il 
\ 
132] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1796. 
mutual rights, yet they confidered 
their own diftinct interefis as being 
of too great a magnitude, and too 
immediate an importance, to be fa- 
crificed to the weaknefs, the ca- 
price, or to the perfonal terrors, of 
their wretched, imprifoned fove- 
reign. 
In this ftate they naturally turn- 
ed their eyes in the firft inftance to 
their own refugee princes at the 
court of Turin, with whom they 
held a clofe correfpondence, parti- 
cularly from the fouthern — pro- 
vinces; but thefe ruined princes, 
who .were beholden to ftrangers 
fr fhelter and fubfiftence, could af- 
ford no other means of fupport or 
affiftance than the, little which 
might poffibly be derived merely 
from their names and rank; while 
this fource, weak and confined as it 
would have been at beft, was ftill 
farther narrowed, and reduced al- 
molt to nothing, by the peculiar 
vnpopularity in which the rafhnefs 
and imprudence of the count d’Ar- 
tois, had very unfortunately involv- 
ed that prince. The alarmed and 
diftretied nobility did not, however, 
reft here; they are faid to have 
been inceflant in their applications 
to all the neighbouring continental 
powers for their interference in de- 
livering their king, and in afifting 
to eftablith in their wretched couu- 
try fome juit and equitable form of 
government, which, under the fanc- 
tion of a limited and well-regulated 
monarchy, might put an end to the 
prefent horrid fcene of confufion 
and anarchy, while it afforded li- 
‘berty of perfon and fecurity of pro- 
perty te every order and clafs of the 
people. ; 
But it happened unfortunately 
with refpeét to the caufe of the dif- 
trefled, that Europe feidom has 
x 
been, through a long courfe of 
years, in a ftate lefs capable of af- 
fording the fuccour now demanded, — 
or in which the minds’ of the peo- 
ple, or the difpofition of the fove- 
reigns, were lefs calculated for under? / 
taking any enterprize, than at the — 
prefent. ‘The mad ambition of the © 
emperor Jofeph, under the influence 
of the overwhelming power and 
vaft defigns of Ruffia, to which he, — 
became {o miferable a dupe, befides 
the ruin and the fpirit of revolt — 
which it’ fpread through his own — 
vaft dominions, had in no fimall de- 
gree deranged the general policy 
of Europe; for while feveral flates — 
were watching with apprehenfion — 
and difmay, the dreaded evils which 
the farther progrefs and fuccefs ‘of 
the dangerous combination between 
thefe two mighty empires were ca- _ 
pable of producing, others, who bes y 
ing more powerful were lefs appre- — 
henfive of danger, were, however, — 
no lefs occupied in attending to the 
fame objects, in the hope of deriv- 
ing fome benefit to themfelves in © 
the iffue, from the poflibly difafs — 
trous events, and from the unfore= 
feen circumftances of ‘difunion, 
which the courfe of fo doubtful a — 
purfuit, and of {6 impolitic and an- 
natural an alliance, might be capa- © 
ble of producing. While all fpirit — 
of adventure was thus effectually ree 
ftrained in the céntre and north of 
Europe, the court of Spain, fo — 
clofely united in blood and alliance — 
with the king and government oF | 
France, was, ‘at this critical fea 
fon, when the exiftence of the great 
and parent ftock of the Bourhon 
line was more than at flake, mof 
induftrioufly involving herfelf in a 
ridiculous fquabble with England, — 
the objeét of difpute fearcely bear-_ 
ing or deferving a name; and was’ 
‘wantonly’ 
