the Directory was bankrupt of reputation, and he intended to be
far more than a mere member of a board. He hoped to concentrate
power in his own hands, to bridle the Jacobins, and to remodel
the constitution. With the help of Barras he proceeded to rid
himself of the other directors. An irregularity having been
discovered in Treilhard’s election, he retired, and his place was
taken by Gohier. Merlin of Douai and La Révellière Lépeaux
were driven to resign in June. They were succeeded by Moulin
and Ducos. The three new directors were so insignificant that
they could give no trouble, but for the same reason they were of
little service.
Such a government was ill fitted to cope with the dangers then
gathering round France. The directors having resolved on the
offensive in Germany, the French crossed the Rhine
early in March, but were defeated by the archduke
Charles at Stockach on the 25th. The congress at Rastadt,
French reverses.
The Directory discredited.
which had sat for fifteen months without doing
anything, broke up in April and the French envoys
were murdered by Austrian hussars. In Italy the allies took the
offensive with an army partly Austrian, partly Russian under the
command of Suvarov. After defeating Moreau at Cassano on
the 27th of April, he occupied Milan and Turin. The republics
established by the French in Italy were overthrown, and the
French army retreating from Naples was defeated by Suvarov
on the Trebbia. Thus threatened with invasion on her German
and Italian frontiers, France was disabled by anarchy within.
The finances were in the last distress; the anti-religious policy
of the government kept many departments on the verge of revolt;
and commerce was almost suspended by the decay of roads and
the increase of bandits. There was no real political freedom,
yet none of the ease or security which enlightened despotism
can bestow. The Terrorists lifted their heads in the Council of
Five Hundred. A Law of Hostages, which was really a new Law
of Suspects, and a progressive income tax showed the temper of
the majority. The Jacobin Club was reopened and became
once more the focus of disorder. The Jacobin press renewed the
licence of Hébert and Marat. Never since the outbreak of
the Revolution had the public temper been so gloomy and
desponding.
In this extremity Sieyès chose as minister of police the old Terrorist Fouché, who best understood how to deal with his brethren. Fouché closed the Jacobin Club and deported a number of journalists. But like his predecessors Sieyès felt that for the revolution which he meditated he must have the help of a soldier. As his man of action he chose General Joubert, one of the most distinguished among French officers. Joubert was sent to restore the fortune of the war in Italy. At Novi on the 15th of August he encountered Suvárov. He was killed at the outset of the battle and his men were defeated. After this disaster the French held scarcely anything south of the Alps save Genoa. The Russian and Austrian governments then agreed to drive the enemy out of Switzerland and to invade France from the east. At the same time Holland was assailed by the joint forces of Great Britain and Russia. But the second coalition, like the first, was doomed to failure by the narrow views and conflicting interests of its members. The invasion of Switzerland was baffled by want of concert between Austrians and Russians and by Masséna’s victory at Zürich on the 25th and 26th of September. In October the British and the Russians were forced to evacuate Holland. All immediate danger to France was ended, but the issue of the war was still in suspense. The directors had been forced to recall Bonaparte from Egypt. He anticipated their order and on the 9th of October landed at Fréjus.
Dazzled by his victories in the East the public forgot that the
Egyptian expedition was ending in calamity. It received him
with an ardour which convinced Sieyès that he was
the indispensable soldier. Bonaparte was ready to act,
but at his own time and for his own ends. Since the
Coup d’état
of the 18th Brumaire.
close of the Convention affairs at home and abroad
had been tending more and more surely to the establishment
of a military dictatorship. Feeling his powers equal to such an
office he only hesitated about the means of attainment. At first
he thought of becoming a director; finally he decided upon a
partnership with Sieyès. They resolved to end the actual government
by a fresh coup d’état. Means were to be taken for removing
the councils from Paris to St Cloud, where pressure could more
easily be applied. Then the councils would be induced to
decree a provisional government by three consuls and the
appointment of a commission to revise the constitution. The
pretext for this irregular proceeding was to be a vast Jacobin
conspiracy. Perhaps the gravest obstacles were to be expected
from the army. Of the generals, some, like Jourdan, were honest
republicans; others, like Bernadotte, believed themselves
capable of governing France. With perfect subtlety Bonaparte
worked on the feelings of all and kept his own intentions
secret.
On the morning of the 18th Brumaire (November 9) the Ancients, to whom that power belonged, decreed the transference of the councils to St Cloud. Of the directors, Sieyès and his friend Ducos had arranged to resign; Barras was cajoled and bribed into resigning; Gohier and Moulins, who were intractable, found themselves imprisoned in the Luxemburg palace and helpless. So far all had gone well. But when the councils met at St Cloud on the following day, the majority of the Five Hundred showed themselves bent on resistance, and even the Ancients gave signs of wavering. When Bonaparte addressed the Ancients, he lost his self-possession and made a deplorable figure. When he appeared among the Five Hundred, they fell upon him with such fury that he was hardly rescued by his officers. A motion to outlaw him was only baffled by the audacity of the president, his brother Lucien. At length driven to undisguised violence, he sent in his grenadiers, who turned out the deputies. Then the Ancients passed a decree which adjourned the Councils for three months, appointed Bonaparte, Sieyès and Ducos provisional consuls, and named the Legislative Commission. Some tractable members of the Five Hundred were afterwards swept up and served to give these measures the confirmation of their House. Thus the Directory and the Councils came to their unlamented end. A shabby compound of brute force and imposture, the 18th Brumaire was nevertheless condoned, nay applauded, by the French nation. Weary of revolution, men sought no more than to be wisely and firmly governed.
Although the French Revolution seemed to contemporaries
a total break in the history of France, it was really far otherwise.
Its results were momentous and durable in proportion
as they were the outcome of causes which had been
working long. In France there had been no historic
General estimate
of the Revolution.
preparation for political freedom. The desire for such
freedom was in the main confined to the upper classes. During
the Revolution it was constantly baffled. No Assembly after
the states-general was freely elected and none deliberated in
freedom. After the Revolution Bonaparte established a monarchy
even more absolute than the monarchy of Louis XIV. But
the desire for uniformity, for equality and for what may be
termed civil liberty was the growth of ages, had been in many
respects nurtured by the action of the crown and its ministers,
and had become intense and general. Accordingly it determined
the principal results of the Revolution. Uniformity of laws
and institutions was enforced throughout France. The legal
privileges formerly distinguishing different classes were suppressed.
An obsolete and burthensome agrarian system was
abolished. A number of large estates belonging to the crown, the
clergy and the nobles were broken up and sold at nominal
prices to men of the middle or lower class. The new jurisprudence
encouraged the multiplication of small properties. The new
fiscal system taxed men according to their means and raised
no obstacle to commerce within the national boundaries. Every
calling and profession was made free to all French citizens, and
in the public service the principle of an open career for talent
was adopted. Religious disabilities vanished, and there was
well-nigh complete liberty of thought. It was because Napoleon
gave a practical form to these achievements of the Revolution
and ensured the public order necessary to their continuance that
