semblies, or
they have been themselves deceived in the choice they made of deputies.

That there were some direct but secret conspirators in the new third can
scarcely admit of a doubt; but it is most reasonable to suppose that a
great part were seduced by the vanity of thinking they could do better
than those whom they succeeded. Instead of trusting to experience, they
attempted experiments. This counter-disposition prepared them to fall in
with any measures contrary to former measures, and that without seeing,
and probably without suspecting, the end to which they led.

No sooner were the members of the new third arrived at the seat of
government, than expectation was excited to see how they would act.
Their motions were watched by all parties, and it was impossible for
them to steal a march unobserved. They had it in their power to do great
good, or great mischief. A firm and manly conduct on their part, uniting
with that of the Directory and their colleagues, would have terminated
the war. But the moment before them was not the moment of hesitation. He
that hesitates in such situation is lost.

The first public act of the Council of Five Hundred was the election of
Pichegru to the presidency of that Council. He arrived at it by a very
large majority, and the public voice was in his favour. I among the rest
was one who rejoiced at it. But if the defection of Pichegru was at that
time known to Conde, and consequently to Pitt, it unveils the cause that
retarded all negotiations for peace.(1) They interpreted that election
into a signal of a counter-revolution, and were waiting for it; and they
mistook the respect shown to Pichegru, founded on the supposition of his
integrity, as a symptom of national revolt. Judging of things by their
own foolish ideas of government, they ascribed appearances to causes
between which there was no connection. Every thing on their part has
been a comedy of errors, and the actors have been chased from the stage.

1 Louis Joseph de Bourbon, Prince de Conde (1736-1818),
organized the French emigrants on the Rhine into an army
which was incorporated with that of Austria but paid by
England. He converted Pichegru into a secret partisan of the
Bourbons. He ultimately returned to France with Louis
XVIII., who made him colonel of infantry and master of the
royal household.--_Editor._,

Two or three decades of the new sessions passed away without any
thing v