XXIV. 1791. deed risen wonderfully in his demands. He re- BOOK collected the time when he had contented himself with asking only for a guarded and rational confidence. He then advanced to the pitch of a firm and steady confidence: and it was at last grown to a blind and implicit confidence. And it appeared that the degree of confidence required rose in an exact ratio to the absurdity of the measure to be adopted." On the division, the effect of the extreme unpopularity of the war without doors, and the ability with which it was exposed and ridiculed within, strikingly appeared, the numbers being 179 ayes to 259 noes. To enter into a war in the face of such a minority was wholly impossible. The point in dispute was instantly and wisely given up by the ministers; Oczakow and its district remained with Russia; and in the course of the ensuing summer (August 1791) peace was concluded and signed at Calatz in the vicinity of Jassi, between the two empires. While that formidable armament was fitting out in the English ports, which was designed to force the empress to a peace with the Turks, the prince of Nassau presented to her a project said to be suggested by a Frenchman, M. de St. Genie, for marching an army through Bocara to Cashmire, and thence to India, in order to expel the English from the continent of Asia. This design, so consonant to the lofty genius and enterprising ambition of the em BOOK press, was received by her with visible marks of XXIV. 1791. State of affairs in France. approbation, but she contented herself with observing, in reference to the hostile disposition displayed by the British minister; "C'est un ministre de preparatifs, qui ne vient à bout de rien." When in danger of an attack from Sweden, incited by England and Prussia, while her armies were gaining victories on the Danube, she said scornfully to the English ambassador at her court: "Since the king your master is determined to drive me from Petersburgh, I hope he will permit me to retire to Constantinople."* The session of parliament terminated June 10, 1791, his majesty expressing his perfect satisfaction at the zeal with which the two houses had applied themselves to the consideration of the different objects which he had recommended to their attention. The state of affairs in France, though passed over in total and discreet silence in the speech, was now become very critical. That once popular minister M. Necker, finding his measures thwarted and opposed by the more popular leaders of the Assembly, and equally destitute of the confidence of the court, had sent in his resignation September 1790, and was suffered to retire without one expression of public regret-such is the caprice and inconstancy of the people! Previous * TOOKE's Life of Catherine II. XXIV. 1791. to his resignation, but certainly not by his advice, BOOK a decree had passed the Assembly, imposing an oath upon the whole body of the clergy " to maintain to the utmost of their power the new constitution of France, and particularly the decrees relative to the civil constitution of the clergy." oath im the clergy By the former decrees of the Assembly relative-Civic to the clergy, all connection with the See of posed upon Rome, spiritual and temporal, was virtually abolished; and the oath was upon other accounts so obnoxious, that it could not possibly be taken by the majority of the clergy ex animo. It was, in fact, productive of the most pernicious consequences. The pope by a bull denounced the sentence of excommunication against those of the clergy who took the civic oath : it was refused by multitudes in the church; and those who submitted to it became, in resentment of the outrage offered to their feelings, far more inimical to the constitution and dangerous to the state than before. A most severe and unjust decree was sub. sequently promulgated, about the close of the year, by which the non-juring clergy were not only deprived of their benefices, but subjected to heavy penalties for non-compliance; in consequence of which numerous emigrations of that unfortunate class of men took place, and the public animosities were inconceivably heightened. The decree itself was opposed in the Assembly by the principal XXIV. 1791. BOOK speakers of the coté droit with all the force of eloquence and argument. "I do not think (said M. Montlausier) that the bishops can be forced to quit their sees. If they are driven from their episcopal palaces, they will retire to the huts of the cottagers who have fed upon their bounty. If golden crosses be denied them, they will find wooden-crosses-it was a cross of wood which saved the world."-" Would to Heaven (said M. Cazalés) that these walls could expand and hold every individual of the nation assembled! the people of France would hear and judge between us. I tell you that a schism is preparing. I tell you that the whole body of the bishops of France, and a great majority of the inferior clergy, believe that the principles of religion forbid them to obey your decree that this conviction grows stronger from contradiction, and that those principles are of an order superior to your laws-that expelling the bishops from their sees, and the priests from their parishes, in order to overcome this resistance, is not the way to overcome it. You will be but at the commencement of the course of persecution that lies before you." Leopold king of Hungary peror. On the 22d of January, 1791, the king of France communicated to the Assembly a letter from Leopold king of Hungary, now advanced to the dignity of emperor, containing strong protestations of amity towards France, but at the XXIV. 1791. same time intimating, that, to consolidate that BOOK friendship, the revocation of the decree of August 4, 1790, will be necessary; that all innovations in virtue of that decree be abolished, and matters put upon their antient footing. This was the famous decree which annihilated all feudal and seignorial rights, and in the scope of which seve ral of the petty princes of Germany, possessing fiefs in Lorraine and Alsace, were comprehended; and so far as the right of property was affected by the decree, compensations had been offered by the Assembly, and by the dukes of Wirtemberg and Deux-ponts, the princes of Lowenstein, Hohenloe, &c. actually accepted. Others however, incited by the court of Vienna, refused to listen to any Inimical terms of accommodation. The conduct, never- ofthe court disposition theless, of the National Assembly in decreeing the' suppression of the seignorial rights, appeared perfectly regular, and in no respect derogatory to the articles of the treaty of Westphalia, by which Alsace was ceded to France with all the rights of sovereignty appertaining thereto. "Ad coronam Gallia pertineant," such are the express words of this famous treaty, "cum omnimoda jurisdictione et superioritate supremoque dominio, absque ulla reservatione." This just and equitable decree, however, now served as a pretext and cover for the measures in contemplation of the court of Vienna, which had already stationed cordons of troops on the Suabian of Vienna. |