hink it of very little consequence whether they vote
or not. The elections are already made or indicated by the Directory.
The mass of the people show utter indifference." (March 24.) "In this
town of twenty thousand souls (Blois) the primary assemblies are
composed of the dregs of the people only a very few honest people attend
them; 'suspects,' the relations of emigres and priests, all expelled,
leave the field free to intriguers. Not one proprietor is summoned. The
terrorists rule in three out of the four sections.. . The Babouvists
always employ the same tactics; they recruit voters in the streets who
sell their sovereignty five or six times over for a bottle of wine."
(April 12, according to an intelligent man coming from Paris.)
"Generally, in Paris, nobody attends the primary assemblies, the largest
not returning two hundred voters."--Sauzay, IX., ch. 83. (Notes on the
election at Besancon 1798, by an eye-witness.) "Jacobins were elected by
most frightful brigandage, supported by the garrison to which wine had
been distributed, their election being made at the point of the bayonet
and under blows with sticks and swords. A good many Catholics were
wounded."]

[Footnote 5182: Albert Babeau, II., 444. (Declaration of the patriotic
and secessionist minority of the canton of Riquy at the elections of the
year VI.)]

[Footnote 5183: Mercure Britannique, No. for August 25, 1799. (Report
read, July 15 and August 5, before the Five Hundred on the conduct
of the Directors Reubell, La Revelliere-Lepaux, Merlin de Douai and
Treilhard, and summary of the nine articles of indictment.)--Ibid., 3rd
article. "They have violated our constitution by usurping legislative
powers through acts which prescribe that a certain law shall be
executed, in all that is not modified to the present act, and by passing
acts which modify or render the present laws illusory."]

[Footnote 5184: Fievee, "Correspondance avec Buonaparte," I., 147.]

[Footnote 5185: Barbe-Marbois, I., 64, 91, 96, 133; II., 18, 25,
83.--Dufort de Cheverney, "Memoires." (September 14, 1797.)--Sauzay,
IX., chapters 81 and 84.]

[Footnote 5186: Sauzay, vols. IX. and X.--Mallet-Dupan, II., 375, 379,
382.--Schmidt, "Tableau de Paris Pendant la Revolution," III., 290.
(Report by the administrators of the Seine department.)]

[Footnote 5187: Dufort de Cheverney, "Memoires," August, 1798, October,
1797 and 1799, passim.]

[Footnote 5188: Archives Nationales, F.7, 3219. (