rnot, who, as a good Frenchman, is not desirous
of gratuitously increasing the embarrassments of France nor of taking
more than France could usefully and surely keep.--If, before Fructidor,
his three Jacobin colleagues, Reubell, Barras and La Revelliere, broke
with him, it was owing not merely to inside matters, but also to outside
matters, as he opposed their boundless violent purposes. They were
furious on learning the preliminary treaty of Leoben, so advantageous
to France; they insulted Carnot, who had effected it;[51109] when
Barthelemy, the ablest and most deserving diplomat in France, became
their colleague, his recommendations, so sensible and so well warranted,
obtained from them no other welcome than derision.[51110] They already
desire, and obstinately, to get possession of Switzerland, lay hands on
Hamburg, "humiliate England," and "persevere in the unlucky system of
the Committee of Public Safety," that is to say, in the policy of war,
conquest and propaganda. Now that the 18th Fructidor is accomplished,
Barthelemy deported, and Carnot in flight, this policy is going to be
applied everywhere.

Never had peace been so near at hand;[51111] they almost had)it in their
grasp; conference at Lille it was only necessary to take complete
hold of it. England, the last and most tenacious of her enemies, was
disarming; not only did she accept the aggrandizement of France, the
acquisition of Belgium and the left bank of the Rhine, the avowed as
well as the disguised annexations, the great Republic as patron and the
smaller ones as clients, Holland, Genoa, and the Cis-Alpine country,
but, again, she restored all her own conquests, all the French colonies,
all the Dutch colonies, except the Cape of Good Hope,[51112] and all the
Spanish colonies except Trinidad. All that amour-propre could demand was
obtained, and they obtained more than could be prudently expected; there
was not a competent and patriotic statesman in France who would not
have signed the treaty with the greatest satisfaction.--But the motives
which, before Fructidor, animated Carnot and Barthelemy, the motives
which, after Fructidor, animated Colchen and Maret, do not animate the
Fructidoreans. France is of but little consequence to them; they are
concerned only for their faction, for power, and for their own persons.
La Revelliere, president of the Directory, through vainglory, "wanted
to have his name go with the general peace;" but he is controlled by