itself, will be, to close all the wounds of France: and never yet has this disposition been falsified by any act originating with them.

"The disastrous law of the forced loan, and the still more disastrous law of hostages, have been repealed. Individuals exiled without trial have been restored to their country and to their families. Every day has been marked, and shall be, by deeds of justice. The council of state labors incessantly for the reformation of bad laws, and a better arrangement for raising the public contributions.

"The consuls declare, moreover, that the liberty of religious worship is guaranteed by the constitution; that no magistrate dares to offer it any violence; that no man dares to say to another -you shall exercise such and such a mode of worship, on such and such a day.

"The law of the 20th of May, 1795, which leaves to the citizens the free use of the edifices destined to religious purposes, shall be faithfully fulfilled. All the departments ought to be equally under the authority of general laws. But the first magistrates will extend their especial cares, and take a particular interest in the agriculture, manufactures, and commerce of those that have suffered the greatest calamities. Government will pardon and shew grace to the penitent. Their forgiveness and indulgence will be unlimited. But it will strike those who, after this declaration, shall dare to resist the sovereign will of the na-tion.

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Frenchmen, inhabitants of the departments of the west, rally round the constitution, which invests the magistrates whom it has created with the power, and made it their duty, to protect the citizens; which secures them equally from the instability of the laws, and from their severity. Let those who wish the prosperity of France separate themselves from those who persist in their efforts to seduce them, in order to deliver them over to the chains of tyranny and the domination of the stronger. Let the good inhabitants of the country return to their fire-sides, and resume their useful labors. And let them be on their guard against the insinuations of those who would throw them again into feudal slavery. If, after all the measures just taken by government, there should yet be found men daring enough to provoke a civil war, there would remain to the chief magistrates only the melancholy but necessary duty of subduing them by force. But we, even all of us, will henceforth feel only one sentiment; the love of our country. The ministers of the god of peace will be the first movers of reconciliation and concord. Let them speak to their hearts the language which they have learnt in the school of their master. Let them repair to the temples, again opened to them, to offer, together with their fellow-citizens, the sacrifice which will

expiate the crimes of war, and the blood which it BOOK IV. shed."

On the same day, December 25, Bonaparte ad- CHAP. III. dressed his soldiers as follows:

"In promising peace to the French nation, I was your organ. I know your valor. You are the men who have conquered Holland, the Rhine, Italy, and made peace under the walls of astonished Vienna.

"Soldiers, it is no longer your business to defend your frontiers: you are now to invade the states of your enemies. There is not one among you who have made different campaigns, but who knows that the most essential duty of a soldier is, with patience and constancy, to suffer privations. Several years of a bad government are not to be repaired in one day.

"It will be a pleasure to me, in the character of first magistrate, to proclaim to the nation the corps, that, by its discipline and valor, shall best deserve to be hailed as the support of their country.

"Soldiers, in due time, I shall be in the midst of you; and astonished Europe shall recollect, that you are a race of brave men."

Although d'Autichamp, Fourmont, and de Chatillon had agreed to a cessation of arms, the other insurgent chiefs persevered in hostile acts, and kept up a correspondence with the British fleet on the coast of Britanny. Hence arose the report, before-mentioned, which was contradicted by General Houdeville. Three English frigates had succeeded in landing four field-pieces, a large quantity of ammunition and provisions, and some chests of silver, all which supplies were received near Muzillac, by a body of ten thousand Chouans, who were provided with sixty or eighty waggons. The waggons, when filled with the stores and provisions, were immediately buried in the earth. The troops, employed afterwards in escorting these stores, were attacked by a body of republican troops, infantry and cavalry, amounting to two thousand. This body set out from Vannes, and came up with the loyalists about a mile and a half from St. Nelt. The engagement which ensued, continued from the morning till four o'clock in the afternoon. The loyalists suffered the loss of two hundred men in killed and wounded, all of whom, however, they carried off, with the convoy, to Plendrem. The close of the day, and the want of provisions, obliged the republicans to fall back to Vannes. In the mean time, while the royalists in their proclamations insisted on two principles, the restoration of their lawful king, and the defence of the country against the soldiers of Bonaparte, the chief consul abolished the oath of hatred to kings and monarchical government, and substituted in its place a simple declaration of fidelity to the constitution.

On the 11th of January, the consuls thus ad

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BOOK IV. dressed the inhabitants of the departments of the west, as follows:

CHAP. III.

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Every thing that reason could suggest, the government has done to restore peace and tranquillity to your dwellings. After long forbearance, still farther time has been granted for repentance. A great number of citizens have been brought to a sense of their errors, and have rallied round the government, which, without hatred or revenge, without fear or suspicion, protects all citizens alike, and punishes those who despise their duty. There no longer remain any in arms against France, except some men without faith, as without country, some perfidious instruments of a foreign foe, or brigands, black with guilt, whom indulgence itself knows not how to pardon. The safety of the state, and the security of citizens, require that such men should perish by the sword, and fall under the axe of national justice. A longer forbearance would be a triumph to the enemies of the republic. A valiant force only waits the signal to disperse and destroy these brigands, if that signal must be given. National guards join the force of your arms to that of the troops of the line. If you know among you any partisans of the brigands, arrest them. Let them no where find an asylum against the soldier who pursues them. And if there be any traitors who should dare to receive and defend them, let them perish along with them.

you

"Inhabitants of the departments of the west, on this last effort depend the tranquillity of your country, the safety of your families, and the security of your properties. By the same blow will destroy those wretches who strip you, and the enemy who purchase and pay for their crimes." On the same day the consuls decreed :I. "That no general, or public functionary, should correspond, in any shape, or under any pretext whatever, with the leaders of the rebels.

:

II. That the national guards of all the communes should take up arms, and expel the brigands from their territories.

III. That the communes, whose population exceeded five thousand inhabitants, should furnish moveable columns, in order to assist other communes of a less numerous population.

IV. That whatever commune should afford an asylum or protection to the brigands, should be treated as rebels; and that such inhabitants as should be taken with arms in their hands, should be instantly put to the sword.

V. That every individual, who instigated rebellion and armed resistance, should instantly be shot. VI. That the general who commanded the army of the west should put in force all the necessary regulations for organising the national guards, as well as for prescribing the districts which these communes were to watch over and

protect: and, that he should issue orders for all

the troops, the free companies, and the moveable columns in the pay of the republic, to be exclusively employed in clearing the country, and in pursuing the rebels."

Bonaparte, on the day after that in which he sent the proclamation to the inhabitants, sent one also to the army of the west; in which he told them, that the mass of the well-disposed inhabitants had laid down their arms, and that there now remained only robbers, emigrants, and hirelings of Britain. " Frenchmen hired by Britain! This could not be done but by men without foresight, without heart, and without honor. March against them, you will not be called on to shew any great exertion of valor. The army is composed of more than sixty thousand brave men. Let me learn shortly that the chiefs of the rebels have perished. Let the generals shew the example of their activity. Glory is to be acquired only by fatigues. If it could be acquired by a residence in great towns, or in good quarters, every man would be in possession of it. You must brave the intemperance of the seasons, the frost, the snow, the excessive cold of the nights: you must surprise your enemy at the break of day, and exterminate those wretches who are a dishonor to the French name. Make a brief but brilliant campaign. Be inexorable to brigands, but observe a severe discipline."

The expiration of the armistice, between the Chouans and General Houdeville, was fixed at the 7th of January, but it was afterwards prolonged. A short time before the period just mentioned, the division of the royalists, under Chatillon, accepted and signed the conditions of peace. And as other divisions were confidently expected in like manner to do the same, it was decreed by General Brune, who had been appointed to the chief command of the army in the discontented provinces, that it should no longer be called by the name of the army of the west, but by that of the army of England; an insinuation that all Frenchmen were soon to be united, and to fall on England.

When General Brune was appointed to the chief command of the western army, in the council of state, being a member of that body, he rose up and said:" In the two-fold character of a general officer and a counsellor of state, I am flattered with the choice which, on the present occasion, has been made of me by the first consul. The task imposed on me is a painful one, but I will undertake to unite the French, whatever may be their opinions. Those who are not to be influenced by reason, I will reduce by force of arms. Those who have been led into error, I will pardon. These shall be the principles of my conduct; but I will never forget, that weakness is not less an enemy to moderation than to firmness. It is that which is the ruin of the republics: may the

deluded inhabitants of the west return into the bosom of their country; but, may they return as penitent children."

The conciliatory measures pursued by the French government, and particularly the second proclamation of Bonaparte, produced the desired effect on part of the loyalists, while others continued still in the resolution to maintain their cause. General d'Autichamp, who had accepted the armistice at the same time with Chatillon, employed his influence among the Chouans, in the department of Deux Levres, in favor of peace, with success. The armistice, he told them, was prolonged; and he conjured them to do nothing in violation of its conditions. They listened to his advice, and remained peaceably at their respective homes. The example of d'Autichamp was successfully imitated by Fourmont and other chiefs. Few parties of Chouans were to be seen in departments where they had lately appeared in great force. The courier between Nantz and L'Orient reported, as something extraordinary, on the 15th of January, that he had not seen a single Chouan all the way between these cities.

General Brune, on arriving at his head-quarters at Angers, in a letter to the minister-at-war, dated the 21st of January, said, "I enter this day on my command of the army. General Houdeville has been pleased to act as my lieutenant; he commands the left wing of my army. The inestimable General Houdeville has united the inhabitants of La Vendée in peace; I shall henceforth find the Chouans tractable." Thus every thing, in some quarters, wore a peaceful aspect. This was by no means the case in every district and department. A body of six hundred Chouans was cantoned at Soublans, with the design of rousing the inhabitants to arms: this party was dispersed by General Nevot, with the loss of 100 muskets and some prisoners. Considerable parties of Chouans, in the department of the Eure and Loire, were dispersed, by the arrival of a moveable column at Noyent le Ration; but, in other parts, the war on the part of the royalists assumed a more serious aspect. In the principal towns and villages of the department of Dinan, in Britanny, the following injunctions were published, in placards or hand-bills, stuck up on the high walls, and in all the places of general re

sort:

I. All public officers, not being priests, who shall receive any act of marriage, at the hands of men under forty years of age, shall be shot.

II. Those who shall marry after such acts, shall have their heads shaven, and their relations shall be condemned to pay a fine.

III. Young men refusing to join and march along with the loyalists, when called on, shall be shot.

IV. All deserters from provisory assemblies BOOK IV. shall be shot.

V. Every man who does not separate himself CHAP. II. from the moveable columns of the republicans to which he belongs, shall be shot; and his next relation shall pay a fine, or be shot also.

VI. Louis XVIII. and religion, are the priucipal objects of all Frenchmen's desires.

VII. Whoever shall destroy, or tear, or take down these bills and orders shall be shot.

Such was the state of affairs in the department of Dinan, in Britanny; but the departments in which the resistance of the royalists, or, as it was called, the rebellion, had become the most general, inveterate, and obstinate, were the ' coasts of the North, Lisle, and Vilaine, Morbihan, and the Nether Loire. These departments accordingly, by two decrees passed the 16th of January, were declared to be out of the protection of the law, and under military government; and extraordinary tribunals were established for the execution of justice in criminal cases. General Brune, who was invested with the most complete and absolute power, set out immediately from Angers, at the head of the main army, on his way to Morbihan, in the department of the Nether Loire. From his head-quarters at Vannes, he addressed to the inhabitants of Morbihan, a proclamation, dated the 13th of February. In this piece, after recapitulating his various efforts for the prevention of bloodshed, and exhorting the deluded people to forsake their perfidious leaders, he said :

"The day of pardon is nearly past, and I take God and man to witness, that the blood that must be shed is on the heads of the chiefs of the Chouans, of the stipendiaries of England, and of the traitors of their country.

"Within twenty-four hours after the publication of the present proclamation, in all the communes of Morbihan, every unmarried man, from fourteen to fifty years of age, shall appear before the civil or military authority of the place where he shall be, and declare that he is not a Chouan, or that he abjures the party.

"The chiefs of the Chouans shall make a similar declaration, and must likewise procure the arms and stores under their direction to be given up.

"Corps are opened for the reception of deserters, according to their line of service, their rank, and qualifications.

"All authorities, which shall receive the declarations and acknowledgements of submission to the law, shall keep a register of them, and give a copy to each declarant, which, sanctioned by the generals, shall be a sufficient protection.

"The general staff will receive petitions and

1800.

The unhappy aid-de-camp, whose note was the occasion of this mournful catastrophe, driven to the extremity of grief and despair, by his involuntary indiscretion, blew out his own brains with a pistol.

Here was an instance of true Gallic fortitude; in obedience to the will of a foreign usurper, seven heroes fell, without the least symptom of trepidation, whose leader never deceived his adherents, or left his sick or wounded followers to be poisoned or buried half alive! The execution of this chieftain was considered by the first consul as the conclusion of the civil war, who communicated it without delay to the legislative assembly, in which Roederer rose up, and said, "You will learn, with pleasure, that that part of the French territory, which was put out of the law, is restored to the republic, by the destruction of the rebels that held possession of it. The first

consul has given it in charge to me to acquaint BOOK IV. you, that Frotté, with his staff-officers, has been taken in a castle, in the department of Orne. CHAP. III. There were found upon him a cross of St. Louis, a seal with the arms of France, and some poniards of the manufacture of England." All the members of the legislative body on this rose up, and cried," Vive la republique."

Bonaparte flattered himself that he had now overthrown the royal and illustrious family of the Bourbons, and that he had totally exterminated the party who had anxiously endeavoured to restore Louis XVIII. When the unfortunate and fugitive prince of that blood, his royal highness the Count d'Artois, or Monsieur, as the royalists thought proper to call him, was made acquainted with the death of M. de Frotté, he immediately paid a visit to the young hero's unhappy father in London; and, with the most affecting sensibility,. mingled the tears of condolence with those of the old count. He was a younger brother of General de Frotté, who aided the escape of Sir Sidney Smith from the tower of the Temple, and afterwards served under him, in the rank of major, at the siege of Acre.

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"

We shall, in this chapter, take a cursory retrospect of American affairs, during the almost universal commotions occasioned by the revolutions in France. The spirit of speculation had, for some time, led the people of the United States beyond the limits of fair and legitimate commerce, and exposed them to the censure of the contending powers. The murmurs were so loudly expressed, that the celebrated General Washington, then president, in a speech to congress, prepared the public mind for any discussion that might consequently arise.

The belligerent powers acted upon the principle of the war of 1756, that is, they seized, captured, and confiscated the property of the enemy, wherever they found it. The British were entire masters of the seas, and to them the contraband trade was principally injurious. Against that Against that power a cry was raised in America, and the French faction kept up a clamor against the op

pression and tyranny that subjected neutrals to search and detention.

As it soon became necessary to adjust the disputes between the government of the United States and that of Great Britain, the result was, that a treaty was concluded between these two powers. The negociators on both sides entered into a compromise for the sake of peace, but the advantage was on the side of America; for whilst America consented that the belligerent power should retain the right of search, Great Britain agreed, "that the merchandize of the countries at war, which should have been acquired by the subjects of the neutral power, should be carried in neutral vessels." This was abandoning the rule of the war of 1756, and enabling every Ame ́rican, for a few shillings-worth of perjury, to transport a cargo of French, Spanish, or Dutch property, from sea to sea, as his own. The minister of France (Genet) distributed in