country, and that they would foon be attacked by an army of 150,000 men. France had on every occafion fince the commencement of its revolution up to this period, expreffed the most anxious folicitude to preferve a good understanding with this country. Nor were there any terms fo humiliating or harsh to which fhe did not ever appear ready to fubmit, in order to enfure this grand and primary object. Nothing can be more emphatically expreffive of thefe fentiments, than the note which M. de Chauvelin prefented upon this fubject to Lord Grenville; in which, for preferving the tranquillity of Europe, which would never be interrupted if France and England united to maintain it, the King of the French urges his Britannic Majefty zealously to employ his good offices with his allies, to prevent them from granting to the enemies of France, directly or indirectly, any affiftance. He complains of the measures taken by the court of Vienna to engage the Pruffians in a quarrel foreign from their interests, and intimates that fimilar attempts were fuccefsfully made upon the republic of Holland. He further complains of the menaces employed to draw the different members of the Germanic body from that prudent neutrality, which their political fituation and their dearest interests prefcribe to them; and of the engagements taken with the different fovereigns of Italy to determine them them to commence hoftilities againft France: he laments the intrigues which have armed Ruffia against the Conftitution of Poland, and which announce a great confpiracy against all free States, that threatens inevitably to plunge Europe into a general war. He invites him to employ in his wisdom, and in the plenitude of his influence, the means compatible with the independence of the French Nation, to ftop whilft yet it might be effected the progrefs of this combination, which threatens equally the peace, the liberty, and the happiness of Europe, and particularly to prevent from acceding to this combination, 'those of his allies, whom they may wish to draw into it, or even thofe, who may already have been engaged in it by fear, artifice, and the different pretexts of a policy equally falfe and deteftable. Whatever favourable difpofition our court might have felt towards the general armed confederacy, which it may ftill have thought prudent to diffemble, a lefs fatisfactory anfwer could not have been given to M. de Chauvelin's note. The rawest novice in politics will perceive an obvious difference between the interference with the internal affairs of an independent state, and the intermediation of a third power to prevent or clofe a rupture between contending fovereigns. The former as evidently incroaches upon the rights and independence of other fovereigns, as the latH 4 ter ter acknowledges and recognizes them. The only fatisfaction however attempted to be given to this official note, was, "That the fame fenti"ments which engaged his Majefty not to inter"fere with the internal affairs of France, equally "tended to induce him to respect the rights and "independance of other fovereigns, and particu"larly thofe of his allies." This evasive answer to the French ambaffador fufficiently bespoke the approbation with which England viewed the meafures of its allies against France. It has not hitherto and perhaps never will be certainly known to the public what the direct and full purport was of that convention which was holden at Pilnitz in the courfe of the year 1790. I shall hazard no conjectures; but shall conclude that where I fee a vaft federative combination of great powers against France, it must have been formed at the only meeting which has taken place between the leading members of that confederacy, who from that time have co-operated in no other public measures than in those which they have purfued against France. The late Emperor Leopold finished his short reign by almost a fudden death on the first of March. Grievous fufpicions of French poifon had also been entertained upon his death at fo very critical a moment; but an authentic narrative of his cafe did away that impreffion. He was was fucceeded by his fon Francis I. who was proclaimed Emperor at Frankfort on the 5th of July. The first act of his reign was to declare his cordial acceffion to the treaty of Pilnitz; and from henceforth the courts of Vienna and Berlin joined in public hoftilities against France. The court of Vienna published a declaration or manifefto of the reasons which induced her to take up arms against France. The firft of these regarded the nature of the protection afforded to the emigrants, which through misrepresentation had given much umbrage to France. The next touched that spirit of anarchy and violence now reigning in France, of which it had become neceffary for a concert of princes to check the progrefs, in order to oppose the introduction of it into their ftates. That it depended on those who reign at present over France to make this concert cease immediately, by respecting the tranquillity and rights of other powers, and to guarantee the effential bafis of the French monarchical form of Government against the infringements of violence and anarchy. That France had fent an army of one hundred and thirty thousand men to the borders of the Austrian Netherlands, whilft Auftria had not even ten thousand men to defend them. In a word, that whilft France was loudly complaining (without reafon) of other powers for interfering in the confequences of their new Con ftitution, ftitution, they were endeavouring to fubvert alf Governments by fpreading all over Europe fe duction and infurrection. The King of Pruffia alfo published an expofition of the reafons which had determined him to take up arms against France. His manifefto was more diffufe than that of Auftria, and entered more particularly into the fuppreffion and invafion of the rights and poffeffions of the German princes of Alface and Lorrain, and the violation of the treaties that united France to the German Empire. It particularly noticed the mischievous confequences of propagating antimonarchical principles; and that the unprovoked attack of his ally the King of Hungary and Bohemia in his Belgic provinces, he looked upon as an invafion of the German Empire by French troops, and con. fequently as an unequivocal declaration of war by France against his ally, with whom he had entered into a defenfive alliance. The Thefe acts or manifeftoes of the allied powers produced a confiderable fermentation at Paris. country was publicly declared to be in danger. and the most vigorous meafures were immediately adopted to recruit the army and ftrengthen the frontiers. A royal proclamation was published, which fet forth in a very ftrong light the dangers to which the country was expofed. The confequence was a profufion of volunteers and re cruits |