STATE PAPERS. 
They have been during a whole 
year meditating and inventing pre- 
texts for the aggression on which 
they had resolved. Having driven 
away from the bosom of France, by 
dint of persecutions, all those citi- 
zens who were attached to the esta- 
blished religion, and to the prero- 
gative, hitherto held sacred by the 
fundamental laws of the kingdom, 
they have attempted to prevent 
them from enjeying in any part of 
the world, the sweets of hospitality 
which men reciprocally owe to each 
other. We have been extremely 
careful not to afford the slightest 
grounds of complaint, resolved not 
to meddle, in the least degree, with 
the political government of any 
neighbouring states. We have 
‘taken care to prevent that any 
thing should be attempted, or even 
written, in those provinces against 
the constitution just established 
in France: and, as a reward for 
our strict attention to the laws of 
good neighbourhood, a horde of 
factious vagabonds has been assem- 
bled on our frontiers, resolved on 
the execution of the most infer- 
nal plots. The most infamous 
writings against religion, and 
against the constitutional authority 
of the sovereign, have been dis- 
persed in these provinces. ‘These 
writing were substantially the same 
as the speeches delivered in the 
midst of authorised societies, in 
which the most atrocious crimes 
have been recommended as _vir- 
tues, with a view to flatter the 
criminal propensities of a set of 
men, in hopes of reconciling them 
to a system which in history will 
be the disgrace of the present gene- 
ration. 
_ All our remonstrances on this 
subject have been made in vain; 
and whilst we paid the greatest at- 
219 
tention to complaints relative to 
armaments which had no existence, 
and to pretended insults offered to 
Frenchmen, all kinds of excesses 
have been multiplied against the 
subjects of his Majesty, and com- 
mitted on his territories, and we 
have never obtained on so many 
objects of complaint any thing more 
than promises of satisfaction, which 
have in no instance been perform- 
ed; and when we have, on our 
part, exercised that vigilance which 
was become necessary on the con- 
duct of emissaries, who it was boast- 
ed openly were sent into these pro- 
vinces on purpose to excite insur- 
rections and to create anarchy, we 
have been insulted for having taken 
those precautions which were con- 
strued into attemptsagainst the safe- 
ty and the liberty of the French 
travellers. On the other hand, we 
were applauded for having given 
orders to prevent the assembling of 
the unfortunate French gentlemen 
who had emigrated from the king- 
dom, and to oblige them to conform 
most strictly tothe laws of simple 
hospitality, in order to preclude the 
possibility of their arming and form- 
ing themselves into a military corps. 
—These measures, which France 
seems now to have forgotten, were 
quoted to the princes of the empire 
as an example proper for them to 
imitate in their respective states, 
and with which the despotic agents 
of the French government would 
be satisfied. 
We shall avoid taking notice 
all the calamities with which France 
is afficted—we should leave to time 
the disclosure of the machinations 
perpetually recommended by a set 
of insidious writers in their danger- 
ous publications, were it not evi- 
dent that, at the moment of the in- 
tended aggression against these pro- 
vinces, 
