STATE PAPERS. 



6-i3 



bring Austria to the adoption, either 

 of a sincere peace, or of an undis- 

 guised and open hostility, his ma- 

 jesty the emperor of the French 

 will fulfil all the duties imposed on 

 him by his dignity and his power; 

 he will direct his efforts to every 

 quarter in which France shall be 

 menaced. Providence has bestowed 

 on him sufficient strength to contend 

 against England with one hand, and 

 with the other to defend the honour 

 of his standards, and the rights of 

 his allies. Should the Diet adopt 

 the course which the undersigned 

 has orders to point out to it ; should 

 it succeed in representing to the 

 Tiew of the emperor of Austria, the 

 real situation in which these move- 

 ments, made perhaps without re- 

 Section, ordered perhaps without 

 any hostile intention, and solely in 

 consequence of foreign influence, 

 have placed the continent ; should 

 it succeed in persuading this sove- 

 reign, individually humane and just, 

 that he has no enemies, that his 

 frontiers are not threatened, that 

 France has twice had it in her 

 power to deprive him for ever of 

 one half of his hereditary states, if 

 she had extended her wishes beyond 

 what had been established at Campo 

 Formio and Luneville ; that, by his 

 dispositions, which even before they 

 are fully developed, afl'ect France 

 even in the centre of her action, he 

 interferes without advantage to his 

 states, and without honour to his 

 policy, in a quarrel which is foreign 

 to him, the diet will have deserved 

 well of Germany, of Switzerland, of 

 Italy, of France, of all Europe, 

 with the exception of a single na- 

 tion, the enemy of the general tran- 

 quillity, and which has founded its 

 prosperity on the hope and the de- 

 sign, ardently and jiorscverinsly 



maintained, of perpetuating the dis. 

 cord, the troubles, and the division* 

 of the continent. The undersigned, 

 &c. (Signed) Bacher. 



Austrian Amwer to the French Note. 

 Rescript delivered by the Austriait 

 Imperial Minister, to the Imperial 

 and Royal Legations at Ratisbon. 

 Dated Fienna, Sept. y, 1805. 



The declaration which the French 

 charge d'affaires was ordered to 

 communicate to the diet at Ratis. 

 bon, has been laid before his Komaa 

 and Austrian Imperial Majesty. 

 According to this declaration, the 

 states of the German empire might 

 be induced to imagine, that the ar- 

 maments and acts of violence of the 

 French emperor in Italy, have given 

 Austria no cause for a counter-arm- 

 ing ; that F.'-ance, not Austria, 

 wishes the restoration of a general 

 peace, to attain which restoration, 

 was the object of the intended inva- 

 sion of England, which Austria now 

 endeavours to interrupt, to prevent 

 the attainment of this object. With 

 this declaration is connected the 

 threat of an attack on the Germaa 

 empire, if Austria does not imme- 

 diately disarm at the order of the 

 French emperor. Called upon by 

 such a declaration made to the Ger- 

 maai diet, his majesty finds it in- 

 cumbent upon him to lay before 

 his co-estates of the empire, such 

 documents as may shew the true 

 causes and views which have com- 

 pelled him to arm. They will 

 thence perceive that Austria offered 

 its mediation for the restoration of 

 peaco and tranquillity, which France 

 refused ; that France wishes not 

 peace ; for that situation is not 

 T t 2 peace. 



