New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1852-02-14
A Sketch from French History

Previous to the 9th of November 1799 the
French Government consisted of Fire Directors
-Sieyes, Dueos, Burras, Gohier, Moulins
Council Of .dncients; q Chamber of FSpe
Hundred. On the 9th of November, Sieyes and
'Ducos made report to the Council, intended to
awaken the attention and excite the alarm of
the French people. Paris, they said, was filed
with enemies Of public order-persons dangerous
to the welfare Of the Republic The Council
rendered decree transferring the seat of the
legislative body to st. Cloud, charged Bona
parte with the execution of this decree, and
placed the whole military force at his disposal.
On receiving these orders, the General thus ad-
dressed the Counsel:
''Ihe Republic was about to perish You fore
saw it, and saved it by your decree. Woe be-
tide those who threaten it with trouble and dis
cord Aided by Gen. Lefebvre, Gen. Berthier,
and all my faithful companions in-arms, will
defeat their designs They need not search the
PASTOR precedents by which our action may be
arrested. Nothing in history resembles the close
Of the present century. Nothing in the close Of
this century resembles the present moment
Your wisdom conceived this decree: our arms
will know how to execute it. Wewant Repub-
lie founded upon real liberty. We will have it,
swear it ] | swear it,
After this Bonaparte reviewed ten thousand
troops at the Tuileries. The three Directors,
who perceived they were about to be displaced,
then sent an agent to offer terms to him; his
reply is well known. 1t was couched in the
most indignant terms:
''What have you done,' he cried, sswith that
France which left so glorious in your hands
left you peace; find you at war left you
victories; l find nothing but disasters. left
you millions of the treasures of Italy; and
find on all sides extortion and wretchedness
What have you done with the hundred thousand
Frenchmen, companions of my glory, all of
whom knew They are in their graves This
state of things must cease; it would lead us all
to despotism. What we want is the Republic,
the Republic seated firmly upon the foundations
of equality and liberty
On the next day he suddenly appeared in the
Chamber of the Five Hundred at st. Cloud
with a chosen body Of armed grenadiers. At
his presence, the Duputies rose in tumult, and
filled the hall with cries of Dictator Cromwell
| Caesar! down with him! So energetic was then
resistance at first, resistance only in words
that the cun9ueror of the Pyramids faltered il
his design. He turned back from the Assemb,
and retired from the hall
1t was upon this occasion that his brothe
Lucien, who occupied the chair as President o
| the Assembly decided the fate of France. Step
ping over the threshold ofthe hall, he gave instan
orders to q battalion Of grenadiers to enter tn
Assembly with bayonets fixed They cleared
the room; the deputies rushing out in wild dis
may, and many escaping through the windows
The same night the two councils were called
together by Lucien. The Bonapartists appeared
in torce; decreed the abolition of the Directory
the institution of a provisional consular govern
ment, and legislative committee of fifty, ant
France became a Consulate with Napoleon Bona
palte for her Chief Magistrate, and thus entered
upon the beginning of the nineteenth century
The conduct of Louis Bonaparte, at the begin
ming of the second half of the nineteenth cen
tury, is intended as a close imitation of the par
played by his uncle in this affair