Directory

Directory, in French history. After the fall of Robespierre and the Committee of Public Safety, the more moderate party adopted "the constitution of the year III." By this the Legislature was to consist of a "Council of Five Hundred," who prepared the laws, and a "Council of Ancients," who sanctioned them. The former presented a list from which the latter chose five members, who were appointed directors, and in whom was vested the supreme executive power, and the appointment of ministers, and other officers of state. One Director was to retire annually. The Directory, consisting of Lareevelliere-Lepeaux, Rewbel, Carnot, Letourneur, and Barras, came into office on October 28, 1795. It was a bourgeois government, with a vigorous foreign policy, unpopular alike with Royalists and advanced Republicans, and to some extent chargeable with corruption. Hence it was almost destroyed by a Royalist movement in 1797, and was finally overthrown by Bonaparte's Coup d'etat of 18 Brumaire, November 9, 1799, when it gave place to the Consulate.