They made their way with a favourable wind, and are now out of fight.

The departure of these three fquadrons, at the fame time, all well armed and well commanded, has thrown a confternation amongst the enemies of the Republic. The people here are loft in conjecture; but they look forward to great events. Time will fix all these uncertainties.

Official Note from the Minifter for Foreign Affairs to the Ambassa, dor (Barthelemy) in Switzerland.

THE French government is informed that the English, after having ftopped, during the war, under the most frivolous pretexts, every neutral veffel, have juft given the most positive orders to the commanders of their thips of war, to seize, indiscriminately, all the cargoes which they may fuppofe to be destined for the French.

Whatever injury France may have fuftained from this conduct, fhe has, nevertheless, continued to give the only example of the moft inviolable refpect for the law of nations, which conftitutes the pledge and fecurity of their civilization. But, after having long tolerated the offence of this Machiavelian fyftem of policy, fhe at length finds herself compelled, by the most urgent motives, to have recourfe to reprifals against England.

The Executive Directory, therefore, orders all the political agents of the French Republic to inform the different governments, that the fquadrons and privateers of the Republic will act against the ships of every country, in the fame manner in which those governments fuffer the English to act against them.

This meafure ought not to furprise them, fince it would be very easy to demonstrate that it is imperiously prefcribed by neceffity, and is only the effect of a lawful defence. If these powers had known how to make their commerce refpected by the English, we should have had no occasion to have recourse to this afflicting extremity.

They will recollect, that the French Republic, ever generous, propofed to all the belligerent powers to refpect commerce; but that this propofition, honourable to the government which made it, and dictated by the most perfect philanthropy, was rejected with pride, by a government accuftomed to treat with contempt the most facred laws of humanity, &c.

20th Thermidor, (Auguft 7.)

Speech

Speech of M. Vincent Spinola, Envoy Extraordinary of the_Republic of Genoa, with the French Republic, to the Executive Directory, August 7.

HONOURED with the confidence of my Republic, I had

been charged fucceffively, during four years, on the frontiers of the two ftates, with a care very grateful to my heart, that of contributing to keep up the good understanding which has hitherto fubfifted between the two nations, and I have had the good fortune of being fuccefsful.

It was in that interval I faw the aftonishing fpectacle of the French Republic, ftruggling almost against all coalefced Europe, pafs from the moft cruel reverfes to the moft fplendid victories, and terminate by vanquishing all her enemies. My fecret withes had anticipated her fublime deftinies; and I was the more fatisfied of feeing them accomplished, as my fentiments were in unifon with the wife refolutions which the firm government of Genoa had adopted, in proclaiming a neutrality so advantageous to both Republics.

I must add, for the honour of my country, that, notwithstanding the dangers which threatened it from all fides, it gave a great proof of courage, and at the fame time an example of the attachment which is due to one's friends. Thofe events will not escape hiftory. The French government applauded them, and I have been more than once the organ by which it was pleased to express its entire fatisfaction to my government.

Events, which are the unavoidable confequence of the war, have not altered the harmony between the two ftates. It is inva, riable, like the principles of juftice, and of reciprocal intereft, on which they are founded. It will be as lafting as the fentiments of esteem and conftant friendship, with which the Republic of Genoa is penetrated for the French Republic, and of which a minister, who justly enjoys the confidence of both Republics, has been the interpreter near you.

The government of Genoa, ever eager to teftify to the French Republic the moft ardent defire of foftering and cementing ftill more the good harmony between the two nations, was willing to repeat to you its folemn affurance of the fame by an extraordinary miffion. My fellow-citizens have pitched upon me; they were of opinion, that he, to whom the reprefentatives and the generals of the French Republic had fo frequently fhewn their confidence, would likewife, Citizens Directors, have a title to your own. To continue to merit it fhall be the chief end of my endeavours; happy if I fucceed in realizing the fweet hope of being as agree. able to the Directory as ufeful to my country.

Anfwer

Anfwer of the Prefident of the Executive Directory to M. Spinola,

Mr. Envoy Extraordinary of the Republic of Genoa,

THE Executive Directory, actuated by the fpirit which animates the French nation, love to find friends in all their neighbours, but they dread the enmity of none of them. If the fentiments which you testify to our Republic on the part of the Republic of Genoa be fincere, as we have no doubt they are, it may depend on the conftant friendship of the French government.

Strong in the power of the nation, directed by its will, it will be faithful to its friends, and always ready to ferve them. But it will at the fame time know how to compel to filence the malevolence of an impotent enemy, and to fruftrate the efforts of the moft formidable, and the moft dexterously coalefced foes. It will know the way how to force them all to refpect the French Republic, and requite confideration with confideration.

No, France and thofe fhe has chofen to govern her, are not afraid of war; you may inform your government and all Europe of it; the love of liberty fecures to our republican foldiers victories fufficiently glorious. But you can, you must alfo tell them, that we cherish peace, and that, were our most ardent wishes attended to, already would that confoling peace make Europe forget the difafters of a war, the whole odium of which must henceforth fall upon enemies, whom an inconceivable folly, or the blindest rage, ought to hurl into the abyfs which they thought they had dug for us! The Executive Directory fee with fatisfaction that the Genoefe government has chofen to reprefent it, with the French Republic, a citizen who has acquired the reputation of a friend of humanity, of liberty, and the French Republicans.

Proclamation of the General in Chief of the Army of Italy.

Head-quarters at Caftigliona, 19 Thermidor, SOLDIERS, (August 6,) fourth Year. γου OU have conquered Italy a fecond time! In five days you have gained two pitched battles, and five inferior actions; you have taken fifteen thoufand prifoners, three generals, eighty pieces of cannon, two hundred waggons, and fix ftand of colours. Those fierce Hungarians, triumphant last year on the Rhine, are now in your chains, or fly before you. You have crushed in an inftant the principal enemy of the Republic. So many high exploits ought not to make you proud, but to inspire you with confidence; they ought to teach you never to count your enemies, however numerous they may be. The conquerors of Lodi, of Lonado, of Caftigliona, ought to attack and destroy them. You renew the boafted examples of Marathon and Platea; like the brave Greek

Greek phalanxes, the brigades of the army of Italy fhall be immortal.

Receive then, foldiers, the mark of the fatisfaction of your general; it only precedes that of the whole country, and of rising pofterity.

Brave foldiers, be always impetuous in combats, and vigilant on your pofts. Death fhrinks trembling from the agile and refolutely brave: how often have you marched to meet it, how often have you feen it fly before you and enter the hoftile ranks ? It often overtakes the daftard, but never ftrikes the brave till his hour is come.

Addrefs tranfmitted by the French Ambassador at the Hague to the Dutch Convention, the 20th Thermidor, (7th Auguft).

BURGHERS REPRESENTATIVES!

THE

HE underfigned minifter plenipotentiary of the French Republic has the honour to intimate, that occafions do not offer fo frequently as he could wifh of giving you publicly a repetition of thofe affurances of esteem and regard which he daily receives from the Executive Directory, as well towards your affembly as the people which you reprefent. This efteem is not limited to thofe public atteftations which France has given to all Europe; nor to thofe lefs generally known, to which your commiffion for the management of foreign affairs can also testify.

The Executive Directory is fteadily vigilant, is unceasingly bufy; and the maxim applied to great undertakings-that all which is done must be esteemed trivial, while any thing remains to be accomplished, feems to have been adopted by the French government in the ratification of her engagements with the Batavian Republic. In that moment, when, during the winter, it maturely and wifely regulated the operations of war, and removed hoftilities far from your dominions, it neglected in no manner to do away your flightest apprehenfions; and the powerful intervention of the French government banished a remaining, but infignificant shadow of counter-revolutionary defigns, which, being fanned in your vicinity, afforded fome caufe of difquietude. That government now directs its moft ardent and zealous endeavours to fecure the political existence of Batavia, and to procure it again a place among potentates, with the rank to which it can with juftice afpire.

But it views a government wifely and folidly formed, as one of the most certain means of attaining speedily this defired end; and the Executive Directory cannot conceal its opinion, that it is time, by a powerful and lafting band, to faften together again the bundle. which runs the risk of being difperfed, and loft for want of the

properties.

properties. Such would quickly be the inevitable confequence of an order of things, which fhould permit the burgher to adore. exclufively his city or his province, looking on the country at large as a ftep-mother, for whom he has no love, to whom he owes no allegiance, and whofe lawful rights he mifconceives.

"It is time"-thefe are the words of the Executive Directory,it is time, for the interefts of the Batavian Republic, and for our contract with her, that the new order of things, expected by all the friends and lovers of liberty, fhould take place; and that all oppofite pretenfions fhould give way and difappear before a conftitution triumphing over federalifm and ariftocracy. And it falls within the pale of our department to labour, in concert with the Batavian people, to establish their independency, by hastening the approaches of their revolution to the object which is its ultimate aim. These fentiments of the Executive Directory might be eafily explained by examples which the national hiftory affords-yes, by what has happened even under our own eyes-were it not likely to produce the most painful recollections. They afford you, burghers reprefentatives, the too certain proof that an unequal combination of particular powers can never form a bulwark of national ftrength.

Let the burghers, then, who are animated by a fincere with to fee the caufe of liberty triumph, receive by this most positive afsurances, that the French government will applaud and encourage their endeavours; and will confider itfelf indebted to them, as it were, for a new ally, whenever it fhall feel the auxiliary aid of a ftate conftituted on the immoveable basis of harmony and indivifibility—of a state, which the can, with more confidence, prefent to her friends and her enemies; particularly to the treacherous Englith, with whom we must quickly contend; who, viewing with indifference the miferies of Europe, under fhelter of the advantages of their commerce, for these last four years, have, by their dealings with rage-blinded Auftria, rather confpired their own deftruction than our's.

Place yourselves, then, in a condition, burghers representatives, from this time henceforward, to defeat the chance-computations of their infamous politics; and introduce a conftitution which will develope your national ftrength, and fucceed federal anarchy, which deftroys power by dividing it; a form of government the moft defective and calamitous which your greatest enemy could with to impofe on you.

E. NOEL.

Speech