Talk:French Directory

Neutrality

This article contains many statements of questionable neutrality. Just a sample:

"In all these countries, they organised such an effective pillage that the French became universally hated.

As the armies were far below the strength required by the policy of unbounded conquest and rapine, the first permanent law of conscription was passed in the summer of 1798. The attempt to enforce it caused a revolt of the peasants in the Belgian departments. The priests were held responsible and some eight thousand were condemned to deportation en masse, although the much greater part escaped by the goodwill of the people. Few soldiers were obtained by the conscription, for the government was as weak as it was tyrannical."

"The French lacked any real political freedom, yet also lacked the ease or security which enlightened despotism can bestow. The Terrorists lifted their heads in the Council of Five Hundred. A Law of Hostages, which was really a new Law of Suspects, and a progressive income tax showed the temper of the majority. The Jacobin Club re-opened and became once more the focus of disorder."

At the very least, the article should be edited for neutrality. It would be good to include more sources and replace the many judgments of the Directory here with researched facts. -Thucydides411 (talk) 19:08, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

Old talk page post

Where does this text come from? It does not seem to be on the indicated website http://1911encyclopedia.org

Try #11 and then #179 here [1]. It is from the 1911 Britannica. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.173.30.157 (talk • contribs) 13 September 2006.

The directoire does not preceed the empire; it preceeds the consulate.

Recent move

I have now (basically) fixed a cut-and-paste move and restored the history of this article. As usual, there are a few glitches: a few "redirect" states show up as part of the history of the article.

But, on top of that, I think the move was ill-advised. This is particularly so because French Directory was part of an article series about the French Revolutionary era, and was not just about the institution itself but about a period in French history that is usually referred to (after that institution) as the Directory or (in French) Directoire.

I would like to put the French Directory material back at French Directory. We can have a separate page Italian Directories, and can add disambiguations as needed.

If we decide to leave things as they now are, there are a bunch of double-redirects that will need to be fixed. But, please, no one start on that until we actually have consensus. I will certainly not do anything precipitous in the next 48 hours, and hope that others will not, either. -- Jmabel | Talk 03:06, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

I think the directoire is interesting more as an era (thus specific to France) than as a political system (whether or not there were other directories). Thus I think it should stay at French Directory. David.Monniaux 08:20, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

Since no one is speaking up to the contrary, I will do this. -- Jmabel | Talk 20:32, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

Date Discrepancy

"The Thermidorian Convention continued until October 26, 1795 (4 Brumaire Year IV), when the National Convention was succeeded by the French Directory." - (Under subtitle: End of Reaction) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermidorian_Reaction "Executive Directory (in French Directoire exécutif), commonly known as the Directory (or Directoire) held executive power in France from November 2, 1795 until November 10, 1799" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Directory

As one can see there are two different dates for the beginning of the Directory. Which one is the correct date? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.25.116.145 (talk • contribs) 7 April 2006

I'm not certain, but I believe there was a gap. There had been an even larger (and very chaotic) gap between the Legislative Assembly and the Convention. - Jmabel | Talk 01:17, 13 April 2006 (UTC)

A pretty reasonable gap, I'd say. The Convention voted the new constitution in on 4 Brumaire, and then disbanded. A list of the 376 deputies re-elected earlier in the month was constructed on 6 Brumaire. That leaves the Directory opening for business on 11 Brumaire (2nd Nov) I don't know what importance the traditional days of the week had under the new calendar, but 10 Brumaire was a Sunday, so that left basically five or six days to get almost 500 men organised in a different building, with a different organisation, &c. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 203.173.30.157 (talk • contribs) 13 September 2006.