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force, of which the may become the temporary depoûtary, fhall not be employed but to fecure their tranquillity, and maintain their laws. Proud of having regained the rights of nature, fhe will never outrage them in other men. Jealous of her independence, determined to bury herfelf in her own ruins, rather than fuffer laws to be taken from her, or dictated to her, or even an infulting guarantee of thofe fhe has framed for herfelf; the will never infringe the independence of other nations. Her foldiers will behave on a foreign territory as they would on their own, if forced to combat on it. The da mages which her troops may involuntarily occafion, fhall be repaired. The afylum which the offers to foreigners fhall not be fhut against the inhabitants of countries whose princes fhall have forced her to at tack them, and they fhall find a fure refuge in her bofom. Faithful to the engagements made in her name, fhe will fulfil them with a generous exactnefs; but no danger shall be capable of making her forget, that the foil of France belongs wholly to liberty, and that the laws of equality ought to be univerfal. She will prefent to the world the new fpectacle of a nation truly free, fubmiffive to the laws of juftice amid the ftorms of war, and refpecting every where, and on every occafion, toward all men, the rights which are the fame to all,

Peace, which impofture, intrigue, and treafon have banished, will never cease to be the first of our wifhes. France will take up arms, compelled to do fo, for her fafety and her internal peace; and fhe will be feen to lay them down with joy, the moment she is affured that there is nothing to fear for that liberty-for that equality, which is now the only element in which Frenchmen can live. She dreads not war, but she loves peace; fhe feels that he has need of it; and the is too confcious of her ftrength to fear making the avowal. When, in requiring other nations to refpect her repofe, the took an eternal engagement not to trouble others, fhe might have thought, that the deferved to be lif tened to; and that this folemn declaration, the pledge of the tranquillity and happinefs of other nations, might have merited the affection of the princes who govern them; but fuch of thofe princes as apprehend that France would endeavour to excite internal commotions in other coun

tries, fhall learn, that the cruel right of reprifal, juftified by usage, but condemned by nature, will not inake her refort to

the means employed against her own re pofe; that fhe will be just to thofe who have not been fo to her; that the wil every where pay as much refpect to peace as to liberty; and that the men who still prefume to call themselves the masters of other men, will have nothing to dread from her, but the influence of her exam ple.

The French nation is free; and, what is more than to be free, fhe has the fentiment of freedom. She is free; the is armed; fhe can never be reduced to flavery. In vain are her intestine divifions relied upon fhe has paffed the dangerous moment of the reformation of her political laws; and she is too wife to anticipate the leffon of experience; the wishes only to maintain her conftitution, and to defend it.

The variance of two powers proceeding from the fame fource, and directed to the fame end, the laft hope of our enemies, has vanished at the voice of our country in danger; and the king, by the folemnity of his proceedings, by the frankness of his measures, fhews to Europe the French nation ftrong in her means of defence and profperity.

Refigned to the evils which the enemies of the human race, united against her, may make her fuffer, fhe will triumph over them by her patience and her courage; victorious, the will feek, neither indemnification nor vengeance.

Such are the fentiments of a generous people, which their representatives do themfelves honour in expreffing. Such are the projects of the new political fyftem which they have adopted-to repel force, to refift oppreffion, to forget all when they have nothing more to fear, and to confider adverfaries, if vanquished, as brothers; if reconciled, as friends. Thefe are the withes of all the French, and this is the war which they declare against their enemies.

The king returned the following anfwer to the deputation :

The National affembly may be affured, that I fhall always maintain the dignity of the nation.'

for foreign affairs prefented the following On Saturday, Dec. 31, the minifter letter to the king from the emperor, which had been delivered to M. de Noailles, the French miniiter at Vienna :

Leopold II, emperor and king of the Romans, &c. Puriuant to our conftitu

tional laws, we have communicated to the electors, princes, and states of the empire, on the one part, the complaints of the vaffals of our empire, which, agreeably to the wishes of our electoral college, we tranfmitted amicably to you on the 14th of December last, and on the other, the anfwer returned by your majefty. The more we have confidered this affair, the more we must regret that your majesty's answer was not comformable to our juft expectation. Befides its not being drawn up in an idiom ufual in difcuffing bufinefs between the empire and your kingdom, we remarked that it called in queftion the competence of the vaffals of the empire to implore our intervention at the diet, in order to fecure them the fame protection of the emperor and the empire, which protected their interefts on occasion of public pacifications.

To judge from the tenour of your anfwer, your majefty, no doubt, fuppofed, that all the poffeffions of our vaffals in difpute, were fubject to the fupremacy of your crown, fo as to make it free to difpofe of them as the public utility feems to require, provided a juft indemnification were given; but if your majefty will take the trouble of examining more attentively the public pacifications in queftion, as well as all the other treaties between the empire and France fince 1648, it certainly will not cfcape your notice, that fuch a fuppofition cannot be well founded.

'You will then fee moft clearly, on the one part, what are the lands that have been hitherto transferred to the fupremacy of your crown, by the confent of the emperors, and the orders of the empire; and on the other, that the poffeffions of our vaffals in Alface, Lorraine, and elsewhere, which have not been transferred to your crown by a fimilar confent,must remain in their ancient relation to the empire, and cannot confequently be fubjected to the laws of your kingdom. But with refpect even to the districts, the ceffion of which is the most exprefsly ftipulated in the treaties, France cannot be ignorant that thefe very treaties have given to the exercife of your fupremacy, in regard to the vaffals of the empire, different restrictions, both fpiritual and civil, which cannot in any fhape be arbitrarily overturned by new decrees of your nation.

We have therefore reafon to complain of the derogations which, fince the month of Auguft 1789, have been made to the terms of the faid treaties, and infractions which have followed in confequence, to

the prejudice of our rights, of those of the empire, and of our vaffals; and we are convinced that we are bound not only to interpofe, in their favour, the moft folemn proteftation, both in our name and the name of the empire, but also to give to the injured all the aid, which the dignity of the imperial court, and the maintenance of the prefent conftitution, require.

Such is the refolution on which we have determined, and we fhould already have taken measures to fignify it in the most efficacious manner, if your majesty's well known fentiments of justice and equity had not left us the hope of obtaining by an amicable negotiation, in favour of the vaffals of our empire, a reintegration full and conformable to the difpofition of those treaties.

Your majefty's prudence will eafily perceive the injury which a violation of the promifes, equally binding on both parties, reciprocally made to the empire by your crown, and even guaranteed by the latter, would do to the title by which the different countries of Alface and Lorraine have been fucceffively transferred to you. It will eafily discover the confequences not to be calculated, which may be produced both in Europe and the other parts of the world, where nations exift that have at any time entered into treaties with yours, by fo manifeft a proof, that France, without regard to the fanctity of public promifes, thinks herself at liberty to violate them whenever her own interest makes

it

appear convenient.

Your defire to cause justice between nations to be obferved, and to maintain

the friendship that fubfifts between your kingdom and our empire, will certainly induce you to disregard this pretended convenience, which cannot be obtained but by the violation of treaties, and does not allow us to doubt, that the inftances which we now renew to you, both in our own name, and the name of the empire, will produce a ceffation of all the innovations made fince the beginning of Auguft 1789, as far as they affect the ftates and vaffals of our empire, that they will effect the re-establishment of the latter in the enjoyment of all the revenues of which they have been deprived ; and, finally, that the re-establishment of all things, on the footing determined by the treaties, will be the confequence.

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We entreat your majefty to inform whether this be your intention. us, The more speedy your antwer, and the more conformable to established ufage, the

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lefs doubt we fhall entertain of the fincerity of your defire, and that of your nation, to cultivate peace and friendship with the empire. We with your majefty every thing that can contribute to your happi

nefs.'

4

Given at Vienna, Dec. 3, 1791.

Notwithstanding the lofty tone by which the feudal claims of the German princes are fupported in this letter, it does not appear but that this cause of contention may be removed by a proper indemnification to the refpective parties; for, after having read the emperor's ratification of the Conclufion of the diet, the minifter informed the affembly, that he should foon lay before them the indemnification agreed upon with the prince of Lowenftein; that the prince of Hohbenloe and the prince of SalmSalm were difpofed to treat on the fame terms, so that the execution of one agreement would almost conclude the other two; and that negotiations were also well advanced with the duke of Wirtemburg, the duke of Deux Ponts, and prince Maximilian; but they required, previous to any final agreement, the reimbursement of their revenues on the feudal rights in question, from the 4th of August 1789; He added, that his majefty had charged his new minister at Treves to infift on the elector's difperfing the affemblages of the emigrants within his states before the 15th of January, on pain of being confidered as an enemy. He had also claimed anew the interpofition of the empire, and reprefented to the emperor the inevitable confequences of a fecond refufal. Inftructions, to the fame effect, had been given to M. Segur, the new minister at Berlin, and to his other ministers at the principal German

courts.

dated the 14th of November laft, he has been authorized to explain himself, in return, to the ambassador, on the contents of the faid dispatch, and as far as it comes within his cognizance, with that intire frankness which his imperial majesty thinks it his duty to obferve on objects that relate to the important crifis to which the kingdom of France approaches.

The chancellor of the court and ftate has, therefore, the honour to communicate on his part, that the elector of Treves has alfo imparted to the emperor a note, which the minister of France, at Coblentz, had been charged to prefent, as likewife the anfwer which his electoral highness caused to be given to that note; that this prince had made known, at the fame time, to his imperial majefty, that he had adopted, refpecting the affemblages of the emigrants and French refugees, with regard to furnishing them with arms and warlike ammunition, the fame principles and regulations as had been put in force in the Auftrian Low Countries.

But that strong alarms fpreading among his subjects and in the environs, that the tranquillity of his frontiers and states might be troubled by incurfions and violences, notwithstanding this wife measure, the elector claimed the affiftance of the emperor, in cafe the event fhould realize his fears.

That the emperor is perfectly tranquil as to the juft and moderate intentions of the moft Chriftian king, and not lefs convinced of the great intereft which the French government has, not to provoke all foreign fovereign princes, by acts of hoftility against one of them; but that daily experience not giving fufficient affurance of the ftability and preponderance of moderate principles in France, of the subordination of powers, and efpecially of the provinces and municipalities, to prevent the apprehenfion that the acts of hoftility, aforefaid, may be exercifed in fpite of the king's intentions, and in spite of the dangers of the confequences; his imperial majefty fees himself neceffitated, as well by his friendship for the elector of Treves, as by the confideration he owes to the intereft of Germany as a co-estate, and to his own interest as a neighbour, to enjoin Office of the Chancellor of the Court marfhal de Bender, commandant general

Befide the above letter to the king in favour of the claims of the German princes, the following declaration was prefented to the French minifter at Vienna, in anfwer to the communication made to that court, of the king's notification and requifition to the elector of Treves :

Prince Kaunitz Rietberg, to the French
Ambaffador at Vienna.

and State.

Prince Kaunitz Rietberg, chancellor of the court and ftate, having informed the emperor of the official communication made by the French ambaffador, of an oftenfible difpatch from M. Deleffart,

of his troops in the Netherlands, to march to the ftates of his electoral highness the moft fpeedy and efficacious fuccours, in cafe they fhould be violated by hoftile incurfions, or imminently menaced with fuch.

The

The emperor is too fincerely attached to his moft Chriftian majefty, and takes too much intereft in the well-being of France, and the general repofe, not to defire ardently the prevention of this extremity, and the infallible confequences which it will produce, as well on the part of the chief and the states of the German empire, as of the other fovereigns, united in concert for maintaining the public tranquillity, and the fafety and honour of crowns; and it is in confequence of this latter, that the chancellor of the court and ftate, prince Kaunitz Rietberg, is ordered to explain himself, without referve, to the ambaffador of France, to whom he has, befide, the honour of repeating assurances of the greatest respect. Vienna, Dec. 21, 1791.

KAUNITZ.

The king's fentiments on the subject of the above important communications from the imperial court, were conveyed in the following letter to the national aflembly:

'Gentlemen,

I have charged the minister for foreign affairs to communicate to you the official notice which the emperor has caufed to be delivered to the ambassador from France at Vienna. This notice, I must say, has filled me with the greateft aftonifhment. I had a right to depend on the fentiments of the emperor, and on his defire of preferving with France the good understanding and all the connexions that ought to fubfift between two allies. I cannot yet think, that his difpofitions are changed; I with to perfuade myself that be has been deceived refpecting the true state of facts; that he has fuppofed that the clector of Treves had fulfilled the duties of justice and good neighbourhood; and that, nevertheless, this prince had caufe to fear that his territories might be expofed to violence, or particular incurfions.

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Treves has not really and effectually dif perfed the affemblages which exift in his ftates, nothing fhall prevent me from propofing to the national affembly, as I have already announced, to employ force of arms.

"If this declaration does not produce the effect which I have a right to hope; if the destiny of France is to have to fight with her children and her allies, I fhall make known to Europe the justice of our caufe. The French people will fupport it by their courage; and the nation will fee that I have no intereft but hers, and that I fhall for ever maintain her dignity and her fafety, as the most effential of my (Signed) LOUIS.' duties, (Underneath) DELESSART.

This letter was applauded by all the affembly, and every perfon prefent; and it was foon fucceeded by the following Proclamation of the King of the French, for the Maintenance of good Order on the Frontiers.

The king communicated to the na、 tional affembly the note delivered on the 21st of December laft, to the French ambaflador at the court of his imperial majefty. This note expreffes the fear, that before the manifeftation of the national will, and even contrary to the wish of the nation, the territory of the German empire would be infulted by the French. For these reasons the emperor ordered his generals in the Low Countries to march to the affiftance of the elector of Treves.

The king feels how much fuch an alarm might prove offenfive to the French people,

Europe is in peace; and certainly the French, who remain faithful to their country and their king, will not deserve the reproach of having difturbed its repofe.-Befide, who could believe that the French would violate the rights of nations, and the faith of treaties, by confidering as enemies thofe men again whom war had not been folemnly declared?-French loyalty repels with indignation a fufpicion fo repugnant to propriety.

In the answer which I have given to the emperor, I repeat to him, that I have demanded nothing but what is juft from the elector of Treves, and nothing but what the emperor himself had given an example of. I remind him of the care He is, nevertheless, aware, that perthe French nation took, immediately to prevent the affembling of the Brabanters, fidious fuggeftions, that manoeuvres auroitwhen they attempted it in the neighbourly concerted, may occafion fome differhood of the Auftrian Netherlands. In ences between the inhabitants or the troops fine, I repeat to him the with of France of the refpective frontiers, and that incon. for the prefervation of peace. But, at fiderate provocations may be productive the fame time, I declare, that if, after the of acts truly hoftile. But to fruftrate thefe epoch which I have fixed, the elector of manoeuvres, it is fufficient to point them

out

out. The king, therefore, recommends to the administrative bodies, and to the generals, to employ all their efforts to prevent the effects of the means which may be employed, to irritate the impatience of the people and the ardour of the army. 'Frenchmen, in the prefent momentous crifis, it depends upon you to give a me. morable example to Europe. Strong in the goodness of your caufe-proud of your liberty-let your moderation, and your fubmiffion to the law, make you refpected by your enemies. Know, that to wait the fignal of the law, is in you a duty; that to anticipate it, will be a

crime.

The king, in the name of the French nation, aims at a fatisfaction which has equally for its object juftice, the right of nations, and the intereft of all Europe. If the king has made warlike preparations, it was because he forefaw the poffibility of a refufal; and it was his duty to put himfelf in a state to overcome an unjust refiftance. But his majefty does not yet defpair of the fuccefs of his reprefentations. He has repeated them-he follows them up with energy-and he has reason to believe, that more precife explanations will produce jufter difpofitions. Thofe, therefore, who fhall dare to difturb the courfe of negotiations by precipitate steps, by private attacks, shall be confidered as public enemies, odious to all the people, and obnoxious to all the laws. In confequence,

The king orders, and enjoins the adminiftrative bodies, the general officers, and commanders of the national and regular troops, to watch with the greatest attention, that all foreign territory may be inviolably refpected; to give equal attention that all foreigners who may be found in France, of what nation foever, may enjoy there all the rights of hospitality, and the protection of the laws, while conformable to them. Laftly, to take the most efficacious measures to prevent any altercation taking place between the inhabitants, or the troops, on the refpective frontiers; and to quiet them speedily, if they should arife.

His majesty enjoins all adminiftrative bodies to reprefs, with all their power, and to caufe to be profecuted all thofe who may act contrary to the laws, or disturb public tranquillity. His majefty, befides, orders, that this proclamation fhall be printed, publifhed, and ituck up throughout the kingdom.

Done in the council of state, held at Paris, on the 4th of January 1792.

(Signed) LOUIS. (Counterfigned) B. C. CAHIER.'

After the king had delivered his memoable fpeech to the national assembly, on the 14th of December, M. Narbonne, the minifter of war, informed them, that he fhould immediately repair to the frontiers, in order to infpect into the state of the army, garrifons, &c. This circuit, he accordingly made; and, on Tuesday the 10th of January, he delivered his account of it to the affembly. He bestowed warm eulogiums on the courage and patriotism of the troops in all the garrisons he had vifited. He affured them, that Lifle, Maubeugue, Charlemont, Sedan, Metz, Britche, Landau, Strafburgh, Lotterburgh, Hunningnen, Blamont, Belancon, were all in the moft refpectable condition. Some of them, indeed, had their weak parts, but the efforts of art had been employed to put them above the danger of affault. The army of the north, by the zeal of marshal Rochambeau, was in a much better condition than could have been expected. The magazines and arfenals were well fupplied with provisions, forage, and arms.

·

M. Narbonne confirmed the favourable report of the military committee, and praised the zeal of the national guards, the troops of the line, and the generals. The young officers under the old government, he faid, were charged with fhewing their courage by duelling, quarrelling with their hofts, and breaking glaffes; and perhaps the national guards, all young and impetuous, had too often followed their example. He affured the affembly of the patriotifm of the officers of the army. The majority of them were fincerely attached to the constitution and the king. We are now,' said he, on the eve of a dreadful war, or of a glorious peace; every thing ought to be hazarded to fave us from the difgrace of a treaty that would allow foreigners to interfere in our affairs.'-He obferved, that after garrifoning all the fortified places, there were feventy-five thousand men to take the field; but he had feen with pain, that the army ftill wanted fifiy-one thoufland of being complete to the war establishment. He propofed means of fupplying this defici ency; and concluded by calling the particular attention of the affembly to the general ftate of the kingdom, the difpofition

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