L'Assignat - de Mandat Territorial

Inflation continues to bedevil the efforts of the Directory to establish a stable government. Still very wary of insurrection, the Directors have had to give in to popular demands and suspended their intention to stop issuing free bread and meat to the poor. They have resisted demands for price controls put forward by supporters of the "peoples tribune" Gracchus Babeuf whose ideas for a popular insurrection, and equality, have raised fears of an attempted return by the Jacobins. Efforts to arrest Babeuf have been fruitless as he seems able to attract crowds of supporters wherever he goes.

Whilst unable to agree on how to stop inflation - the value of 100 francs in 1791, is now down to 15 sous, the Directors have courted temporary popularity by ceremoniously burning the plates used to print the Assignat in Piques Square. The replacement for the assignat is to be known as the Mandat Territorial, but its appearance is surprisingly similar to the old currency.

La Mort de Charette.

Deserted by the Comte D'Artois, Vendean leaders Stofflet and Charette knew that time was against them as the pacification measures put in place by General Hoche are working and the local peasants are no longer rallying to the rebel banners. Setting out for one last effort, Stofflet asked his followers to gather near Jallais, but no more than two days later he was betrayed at the Poiteviniere farm, and arrested. Taken to Angers by Republican troops he was immediately tried and shot, Ventose 6. His inability to work with Charette proved his undoing. One month later it was the turn of Charette. Pursued by troops of the Adjutant

General Travot, he was captured in the wood of La Chabotterie, and taken to Nantes were he was imprisoned.

The final end for Charette came, Germinal 9 (29th March) at the Place des Agriculteurs in Nantes (now Place Viarmes). That he would be found guilty was not in doubt, but this man, the last leader of the great Vendeen rebellion, has engendered great respect amongst his foes as well as the handful of supporters who remained faithful to him to the end. Before he was shot by soldiers from the batallion of Chasseurs who had captured him he declared " Ajustez bien, c'est la qu'il faut frapper un brave."

La petite verole!

My good friend in England, Dr Hammond-Brown, has told me of some peculiar experiments being conducted by a colleague of his Dr Jenner. He has apparently noticed that patients of his who had caught a mild pox from cows, seemed to be immune from the dreaded smallpox which has afflicted our towns and cities so terribly and for so long. His idea seems to be to inject cowpox pus into his patients to stop them catching the more virulent disease. My only thought is that I am grateful he is experimenting in this way on Englishmen !

Nouvelles victoires de Bonaparte.

General Bonaparte continues to dominate the headlines of our Parisian journals. He had lobbied the Directors with his plans for an offensive in Piedmont much to the annoyance of General Scherer, who spluttered out in response "let him who conceived it, come and carry it out." I suspect that the Directors feared Bonaparte's presence so close to Paris, for their response was to appoint him Commanding General of the Army of Italy. Barras had a wry smile before the General left to join his command as he stopped to marry the Director's former mistress, and widow of General Beauharnais, Marie Josephine Rose Tascher de la Pagerie.

Whilst they may have been glad to see Bonaparte away from Paris, the Directors are now toasting him loudly as news is coming in of a series of victories. Apparently taking advantage of Generals Beaulieu, and Colli having divided their forces, Bonaparte struck between them and fought a series of battles at Montenotte, Dego, and Mondovi which have forced Piedmont to retire form the war. We have now heard that Bonaparte, not content to rest on his laurels, is pursuing the retiring Austrian forces relentlessly and by forcing the bridge at Lodi has secured a position from which to threaten the whole of northern Italy.

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