204 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1808. 



self, that the credit or discredit of 

 that money would depend on the 

 fortune of arms to which the Aus- 

 trians were now to appeal. 



The point of time for com- 

 mencing hostilities against France 

 was well chosen. If they had 

 been commenced or unequivocally 

 and decidedly announced sooner, 

 the designs of Buonaparte on Spain 

 would have been suspended, or so 

 artfully disguised, that the mass of 

 the Spanish nation might not have 

 discovered them. After his de- 

 coying and dragging into captivity 

 the royal family, all Spain, as we 

 have seen, was in a blaze. If, 

 again, the Austrians had delayed 

 hostilities until Spain should be sub- 

 dued, the courage and the military 

 glory of the French would havebeen 

 more increased, and their power 

 more irresistible. In either case 

 France would have been involved 

 in only two wars ; one with Aus- 

 tria and one with Spain. But in 

 April 1809, there was presented 

 to France the prospect of three 

 successive wars ; the war begun, 

 but far from being terminated, in 

 Spain, which must, for a time, be 

 turned from a system of attack to 

 one of defensive measures, and 

 thereby give the Spaniards an op- 

 portunity of drawing breath and 

 recruiting their strength ; a war 

 with Austria; and, thirdly, what 

 may be called a definitive war in 

 Spain, in case of the French be- 

 ing successful in their war against 

 Austria. By this prolongation of 

 war the chances of success to the 

 general cause of the final deliver- 

 ance of Europe, a benefit by which 

 Austria, however humbled for a 

 time, must be ultimately bene- 



fitted, would be multiplied. While 

 the tyrant of France should thus 

 drag his fatigued troops from one 

 extremity of Europe to another, 

 some portions of those troops 

 might be brought to put the ques- 

 tion to themselves, to what end 

 they were thus toiling, shedding 

 their blood, and endangering their 

 lives, and act accordingly. While 

 the great French army, with Buo- 

 naparte at its head, should advance 

 from one quarter of Europe to 

 another, fortunate circumstances 

 might occur sufficiently powerful 

 to excite formidable insurrections 

 in his rear. 



War was declared by Austria 

 against France in the form of a 

 proclamation of the archduke 

 Charles, glowing with sentiments 

 the most fitted to rouze indigna- 

 tion against the French, and 

 awaken all their love for their 

 own country, dated at Vienna, 

 April 6, 1809.* Proclamations 

 in the same strain were also is- 

 sued, one by the emperor Francis 

 to the Austrian nation, April 8 ; 

 and of the same date by the arch- 

 duke Charles to the German na- 

 tions. These proclamations were 

 followed by a manifesto, detailing 

 the various causes of just offence, 

 provocation and alarm, which 

 Austria had receiTed from France ; 

 the sacrifices the emperor had 

 made for the continuance of 

 peace ; the principles of self-de- 

 fence; and a due regard to the 

 independence and the interests to 

 the neighbouring and all other 

 nations that guided the conduct of 

 his imperial majesty at the present 

 crisis. 



The principal consideration that 

 , determined 



State Papers,' p. li9. 



