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with having Geneva a republic; Brissot declared, in the convention, that a communication of the French principles ought to be the only conditions of their friendship."--Upon these principles the state acted in its subsequent transactions with the Genevese republic. Montesquiou, as we have seen, received orders to invest the city, in resentment of its having introduced the Swiss troops. And when that general, agreeably with the professed grounds of the war, admitted the citizens to a capitulation, and engaged to withdraw his troops on condition that the Swiss troops were withdrawn, his act was exclaimed against in the convention; and the general was ordered to revoke it. Moreover, on his shewing an unwillingness to comply with their commands, orders were dispatched to bring him under an arrest to Paris; the execution of which he evaded by flight.

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Clavieres, a Genevese, who had been proscribed by the aristocrats in a revolution wherein that party had been triumphant, and was now minister of finance in France, had been the chief instigator of these severities against his countrymen; and that minister and Brissot had united their influence for their oppression. They appeared, however, at this instant, to relent: and a decree was passed, importing "that on condition that the Swiss troops were withdrawn, the French troops should pay due regard to the neutrality and independence of Geneva, and should evacuate its terri"tories, if they now occupied them."

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The citizens who were imposed on by this act, in which these ministers appeared to relax from their rigour, had soon cause to repent of their credulity. In order to provide an occasion for a further interference in the affairs of the republic, that description of inhabitants denominated natives, or sons of foreigners, were instigated to renew the claim which they had. before made of admission into the general assembly.-A clamour, as intended, was the consequence; and was made a pretence for the introduction of French troops. The Swiss being now withdrawn, no effectual resistance could be made; and the independence of Geneva may, from, this instant, be considered as absolutely surrendered; the former government being replaced by two committees, one for civil, the other for military affairs, under the control of France.

f

GERMANY.

1792

+ October 22.

b D'Ivernois. 13. • Planta. 2. 383.

d Id. 2. 379.

e D'Ivernois. 15.

f Id. 15. Planta. 2. 284.

1792

GERMANY AND PRUSSIA.

THE powers of Europe were daily more confirmed in their sentiments respecting the affairs of France; the disposition to war grew stronger, and the confidence of success was heightened by a persuasion that a contest with such a state would be considered as a common cause in which all regular governments would unite.-The emperor continued to insist on a redress of the grievances sustained by the princes of the empire, who had possessions in Alsace.—Supported by his Prussian majesty, who was more ardent than himself, when informed that the French government meditated an invasion of Treves, in order to disarm the emigrants assembled there, he declared that he should consider such an act of hostility against a member of the empire as a declaration of war."-By this line of policy he provided himself and his allies with a plea for warlike preparations, he gained time for negotiations, and prepared to throw the odium on their more impetuous enemy.

The more effectually to combine the powers which were hostile to France, he intended, it was thought, to propose a congress for the purpose of discussing the interests of the pope and the German princes; to support that measure by a general arming; and thus to attempt, without engaging in hostilities, to intimidate France by the formidable aspect of such a league.— Whatever were his intentions, the execution of them was anticipated by a decree of the national assembly," which declared all Frenchmen traitors to "their country who should consent to submit the independence of the "French nation to the decision of a congress.

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What would have been the consequence of this bold measure, or what influence the councils of so wise, so temperate, and politic a prince as Leopold would have had on the future proceedings of the league, his death, which happened suddenly at this time,† prevented from being ascertained.

He was succeeded in his hereditary dominions by his son, FRANCIS THE SECOND, who was soon after raised, to the imperial throne.-This young

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prince, who had more warmth than his father, became an advocate for those warlike councils to which the Prussian monarch was himself inclined, and to which his ministers and the emigrant princes encouraged him.—There were, indeed, some persons at the court of Berlin who were averse to war. Prince Henry of Prussia, one of the wisest and most disinterested of his majesty's counsellors, gave it as his opinion, that, by attempting to cure the evil, they would make it worse.-And Boufflers, in the face of the passions and prejudices of Frederic William and those counsellors who persuaded him that one campaign would be sufficient to accomplish the ends of the league, and that he would return from it crowned with the glory of having restored the French monarch to his sovereignty, dared to predict, "that the "measures they were about to take would exasperate the people whom they "wished to calm; that they would endanger the life of the monarch; and "that he could not force the French nation to receive laws dictated by a foreigner."-But these counsels were disregarded. And Frederic William, deceived by the representations of the emigrant princes, and actuated by motives of policy or ambition, shook off the habits of luxurious pleasure to which his favourite countess d'Enhof had by her influence enslaved him, and took the field with the duke of Brunswick, with a presumptuous expectation of success.

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We have already seen, in the French history, the transactions which preceded the campaign, and monsieur de Boufflers's prediction fully realized in the events which happened in the prosecution of it. We have seen the allies commencing their operations in a manner that afforded occasion of triumph to the advocates of warlike councils. And, in the course of a few weeks, we have seen their hopes blasted; disaffection beginning to prevail among them; the duke of Brunswick retreating with an army wasted by disease; and a campaign, from which such vast achievements had been expected, terminating in such successes on the part of their enemy as must have exceeded their most sanguine expectations; successes which laid the foundation of those schemes of conquest which they immediately projected, and, unfortunately for the welfare of Europe, have since accomplished.

DENMARK.

1792

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1792

DENMARK.

AGREEABLY with the pacific councils which had long prevailed at the court of Denmark, when his Danish majesty was solicited by the courts of Vienna and Berlin, to join the confederacy formed to redress the wrongs of the injured princes of the empire, and to maintain monarchical government on its proper basis in France, count de Bernstorf, in his majesty's name, assured the confederate princes of his good wishes to their cause, but declined an active interference in its support on these very rational grounds: that Lewis the Sixteenth had accepted the existing constitution in France, and had not yet called on foreign powers to avenge his cause:† that being situated at a distance from France, Denmark ought to be considered in a different predicament from the German powers: and that peace was essential to the welfare of a maritime state, which depended chiefly on its commerce for its prosperity."

1792

SWEDEN.

GUSTAVUS was preparing for his enterprise, regardless of the evils, arising from an arbitrary and ill-digested government, under which his people were struggling, and which the healing influence of peace and tranquillity alone could remedy, when the kingdom was saved from the embarrassments incident on war by a flagitious deed which spread a momentary terror and consternation over the kingdom.

We have seen the steps by which Gustavus had possessed himself of that ascendency in the state which had been before enjoyed by the aristocracy. His success had given him power; and his wise policy and the patriotism which marked his general conduct had confirmed him in it.-His opponents had no hopes of recovering their power, therefore, except by some desperate

action

+ June 1.

a

State Papers. Annual Register. 316.

action which might throw the kingdom into confusion.-These turbulent spirits, whilst their breasts were burning with disappointed ambition, being their own confessors, were provided with a salvo to quiet their consciences, if they could not justify themselves in the eyes of the world, in the violence used by Gustavus to subvert the late constitution; and men actuated by the thirst of power, and furnished with a plausible plea for its gratification, are seldom at a loss for agents to execute their purposes.

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A conspiracy was formed against him, by a number of persons who had conceived a rancorous hatred of him on various accounts; and they resolved to kill him amidst the confusion of a masked ball.-Lilien Horn, one of the conspirators, stung with remorse, and desirous to save his sovereign's life without betraying his accomplices, advised him by a note, not to attend the entertainment where the bloody deed was to be perpetrated: and some of his majesty's confidential friends warmly recommended an attention to this friendly admonition. But Gustavus, who possessed great personal courage, either despised the danger, or thought that the best means to avoid it was to affect a disregard of it. He was, however, destined to fall a victim to his temerity. As he entered the ball-room, an assassin, named Ankerstroem, formerly an ensign in the guards, fired a pistol at him, loaded with slugs and rusty nails, which were lodged in his body.t-Part of them were extracted; but what remained brought on a mortification. In this last awful scene of his life the king discovered the same composure of mind, the same cool intrepidity, which had distinguished his character in every preceding part of it. Being apprized by his own feelings that his death was certain, he prepared for it with manly fortitude. His son being a minor, in the settlement of the state, which chiefly engaged his attention during the short interval of life, he committed the government to his brother, the duke of Sudermania, as regent of the kingdom.-This monarch was in his forty seventh year when he expired.-His character was strongly marked, as we may observe in the occurrences of his reign. His manly virtues were contrasted by his vices and defects: his restless ambition detracted much from his merit as a sovereign: but his brilliant talents, and his martial and political achievements, particularly in liberating the state from the thraldom in which it had been held by Russia, entitle him to a high rank among the Swedish monarchs.

GUSTAVUS

1792

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