367] THE PLEBISCITE IN THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 69 



surance of all privileges formerly held by them under Maria 

 Theresa. His offer and request of submission were refused, 

 as was the suggestion of mediation by the Triple Alliance. 

 The invasion which followed terminated in the subjection 

 of the Belgian Republic to its pre-revolutionary status and 

 the Treaty of peace of December 2, 1790, concluded at the 

 Hague.5^ 



Revolutionary France, not yet a republic, had watched 

 matters in Belgium with keenest interest. " There is," said 

 Lafayette, "not a Frenchman who does not yield to the 

 Belgian people his applause and good wishes."^® He had, 

 in the beginning of 1790, sent two of his intimates to Bel- 

 gium to incite the Vonckists against the ruling conservatist 

 revolutionists. The Austrian successes aroused the French 

 to the fear that the Austrians, once more masters of the 

 Netherlands, could and would from there easily move to 

 intervene in France in favor of the endangered Louis XVL 

 War between Austria and France prepared the way for 

 French intervention in Belgium. Belgian refugees in 

 France were working for revenge, thus giving the French 

 further incentive and justification for intervention. In 

 April, 1792, the French Legislative Assembly ordered the 

 attack upon the Austrians in Belgium. The Minister of 

 War favored a Belgian insurrection and expected such to 

 take place with the appearance of the French. Since the 

 Austrian Government had asked the fitats de Brabant to 

 vote the subsidies required for its war, the French con- 

 sidered it their duty "to invade Belgium without delay, to 

 snatch from the Austrians the gold of the people of Bra- 

 bant, to give to France ' the resources of a great value 

 which it lacked \nmnqt<ait'].'"^° The battle of Jemappes 

 or Mons of November 6, 1792, decided the fate of the con- 

 testants in favor of the French. Within a month all Bel- 

 gium was in their hands. At the occasion of his entry into 

 Mons, Duinouriez, wiio had charge of the French cam- 



»« Ibid., pp. 35-44. 

 "" Tl)i<l.. p. 46. 

 ""Ibid., p. 55. 



