STATE PAPERS. 



215 



and crown, and by the most despe- 

 rate mea-,urc of a general requisi- 

 tion of ali fighting men, supported 

 by that most territie instrument the 

 guilloline. 



The violent decrees, compelling 

 the people to rise in a mass, have 

 given addition;:! force and strength 

 to the nuaierous hostile armies now 

 i« the field, so that they succeeded 

 at last, after reiiovaied, daily, and 

 most violent attacks, n.)twithstaud- 

 ing the steadiest coantenance and 

 most gallant resistance, on the part 

 of the German warriors, to re-take 

 by their superiority a part of their 

 conquests ; a loss which, in all pro- 

 bability, would not have ensued, if 

 the contingents of the empire had 

 been propjrly sent. 



This general requisition of all the 

 fighting men aiiected a great supe- 

 riority, and changed intirely the 

 mode of making war, increased the 

 dangers and difficulties of this co- 

 ercive war, and seems in some 

 manner to necessitate the rising in 

 a mass of the inhabitants of the 

 frontiers of the Netherlands, an- 

 terior Austria, Brisgau, and other 

 places, in order to procure safety to 

 the property of the loyal subjects 

 of the empire, against the ravages 

 branded with the wildest excesses, 

 occasioned by an enemy driven to 

 despair, by the misery which 

 reigns in their own country, and 

 emboldened by their recent succes- 

 ses. 



(Signed) COLLOREDO. 



February, 1794. 



Substance of an Imperial decree of 

 ratification, dated Ficnna, thelAth 

 oj June, 1794^ and presented io 



the dictature, in the diet oj Ra- 

 tiibon. 



SINCE the extraordinary manner 

 in which the French seem de- 

 termined to carry on this war, 

 namely, by violence and force, lo 

 oblige all the men of their nition, 

 able to carry arms, lo march against 

 the combined armies, by which 

 means they increase tlieir hostile 

 forces to extraordinary numbers ; 

 and since the danger to which the 

 German empire is exposed from 

 I he invasions which such innume- 

 rable hordes are induced to make, 

 from motives of hunger and desire 

 of plunder, measures are required 

 more than ever to strengtlien the 

 military forces of tiie empire : it is 

 therefore adviseable, that the army 

 of the empire should be re-inforced 

 by a regular and well-equipped ar- 

 my, procured by the means of sub- 

 sidies. 



His imperial majesty, therefore, 

 proposes to the empire to enter in- 

 to a treaty with his Prussian majes- 

 ty, in consideration of reasonable 

 subsidies, to furnish a certain spe- 

 cified corps of his troops for the 

 service of thie ge-.;eral cause. His 

 Prussian majesty, from his charac- 

 ter of a generous and distinguished 

 member of the Germanic empire, 

 will undoubtedly oppose no obsta- 

 cle to such a treaty, particularly as 

 there exists already a corps of such 

 brave troops (over and above the 

 number of Prussian troops "serving 

 as contingents in the army of the 

 empire) on the very spot where 

 they might be serviceable to the 

 general cause, and ready for action, 

 in a very short time. These subsi- 

 dies ought to be offered in ready 

 money, and his Imperial majesty 

 P 4; to 



