ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CONSULAR GOVERNMENT IN FRANCE.
The return of Napoleon agitated all France and all Europe. The character of this bold soldier was, indeed, now well known, and none could tell what game fraught with blood he next might play. Suspicion was well founded: Napoleon had designs in view when he returned from Egypt which time alone could unfold. The fact is, when in Egypt, letters from his brothers Joseph and Lucien, and from some of his admiring friends, informed him that Italy was lost; that the French armies were everywhere defeated; that the directory were quarrelling among themselves; and that the people, sick of the present state of affairs, were ripe for another revolution. Here then was another field for the ambitious to play their part; and Napoleon resolved to return to it. He had arrived in Paris two days before the directory knew anything about it; and in the meantime he had been consulting with chiefs of parties and officers of the army as to what step should be taken. Talleyrand and the Abbé Sieyes gave his councils the benefit of all their abilities; and a plan of attack upon the constitution was soon agreed upon. The Council of Ancients were easily persuaded that a new constitution was wanting; but the Council of Five Hundred vowed that they would die for that which they had already got. On the 9th of November it was agreed in the Council of Ancients that the assembly should adjourn to St. Cloud, and that Napoleon should put this into execution, being made supreme commander of all the forces for that purpose. The sitting was then dissolved; and Napoleon instantly issued two proclamations, announcing his command, and inviting the army and national guard to aid him in restoring liberty, victory, and peace to France. In this state of affairs, Barras, Sieyes, and Ducos, three of the directory, resigned; Moulins and Gohier remained to support the present constitution. These, however, by the orders of Napoleon, were guarded in the Luxembourg, so that the directory was in point of fact dissolved. It remained now for the councils to form a new executive; and to this end they met at St. Cloud, surrounded by troops. The Council of Five Hundred swore fidelity to the constitution; and Napoleon resolved to crush them. At his command the troops entered the Orangery with fixed bayonets, and the deputies were glad to make their escape by the windows and through the adjacent woods. On that evening the Council of the Ancients and about fifty of the scattered Five Hundred abolished the directory, and established in its place three consuls, who, with two committees chosen from each council, were charged with the task of preparing a new constitution. These consuls were Napoleon, Sieyes, and Ducos, the men who concerted together to bring about this new revolution. “Thus the French revolution closed its agitated career almost in the point from whence it set out—in despotism.” All their hopes of the blessings of liberty were with one fell blow dashed to the ground by the conqueror of Egypt and Italy—by one man, and he of men one of the meanest.
AFFAIRS OF INDIA.
During this year the power of Tippoo Sultaun was destroyed. Recently he had been encouraged in his hostility by the French, who eagerly sought to strike a blow at the commercial prosperity of Great Britain. It was for this purpose that the Egyptian expedition had been undertaken, and for this purpose likewise alliances were formed with the native powers of India. In Tippoo Sultaun the French found an implacable foe to the English—a foe which was ever ready to unsheathe his sword to destroy them. In order to crush their power and to regain what he had lost in the late war, Tippoo Sultaun had sent an embassy to Cabul, to bring the Affghan tribes down into India; he had negociated with the Nizam of the Deccan and with other native princes; and in 1797 he had sent two ambassadors to the Isle of France to propose an alliance with the French republic, and to request a supply of troops sufficient to enable him to expel the English from every part of Hindustan. The governor of the Isle of France had no troops to spare; but he forwarded Tippoo’s letters to France, and allowed his ambassadors to enrol some Frenchmen for his aid. Some sixty or seventy of these volunteers proceeded to Tippoo’s capital, where they first set up a tree of liberty, and next proceeded to organize a Jacobin club. These proceedings soon became known to the government at Calcutta; and the Earl of Mornington, then Governor-general of India, determined to anticipate Tippoo. Troops were sent under Generals Harris and Stuart; and the sultan was defeated in the route, and compelled to take refuge in his fortified capital. Seringapatam was besieged, and on the 4th of May was stormed and captured. Two of his sons were taken alive; but Tippoo fell near one of the gates, and was found buried under a heap of dead bodies. His territories were divided among his enemies; the English kept Seringapatam with the island on which it is situated, the whole of his territories on the Malabar coast, the district of Coimbatoor, and all the country that intervened between the company’s possessions on the western and those on the eastern coast; the Nizam of the Deccan obtained a more inland country; and another great tract of country was conferred upon a descendant of the ancient Hindoo rajahs, who had been dispossessed by Hyder Ali. Thus ended a dynasty which was founded by a daring adventurer on the ruins of the Hindoo house of Mysor. It began and ended its career in spoliation and the shedding of blood.
MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.
The British parliament assembled on the 24th of September. The chief object of this early meeting Was the introduction of a bill for facilitating the re-enforcement of our regular army, by allowing three-fifths of the militia of each county to enlist in the regulars, for service within Europe. This bill passed into a law on the 4th of October; the remainder of the session, previous to the Christmas recess, was occupied by commercial and financial matters. The supplies granted were between six and seven millions; but these were only for the time being: parliament again separated on the 12th of October.