Since 1791, the elections, violated and deserted, had brought intruders only to the legislative benches, under the name of mandatories.

These were endured for lack of better; but nobody had any confidence in them, and nobody showed them any deference.

People knew how they had been elected and how little their title was worth.

Through inertness, fear, or disgust, the great majority of electors had not voted, while the voters at the polls fought among themselves, the strongest or least scrupulous expelling or constraining the rest.

During the last three years of the Directory the electoral assembly was often divided; each faction elected its own deputy and protested against the election of the other.