law, within the space of fifteen days, shall be excepted from the penalties pronounced by this decree.

12. The confiscations ordered by the preceding articles shall be turned into the public Treasury, after the indemnity due to a citizen injured by the non-execution or violation of a law has been deducted.

46. Decree upon Slavery.

February 4, 1794 (16 Pluviôse, Year II). Duvergier, Lois, VII, 30.

Of recent years historians have come to see that the work of the assemblies of the Revolution was much less the result of attachment to abstract principles than was formerly supposed. Nevertheless, much of their legislation was prompted by what is vaguely called the revolutionary spirit. A prominent feature of that spirit was its passionate enthusiasm for the extension of human liberty. This decree is typical of many passed by the Convention at the prompting of that enthusiasm. Its immediate effects were unquestionably disastrous.

REFERENCE. Stephens, French Revolution, II, 468-471.

The National Convention declares that negro slavery in all the colonies is abolished; in consequence, it decrees that all men, without distinction of color, who are domiciled in the colonies are French citizens and shall enjoy all the rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

It sends again to the committee of public safety to prepare for it immediately a report upon the measures to be taken in order to assure the execution of the present decree.

47. Decree upon Assignats.

May 10, 1794 (21 Floréal, Year II). Duvergier, Lois, VII, 162.

This is a sort of organic law upon assignats co-ordinating and amending much earlier legislation on the subject. From it can be made up a tolerably complete list of the actions in relation to assignats which were regarded as crimes. The penalties, for which it refers to previous decrees, were exceptionally severe. In many cases the penalty was death.

REFERENCE.

Lavisse and Rambaud, Histoire Generale, VIII,

631-632, for some data in concise form upon the amount of assignats issued and their value at different dates.

I. The provisions of the decrees of 7 and 30 Frimaire and 14 Germinal relative to those accused of embezzlement of national lands, of tampering [with assignats], of the manufacture, distribution or introduction of false assignats or false money, shall likewise regulate the method of procedure against persons accused of having sold or purchased coin; of having agreed upon or proposed different prices according to payment in coin or in assignats; of having pronounced discourses tending to discredit the assignats; of having refused assignats in payment; of having given or received them at any loss whatever, or of having demanded, before concluding or even entering upon a bargain, in what money the payment shall be effected.

5. The above provisions shall be observed even with regard to those accused of offences previous to the publication of the present decree who shall not yet have been definitively tried.

6. Articles 2 and 3 of the decree of April 11, 1793, shall continue to be executed against those who shall be convicted of having sold or purchased coin, or having given or sold assignats at any loss whatever, of having agreed upon or proposed different prices according to payment in coin or assignats, of having demanded, before concluding or even entering upon a bargain, in what money the payment may be effected.

7. The penalty provided by the decree of August 1, 1793, in restraint of those who refuse assignats in payment shall continue; and nobody within the extent of the territory of the Republic can shelter himself in this under the allegation that he is not a Frenchman.

8. Every discourse tending to discredit the assignats shall likewise be punished in the same way.

9. In conformity with article 4 of the decree of September 5, 1793, there shall be occasion for the death penalty and for confiscation of goods, whenever the offences mentioned in the three preceding articles shall have been committed with the intention of assisting the undertakings of the internal or external enemies of the Republic.

48. Treaties with Prussia.

Through the first of these agreements Prussia withdrew from the coalition against France. Document B is the complement of document A. Particular attention should be given to the arrangeinents in regard to the territory upon the left bank of the Rhine, the compensation for the dispossessed princes and the neutrality line in Germany.

REFERENCES. Gardiner, French Revolution, 238-241; Fyffe, Modern Europe, I, 95-98 (Students' ed., 64-66); Von Sybel, French Revolution, IV, Book XI, Ch. 1; Lavisse and Rambaud, Histoire Generale, VIII, 301-305: Sorel, L'Europe et la Revolution Fran caise, IV, 281-292.

MAPS. Droysen, Historischer Hand-Atlas, 48; Lane-Poole, Historical Atlas of Modern Europe, XI-XII; Vidal-Lablache, Atlas General, 40.

A. Treaty of Basle. April 5, 1795 (16 Germinal, Year III). De Clercq, Traites, I, 232-236.

The French Republic and His Majesty, the King of Prussia, equally prompted by the desire to put an end to the war which divides them, by a firm peace between the two nations,

I. There shall be peace, amity, and good understanding between the French Republic and the King of Prussia, considered as such and in the capacity of Elector of Brandenburg and of Co-State of the Germanic Empire.

2. Accordingly, all hostilities between the two Contracting Powers shall cease, dating from the ratification of the present treaty; and neither of them, dating from the same time, shall furnish against the other, in any capacity or by any title whatsoever, any assistance or contingent, whether in men, in horses, provisions, money, munitions of war, or otherwise.

3. Neither of the Contracting Powers shall grant passage over its territory to troops of the enemies of the other.

4. The troops of the French Republic shall evacuate, within the fifteen days which follow the ratification of the present treaty, the parts of the Prussian States which they may occupy upon the right bank of the Rhine.

5. The troops of the French Republic shall continue to occupy the part of the States of the King of Prussia situated upon the left bank of the Rhine. All definitive arrangement

with respect to these provinces shall be put off until the general pacification between France and the German Empire.

II. The French Republic shall accept the good offices of His Majesty the King of Prussia in favor of the Princes and States of the Germanic Empire who shall desire to enter directly into negotiation with it, and who, for that purpose, have already requested or shall yet request the intervention of the King. The French Republic, in order to give to the King of Prussia a signal proof of its desire to co-operate for the re-establishment of the former bonds of amity which have existed between the two countries, consents not to treat as hostile countries, during the space of three months after the ratification of the present treaty, those of the Princes and States of the said Emipre situated upon the right bank of the Rhine and in favor of whom the King shall interest himself.

SEPARATE AND SECRET ARTICLES.

2. If, at the general pacification between the Germanic Empire and France, the left bank of the Rhine remains with France, His Majesty the King of Prussia will come to an agreement with the French Republic upon the method of the cession of the Prussian States situated upon the left bank of this river, in exchange for such territorial indemnification as shall be agreed upon. In this case the King shall accept the guarantee which the Republic offers him for this indemnification.

3. In order to remove the theatre of war from the frontiers of the States of the King of Prussia, to preserve the tranquility of the north of Germany, and to establish entire freedom of commerce between that part of the Empire and France as before the war, the French Republic consents not to extend the operations of war, nor to cause its troops to enter, either by land or sea, into the Countries and States situated beyond the following line of demarcation:

[For this line see Putzger, Historischer Schul-Atlas, 24] The French Republic will regard as neutral Countries and States all those which are situated beyond this line, on condition that His Majesty, the King of Prussia, undertakes to cause them to observe a strict neutrality, of which the first point shall be to recall their contingents and not to contract any new engagements which can authorise them to furnish troops to the Powers at war with France. The King charges himself with the guarantee that no troops hostile to France shall pass this line, nor set out from the countries which are here included, in order to fight the French armies; and for this purpose the two Contracting Powers, after having planned together, shall agree upon the essential points for sufficient corps of observation to cause this neutrality to be respected.

5. The French Republic, desiring to contribute in everything that depends upon it to the emancipation and well being of Prussia, with which it recognizes that it has a large identity of interests, consents in case France, at the future peace with the Germanic Empire, shall extend its limits to the Rhine and shall thus remain in possession of the States of the Duc de Deux Ponts, to charge itself with the guarantee of the sum of 1,500,000 rixdalers loaned by the King to the Prince, after the indentures of this debt shall have been produced and its authenticity established.

B. Secret Convention. August 5, 1796 (18 Thermidor, Year IV). De Clercq, Traites, I, 281-283.

The French Republic and His Majesty the King of Prussia, prompted by an equal desire to see the baneful war which afflicts Europe cease shortly, and flattering themselves that the accomplishment of this salutary desire cannot be far distant, have believed that they ought in advance to enter into amicable communications upon several matters relative to this pacification, which they hope is approaching.

1. The intention of the two Contracting Powers being, first of all, to agree upon a territorial indemnification for the loss of the Prussian provinces upon the left bank of the Rhine,