STATE PAPERS. 
April, 1791 *; by the unpardonable 
detention of Mesdames the King’s 
aunts, in the town of Arnay-le- 
Duc, though they had condescend- 
ed to provide themselves with pass- 
ports, which the new laws did not 
even then require from private in- 
dividuals ; by the disastrous events 
of the month of June, 1791; by the 
suspension of the royal guard, and 
the attempts of the 2uth of June, 
1792; by the odious decree of ac- 
cusation against the King’s brothers, 
the forced sanctioning of which was 
an equal outrage to nature, justice, 
and supreme authority :— warned, in 
short, by the impunity of so many 
crimes, their Imperial and Royal 
Majesties have already protested, 
and now protest against all acts, de- 
clarations, and letters which his 
most Uhristian Majesty may suffer to 
be surprised or extorted from him, 
until he shall be placed in full li- 
berty with his whole family, under a 
guard of their Imperial and Royal 
Majesties troops, in such a frontier 
city of his kingdom as he shall think 
proper to choose, and be enabled in 
safety to make known his supreme 
and definitive intentions, and to 
realize the vows which he has al- 
ways expressed for their happiness, 
jiberty, and prosperity. 
Il. OF THE REVOLUTION AS IT RE- 
SPECTS THE FRENCH NATION. 
The revolution considered as it 
respects the Freuch nation, instead 
of being its work, is evidently its 
scourge, the object of its grief and 
regret. the source of all its evils, 
and would be eternally its shame 
and disgrace, were it not proved, 
247 
in a thousand different manners, 
that this illustrious nation itself ab- 
hors the factions by which it is torn; 
that it loves its King; that it wishes 
to preserve its religion by favour 
and toleration: that it sighs after 
the moment when it shall be deli- 
vered from the vilifying yoke under 
which it groans; and that if foreign 
powers did not come to its assist- 
ance, abandoned to its fatal destiny, 
its consequence would vanish, its 
commerce would be annihilated, 
its arts forgotten, its industry ren- 
dered useless, its credit subverted, 
and that its whole surface would 
become a prey to more atrocities, 
more ravages. and more destruction 
than its superb and unfortunate co- 
lonies, than its unfortunate cities 
of Nismes, Montpellier, Arles, 
Avignon, and others. It is far 
then from the thoughts of their Im- 
perial and Royal Majesties to be at 
war with the French nation, and 
to separate it from its king, with 
which it ought to make only one ; 
the intention of their Imperial and 
Royal Majesties is evidently, on the 
contrary, to come to its assistance, 
and to combat inthe middle of 
those unnatural children who tear 
its bosom, who outrage its King, and 
persecute its religion. The positive 
right of all countries entitles them 
to disarm all those madmen who 
attempt to destroy their own lives: 
the rights of nature enjoin all men 
to give each other mutual assistance. 
The rights of nations require, in a 
much stronger manner among all 
civilized people, that neighbouring 
states should unite to rescue a great 
nation from its own fury, from the 
* The King and Queen being desirous of spending the day at St. Cloud, the peo- 
ple and national guard prevented them, and detained them in their carriage for 
three hours in the court of the Thuilleries, loading them with the most horrid 
mprecations, 
Q 4 fatal 
