STATE PAPERS. 



205 



many has been ravaged ; Italy, 

 tliough now rescued from its in- 

 vaders, has bsen made the scene 

 of unbounded rapine and anarchy. 

 His majesty has himself been com- 

 pelled to maintain an arduous and 

 burthen some contest for the inde- 

 pendence and existence of his king- 

 doms. Nor have these calamities 

 been confined to Europe alone ; 

 they have been extended to the 

 most distant quarters of the world, 

 and even to countries so remote 

 both in situation and intei'est from 

 the present contest, that the very 

 existence of such a war was perhaps 

 unknown to those who found them- 

 selves suddenly involved in all its 

 horrors. While such a system con- 

 tinues to prevail, and while the 

 blood and treasure of a numerous 

 and powerful nation can be lavished 

 in its support, experience has shewn 

 that no defence, but that of open 

 and steady hostility, can be avail- 

 ing. The most solemn treaties 

 have only prepared the way for 

 fresh aggression ; and it is to a de- 

 termined resistance alone that is 

 now due whatever remains in Eu- 

 rope of stability for property, for 

 personal liberty, for social ordei-, or 

 for the free exercise of religion. — 

 For the security, therefore, of these 

 essential objects, his majesty cannot 

 place his reliance on the mere re- 

 newal of general professions of pa- 

 cific dispositions. Such professions 

 have been repeatedly held out by 

 all those who have successively di- 

 rected the resources of France to the 

 destruction of Europe ; and whom 

 the present rulers have declared to 

 have been all, from the beginning, 

 and uniformly, incapable of main- 

 taining the relations of amity and 

 peace. Greatly, indeed, will his 

 majesty rejoice, wlieuuver it shall 



appear that the dangers to which 

 his own dominions and those of his 

 allies have been so long exposed, 

 have really ceased; whenever he 

 shall be satisfied that the necessity of 

 resistance is at an end ; that, after 

 the experience of so many years of 

 crimes and miseries, better prin- 

 ciples have ultimately prevailed in 

 France ; and that all the gigantic 

 projects of ambition, and all the 

 restlessschemesofdestruction,which 

 have endangered the very existence 

 of civil society, have at length been 

 finally relinquished :'but the con- 

 viction of such a change, however 

 agreeable to his majesty's wishes, 

 can result only from experience, and 

 from the evidence of facts. 



The best and most natural pledge 

 of its reality and permanence would 

 be the restoration of that line of 

 princes which for so many centuries 

 maintained the French nation in 

 prosperity at home, and in consi- 

 deration and respect abroad : such 

 an event would at once have re- 

 moved, and will at any time re- 

 move, all obstacles in the way of 

 negociation for peace. It would 

 confirm to France the unmolested 

 enjoyment of its ancient territory ; 

 and it would give to all the other 

 nations of Europe, in tranquillity 

 and peace, that security which they 

 are now compelled to seek by other 

 means. But, desirable as such an 

 event must be both to France and 

 to the world, it is not to this mode - 

 exclusively that his majesty limits 

 the possibility of secure and solid 

 pacification. His majesty makes 

 no claim to prescribe to France 

 what shall be the form of her go- 

 vernment, or in whose hands she 

 shall vest the authority necessary for 

 conducting the affairs of a great and 

 powerful nation. His majesty looks 



