kingdom is fhut; more than 50,000 municipalities, or adminiftrative bodies, have a right to arreft, and actually caufe to be arrested, in an arbitrary manner, peaceful and innocent citizens. There is not a member of the ufurping affembly, who cannot by an order from his hand, by a mere word, caufe to be put in irons, as was the cafe at Befor*, and other parts of France, ftrangers flying from the melancholy fpectacle of a people in a ftate of anarchy; and the affembly itfelf. accufer, witnefs, party, judge, and executioner, crowds daily into prifon, as its caprice directs, every perfon who difpleafes or oppofes it. No-the French nation is not stained with the crimes of which it is itself the victim. It knows that unbridled liberty is a general evil, and that liberty without happinefs is a benefit to no one. It was always free; it is worthy of being, and still will be, free; but it will always be fubject to the empire of laws which promoted its happiness and glory for fo many ages; and by restoring its lawful fovereign, a fovereign worthy of its love and confidence, their imperial and royal majefties will do an equal fervice to the fovereign and to his fubjects. As this is the fole object of their wifhes, the only motive which has induced them to take up arms, they will caufe their armies to protect all the faithful fubjects of his moft christian majefty, who fhall give an example of obedience; and all good Frenchmen who, in the departments, diftricts, and municipalities, fhall concur in re-establishing the authority of the king, as well as public order, fhall know no other enemies than the enemies of their king and country, and thofe factious men, who, with arms in their hands, wifh ftill to fupport the cause of revolt. God forbid that their imperial and royal majefties fhould have any intention to employ their forces to introduce defpotifm into France, tó ferve the caufe of private hatred or vengeance, which the honour of Frenchmen ought to facrifice to the public good, or to facilitate an odious bankruptcy to the prejudice of the lawful creditors of the state. There is no reafon for apprehending any evils of that nature. The candour and probity of his moft chriftian majefty will fecure his fubjects; but they have not a moment to lofe in choofing between popular tyranny, and laws which will gratify the general wishes; between obedience and revolt; between the oblivion of errors, and the punishment of unpardonable refiftance. They have it in their own power to regulate their deftiny: the deftiny of France is in their hands: they alone can decide whether it fhall still be a flourishing monarchy, or an immense defert. In fhort, their imperial and royal majefties cannot better recall the French to their duty, to the laws of humanity, and to thofe of honour, which were formerly fo dear to them, and to their ancient love for their king, than by bringing to their remembrance the laft words of the proteft of his moft chriftian majefty, made on the 20th of June, 1791: "Frenchmen! and you Parifians above all, beware of giving credit to the fuggeftions and calumnies of your falfe friends; return to your All Europe must have learned, with horror, the inhuman treatment which mifs Nafh, an English lady, experienced at Orchies, in Flanders, from the troops of the line, though the had a passport from marshal Luckner. - 1792. (I) king; king; he will always be your father, your best friend. What pleafure it will give him to forget all the perfonal injuries he has fuffered, and to fee himself in the midft of you; when religion fhall be refpected, and government established on a ftable bafis; when the property and perfons of individuals hall be no longer molefted; when the law fhall not be infringed with impunity, and, in fhort, when liberty fhall be placed on a folid and lafting foundation." III. Of the Revolution as it refpects foreign Princes, who have Poff fions in France. Confidered under the third point of view, the French revolution, fo fatal to France, becomes ftill more fo by the violence and intolerable injuftice offered to foreign princes, who have poffeffions within the territories of the kingdom, and by the rigorous means which must neceffarily be employed to do them juf tice. Avignon belonged to the holy fee. The fovereignty of the pope over this domain was founded on an incontrovertible title of acquifition, and on poffeffion, which among all nations is equal to a title. The ufurping affembly united it to their territories by the fanguinary right of utility and neceffity; and compounding afterward with themfelves, and with juftice, they offered an indemnity to the holy fee. But if the fovereignty of the pope were legal, they had no right to deprive him of it; and if they had a right to deprive him of it, why did they offer him an indemnification? The prince bishop of Bafle, a ftate of the empire, poffeffes in his fovereignty defiles, which tempted the ambition of the national affem bly. It caufed them to be forcibly feized, and removed a detachment of troops, which the emperor had fent thither, on the requifition of the bifhop, for the fafety of the country, agreeably to the Germanic conftitution. The treaties of Weftphalia, the Pyrer ees, Breda, Aixla-Chapelle, Nimeguen, Ryfwick, Utrecht, Baden, and Vienna, gave to France the provinces of the three bishoprics, and of Alface and Franche Compté, by exprefly referving the rights and property of the princes and ftates of the empire in thefe provinces, and by ftipulating that no innovation could be made in them, either with regard to ecclefiaftical or political matters. It is evident that these treaties cannot be infringed at the will of the ufurping affembly, and that by calling for the execution of those claufes which ferve their views, they have no right to reject those that difpleafe them. It is perfectly clear that they ought to renounce provinces which have been ceded to the crown of France, or punctually execute the condition of the ceffion made to it. But their decrees refpecting the difmemberment of diocefes, and of the right of metropolitans, the abolition of feudality, the fuppreffion of feveral privileges, or the annihilation of territorial jurifdiction, without indemnification, and the fale of the poffeffions of the clergy, are a direct infringement of the treaty of Weftphalia, as well as of fubfequent treaties. Thefe decrees have violated political and ecclefiaftical rights fecured in perpetuity by the treaties of ceffion. Thefe ceffions, confequently, which are fynallagmatic acts, which must be executed in all their parts, or rejected in toto, being infringed by the ufurping affembly, would be at pre fent annulled, were not the proceedings of the affembly radically null themfelves, and if it were not neceffary that their decrees fhould difappear before the grand intereft which France has in being juft, in not violating the facred rights of the empire, and in not wound ing the dignity of any of its members. But their imperial and royal majefties are fully perfuaded, that the firt ufe which his most chriftian majefty will make of this authority when he has recovered it, will be to restore to the injured princes all their rights and privileges, to indemnify them for what they may have fuffered in refpect to degradation, or being deprived of their privileges, and to cement more and more by this act of juftice, the harmony which has for a long time fubfifted between the Germanic body and his moft chriftian majefty. The injury offered to the German princes, who have poffeffions in France, is not confidered as a reafon for making war on his moft chriftian majefty, but for placing him upon the throne, in order to obtain justice. IV. On the Revolution, as it concerns all Nations. But the most general point of view under which their imperial and royal majefties ought to confider the French revolution, is, as it refpects the intereft of all nations, and the tranquillity of Europe. In vain would the affembly, which ufurps the name of the French nation, have renounced conqueft, if it wifhed to fubject to its pretended liberty the ftates of their neighbours. Of all the methods of making war on a peaceful, vittuous, and happy people, the most fatal, doubtlefs, would be to preach up rebellion, to mislead their minds, to corrupt their morals, to form them to crimes by example and feduction, and to draw down upon them the wrath of heaven and punishment from their fovereigns, under the pretence of rendering them happy. The ambition of a conqueror has its bounds, and his views when known, ceafe to be dangerous; but a planned fyftem of anarchy, which tends to diffolve all political fociety, abounds with inexpreffible danger; and all fovereigns, for the intereft of their fubjects, cannot ufe too much expedition to check its progrefs, and to stifle the evil in its birth. People would pay too dearly for the fatal error of believing that their interefts can be feparated from thofe of their fovereigns. It is, therefore, neceflary to deftroy this error as foon as poffible, and to chaftife, as foon as they appear, thofe factious men, who confpire against the happinefs of all countries. Had any doubts existed in this refpect, they would have been already removed by the attack and invafion of the Low Countries; by the plan of the ufurping aflembly, divulged by the popular minifter, of fpreading every where the flames of revolt; a barbarous maxim, which attefts views of cowardly ambition, and which is an infult to all nations, and a fignal of alarm to all kings. Befides, a numerous and powerful nation cannot disappear from the political hemifphere of Europe without the greateft inconvenience. The balance of power among fovereigns, the work of their wifdom, purchafed by their treafures and the blood of their fubjects, which regulates the ambition. of one by the interest of all; which maintains harmony amid contend(I 2) ing ing paffions and jarring interefts; and which almost always terminates by well-conducted negotiation, fuch difputes as may have excited bloody wars, requires, for the general intereft of Europe, that fo confiderable a state as France fhould not be diffolved or withdrawn from its political engagements; and yet this would be the cafe, fhould the prefent revolution be eftablifhed. The decrees which have deprived the king of the right of making peace and war, have at once diffolved all those treaties which connected his moft chriftian majefty with all the neighbouring princes. The revolution gives to the ufurping affembly the right of renouncing fuch treaties as are contrary to its views, while it takes from his majefty the means of fupporting those which might be beneficial to him. According to thefe principles, it has no more political ties than thofe which it chooses to approve, and it is confequently not bound to any of its allies, though all are obliged to be faithful to it. Thus the king without power, and the nation with out an army, or what amounts to the fame thing, having no army properly difciplined, and fubject to authority, exhibit to their neighbours, and, above all, to their allies, nothing but the fhadow of power. The tranquillity of Europe, how ever, depends abfolutely on the execution of the treaties now fubfifting between the different fovereigns; and thofe treaties themselves depend on the ftability of the conftitution of those states which contradict them. The difplacing, and much more the annihilation of the counterpoife of the political balance, would tend then to disturb the peace of Europe, and to revive ancient difputes and pretenfions, now fettled, the difcuffion of which, again renewed, would occafion the lofs of much blood, and excite the tears and regrets of humanity. It belongs to the wifdom of fovereigns to avert fuch dreadful misfortunes; and it is with this view that their imperial and royal majefties think themfelves obliged, for the general tranquillity and fafety, and for the individual happiness of their refpective fubjects, as much as for the real intereft of France itself, to have recourfe to arms, in order to prevent the annihilation of the French monarchy, and to destroy there every fpark of infurrection, which might continually threaten and endanger the welfare of all sovereigns, and of all nations. But yielding to what the honour of all crowns and the real interest of all people require, their majesties declare to Europe, that, in the just war which they have undertaken, they entertain no views of perfonal aggrandizement, which they exprefsly renounce; and to France, that they mean not to interfere with its internal administration, but that they are firmly and fully refolved, To re-establish in it order and public fecurity; To cause the perfons and property of all thofe who fhall fubmit to the king, their lawful fovereign, to be protected; To punish, in a striking manner, all refiftance to their arms; To give up the city of Paris to the moft dreadful and terrible justice, from which nothing can fave it, as well as all the other cities which may render themselves its accomplices, if the leaft infult, or the leaft outrage, is offered to the king, the queen, or the royal family; Decree of March 22d, 1792. and and if that city does not endeavour to expiate its errors, and to merit the interpofition and good offices of their imperial and royal majefties, to obtain pardon, by immediately reftoring liberty, and paying every due honour and refpect to their most christian majesties : In fhort, to procure to the king perfect fecurity in fome frontier town of his kingdom, and the means of collecting there his family, and the princes his brothers, until his moft chriftian majefty can enter his capital with honour, and enjoy there the fatisfaction of feeing his fubjects repent; of conferring new favours upon them; of granting them real liberty; and, confequently, of finding them fubmiffive to his fupreme authority. Declaration of the reigning Duke of Brunfwick Lunenburgh, Commander of the combined Armies of the Emperor and the King of Pruffia, to the Inhabitants of France. Their majefties the emperor and the king of Pruffia, having entrusted me with the command of the combined armies, affembled on the frontiers of France, I think it my duty to inform the inhabitants of that kingdom of the motives which have influenced the conduct of the two fovereigns, and of the principles by which they are guided. After arbitrarily fuppreffing the rights, and invading the poffeffions, of the German princes in Alface and Lorrain; after having difturbed and overthrown in the interior part of the kingdom all order and law. ful government; after having been guilty of the most daring attacks, and having had recourfe to the most violent measures, which are still daily renewed against the facred 9 perfon of the king, and against his auguft family; thofe who have seized on the reins of government have, at length, filled the measure of their guilt, by declaring an unjuft war against his majefty the emperor, and by invading his provinces of the Low Countries. Some of the poffeffions belonging to the German empire have been equally expofed to the fame oppreffion, and many others have only avoided the dan ger by yielding to the imperious threats of the domineering party and of their emiffaries. His majefty the king of Pruffia, united with his imperial majefty in the bands of the ftricteft defenfive alliance, and as a preponderant member himself of the Germanic body, could not refuse marching to. the affiftance of his ally and of his co-eftates. It is under this double fence of that monarch and of Gerrelation, that he undertakes the de many. To thefe high interefts is added another important object, and which both the fovereigns have most cordially in view; which is, to put an end to that anarchy which prevails in the interior parts of France, to put a stop to the attacks made on the throne and the altar, to restore the king to his legitimate power, to liberty, and to fafety, of which he is now deprived, and to place him in fuch a fituation, that he may exercife that legitimate authority to which he is entitled. Convinced that the fober part of the nation deteft the excesses of a faction which has enflaved them, and that the majority of the inhabitants wait with impatience the moment when fuccours fhall arrive, to declare themfelves openly against the odious enterprizes of their oppreffors; his majefty the emperor, and his majefty the king of Pruffia, (I 3) ear |