DIRECTORY (Fr. directoirc, from Lat. di netorius, serving to direct, fruit Lat. dirigere, to direct). The name given to the executive Gov ernment in France from October S. 1795, to November 9, 1799. Alter the overthrow of the ultra-Jacobins, the moderate Republicans pro mulgated a new constitution, that of the year Ill.. which provided for a legislative body of two councils. The Council of Five Hundred was to propose the laws, the Council of Ancients was to pass on them. As executive bead, five members, chosen from both bodies, were to act. The first five Directors chosen were Barras, Carnot, Rew hell. LarC-veillere-Lkpatix, and Letourneur. Each was to preside for three months at a time. and one had to retire every year. Though the for On policy of the Directory was successful at first, its management of home was cor rupt and incompetent in the extreme. The mem 'iers formed factions, and Barras, with his asso ciates Larilveillere and Rewbell, succeeded in ousting the other two Directors, Carnot and Bar thelemy, who had succeeded Letourneur, by the coup d'i.tat of 1Sth Fructidor (September 4,
1797). At the end of that year the Directory consisted of Barras, Ducos. Gohier, and the Siiyes; but the last of these had begun to plot against the Constitution, and the military disasters of 1799 furnished a pretext for its over throw br the coup (EMat of the 1Sth Brumaire I November 9. 1799.1, which resulted in the estab lishment of the Consulate (q.v.), with 'Napoleon as First Consul. Consult: Granier de Cassa gmac, Histoire du Di•cetoire (3 vols.. Paris. F(1:1) Barante. Histoire du. Directoirc (3 vols., Pari-. ; Pierre. La Tcrrcur sous le Dirce toire ( Paris, 1 SS7 ). See FRANCE.