STATE PAPERS. 



657 



consequence of a love jjerhaps exces- 

 sive foi peace, lie conjured Austria 

 to desist from preparations, ^¥hich, 

 in the present state of Europe, and 

 in the particular situation of France, 

 could be considered only asadccla- 

 rafion of ^var, and as the result of 

 an agreement made with Enj^land. 

 Still furtiier he desired that similar 

 representations should be addressed 

 to the court of Vienna by all his 

 neighbours, who, though strangers 

 to the cause of the war, whatever 

 that cause may be, had to fear being 

 the victims of it. The conduct of 

 the court of Vienna weakened the 

 hope every day. Far from desisting 

 from its prL'tensions, it increased 

 them. It terrified by its armaments 

 the people of Bavaria and Suabia. 

 It gave the people of Helvetia rea- 

 son to dread seeing ravished from 

 them the repose which the act of 

 mediation had restored to them. All 

 invoked France as their support, as 

 the guarantee of their rights. How- 

 ever, it dissembled still, and as a 

 pledge of its pacific intentions, it 

 ottered a sort of intervention which 

 it is did'icult to characterise, but 

 which, considering only its apparent 

 object, could be regarded only as 

 idle and puerile. The emperor of 

 Russia had caused passports to be 

 demanded for one of his chamber- 

 lains, whom he had an intention 

 ol sending to Paris. The emperor 

 kndw not what were the views of the 

 cabinet of Petersburgh, they had 

 never been communicated to him ; 

 but always ready to seize on every 

 thing that could contribute to an 

 approximation, he had granted the 

 passports without delay and without 

 explanation. All Europe knows 

 what was the reward of his de- 

 ference. The emperor learned after- 

 wards, by indirect ways, aud also by 

 Vol. XLVll. 



the reports that were clrcnlated 

 through Europe on the subject, that 

 the design of the court of Russia had 

 been, to try, by means of parleys, 

 to introduce at Paris a very strange 

 system of negotiation, by means of 

 which she would, at (he same time, 

 have stipulated for England, from 

 whom, as she said, she had full pow- 

 ers, which prove* how much England 

 was sure of her, and have negotiated 

 on her own account. So that while 

 nominally a mediator, she would 

 have been in fact a party, and that by 

 two dificrent titles. — Such was the 

 end of the intervention Russia had 

 projected, and which she herself re- 

 nonnccd, without doubt, because 

 rellection made her feel the incon- 

 venience of it. But it was precisely 

 this same intervention which the 

 good offices of Austria had for their 

 object to re-produce. It was not 

 likely that France should have suf- 

 fered herself to be placed in a situa- 

 tion in which her real enemies, under 

 the plausible name of mediators, 

 dared to flatter themselves with ini- 

 posing on her a hard and insulting 

 law ; but the cabinet of Vienna, 

 perhaps without hoping that its good 

 offices would be accepted, found a 

 great advantage in otiering them, 

 that of abusing France for a longer 

 time, making France lose time, and 

 gaining time itself. At length throw- 

 ing otf the mask, Austria has, in a 

 tardy answer, manifested, by lier 

 language, what she had announced 

 by her preparations. To the repre- 

 sentations of France she has answer- 

 ed by accusations. She has made 

 herself the apologist of England, 

 and announcing that she was open- 

 ing her states to two Russian armies, 

 she avowed openly the concert that 

 exists between her and Russia in fa- 

 vour of England. This answer of 

 U u the 



