202 ANNUAL REG I S X'E" R, 1794. 



dominions,' bti.t in countries very 

 distant, and already almost entirely 

 exhaustedjin the midst of thegreat- 

 cst scarcityof provisions, of difficul- 

 ties of every species, without sj)d- 

 ring the greatest sacrifices, and un- 

 der the necessity of caii"ying out of 

 his own states enormous sums in 

 specie ; — such a warmiist necessarily 

 have undermined the strength of 

 Prussia ina proportion nuich greater 

 than that of the powers who are 

 situated nearer to Irance. His ma- 

 jesty, for this reason, finds himself 

 ab^ioUitelyincapableof co-operating, 

 with his own resources alone, in a 

 third campaign^ with the same, ac- 

 tivity that he hitherto has done;, he 

 is, on the contrary, under the ne- 

 cessity of withdrawing, in a few 

 weeks, his troops from the frontiers 

 of the German empire, which lie 

 has till now so well protected and 

 defended, and of ordering them to 

 retire to his own dominions, if some 

 method or other is not found to pro- 

 vide for their pay and support. The 

 king has, some inonths since, made 

 a free overture on this subject to the 

 coalesced powers, from which there 

 have resulted negotiations, of which 

 the issue will, no doubt, be satis- 

 factory ; but of which the result 

 cannot be so immediate as the ne- 

 cessity of commencing a new cam- 

 paign. In the uncertainty in which 

 his majesty is thus placed, whether 

 he will take a farther part in the 

 war, and in the impossibility which 

 arises from that circumstance, of 

 making the necessary dispositions 

 forthcfuture support of the Prussian 

 troops, he has commanded this 

 state of thinjrs to be laid before the 

 diet of the empire, and proposed 

 at the same time, that the empire, 

 in a body, should charge itself from 

 the date of the 1st of February, with 



the pay of the army destined to act i 

 against the enemy : that a prompt 

 decision should be taken on this 

 subject, and that tlie re-partition of 

 the qujiiiiun on tlif circles should 

 be decreed. The urgency of the, 

 present conjuncture so strongly jus- 

 tifies and supports this proposition, 

 that it is not to be doubted but tlie 

 empire in general will acknowledge 

 the injustice of expecting that his- 

 Prussian majesty will any long='r 

 continue, with his own forces alone, 

 to the great prejudice of his domi- 

 nions, those sacrifices which he has 

 hitherto made, with so much disin- 

 terestedness and patriotism ; but 

 tliat, on. the contrary, after so many. 

 Prussians have perished in the de- 

 fence of the empire, and the sacred 

 person of his majesty, and those of 

 the princes of his family have been 

 exposed to such multiplied perils 

 for the same object, it now is the^ 

 duty of the states of the empire to 

 concur seriously, by all the means 

 in their power, after the example 

 of his majesty, to avert a danger 

 with which they themselves are 

 threatened. Although his majesty 

 is convinced that these undeniable 

 truths will make a due impression- 

 on the diet, and that the decision 

 of that body will be conformable to 

 his expectations ; yet, considering 

 the nature of the deliberations of 

 the diet, that decision will demand 

 more time than the urgency of the 

 danger permits; since if the king is 

 to continue to defend and protect 

 the empire in the campaign which 

 is about to be opened, the empire 

 must charge itself, without delay, 

 with the support of the Prussian 

 army. In tins state of things, the 

 only expedient that remains, is, that 

 the six anterior circles who are the 

 most exposed to danger, and who 



have 



