Directory

Directory, a name applied to a board of guardians over any commercial, industrial, or scientific enterprise. Historically the name refers to the body of five men—Lépeaux, Letourneur, Rewbell, Barras, and Carnot—to whom the executive was intrusted in France after the downfall of the Terrorists, 26th October 1795 (5th Brumaire III.), and which lasted till the 9th November 1799 (18th Brumaire VIII.). Its corruption and incompetence made government impossible, and it was overturned by the Abbé Sièyes and Bonaparte, who established in its stead the consulate, soon itself to fall before the imperial ambition of Napoleon.