HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



183 



I sn the pait of the king of Sweden 

 [ ajrainst the conduct of France, in 

 violating the neutrality of the Ger- 

 man empire, in the instance of the 

 due d'Enghien. 



The part which Sweden had taken 

 in these transactions, was reflected 

 upon in language the most olfeiisive 

 and personal to his Swedish Tnajesty, 

 in a paper which appeared in the 

 French official journal, the JMoni- 

 teur, of the 14th August. He is 

 there accused of inconsistency and 

 folly ; of intermeddling in a thank- 

 less office, when he could do neither 

 good nor harm ; of uisulting his fa- 

 ther-in-lawinhiscapitalof Carlsruhe, 

 and of acting in a manner liighly 

 prejudicial to the interests of his 

 brother-in-law the elector of Bava- 

 yia, during his residence at Munich; 

 and of having abandoned his allies, 

 the Danes, to their fate, before the 

 bombardment of Copenhagen. That 

 France was perfectly indifierent to 

 all his steps ; but that she knew how 

 to discriminate between a loyal and 

 brave people, justly called the 

 French of the North, and a young 

 man, led astray by false notions, 

 and unenlightened by retleftion*. 



The elfect of this indecent attack 

 was an immediate notification to M. 

 Caillard, French charge d'affaires at 

 Stockholm, that his Swedish ma- 

 jesty could not, consistently with 

 his own dignity, and the honour of 

 his crown, after such an insult had 

 been offered to him, wherein a line 

 of separation was perfidiously at- 

 tempted to be drawn between 

 his majesty and his subjects, per. 

 mit any further diplomatic inter- 

 course, eifher public or private, to 

 subsist between the French legation 



at Stockholm, and his riiajest)'^ go- 

 Ternmeni. 



An order was likewise forthwith is- 

 sued, whereby allFrench journals, of 

 every description, and all future 

 French publications, wen; strictly 

 proliibited from being imported into 

 Sweden. » 



It might well be observed that "the 

 " French government had taken the 

 " determination invariably to adopt 

 " for its condurt, a line absolutely 

 " contrary to the principles of jus- 

 " tice, and the law of nations :" for, 

 every remon.strance addressed to 

 that upstart cabinet, really seemed 

 an additional motive for trampling 

 upon all established principles of 

 right. An adherence to the rules of 

 justice and decorum was considered 

 beneath the attention of that domi- 

 neering power ; as thti attribute o 

 weakness and pusillanimity; and un- 

 becoming the energy and greatness 

 of the regenerafed nation. No op- 

 portunity was negletled where they 

 could be set at dcliance. 



The recent expostulations, far 

 from producing any change in their 

 oflensivc system, served only to pro- 

 voke further enormities. They had 

 scarcely been expressed, when the 

 neutrality of another independent 

 member of the Germanic body was 

 infringed, in the person of an accre- 

 dited minister. 



On the night of the2$th of Octo- 

 ber, aparty of French troops passed 

 the Elbe, (in consequence, as it was 

 insultingly explained, of orders given 

 by the minister of police at Paris) 

 and seized sir George Rumbold, the 

 Bri/i.sh charge. d'affaires to the Circle 

 of Lower Saxony, at his country 

 house in the vicinity of Hamburgbj 



* This latter ohser\'ation was evidently intended to disseminate that diicord, wliich 

 18 so frequently subsisted between tlic crown ot Sweden and the people. 



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