STATE PAPERS. 



397 



tages of an armistice, without ex- 

 posing the Allies to the danger of 

 a suspension of arms. Some par- 

 tial advantages, however, accom- 

 panied the first motions of an army 

 collected under the walls of Paris, 

 composed of the flower of the pre- 

 sent generation, the last hope of 

 the nation, and the remainder of 

 a million of warriors, who, either 

 fallen on the field of battle, or left 

 on the way from Lisbon to Mos- 

 cow, have been sacrificed for inter- 

 ests with which France had no 

 concern. Immediately the nego- 

 ciations at Chatillon assumed an- 

 other appearance. The French 

 plenipotentiary remained without 

 instructions, and went away in- 

 stead of answering the representa- 

 tions of the Allied Courts. They 

 commissioned their plenipotentia- 

 ries to give in the projet of a pre- 

 liminary treaty, containing all the 

 grounds which they deemed neces- 

 sary for the restoration of a ba- 

 lance of power, and which a few 

 days before had been presented by 

 the French Government itself, at 

 a moment, doubtless, when it con- 

 ceived its existence in danger. It 

 contained the ground-work for the 

 restoration of Europe. 



France restored to the frontiers, 

 which, under the government of 

 its Kings, had insured to it ages of 

 glory and prosperity, was to have 

 with ihe rest of Europe the bless- 

 ings of liberty, national indepen- 

 dence and peace. It depended 

 absolutely on its government to 

 end by a single word the sufferings 

 of the nation, to restore to it with 

 peace, its colonies, its trades, and 

 the restitution of its industry — 

 What did it want more ? The 

 Allies now offered, with a spirit of 

 pacification, to discuss it« wishes 



upon the subject of mutual conve- 

 nience, which should extend the 

 frontiers of France beyond what 

 they were before the wars of the 

 revolution. 



Fourteen days elapsed without 

 any answer being returned by the 

 French Government. The Pleni- 

 potentiaries of the Allies insisted 

 on the fixing of a day for the ac- 

 ceptance or rejection of the condi- 

 tions of peace. They left the 

 French Plenipotentiary the liberty 

 to present a contre projet, on con- 

 dition that this contre projet should 

 agree in spirit, and in its general 

 contents, with the conditions pro- 

 posed by the Allied Courts. The 

 10th of March was fixed by the 

 mutual consent of both parties. — 

 This term being arrived, the Frenclv 

 Plenipotentiary produced nothing 

 but pieces, the discussion of which, 

 far from advancing the proposed 

 object, could only have caused 

 fruitless negociations. A delay of 

 a few days was granted at the de- 

 sire of the French Plenipotentiary. 

 On March 15, he at last delivered 

 a contre projet, vihich left no doubt 

 that the sufferings of France had 

 not yet changed the views of its 

 Government. The French Go- 

 vernment, receding from what it. 

 had itself proposed, demanded, in 

 a new projet, that nations, which 

 were quite foreign to France, which 

 a domination of many ages could 

 not have amalgamated with the 

 French nation, should now remaia 

 a part of it; that France should^ 

 retain frontiers inconsistent with 

 the fundamental principles of equi- 

 librium, and out of all proportioi^^, 

 with the other great Powers of[, 

 Europe; that it should remain-,.; 

 master of the same positions aqd 

 poiotspf aggressiopt by meapf „of 



