tions. As the republican force in that quarter was but weak, and the fpirit of discontent and revolt, general and ardent, the infurrection fpread fo rapidly, that, in a fhort fpace of time, no less than twenty departments were, more or lefs,

in a state of infurrection.

From

Their principle place of ftrength was, at first, Meins. This how ever, on the appearance of the republican troops, they were forced to evacuate, after pillaging it, and taking hoftages. But, by this time, the flames of infurrection had fpread far and wide. The infurgents were, for a while, in poffeffion of Nantes, the capital of the department of the Nether Loire, and Port-Brieux, that of the depart ment of the northern coafts. this laft place they did not retreat without carrying off all the public money, and alfo the principal inhabitants as hoftages. A regular chain of pofts was formed from the Bay of Bifcay almoft to the walls of Paris. The infurgents published manifeftoes, demanded fupplies of men, money, and provifions, and, in a word, affuming the title of the royal and catholic army, exercifed within the fphere of their influence and power all the functions of government. This army, which covered fo great an extent of country and amounted in all, to about a hundred thousand men, was formed into five grand divifions. The province of Normandy (for we prefume that the old divifions of France will yet be more intelligible to most of our readers than the new) was under the orders of count Lewis Frotté: the province of Mayne was occupied by a formidable army, under the count de Bourmont. The marquiffes of

"

Scepeaux, Chatillon, d'Audigne, and Turpin, commanded in Anjou and Britanny, as far as Morbihan; generals Georges and de Sol, the Lower Britanny; le Mercier, the diftricts lying towards St Brieux. The count'd'Autichamp was at the head of the army of Poitou, and of the country on the left bank of the Loire to the confines of Aunis; and under him were the generals Suzannet, Sapineau, Soyer, and Berlien. Of all the great towns throughout thefe provinces the royalifts were in poffeffion, and they were all of them ftored with ammunition and provifions: fupplies of which, had, from time to time, been landed, on fuch parts of the coast, as were under their influence and way by the English. On the whole, the French nation was in a state of difcontent, alarm, and anxious expectation. The noble families and clergy were. profcribed and perfecuted; the men of property were haraffed with requifitions; the jacobins were excluded from the public councils, and ready to attempt any enterprize that might throw all things into confufion, however desperate and dangerous.

Some measures had indeed been taken for modifying, not repealing, the law of Hoftages, and for deftroying one dreadful engine of def potifm, in the hands of the late directory, by clofing the lift of emigrants: other measures too, had been taken for alleviating the public diftreffes, but the whole were feeble, and in their operation tardy and inefficacious. The nation was in a state of diftraction; the government, if not altogether in a ftate of languor, indecifion, and ftupefaction, rather watched and

B4]

fought

fought for an opportunity offtrengthening their own hands by fome new change, than of compofing the people, and faving the country, by the exercife of any powers or principles inherent in the actual conftitution.

The abbé Sieyes had early fore feen, or apprehended the difcordant and fluctuating nature of the various forms of government that had been adopted fince the overthrow of the monarchy. He had attempted, in vain, the introduction of a conftitution, which, though, ftill retaining the name, and in fome degree the form of a republic, fhould be confolidated and ftayed by one chief magiftrate, and a conftitutional jury, or confervative fenate; and, in the various changes that took place, from time to time, he was a friend, as we have feen, to an increase of power in the hands of the executive government. The great enemies that abbé Sieyes, who had gained an afcendancy in the public councils, had to contend with, was, of course, the democratical party. To overthrow the principles and plans of this party, by an oppofite fyftem, in which his own project of a fingle chief, and a conftitutional jury, fhould be adopt ed, was the leading principle in his conduct, and the great object of his inceffant contrivance.

It has been faid, that he imparted his defign of establishing a ftronger government, by a fresh revolution, to general Joubert, whom he with ed to affociate with himself in this project, and whofe unfullied character, blooming virtues and talents, and popularity rendered a very defirable affociate in fuch an enterprife. Joubert, unwilling to be

come the inftrument of political in trigue, accepted the command of the army of Italy. The abbé, it was generally fuppofed, was encouraged and fortified in his defigns, by the countenance and good wishes of the court of Berlin, where he had refided a confiderable time, and which was equally jealous of democratical doctrines, and all connection with governments founded on fuch principles.

The parties which divided and agitated France, at this time, were reduced to two claffes: the one confifting of the jacobins or fierce republicans, who made but little account of either the property or lives of their countrymen, whenever they judged that a facrifice of thefe might be rendered fubfervient to the interefts of their own faction: the other comprehending all who had taken a fhare in the revolution, without participating in its principal enormities, and who arranged themselves around Sieyes and the council of elders, in the hope and expectation of fome approaching change.Though this man had voted for the death of the king, and that in a very unfeeling and inhuman manner,* he affected great regard for the conftitutionalifts of 1791, who had formerly been the objects of his aver fion. He gained over the leading men in the council of five hundred, and established his intereft ftill more firmly in that of the elders. The extenfion of his plan, however, was ftill retarded, by various obftacles, when the eyes, the thoughts, and the hopes of all men were fuddenly turned on Buonaparte.

No lefs than three days elapfed, after the unexpected return of this

hands of the man who had con. quered Italy and Egypt, and made peace with Auftria, on terms fo advantageous and honourable to the republic, while, at the fame time, it was the more likely to be lasting, that it was neither fo difhonourable nor difadvantageous to that great power, as it might have been, if the pride of victory had not been tempered by political prudence. The wifdom of the treaty of Campo Formio was illuftrated by the loffes, difafters, and fufferings that refulted from its violation. The nation. fighed for peace, and this bleffing was not fo likely to be procured by any one as by Buonaparte. As the nation confided in Buonaparte, fo neither was he diffident in himself; though it would be very unjuft, and is by no means intended to infinuate, that he carried a confidence in his own powers beyond the bounds of a juft felf-esteem. He had improved an underftanding, naturally excellent, by a very clofe and fuccefsful application to literature and the fciences. By the former, his mind was humanized as well as enlarged, and his ruling paffion, the love of glory, confirmed and exalted: from the latter, his understanding derived additional vigour, precifion, and promptitude. He was defcended of an ancient family in Corfica, an inland protected by its poverty and mountainous aspect from the enervation incident to the champaign and luxuriant regions, lying in the fame degrees of latitude; and by the fimple state of manners from that fameness and monotony of genius, which is commonly produced by an imitation of established authorities and modes of thinking, in the more advanced ftages of fociety. He was born, and received his first

web in the dark, and without difturbance. He feemed to entertain a juft regard and reverence for what he deemed right and juft, and conducive to the public welfare: though he feemed alfo to be of opinion that few, if any, good laws were to be expected from any other head than his own. Nor, though filent and reclufe, did he want firmness to avow and defend his own fentiments, in the midst of popular clamour and paffion. He ftood up for the de fence of property in oppofition to laws in favour of bankruptcy, and for the fuppreffion of tythes. A faying of his was long, and is now remembered to his credit. Speaking of his colleagues in the national affembly, he faid, "They will to be free, and they know not what it is to be just." On the whole, the abbé Sieyes was not an amiable, but poffeffed a very general reputation of being both a wife and juft man; and that, if he was not without a tincture of vanity and ambition, it was not the common ambition of power and fplendour, but that of gaining over the French nation and the world to his political doctrines. His ambition, there fore, was of the fame nature with that of the heads of religious fectaries! Buonaparte, to the advantage of military renown, added that of moderation, prudence, and a regard not only for civil rights, but alto for religion. The fage counfels he gave to the Genoefe on leaving them to themfelves, the letter which he wrote to the Pope in a tone of respect and veneration, the whole of his conduct in Italy, not more intrepid than temperate and wife, were recollected with applaufe. There was nothing that the French people was not difpofed to expect at the

impreffions, too, in times, when the fpirit of liberty in his native land excited every latent fpark of genius and adventure. Though the fuperior and irresistible power of France damped and crushed all hopes of maintaining the independence of Corfica, the tone and temper of mind to which the unequal ftruggle gave birth, the ardent fpirit of exertion remained in the youthful bofom of Buonaparte, who, by a series of incidental circumftances, was led into the famous école militaire of France, where he added the accomplishments to be acquired by the most refined, to the benefits derived from one of the fimpleft and most virtuous nations in Europe. To perfonal courage, carried to the verge of temerity, and military art and ftratagem, he united blamelefs, and, with his inferiors in ftation, affable manners. Of a firm and undaunted fpirit, and a genius penetrating, fublime, and inventive, he diftinguished difficulties from im poffibilities, difcerned the nature and difpofitions of men, and bodies of men, and not only improved, but, in fome degree, created conjunc. tures. He had taken a wide range over the ancient as well as modern world, and chofen the greatest and moft heroic models for his imita

pofition to the jacobins, and on the fide of the moderate party. It was almoft as foon perceived that he confidered the deftinies of France as in his own hands, and that he would not brook either any fuperior or equal. He spoke in a tone of laconic decifion, which fufficiently indicated the opinion be entertained of his talents, power, and importance.

It was a fingular fpectacle to fee fo many generals, and thefe of the first rate, in the midst of a war in Paris. Buonaparte was fupported by the prefence, countenance, and authority of Moreau, Berthier, Lefebre, Serrurier, Macdonald, Murat, Berryer, and feveral other general officers. In other circumftances, fuch a congrefs of generals, in the feat of the government and legislature, would probably have occafioned fome murmurs of jealousy and diffatisfaction; but every paffion was hufhed, and every head bowed down before the man, who was not only the idol of France, but the admiration of the world.

The day fixed on by the direc tory and legiflative councils for the feaft in honour of the two generals, Buonaparte and Moreau, was the seventh of November. There was nothing extraordinary, in fuch an entertainment; on the arrival of Buonaparte from Egypt, or what was not to have been expected.— But neither is it unnatural to fuppofe that the politics of the day might in fome fhape and degree, infinuate themfelves into this defign after it was formed, although it would not be reafonable to afcribe its original formation to any other caufe than what is most natural and obvious. It served to folemnize the union and friendship between the

greatest