STATE PAPERS. 
knowledges and sanctions as an 
immutable foundation of the go- 
vernment. 
_ To this same epoch of the de- 
tention of the King and his family, 
must be referred the stipulation 
comprised in the preliminary arti- 
cles of a defensive alliance between 
the courts of Vienna and Berlin, 
which were signed the 25th of July, 
1791, importing ‘ that the two 
courts would jointly consult, and 
would employ themselves toaccom- 
plish a concert on the affairs of 
‘France, to which his Imperial Ma- 
jesty should invite the principal 
powers of Europe:” a stipulation 
which rests entirely, as plainly ap- 
pears, on the avowed principles.and 
views of the concert, as does also 
the declaration signed in common 
-by the Austrian and Prussian mo- 
narchs at the time of their inter- 
view at Pilnitz, on the 27th of Au- 
gust following: — 
This concert was on the eve of 
being consolidated, when the King 
and Queen were released, the royal 
authority restored, the mainten- 
ance of a monarchical form of 
government adopted as a funda- 
‘mental principle of the constitution, 
-and his Most Christian Majesty de- 
-clared, in his letter of the 13th of 
September to the National Assem- 
bly, that “ he accepted the consti- 
tution, though in truth he could 
‘not discover that energy in the go- 
vernment which would be neces- 
sary effectually to direct and pre- 
serve the unity of all the parts of 
so vast an empire ; but he consent- 
ed, that experience only should de* 
cide.” 
‘Then the Emperor addressed 
himself a second time to the powers 
‘whom he had invited. to this con- 
cert, and proposed to them to sus- 
293 
pend their design, as may be proy- 
ed by the circular dispatches which 
for this purpose were received by 
the Imperial ministers at the differ- 
ent courts in the course of the 
month of November; and of which 
you will not make any difficulty of 
producing the copy hereunto an- 
nexed. 
This proposed suspension was caus- 
ed by the King’s acceptance of the 
constitution, and by the appearance 
that he had done it freely, and in 
hopes that the dangerswhich threat- 
ened the liberty, the honour, and 
the safety of the King and the royal 
family, as also the existence of the 
monarchy of France, would cease 
in future. It is only in case these 
dangers should be reproduced, that 
the concert will again resume its 
activity. 
Instead then of this circular dis- 
patch containing that which is ad- 
vanced without proof by the invi- 
tation, in form of a decree, which 
the Assembly presented to the King 
on the 25th of January, ‘ that 
the Emperor had endeavoured to 
excite a concert of different powers 
inimical to the sovereignty and 
safety of France,” it shews the di- 
rect reverse ; it shews, that his Im- 
perial Majesty had sought to pacify 
the other powers, by engaging them 
to participate with him in. those 
hopes which were the motives of 
his Most Christian Majesty’s ac- 
ceptance of the constitutions 
Since that time the, concert of 
the Emperor with those powers has 
only eventually existed, on account 
of the apprehensions which it was 
natural to entertain in consequence 
of a revolution which, to make use 
of Mons. Delessart’s own words, 
“ having been wrought with ex- 
-treme rapidity, was prolonged by 
r3 divisions ; 
