3. The End of the Convention. The Beginnings of the
Directory.
At the end of its existence, the Convention, always trusting
to the power of formulæ, drafted a new Constitution, that
of the year III., intended to replace that of 1793, which had
never been put into execution. The legislative power was to be
shared by a so-called Council of Ancients composed of 150
members, and a council of deputies numbering 500. The executive
power was confided to a Directory of five members, who were
appointed by the Ancients upon nomination by the Five Hundred,
and renewed every year by the election of one of their number.
It was specified that two-thirds of the members of the new
Assembly should be chosen from among the deputies of the
Convention. This prudent measure was not very efficacious, as
only ten departments remained faithful to the Jacobins.
To avoid the election of royalists, the Convention had
decided to banish all emigrés in perpetuity.
The announcement of this Constitution did not produce the
anticipated effect upon the public. It had no effect upon the
popular riots, which continued. One of the most important was
that which threatened the Convention on the 5th of October, 1795.
The
leaders hurled a veritable army upon the Assembly. Before such
provocation, the Convention finally decided to defend itself, and
sent for troops, entrusting the command to Barras.
Bonaparte, who was then beginning to emerge from
obscurity, was entrusted with the task of repression. With such
a leader action was swift and energetic. Vigorously pounded with
ball near the church at St. Roch, the insurgents fled, leaving
some hundreds of dead on the spot.
This action, which displayed a firmness to which the
Convention was little habituated, was only due to the celerity of
the military operations, for while these were being carried out
the insurgents had sent delegates to the Assembly, which, as
usual, showed itself quite ready to yield to them.
The repression of this riot constituted the last important
act of the Convention. On the 26th of October, 1795, it declared
its mission terminated, and gave way to the Directory.
We have already laid stress upon some of the psychological
lessons furnished by the government of the Convention. One of
the most striking of these is the impotence of violence to
dominate men's minds in permanence.
Never did any Government possess such formidable means of
action, yet in spite of the permanent guillotine, despite the
delegates sent with the guillotine into the provinces, despite
its Draconian laws, the Convention had to struggle perpetually
against riots, insurrections, and conspiracies. The cities, the
departments, and the faubourgs of Paris were continually
rising in revolt, although heads were falling by the thousand.
This Assembly, which thought itself sovereign, fought against the
invincible forces which were fixed in men's minds, and which
material constraint was powerless to overcome. Of these hidden
motive forces it never understood the power, and it struggled
against them in vain. In the end the invisible forces triumphed.
