bunals. Each arrondissement contains about 75,000 individuals. Thefe primary tribunals, which fuperfede and include the former civil and correctional tribunals, amount to 398 throughout the republic, which is a diminution on the whole of 117 tribunals. The number of judges is regulated ac cording to the population. In 198 communes, the primary tribunals are compofed of three judges; in 175, they are compofed of four; in 21 great towns, the population of which exceeds 30,000 perfons, of feven, divided into two fections; and in the three greatest cities, of ten judges, divided into three fections. The caufes in the primary tribunals are tried by three judges, a commiffary of government is attached to each tribunal, and a fub. ftitute to each fection. Till the peace, the minimum of the judges' falaries in thofe of the fmalleft population is to be 1000 livres a year, (about 427. fterling,) and the maximum 3600 livres, (150l. fterling,) in towns of the largest population. Twenty-nine tribunals of appeal are eftablished in places where lately were feated the fuperior tribunals, which are compofed of feven judges. Their falaries are from three to four thoufand livres. The prefident and viceprefidents of each of thofe tribunals receive an additional falary, the one a half, the other a quarter, more than their colleagues. Each criminal tribunal is compofed of two judges, two fuppleans, and a prefident, to be taken every year from the tribunal of appeal. Their falaries are the fame as thofe of the judges belonging to that tribunal. At Paris the primary tribunal is compofed of twenty-four judges, divided into fix fections; the tribunal of appeal of thirty-three judges, divided into three fections; the criminal tribunal of fix judges, divided into two fections. Their falaries are from 3600 to 5000 livres. The tribunal of revifion or caffation remained unchanged, as did alfo thofe of commerce, and thofe of juftices of the peace. The principal vice of the judiciary fyftem had been remedied by the conftitution, which was that of the frequent change of judges, and fubjecting them to popular election. By the conftitution the nomination was the prerogative of the firft conful. But the organisation ftill remains tainted with most of the vices of its revolutionary inftitution, of which the immenfe multiplicity of judges, and the meannefs of their retributions, are ftriking inftances. This new organifation was largely difcuffed, and warmly objected to, in paffing through the examination of the tribunate; and it was admitted by the counsellors of state, who pleaded for its adoption, that it was encumbered with vices which must be left to the operations of time to remedy. Part of the fyftem, that which refpects the remuneration of the judges, is to be changed at the peace; but the whole, we underftand, will undergo a revision, or rather the whole fyftem is likely to be changed, as foon as the civil code fhall be adopted, which will neceffarily expunge from the French statute book that immenfe mafs of inconfiftent and incoherent laws framed by each fucceflive legiflature, and make way for the establishment of juries in civil as well as criminal cafes. Among the private inftitutions formed at this period, but which were connected with public credit, was that of a bank, which was erected under the title of the Bank of France. The late bank of caille d'efcomptes courants had been unfuccefful in its fpeculations, and not only had yielded no profit to the fubfcribers, but a confiderable decrease in the value of the capital had taken place, from the knavery of one of the principal managers. It was on the ruins of this bank that the bank of France was formed, at the head of which were the principal bankers of Paris. Its capital confifted of thirty millions of livres, divided into thirty thousand fhares of a thousand livres each. The chief operations of this bank were the difcounting of bills, opening private accounts, receiving depofits of money on intereft, and emitting notes payable to the bearer. The administration was confided to fifteen regents, and three cenfors; the univerfality of the fubfcribers were reprefented by two hundred, chofen amongst them, and who constituted the general affembly. Whilft thefe new organifations were taking place, the conftitution on which they were founded was fubmitted to the approbation or difapprobation of the nation. The first conftitution, framed by the conftituent affembly, had never received this fanction. The fecond (for it were mockery to fpeak of the conftitution under Robespierre) was doubtfully accepted, and menacingly put into execution. The prefent conftitution was treated with more ceremony: every citizen was at liberty to fubfcribe his name for, or against, its reception, as he pleased; and it was remarkable, that at Paris, the first who pronounced his negative was one of the principal officers of the republic, the fuperintendant of the national archives, M. Camus. The return of the votes in its favour amounted to 3,012,659, while those. who difapproved it were only 1562. Whatever fpeculative objections might be made to the conftitution, as encroaching on the principles 摹 which formed its bafis, the nation felt that it contained a fufficient guarantee for a peaceable and moderate government. Never at any period had the people evinced, in a more clear and decifive manner, the national will, nor shad fo immenfe a mafs come forward on any occafion to express its opinion; and this approbation feemed the more free and disinterefted, as it reftrained the exercife, and diminifhed the frequency, of popular interpofition; it appeared that the people at length comprehended, that though they were fovereign, the exercise of that fovereignty ought to be entrusted to other hands than their own. The proclamation of the acceptance of the conftitution was followed by the inftallment of the confuls, in the palace of the Tuilleries; a ceremony, the pomp of which was at leaft imprudent, and which offended every party; to fome it wore the indecency of unmanly triumph, and to others exhibited more of oftentation than was compatible with the feverity of republican prejudices. But this trifling error was compenfated by fo many real benefits, that it was foon forgotten. During the time that had elapfed from the revolution of the 18th of Brumaire to the proclamation of the acceptance of the conftitution, confiderable ameliorations of every kind had taken place throughout the whole republic. The flatterers of power have endeavoured to concentrate the whole of the merit in the perfon of Bonaparte. This per fonage had no doubt a principal fhare of that merit; yet a confiderable portion belongs to that class of patriots, who, imbued with the true principles of liberty, and anxious for the welfare of their country, were in a state of continual refift ance ance to the tyranny and corruption of the directorial government, waiting with inflexibility the arrival of fome event which would relieve the country from the ignoble oppreffion under which it groaned, and bring it back to those principles of juftice and good government by which alone it could continue to exift, and to profper. Surrounded by the confidence of the people, the government had nothing to fear from factions; and, therefore, lefs praise than has been given it was due, from the moderation with which it treated those who were the most hoftile to its eftablishment. The profcriptions which had followed almost every other revolution were always the effects of fear, and therefore cruel; but, as no faction had dared to difpute the authority of thofe who now held the reins of power, not a fingle imprifonment was ordered. The government, on the contrary, was active to repair the wrongs which its predeceffors had committed against others. No clafs had been more the object of perfecution than the minifters of public worship. The minifter of police had already fignified the intentions of the government to the conftituted authorities in the departments, respecting those individuals who had been falfely inferibed on the lift of emigrants, and to whom leave of entrance was given, in order that they might have an opportunity of furnishing the proofs of the injuftice which had been committed against them; but to the irrevocable exclufion of those who left France with intentions hoftile to the country. Among thofe particularly marked as objects of favour were the emigrant patriot members of the conftituent affembly. This proclamation was foljowed by another from the fame minifter, in which leave of entrance was granted to the emigrant clergy, of whom a fimple promife of obedience to the government was exacted. This proclamation was a fhort homily on toleration and religious liberty, fo much the more necefary to be promulgated, as the principles had been fo much mifunderftood, and the practice fo much neglected. The lift of emigrants which had been kept open, as the most speedy and effectual method in the hands of tyranny to crush, or make away with its victims, was definitively closed. While the government was employed in thofe works of justice or mercy, it was not lefs active in repairing the disorders, and putting a ftop to the dilapidations, which prevailed in almoft every department of the ftate; infomuch that the public purfe had become as it were the patrimony of individuals. Of the various fraudful contracts which had been made for the fervice of the republic, (and all were more or less of this defcription,) many were broken, others modified; and where the fraud was too apparent to be concealed, the contractor was fent to prifon.. These ameliorations in the ftate were accompanied alfo by a. confiderable change in the manners and cuftoms of the inhabitants of, Paris. Although no fumptuary laws had been enacted, nor any regulations refpecting drefs, various vexations had been exercifed against perfons whom fancy, or perhaps difaffection, had led to the choice of certain ornaments, which it was afferted were figns adhesive to the anti-republican party. A black collar, or hair in treffes, were for a long time objects of the animadverfion of the police; and, though the female attire of the national cockade was not an indifpenfable ornament, yet yet all who had not this mark of fidelity to the republic attached to their head-drefs were excluded the entrance into the public walks. Thefe burlefque and frivolous decrees of the police were abolished; and the women were not only left to the choice of their ornaments, but the appellation of citoyenne, which had indeed been rigidly adhered to only in the public offices within the directorial precincts and the theatres, was profcribed, and the old title of madame and mademoifelle restored. Various amufements, which heretofore had formed the delights of the Parifians, and which had been for a long time forbidden, were again permitted to take place; and as the tide of urbanity and frivolity had now fet in, many who miftook the toleration of government for a return to monarchical ideas, as well as the amusements of the old régime, ventured to carry their newly acquired freedom to the folly of making ufe, even in the hotels and at the festivals of minifters, of those titles which the law of the ftate had folemnly profcribed, and which, whatever might be the complaifance of government in other refpects, it was not its intention to fuffer to be refumed. Although no regular oppofition was formed in the tribunate against the measures of the government, yet the laws which it propofed were often the objects of keen animadverfion, and fometimes of decifive refufal. When the tribunate withheld its affent, the legislative body fometimes threw their weight into the fcale of government, and clothed the project with their fanction. The affent of the tribunate at other times to the meafures of government met with reftrictions in the legislative body; and projects which had gained the affent of the two former authorities were rejected by thofe legislative judges. Whatever objections might be made to the theory of introducing, debating, or enacting a law according to the rules prescribed, experience fhowed that the executive power was far from being unlimited, nor was its influence employed in other modes than fuch as were fitted to procure attention from the conviction of its utility. The election of the vacant places in the fenate, which were filled up by this latter body on the joint prefentation of the tribunate, legiflative body, and the chief conful, fometimes prefented inftances of the diftance between these two bodies and the chief magiftrate in the difcrimination of character. The candidates named by the former were fometimes either men of ob feure life, known only for their talent in intrigue, or the objects of general reprobation, fuch as the exdirectors; while the conful took care to have his choice ratified by naming men of integrity or talent, who had deferved this rank and diftinction by fervices antecedently rendered to their country, and whofe nomination was fanctioned by the general voice of the public. CHAP. CHAP. VIII. Ligurian and Batavian Republics. Divifions in the Helvetic Republic. The Directory diffolved. Retirement of La Harpe. Augereau appointed to the Command in Holland His Conduct there. Piedmont-Conduct of the Augirians there. Cisalpine Republic. Rome. Naples. Egypt-Diffenfions between the Grand Vizier and the Pacha of St. John d'Acre-Ñegotiation with Sir, Sidney Smith-Taking of El Arifch-Negotiations continued with the British Commodore---Convention agreed upon and figned-Terms of the Convention, Funereal Eulogium of General Washington-Conciliating Conduct of the French Government towards the American States. Communication with the Court of Berlin. Wife Conduct of Prufia. The Elector of Saxony. Sweden. Court of Copenhagen. Spain. It was naturally to be expected, that the revolutions and changes which were effected in the French republic would have a greater or lefs degree of influence on thofe which furrounded it. The events which took place on the 18th of Brumaire occafioned a momentary fubverfion in the Ligurian government; while the Batavian republic was faved by that revolution from once more falling into the fame jacobinical crifis which had been commanded by the late French directory, and which took place under the administration of La Croix, the late minister of foreign affairs, who was at that time the French embassador in Holland. The internal tranquil lity of this country, except in that inftance, was the effect of the general difpofition of the people, not only to repulfe the attempts of the anarchical and Orange parties, but to offer a stedfaft, though paffive refiftance, to the encroachments of the French government. The Hel. vetic republic, which at the period of its revolution had been the licenfed theatre of French directorial rapine and intrigue, had, fince the adminiftration of La Harpe, been lefs fubject to thofe extortions. Its internal diftreffes, particularly thofe of the leffer cantons, which had been the continual feat of war, were undoubtedly great, nor was it until the final expulfion of the Auftrian and Ruffian armies that they felt again the fcourge of French exaction. The revolution of the 18th of Brumaire relieved them from the oppreffion against which the Helvetic government had struggled with firmness, and to which it had yielded only from force. But though it was to the director La Harpe that Switzerland was principally indebted for that ftrenuous, but unavailing, oppofition which was made to the infolent demands of Maffena, confirmed by the mandate of the French government; when, without the authority of the Helvetic directory, contributions were levied on different districts of the republic; yet, when the storm was abated, this Swifs director, who had been called unanimoufly to the aid of his country at the time when Rewbel and Rapinat accumulated their devastations, who had been active in thwarting every fubfequent intrigue of the French government, and who had for fome time been the object of the jealoufy and the hatred of the oligarchical party, was overthrown in his turn. |