"At the critical period of the 12th Vendemiaire, it was determined, in order to get rid at once of the three Commissioners to the Army of the Interior, to unite in the person of Barras the power of Commissioner and Commander of that army. But the circumstances in which he was placed were too much for him; they were above his powers. Barras had no experience in war, he had quitted the service when only a captain; he had no knowledge of military affairs.
"The events of Thermidor and of Vendemiaire brought him into the Directory; he did not possess the qualifications requisite to fill that situation, but he acted better than was expected from him by those who knew him.
"He kept up a splendid establishment, had a pack of hounds, and his expenses were considerable. When he quitted the Directory, on the 18th Brumaire, he had still a large fortune, and he did not attempt to conceal it. That fortune was not large enough to have contributed in the least to the derangement of the finances, but the manner in which it had been acquired, by favouring the contractors, impaired the public morals.
"Barras was tall; he spoke sometimes in moments of agitation, and his voice filled the house. His intellectual capacity did not allow him to go beyond a few sentences, but the animation with which he spoke would have produced the impression that he was a man of resolution; this however he was not; and he had no opinion of his own upon any part of the administration of public affairs.
"In Fructidor, he formed with Rewbel and La Reveillere Lepaux, the majority against Carnot and Barthelemy; after that event he became to all appearance the most important member of the Directory, but, in reality, it was Rewbel who possessed the greatest influence. Barras always appeared in public the warm friend of Napoleon. At the time of the 30th Prairial, he had the art to conciliate the preponderating party in the assembly, and he did not share the disgrace of his colleagues.
“La Reveillere Lepaux, born at Angers, belonged to the lower ranks of the middling class of society. He was short, and his person was as unprepossessing as can well be imagined; he was a true Æsop. He wrote tolerably well, but his mind was narrow, and he had neither habits of business nor knowledge of mankind. He was alternately governed, according to circumstances, by Carnot or Rewbel. The Jardin des Plantes, and the Theophilanthropy, a new religion of which he had the folly to become the founder, occupied all his time. In other respects, he was a patriot, warm and sincere, an honest man, and a citizen full of probity and of learning; he was poor when he became a member of the Directory, and poor when he left it. Nature had not qualified him to occupy any higher station than that of an inferior magistrate.”
Napoleon, after his return from the army of Italy, found himself, without knowing why, the object of the particular assiduity, the marked attentions and flatteries of the Director La Reveillere, who asked him one day to dine with him, strictly en famille, in order, he said, that they might be more at liberty to converse together. The young General accepted the invitation, and found, as he had promised, nobody present but the Director, his wife, and his daughter, “who, by the way,” added the Emperor, “were three paragons of ugliness.” After the dessert, the two ladies retired, and the conversation took a serious turn. La Reveillere descanted at length upon the disadvantages of our religion, upon the necessity, however, of having one, and extolled and enumerated the advantages of the religion which he wanted to establish, the Theophilanthropy. “I was beginning to find the conversation rather tedious and dull,” said the Emperor, “when, on a sudden, La Reveillere, rubbing his hands with an air of satisfaction, said to me affectedly, and with an arch look: ‘How valuable the acquisition of a man like you would be to us!—what advantage, what weight would be derived from your name!—and how glorious that circumstance would be to you!—Now what do you think of it?’”—The young General was far from expecting to receive such a proposal; however, he replied with humility, that he did not think himself worthy of such an honour; and his principles being, when treading an obscure path, to follow the track of those who had preceded him in it, he was resolved to act, in the article of religion, as his father and mother had done. This positive answer convinced the high-priest that nothing was to be done; he did not insist, but from that moment there was an end of all his attentions and flatteries towards the young General.
“Rewbel,” said the Emperor, "born in Alsace, was one of the best lawyers in the town of Colmar. He possessed that kind of intelligence which denotes a man skilled in the practice of the bar,—his influence was always felt in deliberations,—he was easily inspired with prejudices—did not believe much in the existence of virtue—and his patriotism was tinged with a degree of enthusiasm. It is problematical whether he did or did not amass a fortune, during the time he was in the Directory; he was surrounded by contractors, it is true,—but, with his turn of mind, it is possible that he only amused himself by conversing with men of activity and enterprise, and that he enjoyed their flatteries, without making them pay for the complaisance which he shewed them. He bore a particular hatred to the Germanic system—he displayed great energy in the assemblies, both before and after the period of his being a magistrate, and was fond of a life of application and activity. He had been a member of the Constituent Assembly, and of the Convention; by the latter he was appointed Commissioner at Mentz, where he gave no proofs of firmness or of military talent; he contributed to the surrender of the city, which might have held out longer. Like all lawyers, he had imbibed from his profession a prejudice against the army.
"Carnot, born in Burgundy, had entered when very young the corps of engineers, and shewed himself an advocate of the system of Montalembert. He was considered by his companions as an eccentric character, and was already a knight of the order of St. Louis at the commencement of the revolution, the principles of which he warmly espoused. He became a member of the Convention, and was one of the committee of public welfare with Robespierre, Barrère, Couthon, Saint-Juste, Billaud-Varennes, Collot-d’Herbois, &c. He was particularly inveterate against the nobility, and found himself, in consequence, frequently engaged in quarrels with Robespierre, who, towards the close of his life, had taken a great many nobles under his protection.
"Carnot was laborious, sincere on every occasion, but unaccustomed to intrigue and easily deceived. He was attached to Jourdan, as Commissioner from the Convention, at the time when Jourdan was employed in relieving the town of Mentz, which was besieged; and he rendered some services on the occasion. In the Committee of Public Welfare, he directed the operations of the war, and was found useful, but he had neither experience nor practice in the military matters. He displayed on every occasion great moral courage.