XXIII. 1795. Who is ex the Deputies by Dumourier. 19th December, 1795. CHAP. aunt, and her brother, successively torn from her arms, to be consigned to destruction, -had been detained in solitary confinement since the fall of Robeschanged for pierre, and was still ignorant of the fate of those she delivered up had so tenderly loved. The Directory, yielding at length to the feelings of humanity, agreed to exchange her for the Deputies who had been delivered up by Dumourier to the Imperialists; and on the 19th December, 1795, this last of the Royal Captives left the prison where she had been detained since the 10th August, 1792, and proceeded, by rapid journeys, to Bâle, where she was exchanged for the Republican commissioners, and received by the Austrians with the honour due to her rank. Her subsequent restoration and second banishment, will Th. vii. form an interesting episode in the concluding part of this work.' 126. Lac. xii. 388. Directory to in France. The attempts of the Directory to restore order to Successful the distracted chaos of revolutionary France, were efforts of the seconded by the efforts of the great majority of the restore order people, to whom a termination of political contests had become the most imperious of necessities. Such, in truth, is the disposition to right themselves in human affairs when the fever of passion has subsided, that men fall insensibly into order, under any government which saves them from the desolating effect of their own passions. Within a few months after the establishment of the new government, the most frightful evils entailed on France by the revolutionary régime, had been removed or alleviated. The odious law of the Maximum, which compelled the industry of the country to pay tribute to the idleness of towns, was abolished; the commerce of grain in the interior was free; the assignats were 1 CHAP. XXIII. 1795. replaced, without any convulsion, by a metallic currency; the press had resumed its independence; the elections had taken place without violence; the guillotine no longer shed the noblest blood in France; the roads were secure; the ancient proprietors lived in peace beside the purchasers of the national domains.1 Staël, ii. Whatever faults they may have afterwards commit- ii. 406. ted, France owes to the Directory, during the first year, the immense obligation of having reconstructed the elements of society out of the fusion of the revolutionary crucible. 162. Mign. gion conti nues still In one particular alone, the Directory made no approach towards improvement. Religion still re- But irrelimained prostrated as it had been by the strokes of the Decemvirs; the churches were closed; Sunday triumphant. abolished; baptism and communion unknown; the priests in exile, or in hiding under the roofs of the faithful remnant of the Christian flock. The youth of both sexes were brought up without the slightest knowledge of the faith of their fathers; a generation was ushered into the world, destitute of the first elements of religious instruction. Subsequently, the immense importance of this deficiency appeared in the clearest manner; it has left a chasm in the social institutions of France, which all the genius of Napoleon, and all the glories of the empire, have not been able to repair; and which, it is to be feared, is destined to prevent the growth of any thing like rational or steady freedom in that distracted country. In vain Lariveillere endeavoured to establish a system of Theophilanthropy, and opened temples, Theophipublished chants, and promulgated a species of lanthropists. liturgy, all these endeavours to supersede the doctrines of revelation speedily failed: and Deism alone CHAP. remained in the few of the revolutionary party who bestowed any thought on religious concerns. XXIII. 1795. ' Mign. ii. 406. Lac. xiii. 2. Lavalette, i. 323, 324. Singular character, tenets, and worship of this sect. D'Ab. vi. 37, 38. 1 * * The tenets and ideas of this singular sect were one of the most curious results of the Revolution. Their principles were, for the most part, contained in the following paragraph : : "We believe in the existence of God, and the immortality of the soul. Worship the Deity; cherish your equals; render yourself useful to your country. Every thing is good which tends to preserve and bring to perfection the human race; every thing which has an opposite tendency is the reverse. Children, honour your fathers and mothers; obey them with affection, support their declining years. Fathers and mothers, instruct your children. Women, behold in your husbands the heads of your houses; husbands, behold in women the mothers of your children, and reciprocally study each other's happiness." When men flatter themselves that they are laying the foundations of a new religion, they are in truth only dressing up, in a somewhat varied form, the morality of the Gospel. The worship of this sect was very singular. Lariveillere Lepaux was their high-priest; they had four temples in Paris, and on appointed days service was performed. In the middle of the congregation, an immense basket, filled with the most beautiful flowers of the season, was placed, as the symbol of the creation. The high-priest pronounced a discourse, enforcing the moral virtues; "in which," says the Duchess of Abrantes, "there was frequently so much truth and feeling, that if the evangelists had not said the same thing much better 1800 years before them, one might have been tempted to embrace their opinions." This sect, like all others founded upon mere deism and the inculcation of the moral virtues, was short-lived, and never embraced any considerable body of the people. 66 Napoleon viewed these enthusiasts, some of whom were still to be found in Paris, when he seized the helm of affairs in 1799, in their true light. They are good actors," said he. "What," answered one of the most enthusiastic of their number, "is it in such terms that you stigmatize those whose chiefs are among the most virtuous men in Paris, and whose tenets inculcate only universal benevolence and the moral virtues?"-" What do you mean by that?" replied the First Consul; "all systems of morality are fine. Apart from certain dogmas, more or less absurd, which were necessary to suit the capacity of the people to whom they were addressed, what do you see in the Widham, the Koran, the Old Testament, or Confucius? Everywhere pure morality; that is to say, a system inculcating protection to the weak, respect to the laws, gratitude to God. The Gospel alone has exhibited a complete assemblage of the principles of morality divested of absurdity. That is what is truly admirable, and not a few commonplace sentences, put into bad verse. Do you wish to see what is truly sublime? Repeat XXIII. 1795. The shock of parties, however, had been too vio- CHAP. lent, the wounds inflicted too profound, for society to relapse, without further convulsions, into a state of repose. It was from the Jacobins that the first efforts proceeded; and the principles of their leaders at this juncture, are singularly instructive as to the extremities to which the doctrines of democracy are necessarily pushed, when they take a deep hold of the body of the people. This terrible faction had never ceased to mourn Jacobins. in secret the ninth Thermidor as the commencement Renewed efof their bondage. They still hoped to establish ab- forts of the solute equality, notwithstanding the variety of human character; and complete democracy, in spite of the institutions of modern civilisation. They had been driven from the government by the fall of Robespierre; and from all influence in the metropolis by the defeat and disarming of the Fauxbourgs. But the necessities of government, on occasion of the revolt of the sections on the thirteenth Vendemiare, had compelled it to invoke the aid of this the Lord's Prayer. You and your friends would willingly become martyrs: I shall do them no such honour. No strokes but those of ridicule shall fall upon them; and if I know any thing of the French, they will speedily prove effectual." Napoleon's view soon proved correct. The sect lingered on five years; and two of its members had even the courage to publish short works in its defence, which speedily died a natural death. Their number gradually declined; and they were at length so inconsiderable, that when a decree of government, on 4th October, 1801, prohibited them from meeting in the four churches which they had hitherto occupied as their temples, they were unable to raise money enough to hire a room to carry on their worship. The extinction of this sect was not owing merely to the irreligious spirit of the French metropolis; it would have undergone the same fate in any other age or country. It is not by flowers and verses, declamations on the beauty of Spring and the goodness of the Deity, that a permanent impression is to be made on a being exposed to the temptations, liable to the misfortunes, and filled with the desires, incident to the human race. See Duchesse d'Abrantes, vi. 38, 41. XXIII. 1796. CHAP powerful faction to resist the efforts of the Royalists; and the character of the Directors inspired them with hopes of regaining their influence at the helm of affairs. Flattered by these prospects, the broken faction reassembled. They instituted a new club, under the splendid dome of the Pantheon, which they trusted would rival the far-famed assemblage of the Jacobins; and there instituted a species of idoLac. xiii. latrous worship of Marat and Robespierre, whom they still upheld as objects of imitation to their followers.' 13. ii 411. Mign. Baboeuf. His extreme revolution ples. The head of this party was Baboeuf, surnamed Gracchus, who aspired to become the chief of the fanatical band. His leading principle was, that the ary princi- friends of freedom had hitherto failed, because they had not ventured to make that use of their power which could alone ensure its lasting success. "Robespierre fell," said he, "because he did not venture to pronounce the word Agrarian Law.' He effected the spoliation of a few rich, but without benefiting the poor. The sans-culottes, guided by too timid leaders, piqued themselves on their foolish determination to abstain from enriching themselves at others' expense. Real aristocracy consists in the possession of riches, and it matters not whether they are in the hands of a Villiers, a Laborde, a Danton, a Barras, or a Rewbell. Under different names, it is ever the same aristocracy which oppresses the poor, and keeps them perpetually in the condition of the Spartan Helots. The people are excluded from the chief share in the property of France; nevertheless, the people, who constitute the whole strength of the* state, should be alone invested with it, and that too in equal shares. There is no real equality without an equality of riches. All the great of former times should, in their turn, be reduced to the condition of |