Imperial court forefaw and predicted, has taken place: the time for fpeculating upon poffible difafters is paft; and the imminent dangers with which we are furrounded demand the moft prompt and efficacious measures; unless we wish to renounce at once the welfare of the empire, and abandon again to the ufurpation of the French, the territories and provinces of the empire, from the mouth of the Rhine to its fource.

The prefent war involves in it the fate of our constitution, our religion, and our properties. The Imperial court has more than once reprefented, with energy to its allies and co-eftates of the empire, that a powerful nation, to which all means were alike, which fet at defiance every law of religion and morality, muft inevitably triumph, if other nations did not unite their forces, and prepare themselves to make in time a vigorous resistance.

The Imperial court did not fail to observe, that it could not alone defend the empire. It is not only during this bloody war and the courfe of its fluctuating events, that the Imperial court has fubmitted thefe reflections to the empire; but even before the commencement of a war, which the court of Vienna did every thing to avoid, it did not fail to make known to the ftates which demanded its protection, that the enterprize was full of danger, and that the refources of the houfe of Auftria were limited.

Upon the first explofion of this terrible war, a propofal was made, for putting at least the frontiers in a ftate of defence and fecurity: during the laft interregnum, an affociation, and a strict union of the anterior

circles, proportioned to the danger, were propofed, because these provinces were moft expofed to the devaftation of the enemy; because the refolutions of the whole empire would require time, and the diftant ftates, by means of their complicated forms, would fave themselves as long as poffible from any active cooperation. Although this propofal was generally admitted to be proper as well as conftitutional, yet, through certain formalities, it has failed of its effect.

The house of Auftria was flattered, that after the election of the cmperor, grand and energetic measures would be adopted by the whole empire; but in the mean time, from the above prudent precautions being neglected, thofe provinces were left totally defenceless, when it was found neceflary to remove the body of Imperial troops commanded by count d'Erback; the confequence was, that Mentz fell into the hands of the enemy, a misfortune of which the magnitude may be estimated, when we confider that almost the whole of a fecond campaign was spent in attempts to retake it.

On the declaration of war feveral of the ftates represented the extreme urgency of public affairs, and refolved, that without lofing a fingle moment in preparation, an Imperial army fhould be regularly conftituted. In order to carry this refolution into effect, his Imperial majefty permitted his contingent to join the allied powers. But the want of money equalling this acceffion to their force, it was ag,ced, that the ftates of the empire which could not raife and equip foldiers, fhould furnish their contingents in fpecie, according to a very moderate computation.

The

The Imperial court, with the ftriaeft honour and punctuality and much to its prejudice, has replaced thofe contingents. The circles would have found it inconvenient and oppreffive, if the mode of furnishing their refpective contingents had been adopted which is prefcribed by the decree of 1681. Some ftates have renewed their application for a diminution of their quota in the matricular regifters of the empire; others have urged their inability; and fome of the most active states have withheld their contingents, under the most frivolous of all pretexts, that an Imperial army had

not been formed,

After the victories of the allied army in the circle of Burgundy, victories, purchased by torrents of blood and a profufion of treasure, the king of Pruffia, at the commencement of the prefent campaign, threatened to withdraw his troops, affigning, as a reafon, that he had not a fubfidy for their fupport. In this interval of inactivity the enemy procured reinforcements, and became exceedingly numerous and formidable. Under thefe circumftances the only alternative was to infift upon the inhabitants of the circles to rife in a mafs, and in order to obviate every difficulty, to expedite the organization of the army in a conftitutional manner.

Thus his Imperial majefty has uniformly and invariably acted as became his dignity, and the paternal care which he has always evinced for his fubjects. But the arming of the inhabitants on the frontiers was a measure which proved abortive. Some of the ftates had not fufficient confidence in their fubjects, and others dreaded the expence.

The Imperial army is not com plete at this moment. Two-thirds of the empire are already conquered, and the enemy is triumphant every where. The ftates will not, or fome fay, cannot, contribute, and that is the only pretext by which they evade the contingents of the empire.

This then is the support which the Imperial and royal court has fo much defired of the empire, which it has expected in full confidence of the public tpirit and the love of their country; this is the effect of the prefiing inftances which his Imperial majefiy has generoufly feconded by his own example. All the world knows how much this court has done for the defence of the empire, and for the common cause. At the firft breaking out of the war, he fent to the field a numerous and well-provided army; he abandoned all fecondary views, by not contracting any other engagements than thofe which were judged productive of general utility. The war of the empire being decreed, he, to his own detriment, relieved the fates from the performance of their contingents; at the firft unfavourable blow which affected the empire, his majefty fent speedily to its fuccour the army of the referve from his own hereditary states, and maintained it at his own expence; and thus he employed all the force of his houfe to fave the Germanic body.

The Imperial troops have almoft fingly, and without any affiftance, covered the circle of Suabia, and thus have hindered the enemy from penetrating as far as the frontiers by afcending the Higher Rhine. They have conducted themfelves valiantly in thofe quarters, and had

a great

a great share even in the re-taking of Mentz. Notwithstanding the well-founded immunities of his houfe, his majefty has given in Auftrian Flanders, and in the country of Brifgaw, the firft ufeful example of arming the inhabitants; and, at the first propofition of organizing a feparate army of the empire, he immediately furnished an extraordinary contingent of 37,000 men. This conduct merits confideration the more, in that the other fiates, who take hold of every pretext to refuse their contingents, if they had been in the place of the Imperial court, and poffeffed of fuch an exemption, acknowledged by the emperor and the empire, and folemnly maintained upon every occafion, would have regarded the demand of fuch a fuccour, under the name of a contingent, as an infraction of their rights, as members of the Germanic body.

The putting on foot fuch numerous armies, the great expence of maintaining them with the current coin of the empire, the events of the war which have fucceeded each other with fuch rapidity and changes of fortune, have required immenfe fums, which it was neceflary to fend from the hereditary states into foreign provinces ; and, to fupply this, his majefty has facrificed, with an unexampled generofity, his own revenues, the voluntary fubfidies of his faithful fubjects, and his individual abilities.

To thefe facrifices ought to be added others equally great and diftreffing. His Imperial majefty, befides his numerous contingent, has kept up a confiderable force from Bafle to Philipfbourg, for the general defence of the empire. He has even employed, for the protec

tion of the Germanic body, 20,000 men, as ftipulated in the treaty with his Pruflian majefty, notwithstanding the important fervices which thofe troops might have rendered in defending his own poffeffions in the Low Countries. He ftill undertakes, however, to supply them with bread and forage.

Another facrifice, of no lefs importance, and of greater prejudice to his majesty's hereditary states, is, the Imperial court has not applied to the court of Great Britain, its faithful ally, to oblige the 62,000 Pruffians, fubfidized by the maritime powers, to march into the Low Countries. According to the exprefs terms of the treaty, these troops were at the difpofal of these powers, and to act in fupport of the common cause. They would have been employed to the greatest advantage in the Low Countries, and by co-operating with the allied armies, might have averted the ca lamities which have taken place.

Thele extraordinary efforts; these grievous and irreparable facrifices which have not been feconded with energy and alacrity, can only protract for a fhort period the laft mefancholy blow, which the empire has too much reafon to apprehend, from the conqueft of the provinces on the banks of the Rhine, and on the other fide that river. However, as his majefty's ftates are in fact drained of their men and money, by the favourable, as well as by the adverfe occurrences of this deftruc tive war, the extreme remedy must now be reforted to, in order to prevent the annihilation of our troops, fhould we be inclined ftill to parry off the mortal blow, which threatens the fubverfion of the conftitution and government of Germany.

The

The enemy, availing themselves of the perplexed ftate of public affairs, increase their exertions in all quarters, and feem determined to prevent the defection of the armies, deprefied by a series of fatigue and defeats. Their progrefs has been fo rapid, and their army fo formidable, that the Imperial and royal court will be unavoidably obliged to withdraw its troops, and to itation them within its own frontiers, if the empire does not think proper to oppofe to the irruption of the French an adequate force, and to co-operate with his majefty at this awful and momentous critis. His majesty's folitary efforts would be fruitlefs, if he were to attempt to cover the frontiers from Bafle to Luxembourg; and it cannot be denied, that an army, exhausted by fatigue, without opportunity of recruiting itfelf, receiving affiftance from no one, and at a diftance from home, ought to make an effort to reach their own country, where they would be better furnished with neceffaries, and fupported by the faithful inhabitants of the Imperial and royal ftates. It would appear at leaft equitable to hazard his laft effort in defence of his own dominions, when we have before our eyes the melancholy truth, that, with the most upright and fympathetic intentions, it is impoffible to protect his friends and neighbours.

The fpiritual and temporal communities of the fuperior and lower clafles are ftill poffeffed of treasures which remain untouched, but which might be beneficially applied. The people of property of every defcription have a credit, which they ought to lend to raife great fums of money, to complete that, which the houfe of Auftria, after such an im

menfe influx of money into the em pire, only drawn from its own he reditary dominions, is no longer able to afford by itself.

It is only by fuch an influx of money, that the ftanding armies can be fupplied with what is most ne ceflary for their preservation, that the fortreffes can be put in a proper ftate of defence, and that the maffes, who are to haften to the frontiers, will be fupported.

The undersigned minifter plenipotentiary is charged by the empe ror and king moit folemnly to de clare, in his Imperial majefty's name, that, if the Imperial royal court is abandoned at this decifive crifis, it will not be able to fave the empire; but it will confole itfelf with the idea of having done all that could poffibly be done for the country; and that the Imperial court will be obliged to make it refponfible, before God and to pofterity, for all thofe misfortunes that will then unavoid ably crush the provinces of the Ger manic empire, and for the mifery which may then fpread infections all over Europe, by the propagation of principles of anarchy; nay, the Imperial court will make refponfible thofe who, by neglect, by inactivity, or even by mercenary pri vate views, fhall have omitted con fcientioufly to exert themfelves for the general preservation.

(Signed)

COUNT VON SCHLICK. Done at Frankfort, Aug. 12, 1794,

The emperor iffued an edict, dated the 28th of October, 1794, to the directors of the circles of the em

pire, containing an exhortation to the following effect.

1.THAT

HAT vigorous measures fhould be taken to recruit and increase the army of the empire to triple the number of troops of which it confifted hitherto, which fhall be effected in the fpeedieft manner poffible, that the reinforcements fhould arrive at the army on the 1ft of February next.

2. That all the ftates of the empire, who have already troops upon an established footing, fhould in thefe preffing and dangerous times march them immediately to join the grand Imperial army for the defence of the empire.

3. That his Imperial majefty expects that no ftate will fhew, from individual intereft, or from other falfe principles, any backwardnefs againft contributing to the general defence of the empire. His majefty would never have manifefted any fufpicions refpecting this point, if unfortunately experience had not fhewn him, that from the time the increase of the army had been determined to be of triple the number of the former establishment, that the meafure has not yet been accomplifhed to this day.

His Imperial majefty, however, from the confidence he placed in the princes who are invefted with the directions of the circles, hopes that they will take the most vigorous meafures to enforce the recruiting of the army of the empire.

The circles of the empire having received, early in November, the preceding circular letter from the emperor, relative to the real performance of their contingents for the fupport of the army of the empire.

Count Schlick, the emperor's minifter with the circle of Franconia, alfo prefented a memorial to the affembly of that circle, in fubftance the fame with that prefented to the circle of the Upper Rhine, on the 16th of Auguft; and containing complaints of the enormous extraction of fpecie which has been made from the hereditary states of Auftria for the countries of the empire, and of the fcarcity of money which ne ceflarily refults from this, even for the pay of the Imperial army; be caufe, the circles not having provided either for the fubfiftence of that army, or the regulation of the price of neceffaries, thofe neceffaries either fail entirely, or cannot be procured for the troops under an enor mous price. These circumstances neceffitate the propofition which is the object of this memorial, made in the name of the Imperial court to the circle of Franconia.

"To put the fubfiftence to be furnished by the country into speedy requifition, according to the exifing neceffity.-To accept in return an indemnity, regulated according to the medium price for the laft teu. years; the payment to be made in notes, inftead of money, which it is abfolutely impoffible to furnish at the prefent moment."

The circle of Franconia immediately commenced its deliberations upon this propofition; but, at the fame time, teftified its defire to fce an end to this ruinous and bloody war; in which refpect, it is feconded by the other circles of the empire, particularly that of the Upper Rhine; which, on the 14th of November, fent the ftrongest and moft prefling reprefentations to the emperor and to the king of Pruf

fia,