BOOK nois towards the expense of the Swedish expedi XXIV. 1792. tion.* In consequence of the acceptance of the constitutional act by the French monarch, he had indeed written a circular letter to the powers whom he had invited to confederate, proposing to suspend the effects of the league; and it was agreed between the courts of Vienna and Berlin, according as circumstances should determine, either to make the claims of the German princes in Alsace a subject of negociation or a pretext for war. But the hostile designs of the two courts, if ever really suspended, were almost immediately revived, and the prospect of peace was removed to an incalculable distance. In the excitation of all the passions reason was no longer heard. The short-lived popularity of the king of France was now vanished never to return. Addresses were presented to the Assembly from every quarter of the kingdom, indicating their dissatisfaction with the court, and their confidence in the firmness and patriotism of the Assembly. M. de Montmorin, justly suspected of being accessary to the designs of the court, now resigned his office, * Vide "Memoirs of the French Revolution, by M. de BOUILLE'." History of Frederic William II. by count de SEGUR, vol. II. p. 187. unable to withstand the torrent of national odium, BOOK and M. de Lessart succeeded. XXIV, 1792. Discontents The republican party, in consequence of the incessant tergiversations of the monarch, gained increase. great strength; and forming themselves into a club or society assembling at the convent of the Jacobine Friars, recently dissolved, they acquired the popular and since famous appellation of JaCOBINS. The friends of monarchy, on the other hand, had, from a similarity of circumstances, obtained the name of Feuillants. the court of The designs of Leopold gradually unfolded. Menaces of On the 21st of December official notice was given Vienna. to the French ambassador at the court of Vienna, that the emperor, understanding the elector of Treves to be under apprehensions from France, had been constrained to order mareschal Bender to march to his relief and protection. The king, in communicating this intelligence to the Assembly, affected great surprize at the resolution of the emperor. "He could not persuade himself that the good dispositions of the emperor were changed, and wished to believe that his Imperial majesty had been deceived as to the state of facts, and been made to suppose that the elector had indeed fulfilled all the duties of good neighbourhood." About this period M. Louvet, at the head of a grand deputation of the citizens of Paris, addressed the Assembly in an eloquent speech, urging the VOL. VIII. XXIV. 1792. BOOK legislative body to the adoption of vigorous and decisive measures. "Men (said this impassioned and patriotic orator) who assume the name of Frenchmen are meditating the ruin of France. They harass us from within-they menace us from without-but soon, we trust, will the national vengeance, under your direction, display the banners of our armies on the banks of the Rhine. The constitution is guarantied by the oaths of the nation which can exist only in France. Deign, gentlemen, to announce this truth to the crusaders of Treves. Tell them' that France will never regard as an independent power, or as constituting any part of the French nation, the assemblage of rebels and vagabonds who have armed themselves against their country. Is it not known to the whole world that, aided by a foreign force, they have attempted sacrilegiously to destroy the infant liberties of France? Escaping by an igno minious flight from the rage of the people, they have traversed Europe in order to raise up enemies to France! In return, we issue declarations of pardon-we invite them back into the bosom of their country. They have exerted every effort to reduce us to the condition of slaves; we decree to them the rank and revenue of princes. In fine, after insulting in every possible mode the majesty of the people, they are at this moment bidding defiance to their power! We demand then the denun XXIV. 1792. ciation of WAR.-Let France rise in arms! Let the BOOK myriads of our citizen soldiers precipitate themselves upon the demesnes of feudality. Let them encircle palaces with their bayonets, and deposit in cottages the declaration of the rights of man— that in every clime man, instructed and delivered, may resume the sentiment of his original dignity. Then shall nations be blended into one, and the grand fraternity of mankind shall, upon the altar of Equality, Liberty, and Philosophy, swear UNIVERSAL PEACE." Such were the grand and swelling ideas which now possessed the minds of a vast majority of the people of France. Attached to the liberty they had by means so wonderful acquired, with even a romantic enthusiasm the nation was, not in profession merely but in seriousness and reality, prepared and determined to sacrifice their lives and fortunes in its defence. But the court, unable to discern the signs of the times, impelled by the blind and fatal impulse of pride and passion, persisted in its frantic career of folly and ruin. Preparations were now at last made for war; but the designs of the emperor not being as yet ripe for execution, the elector of Treves thought fit on a sudden to change his tone, and to engage that within eight days the hostile assemblages within his dominions should be entirely dispersed. "The rapid fall of the royal, noble, and sacerdotal power in France," says a XXIV. 1792. BOOK most able politician and writer, the Count de Segur, had struck with terror the monarchs of Europe and their favorites; they forgot the difference between their situation and that of Lewis XVI. The ministers entrusted to ask for peace were represented as missionaries chosen for the purpose of propagating the scourge of revolu tion. None were at that time looked on as attached to social order and to honor, but those Frenchmen who had quitted their country, and who hoped to re-establish the antient order in it by force of foreign arms. All those who thought this project humiliating to France, dangerous to the king, and likely to exasperate a proud and warlike nation, were confounded with the jacobins, whose excesses they endeavoured to prevent." The public discontents and clamors against the king rising very high, and being charged almost openly with treachery to the nation, his majesty was pleased to write (February 17, 1792) a letter to the Assembly, contradicting in very haughty terms "these injurious reports, propagated by evil-minded people to alarm the public and calum. niate his intentions. Nothing (he adds) keeps him at Paris but his will, and whenever he has reasons to leave it he will not disguise them.". Unless the monarch imagined that all recollection of his de History of Frederic William II, vol. ii. p. 209. |