Austria 



138 AUSTRIA 



it was natural for Austria, as the greatest monarchy 

 of western Europe, and in contact with the revo- 

 lutionary state in many points, to adopt the most 

 efficacious means for securing herself against it. Her 

 councils, however, were divided in opinion ; and al- 

 r though she preferred the alternative of war to that 



State of 



parties in 



Austria at 



the time o. 



the FreHch > remaining at peace as long as France might think 



revolution fit to permit her, the exertions which she made at the 



in 179'-*. commencement of it bore no proportion to her own 

 resources, or to those of her antagonist. She had 

 every inducement for going into the field with all her 

 forces. No time was to be lost. France had few 

 disciplined troops ; was distracted and torn by fu- 

 rious factions ; and regarded with horror by all the 

 cabinets of Europe. In this situation, to strike a 

 decisive blow at once ; to annihilate the army which 

 protected Flanders and Paris, and which was in a 

 state of disorganization and mutiny, after the first 

 rencounter with the Austrian regulars; to draw, 

 without delay, all her disposable military force, and 

 the whole of the CJcrmanic contingents, to the fron- 

 tier of that empire, and along the Austrian border, 

 but not to advance a step farther, was a measure 

 equally consistent with the best interests of Austria 

 and Germany,~and with ths principles of political 

 justice, upon which the governments of Europe at the 

 time pretended to act. This measure was also sug- 

 gested by the wisest men at the court of Francis II. 

 They were averse from taking any part in the intes- 

 tine divisions of France ; from interfering, in any 

 shape, with her form of government or administra- 

 imn ; and deprecated, in the strongest terms, the idea 

 of attempting to dismember her by conquest, and to 

 ,iropriate any part of her territory in Flanders, or 

 elsewhere, to the Austrian empire. The measure in 

 question would, they said, protect Germany and 

 Flanders from French principles, as well as French 

 violence and arms ; it would have a powerful in- 

 fluence upon the minds of parties in France herself ; 

 it would probably compel that state to have recourse 

 to the mediation of Austria, as a friend, for reconci- 

 ling her contending factions, rather than unite those 

 I ions against her, as an invader of the French ter- 

 ritory ; and, at all events, such dignified and disinter- 

 ested policy would prevent any alarms in Germany 

 and the North, from the ulterior views of Austria. 

 On the other hand, there was a numerous and power- 

 ful party in the Austrian cabinet, which ha"d always 

 recommended a very different course. They mistook 

 the character of the French revolution from the be- 

 ginning, and neither understood its principles and 

 tendency, nor the tremendous energies which it was 

 to call into activity. These were the men who had 

 advised the partition of Poland, the various Turkish 

 wars, and the frequent unhappy interferences with 

 Bavaria, and the Swabian principalities. They were 

 men of the old school. They scorned the idea of 

 conceding any thing to public opinion, and seemed to 

 be persuaded, that Frenchmen would display, on see- 

 ing their country invaded by foreign ruffians, and its 

 population partitioned among them by commission- 

 ers and land-measurers, the same apathy which dis- 

 graces the miserable slaves of the East, and had late- 

 Iv been experienced in Gallicia and Bukowina. The 

 successful robbery in Poland had added five millions 



of souls to the population of the empire, and two mil- 

 lions sterling annually to its resources, without cost- 

 ing much money, or a single regiment to Austria. 

 Flanders, Alsatia, Loi i what had once been 



German territory . I Jirot- with a good grace 



d upon, and circumstances would perhaps af- 

 terwards occur, which might render other acquisi- 

 xpedient. It were desirable to arrendize the 

 empire, and to secure for ever its western frontier : 

 Something mirjlit be given to Prussia in the north of 

 ep her quiet in the interim ; and 

 England would be sufficiently rewarded for any mo- 

 ney Mie might advance, or any forbearance she might 

 practise on the occasion, by throwing into her hands 

 some trading station or stations an oa the 



coast of Flanders or Holland, so as to enable her mi- 

 nisters to say in parliament, that they had procured 

 a key to the storehouses and shops ot the continent, 

 and would fill them up to their entire satisfaction. 

 This party was urged to constant importunity with 

 the cabinet, by all the emigrants from France and 

 the Low Countries, who had flocked to Vienna after 

 the detention of Louis XVI. at Varennes. These 

 were joined by such Austrian subjects as had pro- 

 perty in the Netherlands, and also by all those who 

 expected promotion in the territories to be acquired, 

 or in consequence of their influence at court. 



The man who imagines that this party, however 

 numerous and strong, possessed vigour, resolution, or 

 talents, in any degree competent to the task of di- 

 recting the execution of the measures which they ad- 

 vised, would be speedily undeceived by a few hours 

 conference with them in Vienna. They in general 

 exhibited nothing of the warlike politician, excepting 

 his credulity and presumption. To the completest 

 ignorance of the state of their enemies resources and 

 preparations, they added the most shameful negli- 

 gence in calculating and improving their own. They 

 were, however, the ruling party, and soon acquired 

 the absolute disposal of the Austrian revenues, and 

 the Austrian armies. The war was to be carried on 

 with all possible energy. An army of 361,000 men 

 stood ready at their nod. Prussia was to co-operate. 

 The German contingents, amounting to 80,000 men, 

 were to join on the Rhine. Holland was to give 

 what aid she could in men and money. England was 

 expected to join either voluntarily, or to be compelled 

 by her own interest and her dread of intestine con- 

 fusion, to make common cause against France. 

 Russia kept aloof, but it was impossible that she 

 should not rejoice in the destruction of any Euro- 

 pean monarchy of the first order, which should adopt 

 republican principles, so hostile to the maxims by 

 which she was governed, and so opposite to her 

 late exhibitions in Poland. At the same time, the 

 powers, or at least the cabinets, of tlte south of Eu- 

 rope, were as little disposed as those of the north, to 

 interfere with any military operations which Austria 

 might carry on against revolutionary France. 



Such was the state of Austria relatively to the 

 powers of Europe, and to the two parties which 

 divided her own councils in 1792. 1 he war party 

 prevailed. Austria sent nearly 60,000 men into the 

 Low Countries. She ought to have sent three times 

 that number, and she might easily have done it, as she 



Austria. 



