180 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1804. 



adeqimte to check further encroach- contradiction of that assertion, a* 

 menrs. Never did a government false as it is indecent. Tiie P'rcnch 



government itself is convinced of 

 the confrary ; it need only remem- 

 ber that the emperor has frequently 

 declared, that, if such an accusation 

 were proved against any Russian in 

 his employment, he ^vould hasten 

 to punish him most scverelj', for a 

 crime which he considers of a most 

 heinous nature. But the cabinet of 

 St. Cloud returned no answer to 



act more candidly, or more up- 

 riiz;htly. If such conduft be consi- 

 dered as hostile to France, or as an 

 attack upon the welfare and tran- 

 qniHity of tlie German empire, there 

 no longer any diifereirce exists be- 

 tween manifest enfioacimients on 

 the one part, and that just indigna- 

 tion which the other must feci ; 

 Letween attack and defence; be- 



tween the oppression and the jn-o- this candid communication, nor did 



teftjo'n of the weak. The under- 

 signed does not, in tliis place, ex- 

 amine, by the law of nations, the 

 question whether the French go- 

 vernment be justified in persecuting, 

 in every country, those persons 

 whom it has exiled from their own, 

 and in prescribing to foreign pow- 

 ers the manner in which they shall 

 bo permitted to treat, or to employ, 

 t)ie late emigrants, whom they may 

 have adopted as their subjects, or especially those republics that had 



it furnish any proof to support its 

 pretensions ; it has then no right to 

 complain of its unsupported demands 

 not being complied with. But, at 

 the present moment, wlien Portu- 

 gal was obliged to purchase her neu- 

 trality; wlien Naples, tosaveher's, 

 was compelled to contribute, at an 

 enormous expense, to the main- 

 tenance of Prcnch troops on her 

 own territory ; when all Italy 



** 



employed in their service. Such a 

 tenet is at variance with every prin- 

 ciple of justice, nay, with those 

 principles which the French nation 

 has solemnly proclaimed. To sup- 

 pose that Russia attacks the iiide- 



bcen promised independence and 

 happiness ; when Switzerland and 

 Holland were considered merely as 

 Frcncli provinces ; when one part 

 of the German empire is occupied, 

 while in another part French detach- 



pcndcncc of the states of Europe, menti^ execute arrests, in contempt 



because she will not permit a per- 

 .son, in her employment abroad, to 

 be appointed somewhere else, at the 

 will of the French government, 

 ■were to confound all ideas and 

 ivords ; or b^^ause she claims ano- 

 ther person, who is a naturalized 

 Russian, and who has just now been 

 d/llvered up by another state, with- 



of the sacred law of nations ; at 

 such a moment, the emperor will 

 leave to all the states mantioned, 

 nay, to the impartial opinion of th« 

 cabinet of St. Cloud itself, the de- 

 cision of the question, which of the 

 two, Russia or France, menaces 

 the security of Europe. Which of 

 them acts on principles most favou- 



out any previous trial, and contrary rable to the iudcpendencc of other 



to every appearance of justice. — 

 Nefer did tht- emperor protect con- 

 spirators ; his noble and upright 

 cliaracter is too well known to all 

 Kvi.-^opej to require an elaborate 



4 



states. Which interferes most in 

 the government and internal j)olice 

 of other countries, and practices 

 the most arbitrary acts against 

 them.* Russia entertains not the 



least 

 Vide " State Papers," page 647. 



