STATE PAPERS. 



6SS 



ihe weakened the barrier between 

 France and -the principal states of 

 the south of Germany, and when, 

 by a combined system of sequestra- 

 tions, pretensions, caresses, and me- 

 naces, she was incessantly aiming to 

 secure to herself an exclusive, uni- 

 versal, and arbitrary influence, over 

 that part of the German empire. 

 She, therefore, evidently violated 

 the existing treaties, and every one 

 of her acts may be considered as an 

 infraction of the peace. Since the 

 rupture of the treaty of Amiens, 

 Austria had, on more than one oc- 

 casion, shewn a partiality to Eng- 

 land. She had recognised by her 

 acts the pretended right of blockade, 

 which the cabinet of St. James's has 

 dared to arrogate, and according to 

 which, a simple declaration of the 

 English admiralty is sufficient to put 

 under interdict all the coasts of a 

 vast empire; she had suffered, with- 

 out remonstrance or complaint, the 

 neutrality of her flag to be continu- 

 ally violated, to the detriment of 

 France, against whom all the vio- 

 lences offered to neutral flags were 

 evidently directed. All these facts 

 were known to the emperor : many 

 of them excited his solicitude. These 

 were real grievances : they would 

 have been just motives for war ; but 

 for the love of peace, the emperor 

 even abstained from all complaint, 

 and the court of Vienna received 

 from him only new testimonies of 

 deference. He made a law for hira- 

 icU to avoid every thing that could 

 give offence to Austria. When call- 

 ed by the wishes of his people of 

 Italy, he repaired to Milan, troops 

 were assembled, camps were formed, 

 with the single view of mixing mili- 

 tary pomp with religious and politi- 

 cal solemnities, and of presenting 

 the sovereign majesty in the midst of 



that splendor that pleases the eyes 

 of the people. The emperor will 

 allow that he had also some pleasure 

 in seeing his companions in arms re- 

 assembled in the places, and on the 

 very spots which were consecrated 

 by their victories; but wishing to 

 prevent the uneasiness of the courf 

 of Vienna, if it were possible that 

 court ceuld feel any on the occasi- 

 on, he caused that court to be as- 

 sured of his pacific intentions, by 

 declaring that the camps which had 

 been formed would be raised after 

 some days, and this promise was ex- 

 actly fulfilled. — Austria answered 

 by protestations equally friendly and 

 pacific, and the emperor quitted 

 Italy with the pleasing hope that the 

 peace of the continent would be pre- 

 served. But how great was his as- 

 tonishment, when scarcely arrived 

 in France, while at Boulogne hasten- 

 ing the preparations for an expediti- 

 on which he was at length on the 

 point of carrying into effect, he re- 

 ceived fromall parts the intelligence^ 

 that a general motion pervaded all 

 the forces of the Austrian monarchy; 

 that they were advancing by forced 

 marches on the Adige, in the Tyrol, 

 and on the banks of the Inn, that 

 those absent on furlough were re- 

 called, that magazines were forming, 

 that arms were manufacturing, that 

 levies of horses were raising, that 

 they were erecting fortifications in 

 the defiles of the Tyrol and about 

 Venice, and that every thing was 

 doing which announces and is cha- 

 racteristic of an impending war* 

 The emperor could not at first be- 

 lieve that Austria seriously wished 

 for war; that she wished to commit 

 to new hazards, and to condemn to 

 new calamities her people, fatigued 

 by so many reverses, and exhausted 

 by so many isacrifices. Having had 



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