STATE PAPERS. 



65 S 



France, rerived by the peace ; it 

 cherished the silly desire to drive the 

 French flag from those seas, in 

 nhich it had hitherto appeared with 

 distinction, or at least to reduce it, 

 so as that if could no longer appear 

 there but in a state of degradation, 

 unworthy of the rank which France 

 holds amonsist nations. But the mo- 

 tives of England did not terminate 

 there: she was urged on by that in- 

 satiable avidity, which makes her 

 covet the monopoly of the com- 

 merce and industry of all nations ; 

 by that unbounded pride, which in- 

 duces her to look upon herself as 

 mistress of the seas, and which is the 

 only foiaidation of the extraordi- 

 nary despotism which she exercises 

 upon them. — The cause then that 

 France had to defend, was the cause 

 of Europe, and it was natural to 

 suppose, that neither the intrigues 

 of England, nor the gold which she 

 held forth to all those who might be 

 disposed to be subservient to her 

 ambition, nor her deceitful promises, 

 could engage in her quarrel any of 

 the continental powers. No one of 

 them, in fact, appeared disposed to 

 accept either her j)ropositioiiS or her 

 recommendations. — At ease respect- 

 ing the dispositions of the continent, 

 the emperor turned all his thoughts 

 to the maritime war, for w hich every 

 thing was to be created. Fleets 

 were built ; ports were excavated ; 

 camps were formed on the shores of 

 the ocean : the emperor had assem- 

 bled there all the forces of his em- 

 I)ire ; and his troops forming them- 

 selves under his inspection for oper- 

 ations altogether new, were prepar- 

 ing for new triumphs. England 

 perceived the dangers with which 

 ihe was menaced. She wished to 

 obviate them by crimes. Assassins 

 were thrown upon the coast of 



France. The English ministers to 

 neutral powers became the agents of 

 a warfare, infamous as atrocious, of 

 a warfare of conspiracies and assas- 

 sinations. — The emperor saw into 

 those pitiful conspiracies ; he treat- 

 ed them with contempt, and was not 

 thereby prevented from offering 

 peace on the same terms which he 

 had before proposed. — So much ge- 

 nerosity could not assuage, nay, 

 seemed even to augment the frenzy 

 of the cabinet of St. James's. It« 

 answer shewed clearly that it would 

 not think of peace, till the hope 

 should be extinguished of deluging 

 the continent with blood and car- 

 nage. But it was sensible, that to 

 accomplish such a design, the asso- 

 ciation in its views of a power, by- 

 its position, almost as unconnected 

 with the continental system as Eng- 

 land, would not be sufficient ; that 

 not having any thing to expect from 

 Prussia, whose sentiments were too 

 well known, its expectation would 

 be vain, as long as Austria should 

 remain faithful to her neutrality. — 

 Austria, which had twice experi- 

 enced, at the end of two disastrous 

 wars, at the time of the treaties of 

 Campo-Formio and of Luneville, 

 the generosity that France was dis- 

 posed to shew towards a vanquished 

 enemy, did not by any means pajr 

 the same religious observance to 

 treaties, as France. Notwithstand- 

 ing the formal stipulations of these 

 treaties, the debt of Venice was not 

 discharged ; it was even declared 

 extinguished. The emperor was 

 aware, that his subjects of Milan 

 and Mantua experienced a denial 

 of justice, and that tUe court of 

 Vienna had liquidated none of their 

 demands, in contempt of the solemn 

 engagements which it had entered 

 iuto. lie was aware that the comi- 



