Jenks's Portland Gazette

French State Paper.

Report to the Executive Directory by the minister at war, 26 Thermidor, year 7, 13 August, 1799

CITIZEN DIRECTORS,

"A CITIZEN well known for his civic, and invested with a public character, has informed me, that persons unknown distribute at Paris a Journal, entitled, "Official Bulletin" of the Armies:—To this publication is annexed directions how to subscribe for the Journal, and to manage the distribution of it. The danger of this paper consists in the artfulness of its Sophistry. It gives the most extensive details respecting the operations of the French Government, the real or fictitious force of the enemy, and the impossibility, as it supposes, of our being longer able to defend the cause of Liberty. The Journal had published three numbers before I was apprised of its existence.

"The Commandant of the five military divisions has transmitted to me four pamphlets, distributed by the emissaries of royalty among the Republican Troops. The first is entitled, "Reflections upon the fate of the French Ministers at Rastadt." Second, "Motives which have induced the Requisitionary and Conscript Troops to abandon their standards." Third, "Letter of an inhabitant of Paris to his friend at Berlin, on the assassination of the French Ministers, at Rastadt." Fourth, "Observations upon the manner in which the occurrence at Rastadt has been represented at Paris, and its effects."

The object of these royalist fabrications, not only is to seduce our defenders from their battalions, but to turn them against the French Government, by representing it as the author of all the crimes of the House of Austria.

"The monstrous calumnies circulated by the emissaries of Royalty have not failed in producing the effect which our cruel enemies had proposed. It is my duty, therefore, to recall most seriously to your attention the imminent danger of a general conflagration, ready to burst out in the bosom of the Republic, at the moment when it requires all its efforts to repel the foreign enemies.

"It is at the moment when the Russians, aided by the gold of England, gain possession of the fortresses which French valour had acquired, that intestine divisions seem anxiously to co-operate with the Coalition. It would argue a strange infatuation not to perceive that Royalism has its Government secretly organized among us. Nay, it is almost sufficiently powerful already to be no longer under the necessity of acting in the shade.

"You are acquainted with the disturbances which have broken out at Bordeaux, in which hatred to the Republic has manifested itself in the most unequivocal manner, by the cries of Vive le Roi! You are acquainted with those which have appeared at the same time, with the same character, in the department of La Somme. In a word, in every quarter the enemies of Liberty exhibit an alarming concert of machination, of hope, and of audacity.—Every day the moveable columns in the departments of the West are obliged to engage the brigands who have arisen in the expectation of a descent from England.

"Notes which have been transmitted to me by yourselves, Citizens Directors, and which you have received from unquestionable authority demonstrate the Existence of a counter revolutionary party, acting powerfully within our own bosom.—The information which I have received from every quarter leaves no doubt respecting the organization of the Royalist bands, which, in the pay of England and Austria, create themselves in public places, introduce themselves into families, and endeavour to paralyze the operations of the government, the object of which is to restore the Republic to its glory, and to give peace to Europe.

"And when our combined enemies surround us with every crime; when even robbery and assassination have become counter revolutionary instruments; when our whole situation deviates so much from ordinary times and ordinary laws, we hesitate to employ laws for our salvation, when laws are sufficient for our defence!

"By your message of the 5th Thermidor, July 26, you called for the power of judging by military commissions, persons guilty of seducing the troops, of espionage, and assassination, &c.

This measure, rendered necessary by the urgency of the times, was limited in such a manner that having no object but to reach flagrant offences, you proposed to dissolve them immediately after they had pronounced their sentence.

"The legislative body doubtless will not hesitate to adopt this measure, at present delayed, when you remind them how imperiously it is dictated by the critical situation of affairs.—I propose to you again to lay the subject before them in a message, and to propose to extend the law to the distributors of incendiary writings tending to shake the fidelity of the troops to the Republic. If you wish to preserve the armies of liberty, hasten to call for an application of the penalty of death to every person who shall conceal deserters or seduce the soldiers to desertion.

(Signed)
BERNADOTTE"