But did not a great number of those very emigrants from France, who occafioned fo many mifchiefs to the country, refort to a neutral country? Why did not thefe colonifts, always rebels to the laws, not take up arms to defend them, as well as the magiftrates, who were their organs? It can now be no longer doubted, front letters that have been intercepted, and the official reports of the agents of the republic, that Philadelphia was the feat of an English committee, which, without doubt, eluded the vigilance of the American government, and of which the colonifts were the agents in the fame manner as the Auftrian at Baile were the more oftenfible agents of an Auftrian committee. Even fuppofing that the emigrant colonists were only fo cowardly as to withdraw themfelves from the evils of the war, which they provoked by their refiftance to the laws refpecting the emancipation of the blacks, and that they only fought an afylum in the United States, ought they not to have taken the first fafe and honourable opportunity which prefented, in order to return to the French territories? Yet in vain did the minifters of the republic, in America, invite them by official intimations, by journals, and by placards, to return to France, offering them a free paffage aboard the fhips of the republic. They ftill refufed, hoping that the triumphs of England and of Spain would fpeedily facilitate their return to their native foil again, polluted by flavery, and would enable them to carry along with them the pride of dominion, info lence, and death. Men who call themselves refugees, and victims of perfecution, to whom the republic ftretches out her arms when the has the right to be fevere, and who rather chufe to keep at a dis tance during that revolution, which calls for the united efforts of all, are not fuch in reality emigrants? After this statement, is it poflible, without criminality, to make diftinction between the emigrants of France, and thofe of the colonies? Undoubtedly, citizens legiflators, you never can be of that opinion, and your juftice will never be difarmed by the arts of perfidious men, who now bafely and hypocritically cringe before the triumphs of the republic. any Their property, juftly forfeited to the republic, will amount to two milliards of crowns, when it fhall have been restored to its proper value by wife and difcreet management. You will thus, by enforcing the juft feverity of the laws, find a new fund for the expence of feveral campaigns, which the wif dom and moderation of the people may not be able to avoid, or, in cafe of peace, a particular refource, which will raife to the highest pitch the profperity of the republic. The executive directory, impreffed with the importance of the object which they have now fuggefted, propofe to the legiflative body to take their meffage into the mott ferious confideration, and to declare, that the laws refpecting emigrants thall be fent and executed in all the colonies, as well as in France. Meffage from the Directory, addreffed to the Council of Ancients, dated the 5th Pluviofe (Jan. 25) and read in a Secret Committee. CITIZENS LEGISLATORS, THE enemies of France have fpoken of peace, but it was to relax our preparations, while they themfelves redoubled their efforts for continuing the war; they with to weaken the courage of our defenders, by lulling them with the hopes of approaching peace, which they themselves do not cease to elude by the most evafive forms, and the moft frivolous pretexts. This perfidy on their part is not new, and the reports they have affected to circulate on this fubject, fince the commencement of hoftilities, have always been feized and believed by the foreign faction which they maintain among us. But thefe manœuvres have never been countenanced by the executive directory, who in offering peace to the coalefced powers, on conditions as moderate as are confiftent with the national dignity, have neglected nothing for affuring new triumphs to the republican arms. blifhed; the young citizens are de- co The French fhould know that they never can have peace with their enemies till they fhall have rendered it impoffible for them to purfue their difaftrous projects. This epoch is not far off; it mult crown a vigorous campaign, and we have reafon to think that that which is about to be opened will yield in nothing to that of the third year. The government already acquires ftrength every day, and the hopes of the enemies of the interior of a difagreement between the legislators, that if there is not taken, in tive body and the directory difappear every day; the circulation of provifions begins to be re-efta The principle cause of the little fuccefs of the laft campaign was the deficiency of the means of conveyance, and the superiority of our enemies' cavalry. The evil increafed every day, and we are obliged to tell you, citizens legifla this refpect, a measure prompt and efficacious, we must expect defeats. The directory requefts that you will authorize it to raise the thirtieth horse in every part of the republic. Experience affures the fuccefs of this meafure; all others will only have doubtful confequences, flow, and attended with much expence, and the fending out a prodigious quantity of fpecie. The directory had determined not to make to the legislative body the propofition of an extraordinary levy of horfes till after the fubject had been long confidered, and it thall be fenfible that there exift no other means of affuring the fervice. This levy thall be made by the administrative bodies. The legiflative body may itself ftate the mode of the execution, or leave it to the directory, who will follow the most œconomical and the leaft vexatious to the citizens; whatever decifion you may make in this refpect, circumstances require that this measure may not be deferred. Citizens legiflators, the directory invites the council to take the object of its demand into the moft ferious and the moft prompt confideration. REUBELL, Prefident. Meffage of the Executive Directory of France to the Council of Five Hundred, refpecting the Emiffion of Mandats Territoriaux. CITIZENS LEGISLATORS, YOUR refolution of the 20th of this month relative to the creation of "Territorial Mandats," payable to the bearer, is one of thofe grand and happy measures, which at the moft critical æras of the revolution, have operated to the welfare of the republic. But it would be fatal if you did not haften to make an addition which is indifpenfable, by giving to thofe mandats a com pulfive currency. Without fuch a law, the new paper and the old would both fall into equal depreciation. The ftock jobbers would feize upon both, they would plunder the nation of its demefnes, and the government of its refources. Certainly when paper money has but a remote, a doubtful, or infuf ficient fecurity, nothing fhort of defpotifm can force its currency. Such would be the cafe, if it were intended to recal the affignats to their nominal value, before their mafs was reduced to the amount of the national property at the difpo fal of government. But it would be a weak abandonment of the rights of the people, to leave to malignity and avarice to fix the value of a mandat, which can be immediately converted into real property at the choice of the bearer, amongst the beft poffeffions of the republic. The citizens may be deceived as to their real interests by the cruel manoeuvres of stockjobbing. They have been de ceived, and will be so still, unless their reprefentatives forefee and warn them of the danger. Have you not been compelled to pronounce certain penalties against those who retufed the republican money, though it was evidently of more value than that which bore the royal ftamp? Why should you hesitate to take the fame part against those who may with to depreciate a paper, which has more need of confidence, as it is not divisible into fmall portions, and therefore lefs fitted for ordinary tranfactions? If you do not take this ftep, this paper must fall, and with its own, will infallibly caufe the ruin of the affignats. It is in your power, on the contrary, to raise the one through the other, and to breathe thus new life through all the ramifications of the body politic, robuft in itself, but weakened and dried up through the want of circulation. There are thofe, however, who seem to defcry in this paper the annibilation of the affignats. This is an error to which flock-jobbers will labour to give credit as wishing to monopolize this reprefentative fign, and to poffefs themselves of the public fortune. But it is evident, that, on the contrary, ftockjobbing will find its death in the compulfive circulation of this paper, and that in twenty-four hours the government will triple the value of affignats. The affignat is now at the three hundredth part of its nominal value. When the mandats fhall be at par with money, the affignats are to be exchanged at every office in the republic for the hundredth part of their nominal rate. Thus is their value tripled. In a word, the affignats thus exchanged are to be burned, until there fhall be no more than 3 milliards in circulation. The circulation will then be brought back to its ufual courfe, and the paper to its natural proportion to the land which it reprefents. The mandat being on a par with money, and the relation of the affignats with the former being prefcribed by the laws, ftockjobbing can no longer maintain its ground. It dies; and France is delivered from a fcourge more horrible than all the inflictions of her combined enemies! This proportion of one to an hundred between the mandat and the allignat appears to be more fuit able for the prefent. It accords with the measures which have been taken for raising the forced loan. It leaves to the nation the resources which may be neceflary for its occafions, until the fyftem of contribution fhall be fettled, and the receipts collected regularly. In proportion as the circulating mass of affignats thall be diminished by burning those which are exchanged, the relative value of one hundred for one may be gradually ameliorated until the equilibrum thall be reftored without any shock between the remaining affignats and the demefnes which form their fecurity. But it is neceffary for this purpofe, that fevere penalties fhall be decreed against those who attempt to make the smallest alteration in the relative value of republican money. Those who exchange mandats againft money otherwife than at par, muft be rigorously punished. It was by relaxing from this effential point that affignats have fallen into their prefent state of depreciation, and that it is impoflible to raise them fuddenly to their primitive value, without paling beyond the value of the fecurity, and ftripping the nation of its laft refource. It is folely from your firmness and fidelity in the adoption and execution of these measures, that France can be faved and revivified, and that the can arise free, glorious, and happy, after all the torms of the revolution. We invite you, therefore, citizens legislators, to give this meffage an immediate confideration. (Signed) LETOURNEUR, Prefi. LEGARDE, Sec. Proclamation Proclamation of the Executive Directory of the French Republic. FRENCHMEN, YOUR legiflators have juft created a new fpecies of money, founded at once upon juftice and the neceffity of providing for the immenfe wants of the ftate; they have conciliated the intereft of the republic with the intereft of individuals, or rather it is in this private intereft even that they have found new and abundant refources for the government; and fuch will be always the calculations of a true and only policy. In fhort, after fo terrible a war, after fo many violent fhocks, the nation is, all at once, lifted by the creation of territorial mandates to the fame ftate of fortune and of means which the poffeffed in the firft period of the revolution. To render thefe means fruitful-to recover the fame degree of opulence and fplendour, we must only have the fame latitude of confidence in the reprefentatives of the nation-- the fame obedience to the laws-the fame fraternal union between citizens. Your fate, O Frenchmen! is then entirely in your hands; let the law relative to territorial mandats be faithfully obferved, and France will come out from the revolution happy and triumphant; if the law be defpifed, a profound abyfs will be immediately dug under all our feet. The territorial mandats have a precious advantage which the affignats had not-it was the want of it that occafioned their depreciation. This advantage is the faculty attached to the mandat of being realized in a moment, with out hindrance, obftacle, or fale, by the immediate and inconteftable transfer of the national domain, upon which the bearer of mandats may have fixed his choice in the whole extent of the republic. It is a territorial bank, with funds well afcertained, whofe notes may be exchanged in open market, and whofe guarantee is fortified by the authority of the law which gives them the forced currency of money. It was neceffary thus to prevent the criminal efforts of ftock-jobbing and difaffection, which inceffantly endeavouring to convert the most wholefome reme dies into poifon, would not have failed to have depreciated and monopolized the new money before the mafs of the citizens could have been informed of its real value. When, by his fordid avarice, the ftock-jobber depreciates by one fol a note of 100 franks, it is not folely the one fol of which he has robbed the public credit, it is a lofs to the national treafury of fo many fols as there are 100 franks in the treasury; it is an immenfe fum which he has annihilated in the public banks, and in the hands of all the bearers of bills. He has ruined his fellow-citizens, he has affaffinated his country; and it is not, therefore, by the fmallness of his robbery in itself that we must meafure his crime, it is by the enormity of mifery which it produces. Never was it more evidently true, that the fafety of a whole nation may refide, and, in fact, does refide, in the inviolable probity of all the members that compofe it. Yes, morals and obedience to the laws, each day ought, Frenchmen, to convince you, are the fole fafeguard of free countries. The flighteft attack made upon them hakes |