on which was
shown to the king's ministers here, on account of that transaction.

Notwithstanding all this, it seems a hope is still entertained that the
Directory will have that tenderness for the carcass of their country, by
whose very distemper, and on whose festering wounds, like vermin, they
are fed, that these pious patriots will of themselves come into a more
moderate and reasonable way of thinking and acting. In the name of
wonder, what has inspired our ministry with this hope any more than with
their former expectations?

Do these hopes only arise from continual disappointment? Do they grow
out of the usual grounds of despair? What is there to encourage them, in
the conduct or even in the declarations of the ruling powers in France,
from the first formation of their mischievous republic to the hour in
which I write? Is not the Directory composed of the same junto? Are they
not the identical men who, from the base and sordid vices which belonged
to their original place and situation, aspired to the dignity of
crimes,--and from the dirtiest, lowest, most fraudulent, and most
knavish of chicaners, ascended in the scale of robbery, sacrilege, and
assassination in all its forms, till at last they had imbrued their
impious hands in the blood of their sovereign? Is it from these men that
we are to hope for this paternal tenderness to their country, and this
sacred regard for the peace and happiness of all nations?

But it seems there is still another lurking hope, akin to that which
duped us so egregiously before, when our delightful basis was accepted:
we still flatter ourselves that the public voice of France will compel
this Directory to more moderation. Whence does this hope arise? What
public voice is there in France? There are, indeed, some writers, who,
since this monster of a Directory has obtained a great, regular,
military force to guard them, are indulged in a sufficient liberty of
writing; and some of them write well, undoubtedly. But the world knows
that in France there is no public,--that the country is composed but of
two descriptions, audacious tyrants and trembling slaves. The contests
between the tyrants is the only vital principle that can be discerned in
France. The only thing which there appears like spirit is amongst their
late associates, and fastest friends of the Directory,--the more furious
and untamable part of the Jacobins. This discontented member of the
faction does almost balance the r