ページの画像
PDF
ePub

actions, and all the public papers which they have ifiued, the marks of the inflexible obftinacy of a conqueror inflamed with pride by the fortune of his arms. Upon this point we refer to the note addretled by the French ambalador to the plenipotentiary of his Britannic majefty, upon the 26th of May, this year. We remark, with regret, in this note, how much the spirit in which it is drawn up, the nature and extent of the demands which it contains, and the manner in which they are announced, are remote from a reciprocal defire of peace, We are not miftaken even in confidering this very note as a new proof of the averfion of the French government to enter into negociations with the empire united under its conftitutional head, fince, in effect, if we compare that note with the above-mentioned anfwer of the committee of public fafety, we find that both abfolutely announce the fame political maxims; to which we muft likewife add, that the note of the directory demands, as an invariable preliminary of peace, a ftatus quo relatively to the countries conquered by the enemy, and united in virtue of its decree, which cannot in any way be reconciled with the bafis of peace laid down by the diet.

To divide, to conquer, and to rule, is the fpirit of the egotift policy of France. But every divifion infers a diminution of ftrength in the measures of refiftance of the whole, and which muft neceffarily lead to the dimemberment, to the devaftation, to the dependance, to the fubjection, and, in fine, more or lefs rapidly, to the decompofition of our refpe&table conftitution. Concord, on the contrary, firm

nefs, the love of our country, and the faithful obfervance of the laws, are the first duties of fociety; the dearest and more facred duties of every vaffal of the empire, when our common country is menaced, is the most eminent and effential obje&t of all political focieties, its fafety and prefervation. Such is the object of the fundamental conftitution of the German empire, which renders all the individual means of refiftance poffeffed by the states of the empire fubordinate to the direction of one fupreme authority, and prohibits in the moft forcible manner the conclufion of a feparate peace during a general war of the empire. But, independently of this confideration, it is not lefs certain that it is to act against all experience to reckon upon the very rare inftance of the generofity of the enemy, and to expect only, from the magnanimity and love of juftice, a peace that can be accepted, inftead of constraining them to grant it by force of arms. In fine, we find a manifeft contradiction in not ceafing to defire an object, and yet failing to proportion the means by which it is to be attained to the magnitude of the dangers interpofed.

The example of the invincible conftancy and vigour with which the enemy exert themselves to exe cute their plans, ought to afford to the citizens of Germany a fufficient motive of emulation to excite them to the most obftinate refiftance, and to the defence of their political and religious conftitution.

After this faithful difclofure of circumftances we put it to your judgment to decide, whether, however much we are difpofed to reftore peace to the empire, as foon as it can be eftablished on an ho

nourable

nourable and folid basis, it depends entirely upon us to grant this bleffing to Germany; whether it confifts with our authority as chief of the empire to fanction a peace upon whatever terms feparately concluded with the enemy of the empire? In fine, whether at a moment when we have to choose between the dismemberment and the union of the empire, between the diffolution and the establishment of the conftitution, between honour and fhame, whether, in this critical fituation, we are not rather warranted to require, in the name of the country and the conftitution, in the name of all the ftates which have been pillaged and laid wafte, in virtue of oaths ftill fubfifting, and promifes frequently and folemnly renewed by the electors, princes, and ftates of the empire; in fine, by our own example and the facrifices which we have made for the public intereft, whether, we fay, we are not warranted juftly to require the undivided co-operation of all and every of the ftates of the empire in the defence of a caufe fo juft, and for accelerating that peace which is fo earnestly defired by the Germanic states?

If a difference of fentiment manifefted in your letter of the end of laft month was the caufe to us of confiderable anxiety, it was not long before our tranquillity was reftored, by the news that when the dangers of war approached your ftates, you did not allow yourself to be betrayed by fear, nor by the dictates of a deceitful policy, into any unconstitutional measures; but that, on the contrary, animated by fentiments of honour, and by a courage worthy of a German prince, you oppofed the danger with which you

were threatened with the most effectual means of resistance, both by fending against the common enemy a great part of the garrifon of Stutgard and Louifburg, and by giving inftant orders to put the militia of Wirtemberg immediately in motion, who made a body of 12,000 men, in general well difciplined. Accept upon this fubje& the affurances of our Imperial fatisfaction and fincere regard. These difpofitions, fo worthy of you, infpire us with the confidence that no confideration will fake your fentiments, and that weighing confcientioufly the duties which, as a ftate of the empire, you have to discharge to us and to the law, you will perfift in your patriotic refolution to continue, till the re-efta blifhment of a general peace for the empire, to fupport the common caufe with all your force. By thefe means you will not only render effential fervice to Germany, but to the immortal honour of your house: you will deferve to have your name enrolled in the annals of Germany among those princes who have moft contributed to its luftre.

Refolution prefented to the Emperor by the States of Hungary, in Anfwer is his Majesty's Propofitions.

THE propofitions addreffed on the part of his Apoftolic majefty to the ftates furnishes them a fresh proof of the confidence which his majefty always repofed in the unfhaken fidelity of his faithful Hungarian nation, in deigning to recollect and confirm the bravery which their ancestors have always difplayed in fupport of the auguft houfe of Auftria; his majefty has given a farther teftimony of his paternal confidence, in reprefent

ing to the grandees and the fates in diet affembled, the magnitude of the danger of the present war, in which a deftructive enemy throatens the hereditary kingdoms and provinces; the fiates, therefore, animated with the example of their ancettors, have refolved fully to realize the expectation not only of the hereditary dominions, but of all Europe. The ftates, withing to follow the footiteps of their anceftors, will neglect no means in their power to avert all future danger, and to compel the enemy to make a peace fuitable to the dignity of his majefty, and to the honour of the nation.

It is very flattering to the ftates that his majefty deigned not to queftion their devotion and fidelity, when they have not long ago given affurances at the foot of the throne, which they made oath to facrifice their blood and their lives for his majefty and the country. The fame valour which infpired their ancestors in 1741 ftill lives in them, and with them alone it can ever perish. For the purpofe of accomplishing the defires of his majefty, and to guarantee religion, the royal prerogative, as well as the rights of the nobility, and of all other fellow-citizens ; rights which the energy endeavours to deftroy; the flates have refolved to offer to his majefty, as a voluntary contribution for the profecution of the war, 50,000 recruits, all the neceffary grain for the fubfiftence of a force of 340,coo men during a twelvemonth, which forms a total of 2,400,000 meafures of Preiburg, and for 80,000 hories 3,760,000 measures of oats; farther, 20,000 oxen, and 10,000 horfes; the whole, however, with

out infringement of article 36, of the year 1741.

The fiates hope that that audacious enemy, who has lately been repulfed far beyond our frontiers by the victorious armies under the command of his royal highness the Archduke Charles, will ultimately return to more moderate principles. Should the contrary happen, and the enemy perfitt in their exaggerated and obftinate pretenfions, and with to continue the war, the ftates are well refolved to take the field themselves to combat that enemy and in this cafe they offer from this moment to prepare for rifing in a mafs for the future the whole kingdom, and all its provinces comprised.

The ftates conclude by fupplicating his majefty to be pleafed to accept this offer, which has for its object the defence of his facred perfon, of his auguft houfe, and of the citizens of the em pire in general, with that paternal bounty which characterizes him; and that he be affured that the heart of the Hungarians is the fafeft bulwark againft every enemy of the house of Auftria.

Subftance of the Correfpondence between the Cabinet of Berlin and the Court of Vienna, refpe&ting the Line of Demarcation eftablished between his Pruffian Majefty and the French Republic.

AN official note, tranfmitted by M. the marquis Lucchefini to the minifter of his Imperial majefty, acquainted the court of Vienna with the intention of the court of Berlin to obtain from his Impe rial majefty his approbation of meafures adopted for the fecurity of that part of Germany, by means

of

of an armed neutrality, announe-
cing to him, at the fame time, that
the fecurity of thefe countries was
the motive in which the measures
referred to had originated.
Subftance of the Reply made to the above

Note by the Court of Vienna.

HIS Imperial majefty, as fupreme head of the empire, cannot doubt that the ftates are obliged to concur in a war, rendered neceffary from the preffure of circumftances, and formally declared with all their force, for the common defence. This obligation is derived from the principle of individual and general fecurity,' which is the moft facred and the most effential bafis of every conflitution. It is in a particular manner blended with the fubftance of the Germanic conflitution, and is recognized by feveral of its laws in the moft pofitive terms.

Such is the refult dictated by the fpirit of our conftitution, which fubjects all the refpective ftates, and all the means of defence, to the general controul of the fovereign power of the Germanic empire. Such is the refult of the oath of fealty, which the electors, princes, and ftates of the empire, in order to ftrengthen the focial bond, take in their capacity of vatlals, by which they fwear actively to concur in every ftep which can tend to the honour, to the advantage, and to the profperity of his Imperial majefty and of the empire, and which, by confequence, impofes upon them an obligation to fecond, with all their might, the meafares adopted by the chief and the ttates of the empire, to avert the danger which threatens them with total deftruc

tion.

VOL. XXXVII.

His Imperial majefty fees with pain that the appearances of the war by no means anfwer the expectation which he had been led to entertain; but in confidering the fundamental laws of every well organized conftitution, and the principles recognized in the most pofitive terms in the laws of the empire, full of anxiety for the good of the country, his majetty cannot refrain from manifetting a defire that the corps, affembled at a crifis the moft alarming and the moft dangerous, may be employed rather in aiding a molt just defence, by oppofing the common enemy, than in ftopping an invation fill at a distance, and of which we ap'prehend only the poffibility.

Thefe measures of fecurity, confidered in themselves, do not appear to be contrary to the basis and the fpirit of the conflitution, provided that the arrangements, for the fafety and the particular defence of the north of Germany, are not founded upon illegal impofitions, and provided they are not employed to fanction the unconftitutional pretext of freeing them from the obligations binding upon them by the register of the refolutions of the empire, decreed for the purpofe of the general fecurity of Germany.

If his Imperial majefty on the prefent occafion were to grant to this meature of fecurity, as it is termed in the circular letter of the Profian minifter, in the letters of convocation, and in the declarations of the plenipotentiaries of the king, an unlimited approbation, all who thould compare it with the tenor of the decice of ratification of the 29th of July, 1795, would acenfe him of adopting contradic

[ocr errors][merged small]
[ocr errors]

ing to the grandees and the fates out infringement of article 36, of in diet affembled, the magnitude, the year 1741. of the danger of the prefent war, in which a deftructive enemy threatens the hereditary kingdoms and provinces; the ftates, therefore, animated with the example of their ancestors, have refolved fully to realize the expectation not only of the hereditary dominions, but of all Europe. The ftates, wifhing to follow the footsteps of their anceftors, will neglect no means in their power to avert all future danger, and to compel the enemy to make a peace fuitable to the dignity of his majefty, and to the honour of the nation.

The fiates hope that that auda cious enemy, who has lately bee repulfed far beyond our frontie by the victorious armies under t command of his royal highness' Archduke Charles, will ultimat return to more moderate princi Should the contrary happen.the enemy perfitt in their gerated and obftinate pretent and with to continue the wa fitates are well refolved to the field themfelves to comba enemy: and in this cafe the from this moment to prep. rifing in a mafs for the fur whole kingdom, and all vinces comprised.

It is very flattering to the ftates
that his majefty deigned not to
queftion their devotion and fi-
delity, when they have not long
ago given affurances at the foot of
the throne, which they made oath
to facrifice their blood and their
lives for his majefty and the coun-
try. The fame valour which in-
fpired their ancestors in 1741 ftill
lives in them, and with them alone
it can ever perish. For the pur-
pofe of accomplishing the defires
of his majefty, and to guarantee
religion, the royal prerogative, as
well as the rights of the nobility,
and of all other fellow-citizens;
rights which the energy endeavours
to deftroy; the fiates have refolv-
ed to offer to his majefty, as a
voluntary contribution for the pro-
fecution of the war, 50,000 re-
cruits, all the neceffary grain for
the fubfiftence of a force of 340,000
men during a twelvemonth, which
forms a total of 2,400,000 mea-
fures of Prefburg, and for 80,000
horfes 3,760,000 meafures of oats;
farther, 20,000 oxen, and 10,000
horfes; the whole, however, with-t part of Go

The ftates conclude by
cating his majefty to be
to accept this offer, whic
its object the defence
cred perfon, of his augu
and of the citizens of
pire in general, with th
bounty which characte
and that he be affure
heart of the Hungari
fafeft bulwark againft e
of the houfe of Auftria

Subftance of the Correfpon

the Cabinet of Berlin
of Vienna, respectin
Demarcation eftabli..
Pruffian Majefty
Republic.

AN official note,
M. the marquis L.
minifter of his In
acquainted the co
with "the intenti
of Berlin to obtain.
rial majefty his ap:
fures adopted for

[graphic]
« 前へ次へ »