6^6 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1804. 



Since the renewal of the war, the 

 French government thinks itself 

 competent to occupy those coun- 

 tries, and deprive them of their com- 

 merce which in vain appeal to their 

 neutrality ; his imperial majefety was 

 thereby alarmed, not indeed on his 

 own account, since, from the actual 

 situation and power ot his empire, 

 his majesty can remain a quiet spec- 

 tator of those distressing scenes ; but 

 he was alarmed for the security of 

 the other states of Europe. His 

 majesty repeatedly nrged with the 

 French government, but always in- 

 effectually, that those countries at 

 least should be permitted to remain 

 neutral, whose neutrality France 

 and Russia had guaranteed by mu- 

 tual treaties ; his majesty also re- 

 peatedly disclosed his sentiments 

 ■with respect to those states that are 

 already in danger of sharing the fate 

 of Italy, of a part of Germany, and 

 of the other countries which France 

 has already got in her possession. — 

 Meanwhile the emperor saw, in 

 spite of all his exertions and remon- 

 strances, the danger increasing daily; 

 French troops, on the one side, oc- 

 cupying the coasts of the Adriatic ; 

 on the other, levying contributions 

 on the Ilanse Towns, and menacing 

 Denmark ; consequently, his impe- 

 rial majesty has resolved, as the the- 

 atre of war approaches his frontier, 

 to establish a military force, Avhich 

 shall be adequate to put a stop to 

 further encroachments. The fact is 

 notorio>is to all Euroj)e ; the empe- 

 ror was particularly desirous that it 

 might not remiain unknown to the 

 French government, and the mutu.al 

 explanations always referred to the 

 same objects. Never then did any 

 governraent act more candidly, or 

 for a purpose which requires less se- 

 cresy, or is subject to kss false con- 



structions than Russia did in th« 

 ])resent circumstances. If this con- 

 duct be not npright : if it can be 

 considered as hostile to France, or 

 as an attack on the welfare and 

 tranquillity of the German empire, 

 then there is no longer any difference 

 existing between manifest encroach- 

 ments on the one part, and that just 

 indignation which the other part 

 must consequently feel ; between at- 

 tack and defence ; between the op- 

 pression and protection of the weak. 

 — The undersigned will not, in this 

 place, examine, by the law of na- 

 tions, the question, whether the 

 French government be justified in 

 persecuting, in every country, those 

 persons whom it has exiled from 

 their own, and in prescribing to fo- 

 reign powers the manner in which 

 they shall be permitted to treat or 

 to employ the late emigrants, whom 

 they may have adopted for their 

 subjects, or employed in their ser- 

 vice. Such a tenet is at variance 

 with every principle of justice ; nay, 

 with those principles which the 

 Frtfnch nation has so solemnly pro- 

 claimed. To suppose that Russia 

 attacks the independence of the 

 states of Europe, because she will 

 not permit a person in her employ- 

 ment abroad to be appointed some- 

 where else at the will of the French 

 government, were to confound all 

 ideas and words ; or because she 

 claims another person, who is a na- 

 turalized Russian, and has just now 

 been delivered up by another state, 

 without any previous trial, and con- 

 trary to every appearance of justice. 

 — Never did the emperor protect 

 conspirators ; his noble and upright 

 character is too well known to all 

 Europe to require an elaborate con.> 

 tradiction of this assertion, as false 

 as it is indecent. The French go., 



ternmeal; 



