IX. 1791. the kingdom, than they perceived that the troubles which CHAP. agitate it have their source in the criminal preparations of the French emigrants. Their audacity is supported by the German princes, who, forgetting the faith of treaties, openly encourage their warlike preparations, and compel counter-preparations on our part, which absorb the sums destined to the liquidation of the debt. It is your province to put a stop to these evils, and hold to foreign powers the language befitting a king of the French. Tell them, that wherever preparations of war are carried on, there France beholds nothing but enemies; that we will religiously observe peace on our side; that we will respect their laws, their usages, their constitutions; but that if they continue to favour the armaments destined against the French, France will bring into their bosoms not fire and sword, but freedom. It is for them to calculate the consequences of such a weakening of their people." The King promised to take the message of the Assembly into the most serious consideration, and a few days after came in person to the Chamber, and announced that he had Dec. 14. notified to the Elector of Treves and the other Electors, that if they did not, before the 15th January, put an end to the military preparations in their states, he would regard them as enemies; and that he had written to the Emperor, to call upon him, as the head of the Empire, to prevent the disastrous consequences of a war. "If these remonstrances," he concluded, are not attended to, nothing will remain but to declare war-a step which a people who have renounced the idea of conquest will never take without absolute necessity, but from which a generous and free nation will not shrink when called by the voice of honour and public safety." Loud applause followed these words; and it was already manifest that the revo-xii. 395,396. Mig. i. 162. lutionary energy was turning into its natural channel, Th. ii. 38. warlike achievement.1 66 These declarations were followed by serious preparations. Narbonne, a young man of the party of the Feuillants, of 1 Hist. Parl. IX. 1791. 100. Preparations for yet wished to avoid. CHAP. high rank, but intimately connected, through Madame de Stael, whose confidence he enjoyed, with the liberal party, was appointed minister at war, and immediately set out for the frontiers. One hundred and fifty thousand men war, which were put in immediate requisition, and twenty millions of the Emperor francs (£800,000) voted for that purpose. Three armies were organised, one under the command of Rochambeau, one of Luckner, one of Lafayette. The Comte d'Artois and the Prince of Condé were accused of conspiring against the security of the state and of the constitution, and their estates put under sequestration. Finally, the Comte de Provence, afterwards Louis XVIII., not having obeyed the requisition to return to the kingdom within the appointed time, was deprived of his right to the regency. The Elector of Treves obeyed the requisition; but the Emperor of Austria, though naturally pacific, and totally unprepared for war, gave orders to his general, Marshal Bender, to defend the Elector if he was attacked, and insisted that the rights of the feudal lords should be reestablished in Alsace. Meanwhile, the Imperial troops were put in motion: fifty thousand men were stationed in the Low Countries; six thousand in the Brisgau; thirty thousand ordered for Bohemia. Nevertheless, the Emperor Leopold was extremely averse to a contest, for which he was still unprepared, and which he was well aware was at variance with his interests. His object was to establish a congress, and adjust the disputed points with France in such a manner as might satisfy all parties. He was aware of the necessity of maintaining the constitutional system entire in its material parts, but wished to restore 1 Bouillé, to the throne some of its lost prerogatives, and divide the Th. ii. 41. legislature into two chambers-alterations which experience Mig. i. 162. has proved it would have been well for France if she could 299, 309. Lac. i. 163. have imposed on her turbulent and impassioned people.1 Brissot was the decided advocate for war in the club of the Jacobins. His influence on that subject was long counterbalanced by that of Robespierre, who dreaded above all IX. 1791. 101. by Robes things the accession of strength which his political oppo- CHAP. nents might receive from the command of the armies. Isnard there strongly supported the war party, and used every effort to carry that fervent body along with him. It is opposed Drawing a sword which he brandished in his hand, he pierre. exclaimed, "Here, gentlemen, is our sword; it will never cease to be victorious. The French people will raise a mighty shout, and all other people will re-echo its sound; the earth will be covered with combatants, and the whole enemies of liberty will be effaced from the list of men.' 66 29th Dec. Beware," said Robespierre, in reply, "you who have so long guarded against the perfidy of the Court, of now becoming the unconscious instruments of its designs. Brissot is clear for war; I ask you where are your armies, your fortresses, your magazines? What! shall we believe that the Court, which, in periods of tranquillity, is incessantly engaged in intrigues, will abstain from them when it obtains the lead of our armies? I see clearly the signs of perfidy, not only in those who are to proclaim war, but in those who advise it. Every one must perceive that the efforts of the emigrants to rouse foreign powers are utterly nugatory. Are you to be the party, by a hasty measure, to compel them to adopt vigorous steps? I affirm, without the fear of contradiction, that the blood of our soldiers is sold by traitors. The more I meditate on the chances of war, the more my mind is filled with the most gloomy presages. Already I see the men, who basely shed the blood of our fellow-citizens on the Champ de Mars, at the head of the armies. What guarantee am I offered against such appalling dangers? The patriotism of Brissot and Condorcet! I know not if it is true; I know not if it is sincere; but I know well that it is tardy. I have seen them worship M. Lafayette; they made a show of resistance at the time of his odious success; but bins, 18 and they have since upheld his fortunes, and evinced but too i. 216, 217. plainly that they were participant in his designs against xii. 363. the public weal.” 1 1 Journal des Jaco 29 Déc. Lac. Hist. Parl. CHAP. 1791. 102. in the Na tional As sembly in favour of war. But the passion for war was so strong that all the perseverance and talents of Robespierre at length failed in arresting it. Soon after, repeated philippics, in still more Violent de violent language, were pronounced in the Assembly by clamations Brissot and Vergniaud against the European powers, which, even according to the admission of the French themselves, "were so many declarations of war, and imprudent provocations, which were calculated to place the French in hostility with all Europe." "The information of Brissot, the profound political views which he developes, are so entirely at variance with the sophisms with which his speech abounds," says Jomini, "that one would be inclined to suppose he had been the secret agent of the English government, if we did not know that his errors at that period were shared by all the most enlightened men of France. An orator, enthusiastic even to madness, was alone capable of bringing on his country, by such harangues, the hatred of all the European chiefs. No paraphrase can convey an adequate idea of the violence of the leaders of the Assembly at that period: their 198. Pièces speeches must be bequeathed entire to posterity, as frightful proofs of what can be effected by an ill-directed enthusiasm and spirit of party.' 1 Jom. i. Just. i. 7, 8, and 9. 103. Violent Speech of Brissot. Dec. 29. " 1 "You are about," said Brissot, on 29th December 1791, "to judge the cause of kings: show yourselves worthy of so august a function: place yourselves above them, or you will be unworthy of freedom. The French Revolution has overturned all former diplomacy; though the people are not yet everywhere free, governments are no longer able to stifle their voice. The sentiments of the English on our Revolution are not doubtful they behold in it the best guarantee for their own freedom. It is highly improbable that the British government will ever venture, even if it had the means, to attack the French Revolution; that improbability is converted into a certainty, when we consider the divisions of their Parliament, the weight of their public debt, the declining condition of their Indian IX. 1792. affairs. England would never hesitate between its king CHAP. and its liberty-between the repose of which it has so much need, and a contest which would probably occasion its ruin. Austria is as little to be feared her soldiers, whom her princes in vain seek to estrange from the people, remember that it is among them that they find their friends, their relations; and they will not separate their cause from that of freedom. The successor of Frederick, if he has any prudence, will hesitate to ruin for ever, in combating our forces, an army which, once destroyed, will never be restored. In vain would the ambition of Russia interfere with our Revolution; a new revolution in Poland would arrest her arms, and render Warsaw the centre of freedom to the east of Europe. Search the map of the world, you will in vain look for a power which France has any reason to dread. If any foreign states exist inclined for war, we must get the start of them. He who is anticipated is already half vanquished. If they are only making a pretence of hostile preparations, we must unmask them, and in so doing proclaim to the world their impotence. That act of a great people is what will put the seal to our Revolution. War has now become necessary: France is bound to undertake it to maintain her honour: she would be for ever disgraced if a few thousand rebels or emigrants could overawe the organs of the law. War is to be regarded as a public blessing. The only evil you have to apprehend is, that it should not arise, and that you should lose the opportunity of finally 1 Hist. Parl. crushing the insolence of the emigrants. Till you take xii. 415. that decisive step, they will never cease to deceive you by Jom. i. diplomatic falsehood. It is no longer with governments No. 7, 299. we must treat, it is with their subjects.” 1 Dec. 19. Pièces Just. on Jan. 17, "The mask is at length fallen," said the same orator on 104. the 17th January 1792. "Your real enemy is declared; And again Marshal Bender has revealed his name-it is the Emperor. 1792. The Electors were mere names, put forward to conceal the real mover. You may now despise the emigrants; |