64Z ANNUAL REGISTER, 1805. 



directed ? Arc they agaiHst the 

 Swiss ? Are they against Bavaria ? 

 Will they, ia the end, be directed 

 against the German empire itself ? — 

 His majesty the emperor of the 

 French has charged the undersigned 

 to make known, that he will consi- 

 der, as a formal declaration of war 

 directed against himself, all aggres- 

 sions which may be attempted 

 against the German Body, and espe- 

 cially against Bavaria. His majesty 

 the emperor of the French will ne- 

 ver separate the interests of his em- 

 pire from those of the princes of 

 Germany who are attached to him. 

 Any injury which they may sustain, 

 any dangers by which they may be 

 menaced, can never be indifferent to 

 him, or foreign from his lively so- 

 licitude. Persuaded that the princes 

 and states of the German empire are 

 penetrated with the same sentiments, 

 the undersigned, in the name of the 

 emperor of the French, invites the 

 diet to unite %vith him in pressing, 

 by every consideration of justice 

 and reason, the emperor of Austria 

 not to expose for any longer period 

 the present generation to incalcu- 

 lable calamities, to spare the blood 

 of a multitude of men, doomed to 

 perish the victims of a war, the ob- 

 ject of which is foreign to Germany, 

 which, at the moment of its break- 

 ing out, is every where the subject 

 of enquiry and doubt, and whose 

 real motives cannot be avowed. — 

 The alarms of the continent will not 

 be allayed, until the emperor of 

 Austria, yielding to the just and 

 pressing representations of Germany, 

 shall cease his hostile preparations, 

 shall not keep in Suabia and in the 

 Tyrol more troops than are neocs- 

 «ary for garrisoning the places, and 

 shall replace his army on the peace 

 «stablisbHieot. Was it not under. 



stood, since the conventions enteredt 

 into in consequence of the treaty of 

 Luneville, that the Austrian armies 

 could not pass the territories of 

 Upper Austria, without committing 

 actual hostility ? Was not Austria 

 sensible at that period that France, 

 being then engaged in a foreign war, 

 having withdrawn her troops from 

 Suabia, and having put a stop to the 

 movements which it could make by 

 means of the corps of troops she had 

 in Switzerland, it was not just to op- 

 pose to such marks of confidence 

 precautions truly aggressive ? The 

 circumstances being the same at pre- 

 sent on the part of France, why are 

 the measures of Austria so different ? 

 Why does she keep sixty battalions 

 in the Tyrol and Suabia, whilst the 

 forces of France are collected at a 

 distance for an expedition against 

 England ? There exists no dif- 

 ference at this moment between the 

 Swiss republic and the German em- 

 pire ; no difference between Bava- 

 ■ ria and Austria ; and, if any cre- 

 dit is to be given to the declarations 

 of the court of Vienna, there exists 

 none between it and France. For 

 what unknown objects, then, has 

 the court of Vienna assembled so 

 many troops ? It can have but one 

 plausible object, that is, to keep 

 France in a state of indecision, to 

 place her in a state of inactivity ; 

 and, in a word, to arrest her pro- 

 gress on the eve of a decisive ef- 

 fort. But this object can only be 

 attained for a time. France has 

 been deceived ; she is no longer 

 so. She has been obliged to de- 

 fer her enterprises ; she still de- 

 fers them ; she waits the effect of 

 these remonstrances : she waits the 

 effect of the representations of the 

 Germanic diet. But, when every 

 effort shall be fruitlessly made to 



Lrinj 



