STATE PAPERS. 



439 



.Bavarian Declaration. 



'• Every one knows the relations 

 which for eight j'ears past bound 

 Bavaria to France, as well as the 

 motives which occasioned them, 

 and the conscientious good faith 

 with which the king fulfilled their 

 conditions. 



" Other states gradually joined 

 themselves to the first ally of the 

 French empire. This junction of 

 sovereigns took the form of an 

 union, of such nature as the Ger- 

 man history exhibits more than one 

 example. 



" The act of confederation, 

 signed at Paris on the 12th of July, 

 1&06, although imperfect, stipu- 

 lated the mutual conditions which 

 were to exist between the confe- 

 derated states and his majesty the 

 emperor of the French, as protector 

 of this alliance. 



" The foundation of this treaty 

 on both sides was, the interest of 

 both parties : none otlier could 

 exist ; for otherwise this act of 

 confederation would have been no- 

 thing else than an act of uncon- 

 ditional submission. Meanwhile 

 the French government appears 

 to have considered it absolutely in 

 the latter light ; because in every 

 act which followed on that solemn 

 contract, she never regarded, in 

 the application of the fundamental 

 point which rendered the conti- 

 nental war mutual to the several 

 contracting parties, cither the spirit 

 or the intent which presided in its 

 tcnour, but gave to it, at her own 

 pleasure, the most extended expla- 

 nation. She required at her own 

 will the military forces of the con- 

 federates, for wars which were to- 

 tally foreign to their interests, and 



the motives for which had not 

 been previously intimated to them. 



" Bavaria, who considered France 

 as a main support for her preser- 

 vation, but whose principles, ne- 

 vertheless, caused her the most se- 

 rious apprehensions, fulfilled all 

 her obligations to France with the 

 most unbounded zeal and inte- 

 grity ; no sacrifice to her seemed 

 too great to fulfil the wishes of her 

 ally, and to contribute to the resto- 

 ration of the continental peace, 

 which was stated to be the end of 

 these renewed undertakings. 



" When the emperor Napoleon 

 had, in the year 1812, determined 

 on the war against Russia, he de- 

 manded of Bavaria to come forward 

 witn the maximum of her contin- 

 gent. This war was undeniably 

 entirely foreign to the interests of 

 Bavaria. It was painful to her, in 

 every respect, to suffer her troops 

 to march against a state which had 

 always been her friend, and which 

 for a long time past was the gua- 

 rantee of her independence ; and 

 against a sovereign who is allied 

 to the royal family by a double 

 tie of consanguinity. Already had 

 the French ministry expressed 

 themselves in the most alarming 

 terms, and even proclaimed them 

 in diplomatic documents in the 

 face of Europe. These expressions 

 aimed at nothing less than to re- 

 present the confederated States in 

 such light as if they were the vas- 

 sals of France, and their princes 

 bound, under punishment of fe- 

 lony, to do every thing which his 

 majesty the emperor Napoleon 

 might think proper to require of 

 them. 



" Notwithstanding the alarm 

 which the expression of such prin- . 

 ciples necessarily caused, Bavaria 



