STATE PAPERS. 
will act in the same manner with 
respect to the augmentation of ter- 
ritory he pretends to bestow on his 
allies. 
These were all preludes to the 
steps he took against Prussia: we 
now approach the moment which 
determined his majesty. 
Prussia had hitherto derived no- 
thing from her treaties with France 
‘but humiliation and loss ; one sin- 
gle advantage remained. The fate 
of Hanover was in her power ; and 
it must remain, unless the last 
pledge of the security of the north 
were annihilated. Napoleon had 
solemnly guaranteed this state of 
things, yet he negotiated with Eng- 
_Jand on the basis of the restoration 
of the electorate. ‘The king is in 
_ possession of the proofs. 
War was now in fact declared— 
declared by every measure taken 
by France. Every month produced 
a new notification of the return of 
his army; but, on one frivolous 
pretext or another, it was still con- 
tinued in Germany; and for what 
purposes ?—Gracious heaven! to 
eradicate the last trace of sovereignty 
-among the Germans—to.treat kings 
as governors appointed by himself— 
to drag before military tribunals ci- 
tizens only responsible to their own 
governments; to declare others 
outlaws who lived peaceably in fo- 
reign states, under foreign sove- 
reigns, and even in the capital of a 
German emperor, because they had 
published writings in which the 
French government, or at least its 
despotism, was attacked ; and this 
at the time when the same govern- 
ment daily permitted hired libellers 
to attack, under its protection, the 
honour of all crowned heads, and 
the most saered feelings of nations. 
809 
The French troops were in no 
manner diminished, but continually 
reinforced and augmented, and con- 
tinually advanced nearer to the 
frontiers of Prussia or her allies, 
till they at length took a position 
which could onty menace Prussia, 
and were even assembled in force in 
Westphalia, which certainly was not 
the road to the. Mouths of tbe 
Cattaro. 
It was no'longer doubtful that 
Napoleon had determined to over- 
whelm Prussia with war, or torender 
her for everincapable of war, since he 
was leading her from humiliation to 
humiliation, till she should be re- 
duced to such a state of political 
degradation and feebleness, that, 
deprived of every defence, she could 
have no other will than that of her 
formidable neighbour. 
The king delayed no longer. He 
assembled hisarmy. General Kno- 
belsdorf was sent to Paris with the 
final declaration of this majesty. 
Only one measure remained which 
could give security to the king, 
which was the return of the French 
troops over the Rhine. General 
Knobelsdorf had orders to insist on 
this demand ; it was not the whole 
of the king’s just demands, but it 
was necessary that it should be the 
first, since it was the condition of 
his future existence. The acceptance 
or refusal of it must shew the real 
sentiments of the French emperor. 
Unmeaning professions — argue 
ments, the real virtue of which were 
known by long experience—were 
the only answer the king received. 
Far from the French army being 
recalled, it was announced that it 
would be reinforced; but with a 
haughtiness still more remarkable 
than this refusal, an offer was made, 
that 
