to balance this check, sadoes, and left nothing worth the the Austrians attacked, on the thir. taking. The works at the head of tieth of November, the fortification the bridge were in like manner evathat covered the head of the bridge cuated some time after, and a final of Huninguen, on their side. The termination put to the operations of attempt was made in the middle of the campaign in this quarter. ibe night, and the French were The French and Austrian armies, driven from their works. Recover- on the lower Rhine, harrassed by ing, however, from their disorder, the incessant fatigues they had unthey fell upon the assailants, retook dergone, came also to the determi. their works, and defeated them so nation of concluding hostilities durCompletely, that they were obliged ing the winter. An armistice took to retire, with the utmost speed, to place between them, about the mida great distance, furiously pursued dle of December, by which they by the French, who slew and took mutually agreed to retire into canvast numbers, though not without a tonments, and to remain there

peacesevere loss on their side, at the first ably, till the suspension should be onset, which was very unfavour- formally declared at an end. able, and had nearly put the enemy The termination of a campaign ia

possession of the head of the so unfortunate in its commence. bridge, whereby the communication ment, and so favourable in its terwith Kebl would have been cut off, mination, to the Austrian interest and its reddition accelerated. in Germany, totally revived its inVol. XXXVIII.

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fluence over the diet of the em. the readiness they had manifested to pire at Ratisbon. The consterna. ' treat with the enemy. They now tion that had overwhelmed it at the were equally solicitous to regain the near approach of the victorious ar- good will of the Imperial court, , mies of Jourdan and Moreau, had and addressed it in terms remarkbeen marked by circumstances de- ably submissive and thankful for the noting more despondency than be- protection they had received from came so respectable a body of men, its armies, and the preservation of and subjected them, in some mea. the empire, by the expulsion of the sure, to the censures of the public, French, through the valour and particularly of the court of Vienna, exertions of the archduke. which expressed high displeasure at

CHAP. X:

State of Parties in France.--A Revival of the Reign of Terror threatened in the Southern Departments by Freron. --The Directory desert and oppose the Jacobin Interest.-Conspiracy of Jacobins.-Discovered and defeated Arrangements respecting the Estates of Emigrants.-Influence of the nonjuring or refractory Clergy troublesome to Government.-Scandalous Neglect of the Erecution of Justice.-Criminal Trials.-Money and Firance. The same Impositions laid on the People of the Austrian Nethera lands as on those of France.--New Plots and Insurrections.- Law for reconciling the different Factions in France, by the Extinction of Terror.Proposal for repealing a Law which appeared to some to bear too hard on the Relations of Emigrants.—Rejected. But an equitable Alteration made in that severe Law.–This a Matter of Triumph to the moderate

Party.

IT
It was the policy of the direc. men, bred in times before France

tory, as above observed, to se. was seized with a rage for innovacare their own power, by engag. tion, whose prejudices were all in ing the French nation in continued favour of monarchy, though not permilitary exploits, by which the pub- haps unlimited ; and of others too, lic mind might be occupied other. who, though they had originally fawise than in inquiries into their voured the principles of the reown past or present conduct; and volution, longed now, above all by which they might acquire popu- things, to enjoy the blessings of larity, in proportion to the success peace. When this peaceable party, and glory of the French arms. Yet whether inclined to monarchy, or there was, in the midst of all the republicanism, reflected that all the saccesses of Buonaparte, in the heart golden dreams of the reformers had

a very numerous party passed away like visions of the night, opposition to the measures of the and been followed by nothing but government; and this party, by the the accumulated evils of war ; hor. repulse of the French from Ger- ror on horror, disappointment on many, was daily increased. The disappointment. When they looked French, at this period, might be back on former times, plentiful and divided into two great classes : the tranquil; a period too, when they one bustling and intriguing politi- were younger

than
now,

knew more cians, never satisfied wbile there was happiness, and saw every thing any thing to be done or undone ; for around them in the light of joy and ever in motion, and incapable of gladness; the were sensible of the rest: the other party, composed of liveliest anguish and regret, and are

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dently

of France, in

dently wished for a return of such struments of his tyranny, and of t times as they had formerly enjoyed. many cruelties exercised upon the This party was the most numerous They executed these schemes in France, but they were forced to their full extent; and many of u conceal their sentiments, and they guilty agents, in the atrocities con were not united. They were of mitted among them, were sacrifice course, as usually happens in all to their revenge. countries, kept under by a smaller

The moderation that goverde number, in possession of the powers the councils of those who succeede of government. But, in the capital, to the power of Roberspierre, pu where the minds of men were stimu. a stop to those executions. Tb lated and fortified in their senti. prudence of the commissioners ser ments and designs, by mutual inter- to pacify these departments, had a course, and which had so long been most restored them to peace an the seat of intrigues and attempts of mutual conciliation, when, unfor opposite parties, there was a great tunately for their repose, a man wa number of discontented individuals, sent to represent and to exercise the waiting for opportunities of pub- supreme authority of the state in licly avowing their sentiments, in op- those parts, who had already signa position to those of the present rulers, lized himself there by his enormi and to support them by open force. ties. The vigilance of the directory ob- This was the famous Freron, a viated iheir designs, and contained man of courage and abilities, but of them within bounds. So restless a fierce and sanguinary disposition.

a and determined, however, were the The people in those departments enemies to the present government, had filled the places of administrathat, farther to secure the public tion, in their respective districts, tranquillity, they thought it expedie with persons of their own chusing. ent io add another minister to the These were immediately displaced six already appointed by the consti- by Freron, who substituted to them tution, to whom was given the offi. individuals notorious for their crimes cial title of minister of the police. and the blood they had shed. · Through precautions of this na- reinstituted the societies, and renew ture, peace was maintained at Pa. ed those revolutionary committees ris, but disturbances broke out, oc- that had filled France with such casionally, in several parts of the re- horror ; and he authorized them to public. The southeru departments, break those members of the various long a prey to that warmih and im- municipalities whose principles difa petuosity of temper which charac. fered from their own. ierize their inhabitants, were at this During several months, the op time plunged into confusions that pressed inhabitants of those departrequired the immediate interposition ments were compelled to submit 10 of government to suppress them. the tyranny of Freron and bis partie

As the people in those paris bad zans, who strove with indefatigable been particularly ill treaied by the zeal to re-establish the reign of tere jacobin party, they had, ever since rorism. But the directory, who felt The fall of Koberspierre, meditated the necessity of putting an end 10 sehemes of vengeance against the in- the influence which the jacobins

He

were endeavouring to recover, re. most violent rancour of that restless called Freron, and commissioned and daring party: but, heedless of two men of moderate principles, their hatred and menaces, governIsnard and Jourdan, to inquire, in ment alleged these as reasons for conjunction with others, into the putting a period to their meetings, causes of the discontents and distur. and shutting up their places of rebances that had happened in those sort. They represented them to the departments. But the jacobin party public in the most odious light, exlaboured so earnestly töfrustrate this horting all good citizens to watch commission, by calumniating the their motions, as full of danger and members that composed it, that, malevolence to the state. They Dołwithstanding their accusations procured laws to be enacted, obviwere formally declared malicious ously levelled at them : those, for and ill-founded, it was judged requi. instance, that made it a capital site, in order to prevent feuds and crime to hold seditious meetings, or animosities in the two councils, to to attempt the re-establishment of dissolve the commission. Govern- the constitution under Roberspierre. ment was'apprehensive it would make Those members of the late conven. discoveries i hat might involve per- tion and committees, reputed the sons high in office, and occasion jea. heads of this party, were ordered to busies to be revived, which might leave the capital, and the major defeat the conciliatory views pro- part of those in offices of trust were posed by the new constitution. The dismissed. inquiry was, therefore, entrusted to It was not without pressing mothe directory, wbich wisely detere tives that the directory acted with mined to drop retrospective mea- this severity towards the jacobins : sures, and, by lenient means, to re. they were la boạring to disseminate a store tranquillity to the departments spirit of disobedience through all the in question.

civil and military departments in the The jacobins were highly offend. metropolis. They had seduced into ed by the moderate councils which open rebellion a body of the latter, they now perceived the directory known by the appellation of legion of was resolved to pursue. They ac- the police. It consisted of men secused it of having abandoned those lected from various corps of the democratical principles on which army, and ordered to Paris for the the republic was founded, and base- support of the convention when the ly betrayed those from whom it de. Parisians opposed that article of the rived its power in the state. But constitution, which ordained a rethe directory, unintimidated by their election of two thirds of its members tbreats, steadily adhered to its deter- to the new legislature. minations, and gradually introduced As they amounted to ten thouinto office individuals of their own sand men, such a force appeared too opinions, in preference to the jaco: formidable to be left in the hands of bins, who had hitherto enjoyed the jacobins, who had so perverted almost exclusively the first places them, that they were no longer to under government.

be trusted. They were directed to Tois desertion of the jacobin in. repair to their respective regiments, terest subjected the directory to the Upon their refusal to obey, a power