1792 ambition. These ideas the republican party, who wished for war as the most certain means of establishing their ascendency, were enabled more easily to impress on the public mind, in justification of their own violent proceedings, by their notices respecting the correspondence of the court with the emigrant princes, and the present conduct of the German powers.* Notwithstanding Lewis had, in the late autumn, dispatched ministers to the emperor, the king of Prussia, and the elector of Treves, to prevail on them not to interfere in the affairs of France nor to encourage the emigrant princes in their armament, yet Leopold, who appeared to have wavered in his councils throughout the preceding year, now assumed a more hostile aspect; not only advising the elector of Treves to receive the emigrants, but declaring that he should order troops to march to the protection of that prince, to assist him, in case the French should adopt any measures to oblige the emigrants to disarm. The government prepared for war, therefore, by providing pecuniary supplies, and ordering new levies of men: and monsieur de Narbonne visited the frontiers, that he might personally attend to the state of the fortresses and the troops destined to their defence.-Moreover, that they might be no longer deceived by the emperor's equivocal behaviour, his majesty demanded, in the name of the French nation, whether that monarch renounced all treaties and conventions directed against the sovereignty, independence, and safety of the nation; and subjoined that, should he fail to give a satisfactory answer to this question before the first day of may, his silence would be considered as a declaration of war.-Leopold's reply, however friendly his intention might be, was better calculated to justify himself than to serve his ally. After declaring that his policy and his movements were purely defensive, he proceeded to vindicate the alliance he had entered into with the king of Prussia and other princes in the late year, the professed object of which was "to support the cause of his most "christian majesty against his rebel oppressors."-The effect of this illjudged memorial was such as might have been foreseen, had the temper of the Segur says that the king received letters from his brothers, and from his cousin, the prince de Conde, who exhorted him not to accept the constitution, but to support the majesty of the throne; and endeavoured, very ineffectually, to remove his apprehensions of his personal dangers, in which they did not participate.-Segur. 2. 186. ■ Idem. 5. 546. a Segur. 2. 196. b Idem. 207. 211. e Gifford. 537. • Idem. 547° the legislative assembly been well considered. The charge conveyed in the words rebel oppressors from the queen's brother, whilst it could not but excite the indignation of that body, afforded them the means they were seeking of heightening the odium which she had already incurred as disaffected to the established constitution, and also afforded them specious grounds for declaring war against the house of Austria.-Rage and resentment, which moved the assembly to pass the violent decrees that preceded the commencement of hostilities, were in harmony with the dictates of policy, as they served to rouse the passions of men and interest them in the war. The first of these was a decree "that the property of emigrants belongs "to the nation;"† which was accompanied with an order for its seques tration. This was followed by a charge of disaffection and treasonable practices brought against the ministers. De Lessart was impeached and thrown into prison: Narbonne was dismissed: and Bertrand de Moleville was terrified into resignation.-Lewis then endeavoured to recommend himself to popularity by giving his sanction to a ministry which was more agreeable to the republican faction; at the head of which the adventurous Dumouriez was placed in the department of foreign affairs;* assisted first by Degraves and afterwards by Servan in that of war, and by Roland, Lacoste and Clavieres, in those of the interior, the marine, and finance.'-His majesty thus consented to deprive himself of every minister on whom he placed his confidence. But the effects of these sacrifices were lost in the eyes of the nation; + February 7. Madam Roland, after speaking of those who were appointed to the administration with Dumouriez, thus delineates his character." Dumouriez had of what is called parts more than all, "and of morality less than any of them. Diligent and brave, a good general, an able courtier, "writing well, delivering himself with fluency, and capable of great undertakings, he wanted "only more consistency of mind, or a cooler head, to follow the plan he had conceived. Plea"" sant with his friends, and ready to deceive them all; gallant with women, but by no means cal"culated to succeed with those whom a tender intercourse might seduce; he was formed for minis"terial intrigue, and a corrupt court. His brilliant qualities, and the interest of his fame, gave 66 room for a persuasion, that he might be employed with advantage in the army of the republic: "and perhaps he would have proceeded in the right path, if the convention had been prudent; for "he is too able not to act like an honest man, when it would promote his interest and reputation." -M. Roland's Appeal. 1. 69. f Annual Register. 15. 25. Gifford. 549. 1792 1792 nation; who were more strongly impressed by the suggestions of his enemies than by his professions of attachment to the constitution; and would probably have respected him more for a firm and intrepid resistance than for this temporizing policy. The dislike which he had ever borne to the constitutionalists, or which had been impressed on him by the queen and her counsellors, who made no distinction between the enemies of monarchy and those of the old regime, unfortunately prevented him from attaching himself to that party, whose strength might have saved him from ruin. And being now deserted by those on whom he had heaped his favours, deprived of his faithful guards, and insulted by the populace, this virtuous and benevolent monarch exhibited a striking example of the unhappy effects arising from the want of that firmness and vigour of mind. which are requisite in a sovereign prince to command respect from those whom he is to govern. Such was the forlorn situation of the French monarch at the eve of a war with those powers who professed to take up arms to liberate him from oppression; an event which appears to have been accelerated by the death of the emperor Leopold and the accession of his nephew, Francis the First. That young monarch, who had more ardour and less caution than his predecessor, began his reign with an open avowal of the line of policy which he meant to pursue with respect to France; declaring that he should not recede from the measures adopted, and the concert entered into, by the late emperor, till satisfaction should be given to the German princes who had possessions in Alsace, and to the pope for the county of Avignon; and till the neighbouring powers shall have no reason for the apprehensions which arise from the present weakness of the internal government of France. He added, moreover, that the disposition expressed in this memorial was the less capable of alteration because it contained the opinion of the king of Prussia also upon the affairs of France. This memorial was communicated to the assembly by his majesty in person. And when Dumouriez had laid open the grounds on which warlike councils were recommended to them, and Lewis had given his consent to them, war was formally declared against the king of Bohemia and Hungary. Thus were Brissot Brissot and the Gironde faction, who had long been labouring to effect a war," which would infallibly inflame the passions of the nation against the emigrants and their friends about the king's person, at last gratified in their wishes by the interested counsels or the indiscreet zeal of the neighbouring powers. The armies of the confederates had now either taken the field, or were on their march towards the French frontiers.-Those of France, mean-time, were prepared to act under the command of marshal Rochambeau, who was at the head of above 30,000 men on the northern frontier, and the marquis de la Fayette, who commanded the central army of about 25,000. men; whilst general Luckner was stationed with a smaller force to guard Alsace.i k The plan of the campaign was to penetrate into the Austrian dominions in the low countries, before the emperor was prepared for defence against so large a force as would be brought against him, and to make themselves master of his fortresses by surprise. This was rational and well-digested. But the occurrences with which it commenced corresponded with the sentiments, and cherished the fond prepossessions of those who built their sanguine hopes of success on the superiority of the German troops.-A - strong body of forces under Dillon was defeated and put to flight by an inferior army near Tournay; and their general, who was suspected of disaffection, was murdered by his own troops.'-About the same time Biron, with an army of about 10,000 men, was routed near Mons; and, on his resignation, general Luckner was invested with his command." These events had a material influence on the domestic affairs of France. The republican partisans, prudently turning the disgrace of their forces to. the advancement of their interests, availed themselves of it to prepare the populace to be the instruments of their designs for the destruction of royalty. With that view they cherished their suspicion of an Austrian Among the means employed by the republicans to prepare the populace to perpetrate the outrages preparatory to the subversion of monarchy was the encouraging them to treat every part of the old system with contempt. One of these, mentioned by B. de Moleville, is deserving of notice, 1792 1792 committee, which was said to be carrying on a correspondence with the enemies of their country, and of a plan supposed to be at this time laid for effecting the king's escape." When the public mind was in the state of extreme irritation which these suspicions excited, a new and more severe decree was passed against the non-juring priests. And this was followed by another measure of the most offensive nature to the court, as it directly tended to impress the whole nation with a persuasion of its ill intentions towards the existing government. Under pretence of an apprehension of disaffection in the national guard, it was proposed that a camp of 20,000 men should be formed under the walls of Paris.*-The effects produced by these measures were such as perfectly corresponded with the views of the jacobin and Gironde parties, who hoped to be supplied by them with fairer grounds than had yet offered for the establishment of a republic in form as well as in practice. -It would perhaps have been more prudent for the king to have yielded to a stream which he had not strength to resist, than to incense a faction which was so powerfully supported. But he did not choose to temporize upon this occasion. From motives of honour and conscience he refused his sanction to the decree for banishing the ecclesiastics, who had adhered to 66 him, "A farce," says he, was as it is characteristic of the levity and vivacity of the French nation. *The motive given for this decree, says Bertrand de Moleville, was the safety of the capital. Upon that pretence, Servan the minister, in connivance with the Gironde party, without an order from the king, or without communicating his intentions to his colleagues, proposed the measure in a letter to the president of the assembly. His real view was to secure a sufficient force against the royalists who remained in Paris, and that portion of the national guards who were known to be attached to the king and to the constitution, which the jacobins, as was now evident, intended to overturn.-B. de Moleville. 2. 265. Moleville. 1. 79. 2. 169. + May 26. |