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and the wifdom of! Praife the temperance and juftice of William and Leopold! Exalt the chastity of Meffalina, the conjugal fidelity and the modefty of Catherine! Praise the invincible averfion of all former, prefent, and future defpots, from ufurpation and tyranny-their tender folicitude for oppreffed innocence their religious refpect for the rights of man.

They accufe us of irreligion-they give out, that we have declared war against God himself.-How edifying is the piety of tyrants! and how, pleafing to heaven must be thofe virtues which fhine in their courts! Who is the God they are talking of? Do they know of any but pride, debauchery, and all forts of vices? They call themselves images of God, perhaps in order to cause all the world to defert his altars. They affert, that their authoxity is his work!-No! God has created tygers; and Kings are the mafter-piece of human corruption: they invoke heaven in order to ufurp the world. They talk of God to put themselves in his place; they refer to him the prayers of the poor, and the groans of the wretched; they themselves are the gods of the rich, the oppreffors and the affaffins of the people. To revere God and punish Kings is one and the fame thing. What people ever offered fo pure a worship to the Supreme Being as we do? Under his aufpices we have proclaimed the eternal principles of all human fociety. We have figned the death-warrant of tyrants, forgotten in the enervated and timorous minds of men. The world was the exclusive property of two or three races of tyrants, as the defart wilds of Africa are the domains of tygers and ferpents. We have restored it to human kind. The laws of eter nal juftice were, by way of contempt, called the laws of honeft people; we have given them a real and beneficial existence. Morals were confined to the writings of philofophers, we have by them ennobled the government of nations.

Nations! if you are not able to avail yourfelves of the titles which we have conquered for you, at leaft do not violate our rights, nor calumniate our courage. The French are not infected with the furor of rendering other nations free and happy against their own will. All the tyrants might have nodded and died on the blood-cemented thrones, had they chosen to respect the independence of the French people; we only wish to enlighten you with respect to their impudent calumnies.

Your mafters tell you, that the French nation has profcribed all kind of religions; and replaced the adoration of God by that of fome individuals. They represent us to you as a mad and idolatrous nation. They lie. The French people and their reprefentatives refpect all forts of religious worship, and do not profcribe any. They revere the virtue of the martyrs of huma nity without idolatry. They abhor intolerance and perfecution, whatever cloak they may affume. They equally condemn the

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wild extravagancies of philofophy, the follies of fuperftition, or the crimes of fanaticifm.

Your tyrants impute to us fome irregularities, which are infeparable from the ftormy periods of a great revolution. They lay at our doors the refults of their own intrigues, and the dark deeds of their own emiffaries. Whatever is great and fublime in our revolution, is the work of the French people: whatever bears a different character belongs to our cnemies. All great and magnanimous men fide with the Republic; all treacherous and corrupted beings embrace the caufe of your tyrants. Do we reproach the fun for a few fhady clouds, which obfcure his brilliant orbit? Can auguft Libery lofe her charms divine, because emiffaries of defpotifm strive to defile them? Your misfortunes and our's are the crimes of the common enemies of humanity. Can this be with you a reason to hate us? No:-it is an urgent reason to punifh them.

The wretches denounce to you the founders of the Republic. The modern Tarquiniuffes have dared to fay, that the Senate of Rome was a band of robbers. The fervants of Porfenna treated Scaevola as an affaffin. According to the manifefto of Xerxes, Ariftides had robbed the treasury of Greece. Their hands armed with daggers and ftained with Roman blood, Octavius, Antonius, and Lepidus, ordered all the Romans to believe, that they alone were eminently mild, juft, and virtuous. In the eyes of Tiberius and Sejanus, Brutus and Caffius were nothing but bloody-minded fellows and impoftors.

Frenchmen! People of all countries! every infult against L berty in the perfons of your reprefentatives, is directed against yourselves. Several Members of the Convention have been charged with weakneffes, others with crimes. What has all this to do with the French people? What elfe does this prove against the Convention but the force it imparts to the weak, and the punishment it inflicts on the guilty; all the armies of the tyrants of Europe have been repulfed, in fpite of five years treafon, confpiracies, and domeftic broils. The fcaffold of faithlefs deputies has been erected near that of the laft tyrant: the immortal tablets on which, in the midft of mighty storms, the reprefentatives of the people have engraven the focial bond of the French peopleall men equal before the law; and all great criminals trembling at the fight of justice, notwithstanding the perfidy of our enemies: the people full of energy and wisdom, terrible and juft; rallying at the voice of Reason, and learning to difcern their enemies, even under the mask of patriotifm: the French people run. ning to arms, in order to defend the magnificent work of their courage and their good fenfe. This is the picture which we hold forth to confound our enemies.

We

We are alfo able, if neceffary, to make good other titles. Our blood too has flowed for our country. The National Convention can fhow to the friends and enemies of France, honourable scars and glorious mutilations. Two illustrious adverfaries of tyranny have fallen here under the poignard of a criminal faction; a worthy rival of their republican virtues, fhut up in a befieged town, formed the glorious plan, with a few companions; to fight his way through the encircling phalanx of the enemy; a noble victim of an odious treason, he fell into the hands of the fatellites of Austria, and now expiates in torment his fublime attachment to the cause of Liberty. Other representatives penetrated through the fouthern countries, and, fcarce able to efcape from the fury of traitors, faved the French army, betrayed by treacherous chiefs, and forced the fatellites of the tyrants of Auftria, Spain, and Piedmont, to fly. In Toulon, the difgrace of the French nation, Bayle and Beauvair have died for their country and its facred laws: under the walls of this facrilegious city, Gafparin, directing the thunder which was to punifh it, and animating the republican valour of our warriors, has fallen a victim to his courage and the wickednefs of our enemies.

The north and the fouth, the Alps and the Pyrenees, the Scheldt and the Rhine, the Loire, the Mozelle, and the Sambre, have feen our republican battalions rally themselves at the voice of the reprefentatives of the people, under the colours of Liberty and Victory. The one party has perished-the other triumphs. The whole Convention braves death, and the fury of ty

rants.

Illustrious defenders" of the caufe of kings, princes, minifters, generals, courtiers, name to us your civic virtues-recount to us the important fervices that you have rendered humanity-talk to us of the fortreffes conquered by the force of your guineas-extol to us the talents of your emiffaries, and the eagerness of your foldiers to fly before the defenders of the Republic-boaft of your noble contempt for the rights of men and for humanity.-Vaunt of your exploits in America, at Genoz, and at Toulon-efpecially boaft of your ability in the art of poisoning and affaffination.

Generous people, we fwear that you fhall be revenged !-The Houfe of Auftria fhall perish fooner than France. London fhall be free before Paris fhall return to flavery !-Let traitors trem ble-let the laft of the cowardly emiffaries of our enemies difappear-let patriotifm triumph, and innocence no longer despair. Fight-your caufe is holy-your courage is invincible-your re prefentatives know how to die-they can do no more-they know how to conquer

CORRES

CORRESPONDENCE

ON the 14th of September, 1791, LOUIS XVI. KING OF THE FRENCH, having, in the National Assembly, accepted the New Constitution, and taken the Oath to defend it, foon afterwards fent a Circular Letter to all Foreign Courts, notifying his accept

As the Difpofitions of the different Powers in Europe were then manifefted in their Anfwers, this is thought a proper era for commencing the Correfpondence, in which may gradually be traced the Progrefs of thofe Hoftile Sentiments that ultimately produced a Rupture.

Letter of the Emperor Leopold II. to the King of France, in Anfwer to the Notification of his acceptance of the Conftitution, read in the National Affembly, on the 16th November, 1791.

YOUR

OUR Majefty's Ambaffador fent us the letters containing the notification of your acceptance of the New Constitution, which was prefented to you. The more closely we are united by the ties of blood, friendship, alliance, and neighbourhood, the more we have at heart the preservation of your Majefty, and of the Royal Family; and likewife the dignity of you Crown and the welfare of the French Monarchy. We therefore fincerely with, that the part your Majefty has thought proper to take in the prefent ftate of affairs, may have all the fuccefs that you expect, and may answer your views for the public felicity; and at the fame time that the alarming apprehenfions for the common caufe of Kings and Princes may ceafe for the future, and prevent the neceffity of taking ferious precautions againft their renewal.

The King of Sardinia.

1 HAVE received the letter which it pleafed your Majefty to write on the 25th of September. The juftice it does to my fen

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timents, in not doubting of the intereft which I have always at heart, in every thing which perfonally concerns you, or the happiness of your family and fubjects, will ever give me the greatest fatisfaction. I request your Majefty will be equally perfuaded of my joy at the new affurances given of the continuation of your friendship. What I have profeffed to you fhall never diminish or change, and nothing shall ever leffen my endeavours to convince you of it.

Anfwer of their High Mightineffes the States-General of the United Provinces, dated Oct. 4.

Sire,

WE have received the letter which your Majefty did us the honour to write, under date the 19th ultimo, and by which your Majefty informs us you have determined to accept the Conftitutional Code which had been decreed and prefented to your Majefty by the National Affembly:

We are highly fenfible of this new mark of friendship and good-will, which your Majefty has given by informing us of this event, and we haften to return you our thanks for the fame. We feize with alacrity this occafion, as on every other which prefent themselves, to testify to your Majefty the lively interest we take in all which concerns your auguft perfon, as alfo the welfare and profperity of the French Monarchy.

We have alfo felt the greatest satisfaction in finding in the letter of your Majefty, the affurance of your defire to render more and more unalterable the connexions which fubfift between your and our Republic; and, as we are animated with the fame fentiments, we shall on our fide take every care to cultivate a mutual intercourfe, and to cement, more and more, the happy ties which unite the French nation to ours.

The following is the SUBSTANCE of the other Anfwers, divefted of their formal Language:

Great-Britain

TESTIFIED a lively intereft for the happiness of the Kings his family, and his fubjects.

Pruffia

DECLARED that the interest he felt in this event was perfectly conformable to the affurances of efteem given by the King of France:

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