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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 534: INTERNAL HISTORY OF FRANCE.
By Edward Farr
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

INTERNAL HISTORY OF FRANCE.

During this year the harmony between the directory and the legislative councils vanished. The new elections produced this change; for men of a different spirit were returned by the communes. The royalist party had, indeed, obtained the control of elections; and the newly elected third entered the chambers of the representatives with plans of counter-revolution. The directory had the mortification of seeing the emigrants allowed to return, the re-establishment of priests, and a vote of censure passed upon the conduct of their emissaries in the colonies. The directory were, in fact, shorn of power, and there was a faint prospect of the whole work of the revolution being set aside. But the nation was not yet prepared for such a step. As the plans of the royalists, which were concocted in the club of Clichy, became disclosed, the government regained strength. From fear of the return of the old order of things, the patriots of 1791 united with the party of the convention; and the club of Salm was got up in opposition to that of Clichy. A contest soon followed. The directory relied upon the armies, and they assembled some troops in the neighbourhood of Paris; while the councils decreed the restoration of the national guards. The directory, however, by one fell blow, annihilated the hopes of their enemies. On the 10th Fructidor, answering to the 4th of September, troops were brought to the capital under pretence of a review, and placed under the disposal of Augereau. These troops surrounded the Tuileries, which was protected by the guards of the legislative body, which, upon the question of Augereau, “Are you republicans?” immediately laid down their arms. The contest was then decided. Augereau took possession of the palace, and arrested the opposition deputies. Barthélémy and Carnot, with forty members of the “Council of Five Hundred,” eleven of the “Council of the Ancients,” and ten other persons of note were condemned to be deported to Cayenne. Most of these underwent their punishment; but some escaped, and others were pardoned. Thirty-five journalists were likewise sentenced to deportation; and the elections of forty-eight departments were declared null. In the whole one hundred and forty-nine members were excluded, and the vacancies were filled up by the directory, with men willing to give them their support. The laws enacted in favour of priests and emigrants were revoked, and the oath of hatred to royalty renewed. Thus a revolutionary government returned; and the constitution was trodden underfoot by men who ostensibly were its supporters. And all this they called “Liberty.”