will authorize it to raise the thirtieth horse in every part of the republic. Experience affures the fuccefs of this meafure; all others will only have doubtful confequences, flow, and attended with much expence, and the fending out a prodigious quantity of specie. The directory had determined not to make to the legislative body the propofition of an extraordinary levy of horfes till after the fubject had been long confidered, and it fhall be fenfible that there exift no other means of affuring the service.

This levy thall be made by the administrative bodies. The legiflative body may itself ftate the mode of the execution, or leave it to the directory, who will follow the moft economical and the leaft vexatious to the citizens; whatever decifion you may make in this refpect, circumstances require that this measure may not be deferred.

Citizens legiflators, the directory invites the council to take the object of its demand into the moft ferious and the most prompt confideration.

REUBELL, Prefident.

Meffage of the Executive Directory of France to the Council of Five Hundred, refpecting the Emiffion of Mandats Territoriaux.

"CITIZENS LEGISLATORS, YOUR resolution of the 20th of this month relative to the creation of Territorial Mandats," payable to the bearer, is one of thofe grand and happy measures. which at the moft critical æras of the revolution, have operated to the welfare of the republic. But it would be fatal if you did not haften to make an addition which is indifpenfable, By giving to thofe mandats a com

pulfive currency. Without fuch a law, the new paper and the old would both fall into equal de preciation. The ftock jobbers would feize upon both, they would plunder the nation of its demefnes, and the government of its refources.

Certainly when paper money has but a remote, a doubtful, or infufficient fecurity, nothing fhort of defpotifm can force its currency. Such would be the cafe, if it were intended to recal the affignats to their nominal value, before their mafs was reduced to the amount of the national property at the difpo fal of government. But it would be a weak abandonment of the rights of the people, to leave to malignity and avarice to fix the value of a mandat, which can be im. mediately converted into real property at the choice of the bearer, amongst the beft poffeffions of the republic. The citizens may be de ceived as to their real interefts by the cruel manœuvres of stock. jobbing. They have been deceived, and will be fo ftill, unless their reprefentatives forefee and warn them of the danger.

Have you not been compelled to pronounce certain penalties against those who refufed the republican money, though it was evidently of more value than that which bore the royal stamp? Why should you hefitate to take the fame part against those who may wish to depreciate a paper, which has more need of confidence, as it is not divisible into fmall portions, and therefore lefs fitted for ordinary tranfactions? If you do not take this ftep, this paper muft fall, and with its own, will infallibly caufe the ruin of the affignats.

It is in your power, on the contrary, to raise the one through the other, and to breathe thus new life through all the ramifications of the body politic, robuft in itself, but weakened and dried up through the want of circulation.

There are thofe, however, who feem to defcry in this paper the annihilation of the affignats. This is an error to which flock-jobbers will labour to give credit, as withing to monopolize this reprefentative fign, and to poffefs themselves of the public fortune. But it is evident, that, on the contrary, ftockjobbing will find its death in the compulfive circulation of this paper, and that in twenty-four hours the government will triple the value of affignats.

The affignat is now at the three hundredth part of its nominal value. When the mandats fhall be at par with money, the affignats are to be exchanged at every office in the republic for the hundredth part of their nominal rate. Thus is their value tripled. In a word, the affiguats thus exchanged are to be burned, until there fhall be no more than 3 milliards in circulation. The circulation will then be brought back to its ufual courfe, and the paper to its natural proportion to the land which it reprefents. The mandat being on a par with money, and the relation of the affignats with the former being prefcribed by the laws, ftockjobbing can no longer maintain its ground. It dies; and France is delivered from a scourge more horrible than all the inflictions of her combined enemies!

This proportion of one to an hundred between the mandat and the affignat appears to be more fuit

able for the prefent. It accords with the measures which have been taken for raifing the forced loan. It leaves to the nation the resources which may be neceffary for its occafions, until the fyftem of contribution fhall be fettled, and the receipts collected regularly. In proportion as the circulating mafs of affiguats thall be diminished by burning those which are exchanged, the relative value of one hundred for one may be gradually ameliorated until the equilibrum shall be reftored without any fhock between the remaining affignats and the demefnes which form their fecurity.

But it is neceffary for this purpofe, that fevere penalties fhall be decreed against thofe who attempt to make the fmalleft alteration in the relative value of republican money. Thole who exchange mandats against money otherwife than at par, muft be rigoroutly punished. It was by relaxing from this effential point that alignats. have fallen into their prefent ftate of depreciation, and that it is impoffible to raise them fuddenly to their primitive value, without pafling beyond the value of the fecurity, and ftripping the nation of its laft refource.

It is folely from your firmnefs and fidelity in the adoption and execution of these measures, that France can be saved and revivified, and that fhe can arife free, glorious, and happy, after all the ftorms of the revolution.

We invite you, therefore, citizens legiflators, to give this meffage au immediate confideration. (Signed) LETOURNEUR, Prefi. LEGARDE, Sec.

Proclamation

Proclamation of the Executive Directory of the French Republic.

FRENCHMEN,

YOUR legiflators have juft created a new fpecies of money, founded at once upon juftice and the neceffity of providing for the immenfe wants of the ftate; they have conciliated the intereft of the republic with the intereft of individuals, or rather it is in this private intereft even that they have found new and abundant refources for the government; and fuch will be always the calculations of a true and only policy. In fhort, after fo terrible a war, after fo many violent thocks, the nation is, all at onee, lifted by the creation of territorial mandates to the fame ftate of fortune and of means which the poffeffed in the firft period of the revolution. To render thefe means fruitful-to recover the fame degree of opulence and fplendour, we muft only have the fame latitude of confidence in the reprefentatives of the nation - the fame obedience to the laws-the fame fraternal union between citizens.

Your fate, O Frenchmen! is then entirely in your hands; let the law relative to territorial mandats be faithfully obferved, and France will come out from the revolution happy and triumphant; if the law be defpifed, a profound abyfs will be immediately dug

under all our feet.

The territorial mandats have a precious advantage which the affignats had not-it was the want of it that occafioned their depreciation. This advantage is the faculty attached to the mandat of being realized in a moment, without hindrance, obftacle, or fale,

by the immediate and inconteft able transfer of the national domain, upon which the bearer of mandats may have fixed his choice in the whole extent of the republic. It is a territorial bank, with funds well afcertained, whofe notes may be exchanged in open market, and whofe guarantee is fortified by the authority of the law which 'gives them the forced currency of money. It was neceffary thus to prevent the criminal efforts of tock-jobbing and difaffection, which inceffantly endeavouring to convert the moit wholefome reme dies into poifon, would not have failed to have depreciated and monopolized the new money before the mafs of the citizens could have been informed of its real value.

When, by his fordid avarice, the ftock-jobber depreciates by one fol a note of 100 franks, it is not folely the one fol of which he has robbed the public credit, it is a lofs to the national treafury of fo many fols as there are Ico franks in the treafury; it is an immenfe fum which he has annihilated in the public banks, and in the hands of all the bearers of bills. He has ruined his fellow-citizens, he has affaffinated his country; and it is not, therefore, by the fmallness of his robbery in itself that we muft meafure his crime, it is by the enor mity of mifery which it produces. Never was it more evidently true, that the fafety of a whole nation may refide, and, in fact, does refide, in the inviolable probity of all the members that compofe it.

Yes, morals and obedience to the laws, each day ought, Frenchmen, to convince you, are the fole fafeguard of free countries. The flighteft attack made upon them

hakes

shakes the state to its foundation: All our evils arise from our diffen fions, from the fpirit of rapacity, the neglect of labour, from refufal to pay the contributions, from the depreciation of the national mo

ney.

Thefe evils cannot be cured but by a contrary regime, by the reciprocal efteem of citizens, by their eagerness to acquit themfelves to the public treafury, by the reftcration of induftry, by the rigorous fupport of the integral value, and without the leaft alteration, of the money established by the legisla

ture.

The executive directory will know how to difplay, on this important occafion, the whole extent of the power depofited in their hands; they will make the national will, expreffed by the reprefentatives of the people, be refpected.

It is to you, good citizens, friends of wisdom and liberty; immenfe majority of Frenchmen! it is to you that it belongs to fecond the efforts of the government; form a facred league to defend the conftitutional edifice, which refts now upon the fuccefs of the mandats; repel those who flatter you to draw you into a frightful abyfs. You can only fave yourfelves by auftere truths. What have these operated for your good, who have laboured hitherto to render you immortal; who have only irritated alternately and cherished your paffions; who have fharpened hatred among you, and formed parties? What elfe have they done but favoured your external enemies, who long ago would have demanded peace of you, if they had not been enabled to fet you against each other, and

to make you tear out your entrails with your own hands?

It is against these external enemies that we muft wake the vengeance of the ftate. Cover with indignation and contempt their eternal advocates; thofe cowardly writers who connect themselves with traitors; who have nothing to present but frightful portraits; who avail themfelves of an object only to make the citizens miferable, and divide to defame them. It is time that each of us thould be proud of being Frenchmen! What are the crimes of fome miferable men tỏ the national glory, men whom nature has caft upon the territory of freemen? view the revolution with the fame eyes that pofterity will view it; with the fame eyes which the foreigners whom you combat view it.

Refume that proud energy that produced victory; recollect your triumphs, and let them be the pledge of new triumphs.

Frenchmen, be affared of this great truth; it is, that the fafety of all and each of you is in the rigid execution of the law relative to mandats. Already have the happy effects of their creation been felt by the bearers of affignats, which increase in value rapidly, although it has been pretended that it would complete their depreciation.

Let no infringement be made upon this law, and foon a beneficent dew will vivify the happy foil that nature has adjudged to us. France will rife from that deplorable langour, a devouring stock-jobbing will ceafe her ravages, activity in arts and commerce will fucceed, the roads and canals will no longer be in ruins, the public functionaries of the state will be indemni-