other members of the Committee of Public Safety fell, was appointed to the vacant place in the Directory. On the 4th Brumaire, October 26, 1795, the National Convention passed an act of oblivion as the first measure of the rule of law, altered the name of the Place de la Revolution to that of the Place de la Concorde, and then adjourned sine die. of the Conven tion's History. Thus ended the National Convention, which had endured three years, Review from September 22, 1792, to October 26, 1795, in which the violence of the different factions changed the French Revolution into a war against royalism in Europe and the hall of the Convention into a battlefield. Each party struggled for victory to acquire the supremacy and sought to effect the establishment of its own system for the purpose of securing such victory. The Girondists, the party of the Commune, the Dantonists and the party of Robespierre successively tried and perished. These different parties gained victories, but were unable to establish their systems. The natural result of such a condition of affairs was the ruin of every party that sought to restore peace and order to France. Everything was merely provisional-power, men, parties, systems-because war was the only thing possible. The Convention spent the entire year from the time that it had recovered its authority in restoring the reign of law in France-an object finally accomplished by the victories of the 2d Prairial, May 21, 1795, and the 13th Vendemiaire, October 5, 1795. Its Final tion of Order. Ended. The Convention had now returned to its starting point by having Its Work effected its real design-the protection and consolidation of the French Republic. After thus astonishing the world it became a thing of the past. As a revolutionary power it began to exercise its functions as soon as law and order had given place to terror and violence, and it ended its career as soon as law and order were restored. The three years of the Convention's dictatorship had been lost to liberty, but not to the Revolution. SECTION V.-FIRST FRENCH REPUBLIC UNDER THE DIRECTORY (A. D. 1795-1799). French Distress orders. THE Directory began its administration with an empty treasury, the assignats having so depreciated that this paper currency was not and Disworth the expense of printing it; while a starving mob had to be supported at the expense of the government. Each poor inhabitant of Paris had to subsist on two ounces of bread and a handful of rice each day, and even this miserable pittance often failed. The French army Revival and Re cuperation. Forced Mandats. was destitute of rations. Roads, bridges and canals had fallen into ruin during the Reign of Terror; while bands of robbers and assassins infested the country, plundering and murdering with perfect impunity. The first care of the Directory was to establish its power by honestly adopting the constitutional course. Very soon confidence, trade and commerce were restored; and the Revolutionary clubs began to be abandoned for the workshops and the fields. That period was remarkable for its great license of manners, which the voluptuous Director Barras was the first to encourage. But the rich were still subjected to violent and rapacious measures. So great and pressing were the wants of the Republic that the new Rescrip- government resorted to a forced loan of six hundred million francs in tions and specie, and replaced the assignats by another sort of paper money called rescriptions, which were soon discredited. It then created territorial mandats, which were to be used in retiring the assignats from circulation at the rate of thirty for one and in performing the office of a currency. These mandats had the advantage of being instantly exchangeable for the national domains which they represented; and furnished a momentary resource to the state; but they afterward fell into discredit, and their depreciation led to a bankruptcy amounting to thirty-three thousand million francs. Military When the Directory came into power the military affairs of the Situation. French Republic had become less prosperous than at any time previously. The campaign of 1795 had been retarded by the retirement of Prussia and by the scarcity which prevailed in France. French Victories and The French force under Field-Marshal Bender reduced Luxemburg after a siege of eight months; and, as an abundant harvest had Defeats in again brought plenty, the French army of the Sambre and the Meuse Germany in 1795. under Jourdan, and that of the Rhine and the Moselle under Pichegru, crossed the Rhine. Jourdan was beaten by the Austrians under Clairfait at Hochst, October 11, 1795, with the loss of all his artillery, ammunition and baggage; after which he recrossed the Rhine in great disorder, and the siege of Mayence by the French was raised. Pichegru took Heidelberg and Mannheim, September 22, 1795, but he also retreated; whereupon the Austrians under General Wurmser retook Heidelberg, September 24, 1795, and Mannheim also after a severe bombardment of several days, which laid a part of the town in ruins. An armistice was concluded on the last day of 1795. Pichegru's The failure of the French operations in Germany was owing partly Defection. to the treachery of General Pichegru, who, like Dumouriez several years before, entertained the design of restoring the throne of the Bourbons in France; but his indecisive movements only lost him the confidence of the Directory, and he retired from the army in disgust. In Italy the French were driven from Piedmont and the territories of Genoa, which they had invaded; but the victory which Scherer won over De Vins at Lovano, November 23, 1795, was a forerunner to greater successes which the French gained the next year. French Invasion of Italy. tion of La Vendee and Execution of Leaders. The Directory succeeded in ending the civil war in La Vendée-a Pacificaresult attributable to the firmness and moderation of General Hoche. He defeated Charette and took him prisoner, and Stofflet was betrayed into the hands of the republicans. Stofflet was shot at Angers, the old capital of Anjou, February 25, 1796; and Charette suffered Vendean the same fate at Nantes, March 29, 1796. The Count d'Autichamp and the other Vendean generals signed a treaty of peace with General Hoche. George Cadoudal, the leader of the Chouans, and other Vendean chiefs renewed the war in Brittany, but were also soon conquered by General Hoche and submitted or fled to England. The Directory announced to the legislative Councils the end of the civil war in La Vendée, July 17, 1796. Thus ended the resistance of the Vendean royalists to the Republic. Babœuf's against the Directory. As the Directory was detested by the violent republicans as well as Gracchus by the royalists it had to sustain attacks from both parties. The first effort to overthrow it was made by the republicans under the guidance of Gracchus Babœuf, who, like the Roman Tribune whose name he assumed, desired to establish an equalization of property and a new division of lands. He was joined by some of the old Jacobins, the most prominent of whom was Drouet, May 10, 1796. But the plot was discovered; and, after some legal proceedings, which attracted considerable attention, Babœuf and another conspirator were guillotined, and the others were banished from France. The Conspiracy of the Camp at Grenoble, September 9, 1796, was also suppressed. General Moreau was assigned to the command of the French army of the Rhine after the retirement of Pichegru. Jourdan retained the command of that of the Sambre and the Meuse. Carnot, who still directed the military operations of France, formed a plan of campaign by which these two armies were to march upon Vienna, in conjunction with the French army of Italy, the command of which was assigned to General Bonaparte, who, then in his twenty-seventh year, began his wonderful military career. Young Bonaparte's eagerness to begin operations drew some remonstrances upon him. It was suggested to him that there were many things lacking in his army that were essential to a campaign. He replied: "I have enough if successful, and too many should I be beaten." He lost no time in arriving at Nice; and when he assumed command of his army there, March 27, 1796, he planned one of the most daring invasions. He found his army of thirty-five thousand Plan of a campaign French against Austria. Bonaparte's Army in Italy. Bonaparte's First Victories men in a wretched state of disorder and inefficiency through the neglect of the government. But he soon infused his own energetic spirit into his troops, firing their imaginations with promises of wealth in Italy and applause in France, and marched on Genoa without delay, entering Italy between the Alps and the Apennines. The Austrian army was at Tortona and Alessandria, the Sardinian at Ceva. Bonaparte defeated the Austrians under Beaulieu at Montenotte and Millessimo, in April, 1796, and so completely separated and Conquests the Austrian and Sardinian armies that they hastened severally to the in Italy. defense of Milan and Turin. His victory at Mondovi decided the fate of Piedmont; and the terrified Sardinian king, Victor Amadeus III., hastily concluded a humiliating peace with the French Republic, to which he ceded the duchy of Savoy and the county of Nice; while he expelled the French Emigrants from his dominions, including even his own daughters, who were married to the two brothers of Louis XVI.; and six of the strongest fortresses of his kingdom were placed in the hands of the French as security until the conclusion of a general peace between all the belligerents, while the French were given the right to march their armies through the Kingdom of Sardinia at any time. Soon after concluding this humiliating treaty King Victor Amadeus III. of Sardinia died; and his son and successor, Charles Emmanuel IV. (1796-1802), relinquished Piedmont to the French and retired with his family to the island of Sardinia. Battle of Bona parte's quests in Italy and His In May, Bonaparte crossed the Po with his army and advanced to attack the Austrians. The bridge of Lodi, across the river Adda, was strongly guarded by an Austrian force, which opened a tremendous discharge of grapeshot upon the French troops when they attempted to cross. The advance was checked for a moment, when the French grenadiers rushed forward with irresistible impetuosity, drove back the Austrians and thus forced a passage over the bridge. This victory, known as the battle of Lodi, occurred on the 10th of May, 1796, and gave the French possession of Milan and the Lombard towns. The victorious Bonaparte was enthusiastically welcomed by the New Con- people of Milan, and he fixed his headquarters at that city, May 15, 1796. He subjected the towns of Lombardy and so terrified the smaller princes of Italy by the success of his arms and by his insolence Trophies. that they were only too glad to make peace with him at any price. He extorted large sums of money and war materials, as well as valuable pictures, statues and other works of art, and manuscripts, from the Dukes of Parma, Modena, Lucca, Tuscany, etc. He followed the example of the Roman generals, with whose lives he was made familiar from Plutarch's descriptions. He enriched and adorned Paris with these productions of the mind and these works of art in order to gratify the vain and spectacle-loving Parisians. He supported the weak Directory with the supplies of money which he had exacted from the Italian princes. Bonaparte's rapid successes and his boldness in venturing to treat independently with the King of Sardinia so astonished and alarmed the Directory that that body designed to restrain him by dividing the command of the French army in Italy between him and General Kellerman, but Bonaparte declined to accept this divided command and tendered his resignation to the Directory. His brilliant successes in Italy had rendered him so popular in France that the Directory did not dare to accept his resignation and ceased interfering with him. The Directory's Jealousy of Bona parte. Mantua After giving his troops twelve days of rest at Milan, Bonaparte Siege of marched against Mantua, the chief Austrian stronghold in Italy and the key to all further operations against Austria. Bonaparte at once laid siege to that strong fortress, the strongest in all Italy. The strenuous efforts of the Austrian generals to relieve it showed their appreciation of its importance. As the Austrian army under Beaulieu had been broken up by its defeats at Montenotte, Millessimo and Lodi, Marshal Wurmser was sent with a new Austrian army, numbering seventy thousand men, to the relief of Mantua. Wurmser twice entered Italy from the Tyrol for that purpose; but he was defeated by the youthful Bonaparte at Brescia, Castiglione, Roveredo and Bassano. Wurmser, being unable to keep the field, retired with the remains of his army within the walls of Mantua, as that fortress was well provisioned and capable of enduring a long siege. Bona parte's New Victorie in Italy The campaign of 1796 in Germany was conducted by the French Campaign of 1796 in armies under Moreau and Jourdan, who were opposed by an Austrian Germany. and German imperial army of more than one hundred thousand men under the Archduke Charles, the brother of the Emperor Francis II. and one of the greatest generals of that time. Victories. Defeat Moreau crossed the Rhine into Germany between Strassbourg and Moreau's Kehl, while Jourdan effected a passage of the same river at Mayence. Moreau entered Ulm and Augsburg, crossed the Lech and pushed his vanguard to the last pass of the Tyrol; but Jourdan was defeated by Jourdan's the Archduke Charles at Wurzburg, September 3, 1796, and was consequently obliged to retreat across the Rhine into France. The inhabitants of Spessart and Odenwald, exasperated at the oppressions through and exactions of the French, rose against the retreating foe, destroying the French soldiers wherever they strayed from their ranks. and Retreat Germany. Moreau's Jourdan's defeat left Moreau, who had advanced as far as Munich, Masterly in an extremely-perilous situation; as the Archduke Charles made great exertions to cut off his communications with France. Moreau extri- Germany. Retreat through |