CHAPTER IV.

THE new legislature, or fourth assembly of the French, enters upon its office.  It is composed of a legislative body of 500 members; of a council of ancients 250; of an executive directory of 5 members; and of 6 ministers, viz. for the interior department, for the war, for justice, for the admiralty, for foreign affairs, and for finances.  The five members of the executive directory are, La Reveillere, le Paux, la Tourneur, Carnot, Rewbell, and Barras; all ex-deputies of the national convention.

Nov.  The legislative body is employed in discussing a
                  decree passed in the last sitting of the
                  convention, which imposed a tax of six milliards on
                  the landed property, and two milliards upon
                  industry. 
                  The criminal tribunal acquits Gen. Menon, suspected
                  of having taken part in the, rebellion of the
                  sections. 
                  The depreciation of assignats is at this time so
                  great, that a pair of shoes costs 300 livres, a
                  yard of cloth 3000, a bushel of potatoes 120, a
                  pound of bread 40, a pound of coffee and of sugar
                  175, a pound of candles and of soap 80 livres each;
                  a louis-d’or is worth 4,600 livres. 
                  The executive directory obtains a grant of three
                  milliards, to be at its discretion distributed
                  among the different offices. 
                  The subsistence of Paris not being assured, it is
                  decreed, that 250 quintals (each 100lbs. weight) be
                  levied on the departments bordering on Paris. 
                  The Cape of Good-Hope is taken by the English. 
                  The trial of Comartin, one of the chiefs of the
                  Chouans, occupies at present the military tribunal,
                  and all Paris. 
                  The republican generals, and many deputies of the
                  convention are implicated in this affair. 
                  A ship full of emigrants, among whom are the Duke
                  de Choiseul and the Count de Montmorency, is driven
                  by a tempest into Calais.  They are given up to the
                  criminal tribunal of that city. 
                  Besides the sum above granted to the executive
                  directory, twenty-one millions more are allowed to
                  them.  Thirty millions more added for the expences
                  of the legislative body.
             23.  Public and formal audiences are given by the
                  executive directory to foreign ambassadors. 
                  Insurrection