Gazette Of The United States And Daily Evening Advertiser

It has been lately supposed that the Abbe Sieyes, whose name appears among the members present in the Convention on the decree of accusations against Carrier, is forming a party to frame a new constitution. This, it is said, accounts for Audouin and Barrere, coming on the 14th November to propose immediate application for drawing up the organic laws of the constitution accepted by the people in 1793, and the vehement opposition they experienced from Pelet and Tallien; for it is the character of Sieyes hardly ever in public to act for himself, but to make other men, sometimes without their knowing it, his instruments. The following is part of the attack upon Carnot, in Freron's journal:

"Never will the people be made to believe that Robespierre alone committed all the atrocities, all the horrors, under which France groaned for fifteen months. The people will recollect, that never were more victims immolated, than after Robespierre had withdrawn himself from the Committee of public safety.— They will recollect that the Guillotine was never more active than during the last six weeks of the reign of Carnot and Barrere. They have not forgotten that Carnot was a member of the Committee of Public Treason, which, on the 27th July, delivered the Convention and all France into the hands of Fleuriot and Dumas.— And it is, after having groaned under the tyranny of such a man, that the Convention entrusts him with new powers! It is to hands dyed in the blood of fellow-citizens, that the reins of government are now committed! Carnot has the head of Billaud, the heart of Collot, and the wit of Barrere. He has had the same thirst of French blood as they; he has drunk of the same cup; he has participated in their crimes and their treasons. Not a drop of blood has been spilt for which Carnot did not sign the order. He is the assassin of Philipeaux, Camille Desmoulins, and a hundred thousand other Frenchmen. No, No, let us not doubt of it, Virtue will refuse to sit with guilt. The cadaverous odour, the bloody sweat which Carnot exhales, will no more infect the air which the members of the Committee of Public Safety are to breathe.'

To this attack, it was that Carnot, in the first report from the Committee of Public Safety, after being re-chosen a member of it by a great majority of the Convention alluded, when he said "Shame shall be the lot of the Pamphleteers, and glory the Defenders of their Country. The enemy of factions braves the dagger of the assassin, and the fang of the Reptile :—he holds in equal abhorrence the shedders of blood, and the distillers of gall."

Carnot is generally reputed the author of all the military plans so greatly conceived, so admirably combined, so skilfully executed, and crowned with success so astonishing. It is said, however, that much of this honor is due to his brother, who, with Rochambeau, Lafite, d'Arcon, &c. is a member of the Sub-Committee for military operations.

Of the French Army, the Editor of a German Gazette, who can not be suspected of speaking too favourably, says:

"The army takes no part in the divisions of the Convention; it is an insulated body in the State, which obeys the impulse giving it from whatever quarter that impulse may come. The army will always pursue its own course, whether that be for a La Fayette, a Brissot, a Marat, a Tallien, or Louis XVII. It was thus the Roman armies fought on the extremities of Asia, while Marius, and Sylla were contesting the Supreme Power at Rome.

With respect to the composition of the Republican troops, and the spirit that animates them, both are very different from what they were under Dumourier and Custine. The old army of the line is annihilated. The troops are now French males, organized and impelled forward by the different sensations that distinguish the National character. The soldiers, always numerous, well commanded, and protected by an immense artillery, march with confidence, and get killed with the best grace in the world. Their number diminishes their sense of danger, which, by being divided among so many, serves only to inspire contempt. The General officers are excellent, as are the officers of artillery and engineers. The other officers are middling, but make up in activity, what they want in skill, and serve zealously the cause to which they owe every thing.

"Excessive rigour has at length established the most exact discipline. In Belgium, not the smallest irregularity has been committed; at Brussels, not a single drinking party has been disturbed day or night; not a glass broken. One part of the garrison goes to the Church, and the other to the tavern; one part sings salve Regina, and the other Carmagnole, with the utmost good fellowship. The soldiers never talk of the politics of Paris, but they obey all and every where.

We believe the French armies to be perfectly indifferent—as to the men by whose orders they are to fight; but we have, as yet, seen no reason to believe that they are indifferent as to the cause for which they are to fight."