Pichegru, on returning to France, became a member of the Council of Five Hundred, and (the royalist party having at this season recovered all but a preponderance) was, on the meeting of the chambers, called to the chair of that in which he had his place.
The Five Directors had in truth done everything to undermine their own authority.

They were known to be divided in opinion among themselves; three only of their number adhered heartily to the existing constitution: one was a royalist: another was a democrat of the Robespierre school.

One of these new and uncourtly men excited laughter by affecting a princely state and splendour of demeanour and equipage.
Another disgusted one set of minds, and annoyed all the rest, by procuring a law for the observation of the tenth day as the day of repose, and declaring it a crime to shut up shops on the Sabbath.

A ridiculous ritual of an avowedly heathen worship followed, and was received with partial horror, universal contempt.

A tyrannical law about the equalisation of weights and measures spread confusion through all mercantile transactions, and was especially unpopular in the provinces.
A contemptible riot, set on foot by one who called himself Gracchus Barboeuf, for the purpose of bringing back the reign of _terrorism_ was indeed suppressed; but the mere occurrence of such an attempt recalled too vividly the days of Robespierre, and by so doing tended to strengthen the cause of the royalists in public opinion.