IX. 1791. French people, terrified at the approach of the Allied forces, CHAP. to seek for safety in submitting themselves to the King, and imploring his mediation." The sovereigns counted at least on the neutrality of England; but it was expected, from the assurances given by Lord Elgin, that, as Elector of Hanover, the English monarch would accede to the coalition. 89. escape. Meanwhile, the royal family of France, following the councils of Baron Breteuil, and influenced by the press- Plans of the ing and increasing dangers of their situation, had finally of France royal family resolved on escaping from Paris. While Louis and M. for their de Bouillé were combining the means of an evasion, either towards Montmedy or Metz, the principal courts of Europe were apprised of the design; Leopold gave orders to the government of the Low Countries to place at the disposal of the King, when he reached their frontiers, not only the Imperial troops, but the sums which might be in the public treasury; and the King of Sweden, stimulated by his chivalrous spirit, and the persuasions of Catherine of Russia, drew near to the frontiers of France, under pretence of drinking the waters, but in reality to receive the august fugitives. The Emperor, the Comte d'Artois, and M. Calonne, however, strongly opposed the contemplated flight, as extremely hazardous to the royal family, and calculated to retard rather than advance the ultimate settlement of the affairs of France. They were persuaded that the only way to effect this object, so desirable to that country and to Europe, was to support the royalist and constitutional party in France, by the display of such a force as might enable them to throw off the yoke of the revolutionary faction, and establish a permanent constitution by the consent of king, nobles, and people. Impressed with these ideas, the Emperor addressed a circular from Padua to the principal powers, in which July 6. * * He invited the sovereigns to issue a joint declaration-" That they regard the cause of his most Christian Majesty as their own; that they demand that that prince and his family should forthwith be set at liberty, and permitted to go wherever they chose, under the safeguard of inviolability and respect to IX. 1791. July 25. CHAP. he announced the principles according to which, in his opinion, the common efforts should be directed. At the same time Count Lamark, a secret agent of Louis, came to London, to endeavour to engage Mr Pitt in the same cause. But nothing could induce the English government to swerve from the strict neutrality which, on a full consideration of the case, it had resolved to adopt. At Vienna, however, the efforts of the anti-revolutionary party were more successful; and on the 25th July, Prince Kaunitz and Bischofswerder signed, on the part of Austria and Prussia, a convention, wherein it was stipulated that the two courts should unite their good offices to combine the European powers for some common measure in regard to France; that they should conclude a treaty of alliance, as soon as peace was established between the Empress Catherine and the Ottoman Porte; and that the former power, as well as Great Britain, the States-general, and the Elector of Saxony, should be invited to accede to it. This convention, intended to put a bridle on the ambition of 1 Hard. i. Russia on the one hand, and of France on the other, deserves attention as the first basis of the grand alliance which afterwards wrought such wonders in Europe.1 114, 119, 121. The pressing dangers of the royal family of France, after the failure of the flight to Varennes, and their open imprisonment in the Tuileries by the revolutionists, soon after suggested the necessity of more urgent measures. It was agreed for this purpose, that a personal interview should take place between the Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia, to concert measures on that all-important subject. This led to the their persons; that they will combine to avenge, in the most signal manner, every attempt on the liberty, honour, or security of the King, the Queen, or the royal family; that they will recognise as legitimate only those laws which shall have been agreed to by the King when in a state of entire liberty and that they will exert all their power to put a period to a usurpation of power which has assumed the character of an open revolt, and which it behoves all established governments for their own sake to repress."-HARD. i. 116. IX. 1791. famous meeting at Pilnitz, which took place in August CHAP. 1791, between the Emperor and the King of Prussia. There was framed the no less celebrated Declaration of Pilnitz, which was couched in the following terms:"Their Majesties, the Emperor and the King of Prussia, having considered the representations of Monsieur, brother of the King, and of his Excellency the Comte d'Artois, declare conjointly, that they consider the situation of the King of France as a matter of common interest to all the European sovereigns. They hope that the reality of that interest will be duly appreciated by the other powers, whose assistance they will invoke, and that, in consequence, they will not decline to employ their forces, conjointly with their Majesties, in order to put the King of France in a situation to lay the foundation of a monarchical government, conformable alike to the rights of sovereigns and the well-being of the French nation. In that case, the Emperor and King are resolved to act promptly with the forces necessary to attain their common end. In the mean time they will give the requisite orders for the troops to hold themselves in immediate readiness for active service." It was alleged by the French that, besides this, several secret articles were agreed to by the Allied sovereigns; but no sufficient evidence has ever been produced to substantiate Just. No. 1. the allegation; and the testimony of those best acquainted 1791,86,87. with the facts is decidedly the other way.1* 1 Jom. i. 265. Pièces Ann. Reg. Although these declarations appeared abundantly 91. hostile to the usurpation of government by the demo- Which led cracy of France, yet the conduct of the Allied powers to nothing. * "As far as we have been able to trace," said Mr Pitt, "the Declaration signed at Pilnitz referred to the imprisonment of Louis XVI.; its immediate view was to effect his deliverance, if a concert sufficiently extensive could be formed for that purpose. It left the internal state of France to be decided by the King, restored to his liberty, with the free consent of the States of the kingdom, and it did not contain one word relative to the dismemberment of the country." "This, though not a plan for the dismemberment of France," xxxiv. 1315. said Mr Fox in reply, "was, in the eye of reason and common sense, an aggression against it. There was, indeed, no such thing as a treaty of Pilnitz; but 3 Ib. 1356. there was a Declaration, which amounted to an act of hostile aggression." 3 2 Parl. Hist. CHAP. 1791. soon proved that they had no serious intention at that period of going to war. On the contrary, their measures evinced, after the Declaration of Pilnitz, that they were actuated by pacific sentiments; and in October 1791 it was officially announced by M. Montmorin, the minister of foreign affairs, to the Assembly, "that the King had no reason to apprehend aggression from any foreign power." * Their real object was to induce the French, by the fear of approaching danger, to liberate Louis from the perilous situation in which he was placed. Their forces were by no means in a condition to underJom. i. 191. take a contest; their minds were haunted by a superstiAnn. Reg. tious dread of the dangers with which it would be Cap. i. 117. attended. This is admitted by the ablest of the Republican writers.1+ 1 Bot. i. 73. Lac. ix. 24. xxxiv. 86. 92. rations are No warlike preparations were made by the German Their war- States, no armies were collected on the frontiers of like prepaFrance; and accordingly, when the struggle began next France year, they were taken entirely by surprise. had one hundred and thirty thousand men on the Rhine and along her eastern frontier, while the Austrians had only ten thousand soldiers in the Low Countries. In all abandoned by the Allies. * "We are accused," said M. Montmorin, the minister of foreign affairs, in a report laid before the Assembly on 31st October 1791, "of wishing to propagate our opinions, and of trying to raise the people of other states against their governments. I know that such accusations are false, so far as regards the French ministry; but it is too true that individuals, and even societies, have sought to establish with that view correspondences in the neighbouring states; and it is also true that all the princes, and almost all the governments of Europe, are daily insulted in our incendiary journals. The King, by accepting the constitution, has removed the danger with which you were threatened : nothing indicates at this moment any disposition on their part to a hostile enterprise."-JOм. i. 286; Pièces Just. No. 6. "The Declaration of Pilnitz," says Thiers, "remained without effect; either from a cooling of zeal on the part of the Allied sovereigns, or from a sense of the danger which Louis would have run, after he was, from the failure of the flight to Varennes, a prisoner in the hands of the Assembly. His acceptance of the constitution was an additional reason for awaiting the result of experience before plunging into active operations. This was the opinion of Leopold and his minister Kaunitz. Accordingly, when Louis notified to the foreign courts that he had accepted the constitution, and was resolved faithfully to observe it, Austria returned an answer entirely pacific, and Prussia and England did the same."-THIERS, ii. 19. IX. 1791. truth, the primary and real object of the Convention of CHAP. Pilnitz, was the extrication of the King and royal family from personal danger; and no sooner did this object appear to be gained, by their liberation from confinement and the acceptance of the constitution, than the coalesced sovereigns gladly laid aside all thoughts of hostile operations. For such measures they were but ill prepared, and the urgent state of affairs in Poland, then ready to be swallowed up by the ambition of Catherine, rendered hostilities in an especial manner unadvisable. When Frederick William received the intelligence of the acceptance of the constitution by Louis, he exclaimed—“At length, then, the peace of Europe is secured." The Emperor likewise testified his satisfaction in a letter addressed to the French monarch; and shortly after despatched a circular to all the sovereigns of Europe, in which he announced that the King's acceptance of the constitution had removed the reason for hostile demonstrations, and that they were in consequence suspended. The cabinet of Berlin coincided entirely in these sentiments; and the opinion was general, both there and at Vienna, that the troubles France were at length permanently appeased by great concessions made to the democratic party;1 that prudence and address were all that was now neces- Eur. i. 99. sary to enable the French monarch to reign, if not with * of 1 Hard. i. 157, 159. the Th. ii. 78. Ann. Reg. and xxxiii. 206, "His Majesty announces to all the courts, to whom he transmitted his first circular, dated Padua, 6th July, that the situation of the King of France, which gave occasion to the said circular, having changed, he deems it incumbent upon him to lay before them the views which he now entertains on the subject. His Majesty is of opinion that the King of France is now to be regarded as free; and, in consequence, his acceptance of the constitution, and all the acts following thereon, are valid. He hopes that the effect of this acceptance will be to restore order in France, and give the ascendancy to persons of moderate principles, according to the wish of his most Christian Majesty; but as these appearances may prove fallacious, and the disorders of license and the violence towards the King may be renewed, he is also of opinion that the measures concerted between the sovereigns should be suspended, and not entirely abandoned; and that they should cause their respective ambassadors at Paris to declare that the coalition still subsists, and that, if necessary, they would still be ready to support the rights of the King and of the monarchy."-Letter, 23d October 1791; HARD. i. 159. 2 D VOL. II. 208. Cap. |