HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



187 



priginated in ambition. France ap^ 



? eared in so similar a situation to 

 oland ; the parties that distracte4 

 ^t seemed so irreconcileably intent 

 pn their mutual destruction, that 

 the grasping disposition, found ex- 

 jtoerimentally to be inherent in ar- 

 jfbitrary monarchs, had led them to 

 ' form the most nanguine hopes of 

 ' profiting by those scenes of dis- 

 cord : they could not resist the 

 temptation, seemingly held out, to 

 ; partition France among them, as 

 Ithey had done tbe other unhappy 

 };ingdom : this motive alone put 

 arms into their hands. But after 

 faihng in their iniquitous attempt, 

 ^nd instead of reducing the French 

 to subjection, being themselves 

 pearly compelled to act on the de- 

 'i fensive, with what face could they 

 complain of retaliation on the part 

 of the French nation ? These had 

 been driven by despair to exertion 

 of which they were thought inca- 

 pable. Infuriated by the aggres- 

 sion of unprovoked enemies on 

 fvery frontier of France, and mag- 

 nanimously resolved to perish 

 sooner than receive the law from 

 nations which fhey had always held 

 in a light of inferiority, they had 

 summoned all the courage, all the 

 abilities, all the resources of which 

 they were masters. Armed with 

 these, they had entered the lield of 

 contfst, and had taught the coa- 

 lesced powers the difference be- 

 tween a state long broken asunder 

 by an ill-constructed government, 

 i»nd constitutionally, as it were, in- 

 volved in perpetual jars, — and a na- 

 tion firmly united by a sense of 

 iisindigHity,andof whichanincom- 

 * parable majority, after casting off 

 the yoke of domestic tyranny, had 

 determined to persevere to the last 

 in maintaining the system they had 



established. Whether it was a 

 good or bad one, it belonged to 

 the French only to decide. But 

 whatever it might be, the Freiich 

 were too great a people^ both in 

 their disposition and power, to be- 

 come the prey of the conquerors. 

 They were- not only a great and 

 populous nation^ but their natural 

 strength alone was almost equal 

 to that of the whole confederacy 

 against them. Though disunited 

 among themselves, they still had 

 displayed sufficient dnion to resist 

 their foreign foes ; and it was v/ell 

 known that a plurality of those 

 who were dissatisfied were the pre- 

 sent state of things among them, 

 still were much more adverse to a 

 foreign yoke, and readier to bear 

 with internal oppression, than to 

 see their country in the possession 

 of strangers. Was it surprising 

 that, after the resolution taken by 

 the European powers to treat the 

 French as their common enemy, 

 they should feel a resentment ade- 

 quate to such treatment, and 

 threaten, in their turn, the severest 

 revenge? Tiie iunction of Great 

 Britain with tiie coalition, was the 

 heaviest blow, in the opinion of the 

 French, that they could have 

 received. The English were the 

 only people, since the revolution, 

 for wb.om the French had avowed 

 any esteem. It was of notoriety 

 that they held all others in con- 

 tempt. It was, therefore, much 

 against their will that they found 

 themselves involved in a quarrel 

 with this country. True it was, 

 that, after compeihng the Prussians 

 to retire from France, and defeat- 

 ing the Austrians in Flanders, their i 

 rancour 1.1 tli2 unprovo]:ed inva- 

 sion of their country by both those 

 poweri, and at the menace: con- 



tsiined 



