B. Decree upon the Non-Juring Clergy. 1791. Duvergier, Lois, IV, 20-22.

November 29,

The National Assembly, after having heard the report of the civil commissioners sent into the department of the Vendée, the petitions of a large number of citizens, and the report of the committee of civil and criminal legislation upon the disturbances excited in several departments of the kingdom by the enemies of the public welfare, under pretext of religion; Considering that the social contract ought to bind, as it ought equally to protect, all the members of the State;

That it is important to define, without ambiguity, the terms of that engagement, in order that a confusion in its words may not effect one in its ideas; that the oath, purely civic, is the surety which every citizen ought to give of his fidelity to the law and of his attachment to society, and that difference of religious opinions cannot be an impediment to the taking of the oath, since the constitution secures to every citizen complete liberty of his opinions in the matter of religion, provided that their expression does not disturb order, or involve acts injurious to the public security;

That the minister of a sect, in refusing to recognize the constitutional act which authorises him to profess his religious opinions, without setting over against him any other obligation than respect for the order established by the law and for the public security, would announce, by this refusal itself, that it was his intention not to respect them;

That in determining not to recognize the law, he voluntarily renounces the advantages which that law alone can guarantee;

That the National Assembly, eager to devote itself to the great matters which call for its attention for the consolidation of credit and the system of finances, with regret sees itself obliged to first turn its attention to the disorders which have a tendency to compromise all parts of the public service, by preventing the prompt assessment and peaceable collection of the taxes;

That in tracing the source of these disorders it has heard the voice of all the citizens clearly proclaiming the authority of that great truth, that religion is for the enemies of the con

stitution only a pretext of which they make an ill use and an instrument of which they venture to avail themselves in order to disturb the earth in the name of heaven;

That their mysterious offences easily escape ordinary measures, which do not get hold of the clandestine ceremonies in which their plots are enveloped and by which they exercise over consciences an invisible authority;

That it is time finally to pierce these obscurities, in order that the peaceable and well intentioned citizen may be distinguished from the turbulent priest and contriver who mourns for the ancient abuses and does not pardon the revolution for having destroyed them;

That these considerations imperatively demand that the Legislative Body should take ample political measures to repress the factious who cover their conspiracies with a sacred veil;

That the efficiency of these measures depends in great part upon the patriotism, prudence and firmness of the municipal and administrative bodies and the energy which their impetus can communicate to all the other constituted authorities;

That the department administrations, especially, can under the circumstances render the greatest service to the nation and cover themselves with glory by making haste to respond to the confidence of the National Assembly, which will always be pleased to distinguish their zeal, but which at the same time will punish severely the public functionaries whose lack of zeal in the execution of the law may have the appearance of a tacit connivance with the enemies of the constitution;

That, finally, it is especially to the progress of sane reason and well directed public opinion that it is reserved to achieve the triumph of the law, to open the eyes of the inhabitants of the country districts to the perfidious interest of those who wish to make them believe that the constituent legislators have laid hands upon the religion of their fathers, and to prevent for French honor, in the age of enlightenment the renewal of the horrible scenes by which superstition has unhappily only too often soiled their history in the ages in which the ignorance of the people was one of the forces of the government;

The National Assembly, having previously decreed urgency, decrees as follows:

I. Within a week, dating from the publication of this decree, all ecclesiastics other than those who have conformed to the decree of November 27 last shall be required to present themselves before the municipality of the place of their domicile, to take there the civic oath in the terms of article 5 of title II of the constitution, and to sign the record, which shall be signed without expense to them.

3. Those of the clergymen of the Catholic sect who have given the example of submission to the laws and of attachment to their fatherland in taking the civic oath, according to the form prescribed by the decree of November 27, 1790, and who have not retracted it, are dispensed from any new formality; they are to be without exception maintained in all the rights which have been attributed to them by preceding decrees.

4. As to the other ecclesiastics, none of them may henceforth receive, claim, or obtain pension or salary out of the Public Treasury, except by presenting proof of the taking of the civic oath, in conformity with article I above.

6. Besides the forfeiture of all salary and pension, the ecclesiastics who shall have refused to take the civic oath, or who shall retract it after having taken it, by this refusal or this retraction shall be reputed suspects of revolt against the law and of bad intention against the fatherland and as such shall be more especially submitted to and recommended to the surveillance of all the constituted authorities.

7. In consequence, every ecclesiastic having refused to take the civic oath (or who shall retract it after having taken it) who is present in a commune wherein there shall occur disturbances of which religious opinions shall be the cause or pretext may be provisionally removed from the place of his usual domicile in virtue of an order of the department directory upon the notification of that of the district, without prejudice to the denunciation to the tribunals, according to the gravity of the circumstances.

8. In case of disobedience to the order of the department directory the offenders shall be prosecuted in the tribunals and

punished by imprisonment in the head-town of the department. The term of this imprisonment shall not exceed one year.

18. Letter of Louis XVI to the King of Prussia.

December 3, 1791. Feuillet De Conches, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette et Madame Elizabeth, IV, 269-271.

This letter is selected out of many written from the French court in 1791-1792, suggesting or soliciting outside interference in behalf of the authority of the King. At the time the existence of this correspondence, though strongly suspected, was not positively known.

Paris, December 3, 1791.

Monsieur my Brother, I have learned through M. du Moustier of the interest which Your Majesty had expressed not only for my person, but also for the welfare of my kingdom. The disposition of Your Majesty towards me in giving these proofs, in all the cases where that interest might be useful for the weifare of my people, has warmly aroused my sensibility. I lay claim to it with confidence in this moment, wherein, despite the acceptance which I have made of the new Constitution, the factions openly exhibit the project of destroying entirely the remnants of the Monarchy. I have just addressed myself to the Emperor, the Empress of Russia, the Kings of Spain and of Sweden, and presented to them the idea of a congress of the principal Powers of Europe, supported by an armed force, as the best manner to check the factions here, to give the means to establish a more desirable order of things, and to prevent the evil which afflicts us from being able to take possession of the other States of Europe. I hope that Your Majesty will approve of my ideas and that you will preserve the most absolute secrecy upon the step that I have taken with you. You will easily realize that the circumstances in which I find myself compel the greatest circumspection on my part. That is why only the Baron de Breteuil is informed of my projects, and Your Majesty can communicate to him what you shall wish. I take this occasion to thank Your Majesty for the acts of kindness which you have shown to M. Heyman, and I ex

perience a real delight in giving to Your Majesty the assurances of esteem and affection with which I am,

LOUIS.

19. Declaration of War Against Austria.

April 20, 1792. Duvergier, Lois, IV, 117-118.

The outbreak of the war between France and Austria in 1792 was one of the turning points of the Revolution. This document contains a concise statement of one class of the causes which produced the war, i.e., the avowed causes from the French standpoint.

REFERENCES. Gardiner, French Revolution, 101-105; Mathews, French Revolution, 191-193; Clapham, Causes of the War of 1792, Chs. VI-IX; Lavisse and Rambaud, Histoire Generale, VIII, 126128; Sorel, L'Europe et la Revolution Francaise, II, 516-520.

The National Assembly, deliberating upon the formal proposition of the King; considering that the Court of Vienna, in contempt of the treaties, has not ceased to grant an open protection to the French rebels; that it has instigated and formed a concert with several Powers of Europe against the independence and security of the French nation;

That Francis I, King of Hungary and Bohemia, has, by his notes of March 18 and April 7 last, refused to renounce this concert ;

That, despite the proposition which has been made to him by the note of March 11, 1792, to reduce on both sides to the peace basis the troops upon the frontiers, he has continued and augmented hostile preparations;

That he has formally attacked the sovereignty of the French nation, in declaring his determination to support the pretentions of the German princes to possessions in France. for which the French nation has not ceased to offer indemnities;

That he has sought to divide the French citizens and to arm them against each other, by offering to the malcontents a support in the concert of the Powers;

Considering, finally, that the refusal to reply to the last despatches of the King of the French leaves no longer any