1795) the situation was not a very promising one; the people were on the brink of starvation and the treasury was entirely depleted. "The Generals did not even receive every month the eight francs in metallic money to which amount their pay had been reduced besides the assignats."[1] Measures of extraordinary severity had to be taken to maintain order; and numerous conspiracies were being plotted. Babeuf and the Jacobins were guillotined. The army interfered in political affairs; the soldiers surrounded the Council of the Five Hundred and that of the Ancients, whose royalist members were arrested. Two members of the Directory, Carnot and Barthélemy, were deported. Barras's corruption, the bad morals of the time, and the general state of insecurity increased the discontent of the people. The nation was at the disposal of the first daring man possessed of sufficient energy and courage to undertake its salvation. General Bonaparte, who had just arrived from Egypt, constituted himself the savior of France. As soon as he had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Paris (November 9, 1799) he caused the Council of the Five Hundred to be invaded by his soldiers; the Deputies were forcibly dragged from their seats. This high-handed proceeding met with the approval of the people; and in the evening of Brumaire the 19th the Council of the Ancients and what was left of the Council of the Five Hundred passed a resolution abolishing the Directory.
The new government which was organized consisted of three provisional Consuls: Bonaparte, Siéyès, and Roger-Ducos. The Constitution of the year VIII (1800) afterward decided that the three Consuls should remain in office for ten years; Bonaparte, Cambacérès, and Lebrun being appointed. The first Consul had all the powers of a king; his two colleagues being there only to give advice.
In spite of the absolute power vested in him, Bonaparte's ambition was to obtain still more unlimited
- ↑ R. Jallifier, Histoire Contemporaine, p. 142.
