HOYT GOLLEGTION OF FRENCH HISTORY THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA LIBRARY |^4 ft |Wi X gjE'SV^' 1 9 ", -tSwaSi. . . Jj 2# A l\l m >i l*i >^P '. • EllHIi^ V4 V "S- Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019 with funding from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill https://archive.org/details/crimesofcabinets00gold_0 - * "• . ' ■ ■ . i . THE t 1 CRIMES OF CABINETS. / 1 V ' ' ' . * * * - ' S \ - ■ / \ I THE CRIMES OF CABINETS; OR, A REVIEW OF THEIR PLANS AND AGGRESSIONS FOR THE ANNIHILATION OF THE LIBERTIES OF FRANCE AND THE DISMEMBERMENT OF HER TERRITORIES. % WITH ILLUSTRATIVE ANECDOTES MILITARY AND POLITICAL. «J£VIT AMOR FERRI ET SCELERATA INSANIA BELLI* Vll'g. BY LEWIS GOLDSMITH. ♦ L O N D O A r : PRINTED FOR, AND SOLD BY, THE AUTHOR, NO. 5> THAVIES-INN, HOLBORN, By W. TAYLOR, Little St. Thomas Apeftle, 1801. / ! ADVERTISEMENT. THE Author thinks it necejfanj to inform his , _ Readers that the publication has been nearly Tzvq Months in the Profs . The unexpected delay which has deferred its appearance, cirofe out of fome dif¬ ferences between the Mafters and Journeymen Printers . Without arrogating to himfelf any Jhare of vanity, he has already feen not a few of his predictions fully fie prays that it may not for his Country , be fatally) realized . And he finds it necejjary to acquaint the Public, that in confe- quencc of his Bool feller's rcfufal to pubtifh this Work, he is under the neeefjity of becoming his men publifher . London, Jan. 10, 1801 , ERRATA. rage 118, l lire 6, for General Worzow, read Woronzow. 211, line 3, for correfpondcnce, read Correfpondenten, 224, line 3, dele been. PREFACE. It is the duty of every man that partakes of even the limited comforts and advantages of Society, to contri¬ bute with all the means in his power, to improve the lot of his fellow citi¬ zens. Prompted by this confidera- tion, I fupprefs a diffidence which the confcioufnefs of my inability, juftly infpires, and prefent to the world at this calamitous period, a chronicle or catalogue of the moft pro¬ minent aggrejjions on the part of thofe I continental governments , falsely de¬ nominated regular , unlefs indeed we refer to their uniformly regular SYSTEM of BLOOD, RAPINE, and OPPRES¬ SION !! It is in reluctant obedience to truth, V3 PREFAC E. truth, that I mud join to this in¬ eligible fellowfhip, even the Britijh Cabinet! By the term Cabinet , how¬ ever, neither in this nor in any one of the following pages, do I mean or aflume any other view, meaning, inuendo,or interpretation, than that of his Majesty’s Ministers! Them, and them alone, do I mean by the term Cabinet , as alfo by that of Co- xermnent , whatever its adjunct, when applied to this country. This catalogue proceeds with a re¬ gular detail of the CRIMES of CA¬ BINETS, from the treaty ofPAVIA inclufive, to the clofe of this year, in a chain of FACTS which cannot be difproved. m, *ui PREFACE. VIS difproved. And having been exten- fively converfant on the Continent during the prefent war, I have it in my power to introduce fome intereft- ing anecdotes, ftrongly corroborative to the other ftatements of this publi¬ cation, and pledge myfelf to the reader that they are genuine; and I fhall ft and before him in all their native horror and deformity. Prompted by a confcious rectitude and indignation, 1 \will not be fftar- ' * n g °f m y colours. PUBLIC DELIN ¬ QUENCY SHALL HAVE A PUB¬ LIC PORTRAIT ! ! Critical cenfure is but a trifling confideration to a man that has that many headed monfter, miniflerial "vengeance in his contem- PREFACE. tm contemplation: urged by the moft facred of earthly duties, that to my fullering country, I will brave both. Indeed as to eloquence, I truft the fubjedt will give it; dolor ijife difertum faciel f and recklefs of the other, I will a tale unfold that I think will in feme meafure open the eyes of Britons, and thereby perhaps happily contribute to a change of men and me a fares, which may ftill fave the nation, and may lead it from the precipice on which it madly fports, —-fports with the drear profpect of ► _ having all her wealth, her conftitu- tion, commercial advantages, inde¬ pendence, and political dignity, fwal- lowed in the abyfs of folly, falfe am¬ bition, and madnefs. CRIME S O F CABINETS. CHAP. I. X HAT the French revolution of 178§ occafioned no fmall fliare of pain to every crowned and mitred head on the continent, is now generally admitted; nor was it lefs painfully felt in the cabinet of St. James. ** • Confternation and difmay fpread among every clafs of the privileged orders, fpiritual as well as temporal. The prince and prieft faw that knowledge began to reveal itlelf, and to dif~ * pel that mental (lavery which, for fo many ages, had enveloped mankind. Thofe /acred * perfonages 2 perfonages faw that the plentitude of their power was in its wane; at the fame time, th© example and doftrines of the French revolu¬ tion, caufed among the long injured nations on the continent fenfations equal to thofe of a blind perlonjufl; reftored to fight. To thofe whofe religious tenets and habits dif¬ fered from the eftablifhed church, it held out a profpeft of being placed on a footing with other citizens; for though their taxes and contributions were the fame as other iiibjefts paid, ftill they were deprived even of the fame circumfcribed privileges. \ \ The private intrigues of the coalefced ca¬ binets to fupprefsfuch opinions, come not alto- * In Poland, Ruffia, Courland, and part of Pruffia, the peafantry are in a date of flavery, or what is called in German, leib eigen . Thus, if an eftate is fold, all the human beings on it, are fold with the foil, in the fame manner as die negroes. In thofe countries, there are alfo markets for the purpofe of buying and felling thefe unfortunate perfons, though zealous chriftians. gether f 3 gether within the view of the prefent publica- tion ; I fhall therefore notice only their more general efforts, among which I fhall pro¬ minently clafs their mod glaring and flagi¬ tious a£is of unprovoked aggreflion. Their blind and bloody plans firft acquired diplomatic publicity at Pilnitz, where the late king of Pruffia, and the late emperor, Leopold, met to complot the molt horrid deftiny for almofl every corner of Europe ! Had the earth then been fo hungry for fuper- lative guilt, as when it fwallowed Korah , Pilnitz would now be no more; nor would myriads of widows and orphans now have to lament their manifold mifery. However, it was otherwife ordained. This heaven- anointed pair met: and the meetings of great and powerful princes, like the unfortunate conjunctions of the heavenly bodies, have generally been confidered as ominous to the peace and happinefs of the world; and to his the blood-drenched plains of Franconia, b 2 Flanders, 4 \ Flanders, and Italy, can bear ample tefti- mony. This dark and pregnant conference of Pilnitz, immediately produced a prelimi¬ nary convention, which was afterwards more amply arranged by the treaty of Pavia of which we fhculd have continued as ignorant as of the proceedings at Pilnitz, if the gang had continued faithful to each other, A circular of it was fent to all the fpiritual and temporal princes of Eu¬ rope, who all mod cordially and imme¬ diately agreed to it, excepting Denmark and the Britifti cabinet ; the latter, for reafons *■ ? • not unknown, did not accede to it till March 1792 ; and Holland about the fame time, on condition that the arrangement refpedling their limits, on the fide of his Imperial ma- jefty’s territory, fhould be made, according to the defire of the republic, before the deftined partition took place, Injuftice to the king of Spain, I mud fay, that when count Flo¬ rida Blanca was difgraced, which was fhortly * Vide Appendix A. after after the treaty of Pavia, he renounced the- . # engagement, giving affurances, however, that he would not lend any affijftance to France, not even in conformity to the family compact* The treaty of Pavia not onlyevincedthetem- per of the parties as they regarded the princi¬ ples oi the French revolution, but pofitively demonftrated fuch a plan of havock and rob¬ bery, that every man who reads it attentively, mult fhudder: does it not give the diredt lye to all proclamations and manifeftoes iffued by the coalcfcedparties, that Franee was the aggreffor, by declaring war againft Auftria (againll Pruffia, there was never a public declaration of war), and that the war was commenced only to prevent the opening of the Scheldt, and to defend the Dutch ? Next it was ftated by thefc honeft fathers of their people, that it was to Idem the torrent of jacobinifm. Good fouls! they never had an idea that their true motives would ever be made manifest / 6 by the publication of this precious treaty, a fabrication which would have done credit to a Cortez, a Borgia, or a Cartouche. I afk, was the war undertaken for the purpofes i mentioned in the various manifeftoes iflTued by thofe apcftles of good order and religion? No; it was undertaken not only to difmem- ber France, but alfo to blot out Poland from the catalogue of nations. Was Stanifiaus a jacobin? Were Thorn, Dantzig,Chochzim, and Bavaria, under jacobin government ? Yet plunder was not the only objedi of thefe confpiracies ; the very name and idea of liberty, were to undergo an eternal extinc¬ tion. Having thus briefly afcertained their views and combinations, I fhall next pro¬ ceed to their affs of public hofility and national r 11 • • • CHAP. 7 CHAP. IT. I T is a notorious circumftance, that foon after the treaty of Pavia, emigrants of all defcriptions, at the head of which was M011- lieur, the mock regent of France, affembledin an hoftile manner at Coblentz, the refidence of the archbiftiop of Treves, then in pro¬ found peace with France. No fecret was made that Great Britain furniflied money, and that they were alfo to be affifted by Leopold and Frederic William. In confequence of this intelligence, Louis XVI. iffued a proclamation, in which he “ invites all perfons who, from different motives, have quitted their country, to return and yield to the public wifh, &c. &c.” Was the tenor of this proclamation ever complied with ? Did ever an emigrant return in confequence of it It is well known there did not. Why? Be- caufe it was faid, Louis was not fincere.-—I B 4 grant * % grant that he was not; but could not they * have ferved Louis much better by being near his perfon, than by abandoning him to his tate ? The fait is, it was a matter of in¬ difference to the two crowned eagles, who was king in France, or whether Louis was executed or not; they well knew, that keep¬ ing the emigrants together in an hoftile at¬ titude, would urge the French to declare war firft, by means of which the German empire * would be lugged into the confe¬ deracy; and befide fuch a powerful affiftance, it would ferve ad captandum vulgus. % » The preparations made by the emigrants, becoming everyday more alarming to France, a meffagewas fent from the national affembly to the k ; ng, dated November 29, 1791, in which they point out <( the conduit of the French princes, and that they were iupported , .... * i t . *• * According to the conftitution of the German empire, they are not obliged to furnilh the contingent for the em¬ pire, unlefs the emperor is engaged in a defenfive war. Ill f 9 in their treafon by the German princes , 1 ” and recommend to the king to demand from the emperor and the elector of Treves, an expla¬ nation of their conduct. The king, in reply, promifes tojnaintain refpeft for the French nation both abroad and at home. About a month after, the king, in confe- quence of the foregoing meffage, reported to the national a {Terribly (,i the meafures he had adapted to difperfe the emigrants collecting in the territories of the German princes; that he had written to the emperor, as well as to the other fovereigns, whofe condufl gave great umbrage to him; but he was forry to fay, that he had received unaccommodating an - fwers: and he further faid he had given notice to all thofe princes, on whofe territories the emigrants were affembled,that it they did not put a flop to all collecting of troops, and other hoftile difpofilions, that he fhould con- iider fider them as the enemies of France ; and if hisdeclaration was not attended to, that it only remained for him to declare war. However, all thefe meflages, declarations, &c. were of no avail ; the elector of Treves, fo far from t - difcouraging the' emigrants, afforded them additional protection: and at length, hoftile manifeftoes on the part of the exiled princes, appear, declaring that they will be powerfully feconded by the emperor, who had already fent Marfhal Bender with 6000 men from the Low Countries to protect the electorate. Such proceedings muft have partly unfolded the views of the emperor, who, juft before the French had declared war, was called before the tribunal of Heaven to anfwer for the enormous crimes he had planned. It was aflerted that he had died by poifon, which is erroneous, as his death was occafioned by violent ftimulants taken for the groffeft pur- pofes of fenfuality. Young Francis, the' 11 prelent emperor, whofe chief, or only talents conlift in baking of small loaves fuc- ceeds his father: fuchanable baker might with no great difficulty,be prevailed upon to raife a princely blaze, fanCtioned by the example of his illuftrious predeceffor. His temper, owing perhaps to his operations at the oven, was even more inflammable than Leopold’s. Every anfwer of his to the French minifters, was fraught with infolence, while he accelerated the period when a combination of fanguinary delpots was to deluge Europe with blood, and with their mercenary fatellites make more defolation, mifery, and ravages, than perhaps the Goths or Vandals ever did : un¬ der the fpecious pretext of protecting re¬ gular government and religion, they commit- ed the moft flagrant enormities. War was at length declared by the French againfl: the # It is a well known fa£t that the prefent emperor rifes very early every morning, for the purpofe of baking his own bread. emperor r emperor, Francis the Firft. What a lofs to the world if there never be a Second ! !! But before I proceed to take a view of the condud of other cabinets then not diredlly engaged in the war againft Franee, I mu ft beg leave to make a few remarks on the Duke of Brunfwick’s infolent and fanguinary manifefto, when he entered France in 1792. It has always been faid that the king of France was never fincere in his accept¬ ance of the conftitution, that he folicit- ed the invafion of his country, and even agreed to the infamous treaty of Pavia, This in fad was implied in a manifefto by Pruffia and Auftria, to all the other princes of Europe; in that and in that alone , I per¬ fectly agree with their lacred majefties : I am, indeed, well perfuaded that the king of France perjured himfelf ten times over. But v/hat were the people of France to believe ? Flow to ad ? On one fide, the bloody mani¬ fefto 13 fefio appears profeffing even to fpeak the language of the king of France, who at that very time iffiies proclamations that alferted direSily the reverfe: they in their manifeftoes call him a prifoner ; he in anfwer to that, * declares to all the world, that he is the firft citizen of the only free people in the world, j They enter France with a pretended view of xeftoring him to his ancient privileges, and calling upon.every defeription of perfons to take up arms to afiift them in their juft caufe , -on pain of having their houfes burned, and themfelves hanged as traitors. He calls upon the people of France to take up arms to de¬ fend their country, their property, their liberty, and their king; and to repair to the frontiers, to repel the attacks of thofe bar- * / barous invaders !—Here then is a curious predicament the people of France are placed in ! could they have fuppofed that their king, whom they always confidered as a pious,good man, wifhed to miflead them, and invite . . them 14 them to do that very thing which they would have been hanged for, if the defpots had fub- jugated France? They did not; confequently, they obeyed their king, and not the invaders: his manifeftoes had the defired effect; theirs y on the contrary, not only brought thamc and difgrace on themfehes y but ferved to effedt a clofe union among thofe of the French who did not exadtly agree in inferior concerns, and rallied them all to the ftandard of free* dom ; and under that facred banner did they repair, with an enthufiaftic zeal, to their threatened frontiers, where they demonftrat- ed to the world, the fuperiority of free men over the mercenary automata that oppofed them. CHAP. / I 15 CHAP. III. T HE courts of the Baltic, excepting that of Denmark were likewife a&ively em¬ ployed in fupporting the coalition : but for¬ tunately for Sweden, the bold and manly hand of *f* Captain Ankarftroem, fruftrated the * The name of M. de Bernftorff, the firft minifter of Denmark, will be revered by applauding pofterity ; and it is a tribute due to talents, wifdom, and virtue, to mention, that to his noble and fpirited conduct, in refilling all menaces of the maritime powers of Europe leagued againft France, as well as to his dignified contempt and abhorrence of their bribery, are owing the peace and profperity which Denmark now enjoys. f Though highly I revere the memory of a Brutus or an Anharjlroem , I confefs I feel commenfurate regret, that they had no other means of cutting off a tyrant, than the odious one of affaffination : the fecret poniard and poifon- ed bowl, were never invented by the patriotic or the brave. They are, in general, the bafe refources of a jealous miffrefs, or hireling bravo. Befides, how rarely does it happen, that the end, as in the cafe of Ankarftroem, juftifies the mean ! frantic I 16 frantic fchemes of that undegenerate de* feendant of the mad Charles XII. who had already been appointed Generaliffimo of the combined armies. Much has been faid about Ankarftroem’s motives for that daring aft of patriotifm. Having been at Stockholm at that time, and intimate with Count Horn, I believe I can date a few leading fafts relative Gj i to this memorable event. Ankarftroem was of a very noble and ancient family in Sweden* In the early part of his life, he was very in- * timate with Guftavus, being of the fame age. The particular attachment of Guftavus was well known ; and he once, very good-naturedly^ wiihedto confer a proof of it on Ankerftroem, who repelled the monfter in a manner becom¬ ing a man. A coolnefs naturally enfued. An- karftroem, belonging to the garde ducorps,and therefore daily in the prefenceAn the king, thereby became a conftant, though filent, ac- cufer to him. In order to remove fo painful a monitor, he was appointed Governor of Eaft Gothland, 1 17 Gothland, where he remained fome time; but Ankarftroem’s lively and aCtive mind would not fuffer him to remain in fuch a vile fituation, little better than exile. He therefore applied for permiffion to refign his governorlhip, which, after many objections, he obtained. But, on his return to Stock¬ holm, he was unkindly treated by Guftavus. Neglected love is always vindictive. He was, therefore, perfecuted in a moft malig¬ nant manner. Indeed, murmurs and complaints againft Guftavus, were now become univerfah The circumftances of his ufurpation in 17 / 2 , • ' was neverdigeftedby the Swedes, and therefore left no favourable impreffion of the king’s character on their minds : fome of his bio¬ graphers call him an enlightened prince, and a lover of liberty, when it was well known, that he only externally courted popularity. He even difclaimed the title of king, and called himfelf onlv the firft citizen of the republic: «/ he, ncverthelels, meditated the downfal or c every 18 every thing that bore the appearance of free¬ dom. This pretender to the beft amiabilities of polifhed life, viflted Rome under the title of count Haga. Scandal affigned a funda* mental reafon for the vifit, and even hinted that the cardinals found him an adept in the holy myfteries of their college. Be that as it may, the count, ever affedting Angularity, teftified great attachment to the pope and popery. He attended high mafs at St. Pe¬ ter’s ; and, upon receiving thanks from car¬ dinal Antonelli, chief of the propaganda , for his indulgence to catholics in Sweden, this hypocrite, all things to all men, exclaimed with a puritanical face, “ If God grant me * life and health, I hope to do much more for them.” In the fame tone of fahhood and ✓ lelf-accommodation, did he treat others, im¬ prefling them, with a tranflent opinion of his underftanding, breeding, and tafte for the fine arts. 19 arts. But he foon wore out his mafk,and left a verypretty,puny, tea-table repute behind him: but, as to his amours, my author is filent. Vain hyperborean ! To think of outdoing the finefle, or baffling the penetration of modern Rome! It has been faid that the reafon of Gufta- Vus’s firfl breaking with the French, was ow« _ ing to the fubfidy annually allowed him by France having been ftopped fince the revo¬ lution. All perfons acquainted with the poli¬ tical relations of France and Sweden, muff know that Sweden is not at all likely to prove ferviceable to France; au co7itraire y France might always be of fervice to Sweden, and defend her againft the ambition of Rufha, by flirring up the Porte. The fa6t was fim* ply this, the Divan, too imbecile to acknow¬ ledge a fublidiary treaty with Sweden, always employed France as its banker to remit Sweden the money. In the laft war between , c a that c % 20 that powe'r and Ruflia, the Porte, not fatif- fied with the conduft of Sweden, flopped the * ufual fubfidies. Guftavus wrote to his brother Louis, requefting him to interfere: Louis, with his hands then tied, could not do the fame as formerly; he however confulted M. de Montmorin on the fubjedt, who de- fired him not to interfere, as it might bring on a rupture with Ruflia.—This, no doubt, was an additional caufe of Guftavus’s hatred againft the new government of France, i / Underallthefe circumftances, Ankarftroem with a refolution worthy of himfelf and his caufe, relolved to avert the danger that threatened his country, and to avenge its wrongs. This fpirit indeed was not exclulively felt by Ankarftroem; a certain powerful per- fonage of that country, was alfo fully con¬ vinced of the neceflity of getting rid of the mad man, coute qui coute , and imparted his ideas to count Horn, he to count Ribbing, f from 21 from whom it came to Ankarftroem as a man fit to be trufted. Thefe three gentle¬ men and the * * * * met at count Ribbing’s country-feat, about three Englifh miles from Stockholm: after every thing was finally fettled as to time, place, and manner the tyrant was to be got rid of, the * * N who was likely to become a man of fome power at the death of the king, fa id, fihe 772 an who actually fir ikes the blow , mufit be fia- crificed , to keep up appearances; the others fiiall not only be pardoned, but handfomely provided for honour : they then propofed calling lots who fliould fluke tne blow, when Ankarftroem jumped on a chan, and faid, ANKARSTROEM IS THE MAN. What followed is well known to all the world; the confequences have been * Counts Horn and Ribbing were both men of good ' property, but as it was known their property would be con fife a ted, this promife was neceffary.— Ankarftroem s widow was alfo very- handfomely provided for. n ^ felt 0 felt by the people of Sweden, and they are the beft judges whether it was a falutary a£i or not.—So much for the court of Stockholm. The imperial Catharine could not, for the prefent, do any thing further againft France, than fending its minifler, M. Ge¬ net, out of the country, as alfo every other Frenchman who would not take the oath i . ■ of allegiance to the autocratix, and fwear eternal enmity to his country: this oath was pofitively adminiftered to every French¬ man who had a defire to remain in the . * ♦ • country; and all French merchandizes were not only ftridtly prohibited from being landed, though aSually on their voyage to Ruffia, but French merchandizes already in the country were ordered to be fhipped off, which caufed the ruin of many refpediable merchants. The czarina had at this period, a more folid object / i in view, which was the fubverfion of the new-modelled Polifligovernment;and,with¬ out 23 out the {mailed provocation, invaded that country with an army of 60,000 harbarans, where, after committing the moft unheard- of adds of cruelty, {he changed the govern* ment, and of courfe her hordes added in that country as they pleafed, the great majority of the Polifh nobility having emigrated; nor was the merchant or peafant very well pleafed with the change. The emprefs well knew that it was necelfary to keep up a formidable army in that country, and to that is to be imputed her not fending an army into Ger¬ many to affiit at the crufade. The king of Naples did not declare war 'at the time that of Spain had given affur- ances of neutrality. The condudd of the for¬ mer was very narrowly watched by the French, as every attempt was making by / the Englifti and Auftrian governments to embroil him with France, in which they, however, did not, for the prefent, fucceed. c 4. I mu ft l 21 I muff now review the conduit of the grand-vicar of Jefus Chrift towards France. The feeble relations between that maculate pontiff*, Pius VI., and the catholic princes, are v ell known; for during his pontificate more abridgements and innovations were ■i made on the papal authority than ever before was known. Jofeph II., his fucceffor Leopold, the king of Naples, and the republic of Venice, long before the French revolution, were in conftant broils with Pius, who was an arch jefuit, yet a very weak man. / But the national aflembly, by their ecclefiaf- tical reforms,totally fufpended the tributes till then paid by the French to the fee of Rome, amounting to feveral millions annually, nor was the tiara any longer confidered in France in the fame light as formerly ; even fo far back as 1790 and 1791? perfons were fent to the inquifition in Rome, for harbouring French I • x principles. Caglioftro was tried there for > French I 25 ' French principles, but that only being a con- ftrudive lort cf treafon againft the holy fee, / he was a< 5 tually put upon his mock trial for for- cery. Credite pojleri! But the firft public and external interference of the court of Rome, 4 * > f with regard to France, was upon the king’s flight to Varennes. For when the news of that flight reachedRome, joyous preparations were made to celebrate the event ; the pope, in a proclamation, enjoined all Frenchmen to re¬ pair to the royal ftandard, promifing they fhould receive his bleffing. Pius alfo dis¬ patched to Pacca, his nuncio at Bruffels, an aftedionate letter for Louis, recommending t i him to the protedion of Heaven, praying that he may fpeedily return to his kingdom, and thereby be enabled to inflid vengeance on his infidel iubjeds. When war was declared by France againft ; * Auftria, Pius, not content with pulpit thun¬ der againft the infidel French, alfo wifhed to 26 to give them a proof of the valour of his chriftian janizaries; he accordingly reviewed ' his troops in perfon, confifting of about 25,000 infantry and cavalry, all beft accuf- tomed to the ufe of a ftiletto, and brave only ■when a church or convent was near at hand to afford them an afylum. The command of his army was given to a Frufiian ad¬ venturer, Baron deMarwitz, but never called into afVton. It is alfo neceffary to remark, that when the Brunfwick manifeilo was iffued, it was tranflated into Italian, poll¬ ed at the corner of every ftreet, and pro- fufely diftributed in every hole and alley in Rome, as well as in every other part of the ecclefiaftical flates; every Frenchman in Rome and other places belonging to the * pope was imprifoned, and fome even maf- facred. Thefe a6ls naturally obliged the French government to take up the matter ferloufly. In November, 1792, the executive council of the French republic accordingly addreffed i 27 addreffed an epiftle “ to the prince bifhop of Rome, pontiff of the Roman church ;** and after very energetically demanding the releafe of the imprifoned French, they pro¬ ceed thus :— €t Hitherto ruler of a fceptre which is ready to efcape from your grafp ! Know the maxims of the French republic, too juft to have any thing to conceal even in diplomacy, too powerful to employ menaces, but too high-minded to overlook an outrage, fhe is ready to avenge it if peaceable recla¬ mations fhould prove ineffedhiah' 5 It furely is manifeft that the French did not wifh to come to an open rupture with the triple- crowned jefuit. M. d’Azara * pofitively * / fays, that natives of France were fhaven and fent to the galleys, for having fpoken favour¬ ably of their country. But the pope and the facred college, not thinking they had fufficiently pleafed their God by their paft cruelties again ft the French, perpetrated a * Then Spanifh minifter at the court of Rome. crime 23 crime which had never been heard even araono; the moft favas;e nations : I allude to o o the horrid murder committed by them on the perfon of citizen Bafteville, the French fecretary of legation. This unfortunate man had been fent by the Trench embaflador at Naples, officially to * i plead the caufe of his injured countrymen at Rome ; and the anfwer he received from the papal fecretary of ftate, was well calculated to quiet all his fears for the future: but the pontiff himfelf enveloped him in confcious fe- cunty by the glowing effufionsof his candour and chriftian benignity. The French, then in Rome, had a meeting at the palace of the academy, to make a colleftion among them- felves for the reparation of the damage fuf- tained by the French admiral’s (hip after the * expedition to Naples; and then propofed a meeting for the purpole of deliberating on the means of fubftituting the republican, for the rco-al arms, on the front of the faid palace. The I 29 The populace of that city, as cruel and fan- gum ary as fuperftitious, either mrftaking the purpofe of the meeting, or prompted by their betters, furioully hurried to the academy, * i where they arrived before the French artifis. BafTeville, who on that very day was in¬ formed, by the fecretary of ftate, that the French national cockade was no longer pro¬ hibited to be worn in Rome, accordingly ex¬ hibited that new badge of national liberty; and, previous to the appointed meeting, he took an airing in a coach with his wife, child, and Flotte, an officer of the marine. Their \ carriage moved {lowly along the corfo, one of the broadeft and moil frequented flreets in Rome, when they were fuddenly aflailed with ftones and fire arms. BafTeville ordering the carriage to drive home, fprang out, and al- moft on the inftant, had a bayonet fheathed in his body. Thence was he dragged, bleed- ing, dying, by the uncontrolled foldiery, to an adjacent guard-houfe, while a crowd of wretches \ t i 30 wretches a-thirfl: for blood, ran about,yelling cc Long live the pope !—the holy father for ever!—St. Bartholomew * forever!—Dehth to every Frenchman!’' Mean time the pupil refidents in the academy expe&ed every moment to be aflaflinated by religious barba- rifm, amid the mafterly monuments of the aits. This bloody outrage on the laws of heaven and earth, on the laws of hofpitality, * and of nations, directly or indiredily pro- cured by the government, was, three days after, commented upon by the holy father, through his'fecretary of Hate, Zelada, in the following terms : “ His holinefs fenfibly felt the teftimonies the people of Rome had given him, of their attachment to religion ! and their affection for his holinefs’s perfon; but the holy father is ajjliEied that the fame people, and the fame emotions to which they had given way in exprefling their fentiments« * The faint whofe feaft was fo indelibly flained by the! maflacre of the proteftants, in Paris, and other towns of Prance. had 31 had fuflfered themfelves to be hurried on toyS^exceffes which had difturbed the public tranquillity It was in this mild, thankful , unembarrafed language that the pretended vicegerent of the meek Jefus, alludes to crimes of novel atrocity ! So much for the firft gigantic atrocity, oh the part of the Vatican, againft the French republic. * I refer the reader for a more detailed account of this deed of horror, to the excellent memoir of the cheva lier d’Azara, an eye witnefs to the whole. CHAP. 32 CHAP. IV. As far as the purpofed limits of this work would admit, I have above fhewn the vicious / views and conduct of the coalefced courts of • * the continent, againft the liberties of France. 1 (hall now endeavour to (hew the condu<3 of the cabinet of St. James; by which, I again repeat, I exclufively mean his majefty’s mi- niflers, as alio by the term government, when applied to this country. I think it proper toftate, as a preliminary opinion, that almolt every exifting government has in its efta- blifhment, the means of making the people happy. “ FalUtur enim egregie quifquis fnh ic principe credet fervitium . Nunquam libertas u gratiov extat quam fub rego pio By this loyal aphorifm, I fhall examine the condudt of the minifters of our pious king. So 33 So far back as 1789, feveral real or pre • tended friends of civil liberty in this country, were penfioned, and ordered to influence their political connexions, and inveigh with all poffible bitternefs, againft the French re¬ volution. The cauie of this enmity againft. a monarchy, founded on the principles of our own glorious revolution, was enigma¬ tical. This political riddle, however, ex¬ plained itfelf in the year 1792 ; for in the month of May in that year, a proclamation was iftued by our cabinet, informing the people, in fupererogation, that u they were free and happy that they had good and * Whatever happinefs, pofitive or negative, the people of England may enjoy, it mull be ftupidity itfelf to fuppofe, that a revolution in this country can ever be thought of, where the government is the foie fecurity for the intereft of more than 500 millions ; and where the circulating me¬ dium of the country, is government paper, where the peo¬ ple of England have often paid 20 per cent, premium to become creditors to that government, which is fomething like paying a premium upon a bankrupt’s bills ! ! ! To think therefore of a revolution in Great-Britain, is idle I ! d whole- 34 whoiefome laws derived from the glorious revolution but thus far their political char- latanery was en mafque, for we were next » told, that “ feveral feditious publications appeared with the encouragement of fundry perfons in foreign parts, with a view to bring our fovereign’s perfon and government into contempt/' Now, the plain Englifh of this fame ominous proclamation was, that the French government employed Thomas Paine to write the Rights of Man, which was the caufe of fo much difquietude to the Britifli cabinet. The proteft of Lord Lau¬ derdale well obferved, that u the dignity of parliament was trilled with by common place, unneceffary profeffions of attachment to the government, the exifting laws being fufficient to profecute the authors of libels/ 1 Certainly no other government but that of France, could have applied to itfelf the molt invidious allufion in the proclamation. None of the ether continental courts, could have felt t i 35 felt Its application. Indeed, feveral of our miniftero-fenatorial bullies, infolent in fecu- rity, gave, to that effect, their fcholia on the proclamation. The objectionable complexion of the de¬ cree of the 19 th of November, in the fame year, which was fo long and fo difguftingly bandied about by minifcerial ribaldry in the houfe, and the fpurious eloquence of mer¬ cenary fcribes out of doors, was, to every man of candour, afterwards very fatisfaCtorily ex¬ plained away, and difavowed by the French government. Did the virtuous and regular government of England ever deign to ftoop to any thing like conciliation, except with their fcalping allies of North America, and the ftates of Barbary, with a view to direCf their cruel ferocity againft fome Chriftian ftate ? In the month of May, 1792, the French government lent M. Chauvelin, as their d 2 new 36 new minifter to this country, who delivered a confidential letter * from the king of France to the king of England, cc requefting him to fhew M. Chauvelin every attention, and de¬ claring himfelf full of confidence in the good intentions of his royal brother of England, towards France.” On the 12th of May, he prefented a note to Lord Grenville, the moft infolent of his majefty’s three fecretaries of ftate, in which were refpedtfully affigned ample reafons for declaring war againft the emperor, and that aggrandifement was not the view of the French government j and in confequence of its having been faid in the Britifli fenate, that attempts had been made by France to ftir up the people of this country againft the go¬ vernment, the French king defired to have it known, that he publicly and fecretly dif- Dated Paris, May i. See ftate papers of the year 1792. avowed •\ 37 avowed every thought of fomenting or fa¬ vouring infurredlions in a friendly country; and that he fhould confider flich a proceed- x ing as a violation of the law of nations.” Such a declaration, furely, proves no inten¬ tion in the French government to provoke the ill will of the government of this countryo Twelve days had elapfed before an anfwer was delivered $ and at laft it {rated, “ that his Britannic majefty would maintain his neutrality, and that nothing on his part fhould caufe a breach in the good under- x {landing exifting between the two nations. The facred Jincerity of this anfwer will be noted in the fequel of this work. 1 Shortly after war had been declared by France againll Auftria, a proclamation ap¬ peared in the Gazette, notifying, in the ufual courfe, the war between France and the emperor, and forbidding privateers or letters ©f marque being fitted out againll either of d 3 the 38 I the belligerent powers. But mark what follows:—“His majefty, for the preferyation and continuance of friendfhip and amity be¬ tween him and their faid majefties, prohibits all his fubjedis to take any commiffion by fea or land, in, the fervice of fuch powers now in amity with his majefty.” "* t Every body knows the emperor does not 'want Englijh officers in his army*, and he has no fleets ; of courfe to that quarter the whole of that part of the proclamation, could > bear no application. It was therefore meant * An Englifh clergyman, of the higheft refpe&ability, related to me the following anecdote : Having been in company with fome Auftrian officers, one of them, a colonel, afked him what countrymen thofe brave fellows called Englifh failors, were. On being in^ formed they were natives of Great Britain, he exclaimed : - f . “ What! compatriots to the foldiers who fought under the .Duke of York, in Flanders ?” On being anfwcred in the ' affirmative, he added, , « *. * . ': 1 * Every mean was ufed by the fecret agents of the coalefced powers, to prevail on this meddling woman to provoke the juft veil- \ geance of the French government. She tried every thing; all known royalifts vifited her levees; (he procured paflports under fi&iti- ous names, for profenbed perfons; a con¬ duct not proceeding from humane mo¬ tives, but for reafons already alleged. How¬ ever, all would not do.—Something elfe muft be tried.— A Swedifh baron, d’Armfeldt, a bitter enemy to the French, was at this time at Paris, and it was agreed upon to affaflinate the duke-regent, and all his mi- nifters; to place the young king, then fifteen years 77 N f years of age, on the throne; Ruflia was to fend a fleet of 20 fhips of the line to Stockholm, and to land 10,000 troops at Delaro, twenty Englifh miles from Stockholm, to overawe the capital ; and the firft aft of the young king, was to declare war again ft France, and the next to put Ruflia in poffeflion of Swedifli Finland. The reafons of luch proceedings were to be ftated in a manifefto, viz. that jaco¬ bin principles had been diflfeminated in the country, and that to fuch doctrines their late king fell a viftim, &c. Before the con- fpiracy was ripe, happily for Sweden, it was difcovered. D’Armfeldt was ftill at Paris; however, in the whole courfe of the pro¬ ceedings, it never appeared that M. de Stael was privy to it. Orders wsre fent by the regent of Sweden, to all his embafladors, to have d’Armfeldt arrefted (being a ftatc criminal). Mad. de Stael was not a little confounded when flie faw her fcheme frus¬ trated ; flic, however, procured him a paflf- •« port. port, under a fictitious name, for Naples, whence he proceeded to Vienna, and thence to Hamburgh, where he had a narrow efcape of being arrefted by Mr. Peyron ; he got off and went to Ruffia, where honours and titles were laviihly heaped upon him. Let the furprife of men ceafe, when they hear that regular governments have been ac- ceffary to Kleber’s murder, and to the mur¬ ders of the French deputies at Raftadt, and formed many abortive plans for the like deeds of death, with an ingenuity worthy of their fublime deftiny and heavenly undiion. CHAP, 70 i CHAP. VI. T HOUGH the French government knew all thefe proceedings, and where they had originated, ftill their defire for peace with this country remained ardent and unaltered. s Accordingly, in the month of April, two months after they had declared w r ar, M. le Brun, minifter for foreign * affairs, applied, through the means of an Enclifh gentleman, G O * to lord Grenville for a paffport for M. Maret to come over (a third time) to treat for peace. Thefe letters were not even anfwered. And next, in order to prevent Englifhmen going to France, where they 4 % might learn the true flate of things, and the more effectually to flop all intercourlc be¬ tween the two nations, a bill was brought * Appendix D. into 80 into parliament, called the Traitorous Cor- refpondence Bill, making it felony for any perfon to return from, or to go to France without the permiffion of government (not even thofe who were then in France, and ig¬ norant of thisaCl), or to fend or receive letters from that country. That fuch a bill was ever fuffered to be carried into effedt, will aftonifh pofterity if the genuine hijlory of the ■"parliament , and the minifry of thofe times , hap¬ pen not to reach them. I have already obferved, that the minifters of England would not enter into any direcl negociation with the king-haters of France; yet, that lord Auckland would deign to hold a conference with Dumouriez, not, how¬ ever, for the purpofe of reftoring peace to Europe, but to introduce a fyftem of the bafefl: corruption and bribery, by means of treafure obtained from the paffive degenerate people of Britain . The noble agent’s peculiar adroitnefs * 81 adroitnefs for matters of that nature, appear¬ ed in the fubfequent treafon of Dumouriez againft his country, his duty, honour, and even his real intereft. The traitor was to proclaim royalty, to march his army to Paris, while the allied army were to follow him. Thus did the embaflador of the molt honour¬ able , civilifed , moral, religious , and humane Hate in Europe, violate the laws of nations and of wifdom; and all this at the time that the virtuous Lord Auckland was oftenfibly deviling the mod: probable means of rejloring and fecuring the peace of Europe ! He plan- iibly exhibited a defire for pacification, while treafon, defolation, and mafifacre, were de¬ fined to be the refult of his million. Candour requires that here I fhould bear my warm teftimony to the fplendid private virtues, and folid extenfive talents, of his lordfhip;—but he, as well as many other members of our ill-ftarred cabinet, feem G to V' , 82 \ to have uniformly afted from a miftaken zeal. The honourable ar ran elements made be- o tween his lordfhip and Dumouriez, were not immediately known ; if they had, much blood would have been fpared : and, notwithstanding the raoft folemn af- furances on the part of the Auftrian ge¬ nerals, Clairfait, Cobourg, and colonel Mack, they attacked the French in a wanton, barbarous manner, well knowing that Dumouriez did not expect it. And after three days' hard fighting, 20,000 French became the victims of double treachery and , dirhonour on the part of their pretended friends, as well as of their enemies. Thus every mean was taken, the more barbarous the more eligible, to exterminate freedom with the race of Frenchmen. The four com- ♦ miffioners* N 83 miffioners and a general are feized by the fame corruption and treafon, and clofely confined in loathfome dungeons, for eighteen months, three of which they pafled in Maef- \ tricht, and fifteen more in the charadteriftic dens of Spiegeiberg, in Moravia. Barbarous violators of the laws of nations and humanity, ye deferve the vengeance that threatens you! 4 Lord Auckland, in a great meafure, baffled in his fchemes of bribery and political fe~ * % r du£tion, next prefented, jointly with the im- \ *• * . - perial minifter, Count Stahremberg, a me¬ morial to the States General. This diplomatic morgeau deferves particular attention; it ftates, a that in the month of September preceding, the king, his matter, and their high mightinefles, gave, in concert, a folemn aflurance, that in cafe the danger which threatened their chriftian majefties fhould be realized, his majefty and their high mighti- neffes would prevent any of thofe perfons g 2 guilty 84 guilty of fuch a crime, from finding an afylum in their refpeftive ftates. This event has taken place, and the divine vengeance feems not to have been tardy. Some of thefe de¬ le ft able wretches are now in fuch a fituation that they can be fubjefted to the fword of the law, and that they may ferve as a lefTon and example to all mankind*.” ^ ' Very fhortly after thofe proceedings, a ttioft nefarious and, in the annals of any other nation, unexampled aft of blood and % I can Hate from authority, that it was the with of a cer¬ tain embaffador at the Hague to have general Bournonville, and the four deputies, in prifon at Maeftricht, hanged . The wary Dutch,in their ufual forethought, calculated perfectly well what they might expert, if the fortune of war fhifted, and brought the French into Holland. In this murderous requeft, he was feebly feconded by another minifler, all the remainder of the corps diplomatique having fet their faces againfl it. And the able manner Lord A** ## * # ’s condu£t was taken up by feveral members of both houfes of par¬ liament, might have given an additional check to practices of the fame black hue. ^ '■ rapine,' 85 rapine, was committed by the Auftrians on I the perfons of the two French minifters, men of the moll: inviolable chara&er, Meflrs. Se~ monville and Maret ; the former was ^oine; on an embajfy to Conftantinople, the latter, in the fame facred quality, to Naples M. Semonville had been already iome J time at Berne: during his flay there, ruf¬ fians were bribed by the minifters of the coalefed powers, to (hew him every poffible * The generous and romantic Francis the Firit of France, fent two diplomatic minifters, Rincon and Fregofe; one, like the much-injured Semonville, deftined for Conftanti- nople, the other for Venice: they embarked on the Po; but had not proceeded far, before they were attacked and murdered, by order of Charles V., another German em¬ peror and Auftrian defpot, at that time at peace with France. And, like the favage murderers of the late plenipotentiaries at Raftadt, when remonftranees were made to him, he faid he fufpe£ted it was of Francis’s own perpetrating'. Thus, then, has Auftria the Jot it ary infamy of having thrice fent hex aflafllns againft tlie em- bafladors of France: defpotie or republican France fees alike, in the thick lip of Auftria, an unerring fymboi of aflaflmatioii. g 3 indignity 8(3 % indignity. And next, the Auftrian refident at Genoa received information that Se- monville was to fet out for Conftantinople; * he accordingly formed the plan, in con¬ cert with Auftrian agents in Switzerland, to have the minifters arrefted : by this it fhould feem that the minifters of the coalefced powers had unqualified inftrudtions to do any thing they pleafed, fo far as regarded the injury, infult, or utter deftru&ion, of Frenchmen. Accordingly, on M. Maret’s arrival at Berne, they fet out together; but • \ they had no fooner entered a wood near Coire, than they were attacked by Auftrian huflars, feveral of their fervants were mur- / dered, as alfo M. Semonville’s foil and M. Maret’s lady. The two minifters were chained like felons, and conduced in thofe fetters to the fortrefs of Brunn in Moravia, where they remained in miferable captivity for about twenty months. The property they 87 they were robbed of was immenfe*. Se- monville’s inftru6tions and difpatches, which as ufual were written in cyphers, were for¬ warded to Vienna-f*. The perfons, how¬ ever, employed to decypher them, could not; and M. SEMONV1LLE WAS ABSO¬ LUTELY PUT TO THETORTURETO COMPEL HIM TO DECYPHER HIS OWN INSTRUCTIONS!!! Nor does thfe atrocity of the court of Vienna reft here : M. * The jewels, plate, See. taken from M. Semonville, according to the Auflrian accounts, confided of two gilt carriage, all his papers and inftru£tions, two boxes with diamonds , as prefents for the grand-feignior, valued at two millions of florins, amongft which was that famous brilliant called the regent; two other boxes with precious jewels, a fervice of gold plate for fifty perfons, 200,000 louis-d’ors in cafii, and an immenfe quantity of rich fluff’s, laces, cambrics, &c. &c. Hamburgh Gorrefponde?it , 25//; Auguft, 1793* f Immediately 01 Immediately after the commencement of the war, orders from our virtuous council were ifllied to detain and carry all neutral veffels, whatever their ladings, into Britifh ports. Thus if Englifh cruizers met neutral veffels laden with grain from any ports of the Baltic or elfewhere, bound to Lifbon, Spain, or Naples, even then they were car¬ ried into Englifh ports ; and thereby our \ very allies ran a rifk of being ftarved. The grain thus taken, remained near two years and longer, partly on fhipboard and partly / in king’s warehoufes ; and then we were obliged, agreeably to the decree of our ad¬ miralty court, to reftore fhip and cargo ; or if the cargo was fpoiled, to pay the parties with intereji , &c. I can {late a fa6t relative to this fubjeft, for the truth of which -I beg leave to appeal to —— Heyman, eiq. conlul of the Hanfe-towns, in London, and to the commercial houfe of the widow Soltan and co. in London. Early in the year 1793, feveral 92 feveral veflfels laden with corn, fhipped by the lioufe of Mathias Roclde and co. of Lubeck,by order and for account and rifk of MefTrs. Pe¬ ters, Schlick, and co. merchants at Lifbon^ were proceeding to their deltined port. In the Downs they were flopped, and carried by Englifh cruizers into forne of our ports. It was near two years before this caufe came on to be heard, and the refult was againft government; the cofts of cargo and other expences were enormous. I have heard it ftated from very good authority, that, in the years 1793 and 17Q4, the veflels and cargoes taken in the above manner, coft the govern- ment of England above 4oo,oool. The French were naturally obliged to apply to other more diftant markets for grain, chiefly to America ; on which occafion the fame diabolic inauflry was ufed for the pious purpofe of exciting famine among twenty- five millions of human beings. And thefe abominable meafures were feconded by bullying • w* gs bullying memorials from the religious regular cabinets of London, Berlin, and Peteriburgh, prefented at the neutral courts of Stockholm and Copenhagen The memorable note prefented by the Swedifh minifter at PeterL burg, M. von Stendink, gave great umbrage to the /lie bear of the north; it ftates “ that the duke-regent had only the intereft of the king, his nephew, and his fubjedis, at heart; that means will no doubt be found by the powers combined againft France, to obtain their ends without infringing any exifting treaty, or any attempt being made againft the rights of any peaceful fubjedts F*” I have above ftated the bloody vengeance s * They were worthy of the heads and hearts that dic¬ tated them.—-Their requelt was, tc that no fupplies of corn, cr any thing elfe, fhould be fent to a nation that had mur¬ dered their king, and trampled on all authority.” As if the merchant that exports the produce of his country, is to examine into the loyalty or politics of his cuftomers ! f See fhte papers of 1793. 1 which 94 which was planned againft this intelligent and juft man. Even private individuals of any nation, purchafing corn to go to France, were liable to be arrefted, where the agents of the crowned banditti of the continent had a controlling; influence over the government. D O I happened one day in the year 1793 to dine at Mr. Sieveking’s, a merchant at Ham- burgh; four French merchants were of the party. We had juft fat down to dinner, when the adting burgomafter (called the ' <■< praetor) fent to Mr. S. requefting him to defire the Frenchmen at his houfe to quit Hamburgh inftantly, as he had received a re- . quifition from the Auftrian and Englifli mi¬ ll ifters to arreft them. Such was the in¬ furiate rancour of the political zelanti of the coalition, that the Reeveite fyftem of ejpio - nage was predominant in the breaft of almoft every Englifhman on the continent. The bigots thought it would be earning a blefllng from 95 from that Heaven they blafphemed, if they could denounce any man to the commandant of the city, even for fpeaking with modera¬ tion of the French. Even in the interior of Germany, the rabid fangs of Englifli perfe- cutors were exercifed with the zeal and bar¬ barity of the inquifition. I will introduce an anecdote of their perfecuting induftry and vigilance. In the year 179 3,1 happened to be at Leipzig, in Saxony, on private bufinefsj three refpedlable French merchants, and a profefTor of hiftory, M. Demengen, were or¬ dered to quit Leipzig within three days. Next was a dodtor O’Keefe locked up in a dungeon for fix months, and then conducted bevond the frontiers without ever beingr ex- J 1 o amined by a magiftrate. I was marked for the next vidtim ; but I happened fortunately to be very intimate with the baron de Ben¬ der, fon of the imperial minifter at Ham¬ burgh, who was then at Leipzig; a circum¬ stance the burgomafters of Leipziz happened to QO to be apprifed of: the adting magiftrate, M; Moller, therefore requeued him to inform me, that the fooner I got out of Leipzig, the better.*—Here I mu ft return my thanks to that benevolent magiftrate, for his kindnefs, as imprifonment to me, at that time, would have been particularly injurious. I left Leipzig immediately; and on my arrival at Hambugh, wrote to my bank- ers at Leipzig, MefTrs. Frege and co. and Kiiftner and co. to learn the nature of the plan againft: my liberty. The pur¬ port of their anfwer, confirmed and ex¬ plained my former intelligence; they in¬ formed me “ that, at the requifition of Mr. Elliott, the Britifh envoy at Drefden, the court lent an order to Leipzig, to order my arreft, till further orders; the court at the fame time alleging, that I had not- tranf- grefied againft the laws of their country.” I wrote to Mr. Elliot to know his reafons, as 97 as alfo to lord Grenville, but received no anfwer from either. Before I clofe this chapter, I mu ft notice one more public crime committed in the year 17Q3 againft the liberty of France, and the dignity and honour of nations; I mean the taking of Toulon by the Engliffi and Spaniards. A philofophic foidier fays, * to embroil that nation in a war, under Avhofe cloth and commiffion this fpy obtained admifflon. It is well known that when the war commenced with France, no Englifh- ♦ *. f man was fuffered to enter that country, but thofe that were there before remained un- molefted. When the Englifh fleet was cruizing off* Toulon, a fea harlequin, bear¬ ing a Swedifh commiffion, was fent there in a veflel under Swedifh colours : as a Swedifi officer, he was fuffered to enter Toulon ; and in that charafter, he tampered with the * * French admiral, Trogoff, and the civil power, to furrender the fleet and town to the r i 99 the Englifh and Spaniards; he fucceeded, and the fleet and town were taken pofleflioa of in the name of Louis XVII*. The con- / fequence was horrible. The Englifli had poffeffion of the town but a fhort time; and on their evacuation of it, thoufands of people, wretches they had corrupted, flocked to the fhores to get on board the de¬ parting veffels. Some efforts, indeed, were made to convey them on board; thoufands ✓ fwam to the fhips, and thoufands were de- ftroyed by the difgufted Spaniards, who re- fufed to fuffer a foul to come on board their i fleet. The confufion and horror of this fcene,baffledefcription.—Great Britain, how¬ ever, for all thole fchemes, the moil unpre- * I have it from very good authority, that the emperor Paul has demanded from the court of St. James, a fum of money, as an equivalent for the (hips taken at Toulon, to bear part of the expences he is at for the maintenance of Louis XVIII. and his court at Mittau; but whether John Bull’s remaining pittance has been drawn upon for that purpofe, I have not learned. h 2 cedented. » 100 cedented, indeed, in modem hiflrory; and in return for her lofs of character, and the vaft prdfufion of blood and treafure; had but three fhips of the line and five frigates. Many thoufands of the wretched fugitives from Toulon were then allowed to enter our navy and army. But fome few months back, there was a general order throughout the navy and army, to difmifs all Frenchmen. —-What were thefe miferable people to do? In vain did they make proteftation and com¬ plaints to our minifters 1—In vain did they appeal 'to a tacit convention, as well as the folemn afifurances of the Britifh command¬ ers, by whole perfuafion, and the promife of Britifh protection, they were induced to become traitors to their country!-—nor were the certificates of their good conduhi, while in the Britifh fervice, attended to. No ! thefe poor wretches were driven to famine and to defpair. At laft a body of them, in i 101 m the name of fevered thoufands of their comrades and fello.w-fuffe.rers, applied to the French com miliary here, to furre ruler them- * * felves as prifoners , and throw themfelves on the clemency of the government of their native land: the comilTary, however, told them he could only receive into the French prifon here fuch as the chance of war brought thither ; but could not take any notice of t J traitors . He promifed, however, to report their cafe to his government, and I have fince been informed that they have had permiflion to return. A dreadful lejfon to all thofe de¬ luded people who depend upon the Hritijh go¬ vernment's gratitude and generqfity ! In the year 1794 , the French Weft- India iflands were taken by our commanders, lir Charles Grey and lord St. Vincent, then fir John Jervis. The planters and merchants were there alfo oromifed British * protection and generofity ; but how far the ‘ h 3 cabinet 102 cabinet of St. James has kept its word, may be fcen by a petition prefented at the bar of the houfe'of commons by Mr. TheluC* \ , fon, on behalf of the unfortunate and de¬ luded French Weft.-Indians ? See Parliamentary Debates for the year 1795? June 2. CHAP. ■103 CHAP. VIII. Painful as the tafk is, I have next to enter on a detail from my own ocular tefti- mony, of as black perfidy, violence, and flaughter, as perhaps ever difgraced the an¬ nals of nations, calling themfelves civilized. Having been an eye witnefs to feveral of the moft conflicting and bloody feenes which pen or tongue can deferibe, 1 beg leave to Iketch them with all the brevity my feelings will ad¬ mit of. I mean the crying wrongs of poor la¬ cerated, difmembered Poland, marked out a prey for the two crowned eagles of the north. In a former chapter, I tranfiently noticed, that the emprefs of Rufiia lent Go,000 bar¬ barians into Poland to fubvert .the conftitu- / tion of that country, accepted by all ranks of people, and even guaranteed by Pruffia. In H 4 the 104 the year 1793, the late king of Pruflia, Fre¬ deric William the Second, publiflied a de¬ claration reflecting the march of his troops into Poland, in which he, with the mo ft un- blufhing effrontery, tells the king of Poland, u that the revolution of 1/91 was effected without the knowledge of the friendly pow¬ ers, and that owing to the jacobinical pro¬ ceedings of the foi-difant patriots, he muft,yir his ownfafety\ march an army into Great Po¬ land.’' How true this declaration is, I have only to refer my readers to the collection of ftate papers of the year 1791 , where they will fee by the note and letter prefented by count de Goi tz, the king of Pruffra’s minifter at War- faw, to the diet, and perfonally to the king of Poland, that his PruJ]ia?i majefty fully ap¬ proved of the revolution in Poland y and guaran¬ teed its conflitution! ! ! The march of the Pruffians into Poland, was marked by the capture of Dantzig and Thorn, 105 Thorn, without any pretence or provocation whatever. In Dantzig, feveral magistrates, who would not Sign an act of renunciation, were dragged from their homes, and fent to the fortrefs of Spandau, where they re¬ mained a confiderable time. The Poliffi government, of courfe, pro- tefting againft fuch a proceeding, called upon the two imperial courts * to affift in repel¬ ling the treachery and violence of the king of Pruffia, They even fent memorials to all the other courts of Europe as Soon as the Pruffians had entered Poland, being allured that thev could not behold with indifference a manifejl violation of the rights oj nations . The Ruffian minifter at Warfaw imme- diately ordered M. d’Ingelftrohm, the com¬ mander of the Ruffian forces in Poland, to prohibit the ufe of artillery to the Poliffi re* publican troops which were put in motion to % The poor Poles little knew of the treaty of Pavia. oppofe 10(5 oppofe the Pruffians. This began to alarm the Poles, and a note was to have been pre- jfented to M. Sievers, the Ruffian minifter at Warfaw, remonftrating on ffich an unac¬ countable proceeding; however, before the note was prefented, a manifefto appeared on the part of the pious Catharine, in which fhe fays, that Poland has been a great trouble to her crown thefe thirty years paft; and that fhe, jointly with the king of Pruffia, and the emperor of Germany, hath agreed to a par¬ tition of its exterior territory, in order to keep the republic within narrow, due limits, and by that mean, keep off from their own frontiers that fatal contagion of jacobinifm which reigned in Poland, and where it has i ' _ been propagated by the rebels of France* The minifters of the allied robbers go fur- i ther: they demand from the Polifli govern¬ ment the appointment of a deputation to fandtion the intended divifion of their coun¬ try* After many altercations in the Poliffi diet, lo; diet, it was agreed to treat with RuJJia only. A deputation waited on the Ruffian minifter with the refult of the diet, requeuing him to tranfmit it to Peterfburgh. His anfwer was, that his inftru&ions were not to treat , but to demand an immediate compliance with his requejt*\ and to enforce it, he had, in their next fitting, ordered two battalions of grena¬ diers, with four pieces of cannon, to fur- round the hall. And the Ruffian general even entered, and declared, that no mem¬ ber fhould leave the hall, unlefs he figned the partition treaty *j\ The debate lafted from ten o'clock in the morning till three o’clock on the next morning. When they figned it, it was immediately refolved to notify to all Europe this fpecies of nation¬ al robbery and ufurpation, which, by the bye, the crowned confpirators of Pavia had i * See ftate papers of 1793. t The author was then in the gallery of the hall, where the diet held its fitting. V previoufly 1 10S previoufly fan<5tioned : the next day four Po- lifh members, who had been moft violent • •. / in the fenate, were arrefted, and put into a Ruffian guard-houfe in chains.—It is im- poffible to relate every a£l of violence ufed by the Ruffians in Poland. Every man, at all acquainted with the politics of the north, muft know, that Staniflaus was the favourite of Catherine, when fhe was grand ducheis; nay fome even affert that he is father to the prefent emperor. It is beyond all doubt that Peter III. did not long, nor indeed could he at any time, effedlually cohabit with Ca¬ tharine*; nay he even wanted publicly to baf- tardize his fon, and purpofed making it known to his aunt, Elizabeth, that the child was not his, but count Poniatowfky’s, afterwards king of Poland, and that he had met him one evening coming out of her room, and had him feizedand taken to the guard-houfe; that he **>ee Ruhliere’s Memoirs of the Revolution in Ruffia, 1762. 1 had log had remonftrated with his wife about it; but Ihe frankly admitted it, and told him it was no more than retaliation ; that if he made a ftir about it, he would be very forry for it; and that he fhould inftantly liberate Fonia- towfky, and that his condudi would be fe- verely reprobated by every court in Europe, \ s for violating the facred perfon of an em- baffador* ; but if he, Peter, adied as fhe would have him, fhe would henceforward grant a penfion, out of her own private purfe, to his miftrefs, as Peter could not afford it then, having fpent all his money in his ridiculous military eflablilhment, eon- fitting of four regiments of Holftein troops, which he had brought with him to Ruflia. Such was the able and daring fpirit of that extraordinary woman! .It is, therefore, very evident how the con- * Staniflaus was at that time embaflador to the court of Ruffia. nexion 110 / nexion flood between Staniflaus and Cathe¬ rine; and flie gave a proof of her regard for him, by her giving him the crown of Po«* land, and fupporting him with all her power againft the confederates. It is, therefore, ex¬ traordinary that fhe fhould ultimately with to crufh him, unlefs fhe meant to conquer it for her fon; who fhe thought, perhaps, had a right tohis father scrown. Staniflaus fhewedhimfelf Very {launch to the revolution of 1791, and why not ? Did not it give him more pow r er than he had befbre? According to the old conftitution, every Polifh nobleman was a petty fovereign; could frame any laws for his own territory, bis perfon was inviolable, and he could afford an afylum to every * perfon that fought it. The king was no¬ thin 2; more than living among a fet of men who regarded him as a Ruffian ipy; the ari- ftocracy was always at variance with the monarchy ; and when the monarch was in- fulted, he feat weeping meffages to the court M 1H of Peterfburgh, which was always ready to interfere for its reprefentative or viceroy. Here it may be aflted, why did the ari~ ftocracy fuffer innovations and abridgments on their authority, by the conftitution of 179* • To this I reply, that the ariftocrats of Poland, dreading a new partition of their country, by which means they would be entirely ftripped of every veftige of power, would rather have a new-modelled conftitu¬ tion in x their own country , with even en¬ croachments on their authority; as by that means they would not only have the fupport of the king, but of the numerous clafs of the proteftants or diftidents in Poland*; it would * By the treaty of Oliva in 1717, which was guaranteed by all the proteftant powers of Europe, the diftidents, i.e* the Greeks and proteftants refiding in Poland, had a tole¬ ration fecured to them, and were allowed free exercife of religious worfhips, &c. By degrees the treaty was en¬ croached upon, and the diftidents were fubjedl to as many relations as in the moft bigotted countries in Europe. In 112 Would rally all thofe who were formerly diflfatisfied with the government, by that means become able to make a powerful ftand againft the invaders and crowned free- booters. But although the king was favour- o o able to the conftitution of 1791, yet about the period when a final partition of his country took place, his condudt was not much ap¬ proved of,and even incurred no ineonfiderable degree of fufpicion. Staniflaus was a king, had worn a grown thirty years, and felt like a king*. He faw what was ~doing ill France, and trembled at encouraging any thing like revolution, when the Ruffian and 'Pruffian minifters preferred that memorable 1766, the powers who had guaranteed the treaty of Oliva, made remonftrances j and after much altercation they were allowed to repair their churches, and to go to them when they pleafed \ and a variety of other fpirituai indulgences *, but dill they could not purchafe an inch of territory, nor be ennobled, or differed to hold any fituation either civil or military. By the revolution of 1791, they were declared free, and allowed to have the fame privi¬ leges as catholics* note 113 note to the diet, wherein they notified the in¬ tended partition. \ Staniflaus immediately propofed to treat with Ruffia ; but, although he was fupported in his motion, which was carried by a fmall majority, thofe who divided with him began to fufpedl his integrity. Another circum** fiance, which occurred at the fame time* flrengthened fuch fufpicion. It is with re- ludtance I attach obloquy to the popular chara&er of this king; but in the year 1791, an order was eflablifhed at Warfaw for the reward of thofe who fought for their country againfl the Ruffians, and which was, by order of the emprefs, fuppreffed, when fhe firfl fub*- verted the government. This order was now \ revived, and the king expreffed his disappro¬ bation of it in very ftrong terms. That there was fome underflanding be¬ tween Staniflaus and Catharine, I fhall prove i by 11.4 by the following anecdote which occurred in the year 1 / 03 :—The very eminent banking* houfe of Topper and co. at Warfaw failed. They were bankers to the court of Warfaw and Feterlburgh, and were indebted about 100*600 fterling to the latter, and about 20 s oooL to the former. Immediately on their failure, the two courts feized all the effedts, and divided it between them, to the prejudice of all the other creditors. Not one penny did any other creditor receive from the eftate of Topper, but the two crowned harpies. * * T “* * , t • f • v , The Ruffian troops in Poland were at free quarters. The haughty nobles, formerly fo independent, were now fo degraded and en* flaved, that Ruffian foldiers were quartered on them. The officers iiiing the befl rooms in the houfe, committing every outrage on female modefty. Not a letter could be re¬ ceived or fent off, unlefs infpedted by thofe barbarians. Honff 115 Honeft and virtuous Poles! I have lived much amongft you, and have been kindly treated by you; feveral of you know me, and were convinced I wifhed to ferve you, as far as the fervice of an individual could go, I have been an eye-witnefs to your fufferings* and felt pain, becaufe I could not alleviate them. But defpair not; your oppreffors may ftill be vanquifhed. Without entering into particulars fo generally known, and * ? ... which brought on the crifis, I have only to Rate, that the Poles who emigrated fhortly after the new conftitution was fubverted, had colledled themfelves on the frontiers, and having: formed themfelves into an armed o body, headed by the gallant and virtuous Ko- fciufko, attacked the Pruffians, defeated them, and drove them from the country which they had fo unjuftly taken poffeflion of, Kofciufko then entered Cracow f on his ap¬ proach the Ruffians evacuated it. The brave general Madalinfki, who commanded i 2 in 116 in the fouth of Poland feveral regiments of militia, immediately commenced hoftilities, with fimilar fuccefs, in fouth Pruffia. And this brave man prevented the Pruflians, for a coniiderable time, from re-entering Poland. When the glorious infurreftion of Kofci- i - ufko and Madalinfki was known at War- faw, it caufed much fomentation. I can relate, from unqueftionable authority, that an incredible number of people had fworn, at the rifk of every thing, to effedt the de¬ liverance of their country from Ruffian flavery, and were ready to aft when called upon. They had not gone to bed for fix months, though yet ignorant who their lead¬ ers were. Every man, nay fome hundreds of women were fworn, had a mufket or piftols, a pike and a long knife, all furnifhed at the expence of that man who had initiated \ the other. Every thing was now ready to purge Poland from her barbarous oppreffors. Sixteen 117 Sixteen thoufand of thefe mifcreants were in Warfaw, well difciplined, and with a for¬ midable train of artillery, whereas the Poles had not any ; it was, therefore, warm work to kill off fo many of thofe favages of the human race, more furious and ferocious than the tyger. A permanent council, headed by the Ruffian commander, baron D’lngel- ftrohm, declared Kofciulko and Madaliniki rebels; and a price was fet upon their heads; and an extraordinary guard is decreed for the protection of the king’s perfon The Ruffian minifter now demanded the fur- render of the arfenal, an order to fearch every houfe for arms, and the arreft of about twenty of the firft people at Warfaw, fulpefted of favouring the caufe of their country! I and if found guilty by a military tribunal of his own forming, to be punifhed with death ! Prince Sulkowfky, the high-chancellor of Poland, * This I was told by one of his pages, was at his own earned requeft. 13 IIS very much to his own honour, remonftrated againft fuch a proceeding. Both parties feemed now to be ready to come to aft ion. Every day brought further accounts of the rapid advance of Kbfciuflto towards the ca¬ pital. General Worzow, with 10,000 troops, r ■ „ r was fent from Warfaw to give him battle; but his army was defeated, himfelf made a prifoner, and kept as a hoftage. In the morning of the 17 th of April, 17Q4, at about f C * V two o’clock, the alarm was given ; every ' ■) man that had been fworn, flew to his pofh — f * ■ . A great number, from the inftruftions they had received, found themfelves ported in fiich a manner that they had completly fur- 4 • • •* \ * • ■ > " ‘ rounded the arfenal, which was to have been taken pofieflion of by the Rurtian gene- ral Bauer, who was repairing thither with about 3000 Rufiians; but a body of patriots was fo ported, as to get in the rear and in both flanks of Bauer and his barbarians. > * < Thus completely furrounded, he was made prifoner. 119 prifoner. Having been an eye-witnefs to the above tranfadtion, I declare, moft fo- lemnly, that not one man of Bauer's detach¬ ment received a fcratch, the bufinefs was done fo completely; for men fighting for liberty , are not accuftomed to murder their enemies in cold blood. I have thus been particular, inafmuch as it has been faid that the Ruffians were fo maffacred. IL Bauer being thus made prifoner, the mill* tary embaffador took the command of the cannibals, amounting to about 2000 men, who were furrounded at all points: and finding that they could force their way only by the bayonet, they wantonly and barba- roufly fired off their pieces into the windows. 4 Such a proceeding naturally incenfed the Poles, who made a dreadful havock among them, not above 500 found their way out of Warfaw; and I am forry to record that the barbarian Ingelftrohm was of the number. i 4 Thus, * 120 Thus, by a noble exertion, was a merci- lefs enemy deltroyed:—I am forry to add, to very little purpofe. x^bout fourteen days after this period, Kofciulko made his triumphal entry into Warfaw. The permanent council was aholifhed, and a national council infti- tuted in its ftead; proclamations were ilTued to raife the people en maffe , and manifeftoes and private memorials were fent to all the courts of Europe, applying for their inter¬ ference :—vain application! During the conteft in Warfaw, I was not an idle fpeBator . In confequence of which, I became ac¬ quainted with Kofciulko, who introduced me to counts Ignatius Potocki, Poninlki, and feveral other brave patriots; and in the names of thofe noblemen who formed the executive council of Poland, namely, general Kofciulko, counts Ignatius Potocki, and Poninlki, and the: chief of the civil department, Konopka ; and by their autho¬ rity I was defired to write to a Britifh peer, 121 > s peer*, whofe virtues and attachment to the caufe of rational liberty were well known in Poland, and alfo to a very eloquent member of the houfe of commons-'!', requefting them to try their efforts in parliament, as well as out of doors, for the affiftance of the Poles, nay the univerfal caufe of man. They faid, indeed, that they were well aware that not a fpark of honour or honefty remained in the cabinet, but they wifhed to have the fentimcnts of the people. I felt a blufh mount my cheek, for the degraded Hate of , my countrymen, once the generous advo¬ cates of liberty ; but now (aye even now while I am writing this) the abettors of de- fpotifm, popery, and oppreffion. I however obeyed the requeft of my truly noble friends. The patriotic peer very politely and fpeedily anfwered me, Hating that “ he was a friend w • u to the Poles, and wifhed well to their caufe, “ but as this country was then in flridt al- * Earl Stanhope. f Mr. S*** ### *. “ liancc 122 44 iiance with Pruffia, it would not be fafe to “ introduce the caufe of the Poles.” I never was favoured with an anfwer from the other; At this time the Pruffians affembled in great force, and threatened Warfaw; but a very formidable Polifh army, ftrongly intrenched in a camp before Warfaw, fet defiance to the Pruffian Cartouche. Early in July, he at¬ tempted to cannonade Warfaw, in which he was not fuccefsful: the cowardice and pulilla- nimity of the Pruffians was aftonifhing dur¬ ing the fiege. Having been intimate with one of the kings aide-de-camps, who fent me a paffport, I went to the Pruffian head quar¬ ters, which were 'more like an eaftern fc~ raglio than a military depot. Concerts, balls, and lewd women in droves, fwelled this motley affemblage. While I was at head quarters, a fortie was made very early in the morning. 'The mighty monarch had not time to drefs or mount his horfe; but with his 123 his cloak over him, and accompanied by his bed-fellow, he ran as faft as he could, obeying the wife motto, Sauve qui ilpent. M r ' ; < r • . t « It is therefore no wonder that an army with fuch a commander, could not do much $ againft men fighting for their independence. No ! it was referved for a more fanguinary monfter, to clofe in characters of blood the brief hiftoryof Polifhfreedom! Suwarrow, the blood-drinker of Ifmael, and the amputator^ of Kinburn, was appointed by his fovereign, who not only murdered her hufband, but alfo murdered feveral of her favourites with her own hand, to conquer the Poles. She laid to him when he took leave, God be ♦ » * Baron Chigandi, who had been page to the king of Poland, and afterwards aid-de-camp to Suwarrow, allur¬ ed me, that at the commencement of the late Turkilh war, when the Turks made an attack on Kinburn, on the Black Sea, feveral of them fell into his hands, upon which he ordered their arms and legs to be chopped off, and fo fent them back to their countrymen, to fhew what they had to expert. with / I 24 with you, Alexander” (it is cuftomary in Ruflia to call people by their chriftian name) : “ fubdue Warfaw as you conquered IfmaelT The Ruffian general Ferfen, who was alfo on his route to Warfaw, endea¬ voured to effeft a junction with Suwarrow. This junction Kofciufko wifhed to prevent, and imprudently or neceffarily, with a fmall force, quitted his intrenchments to meet Ferfen: after an obftinate engagement, Kofciulko's army, which was only 4000, againft 15,000, was defeated, every foul of them put to death , and himfelf, wounded almoft to death, made prifoner*. Ferfen after this joined Suwarrow, who after fummoning Warfaw, which had refufed to furrender on fhe 4th of November, 17Q4, attacked the fuburbs of that city, called Fraga, and fepa- Kofciufko told me himfelf, that he was twenty-four hours on the field of battle, weltering in his blood, before he was taken up, and papers found upon him led to a difcovery who he was: his treatment in confinement was extremely barbarous. rated 125 rated from the city by the Viftula. Praga was defended by thirty-fix batteries, mounting 130 pieces of cannon; the fignal for an affault was , • ' * ‘ t . nJ. , 1. I * What followed the mafiacres of Praga, is well known: Suwarrow entered Warfaw two days after, and had a Te deum chauntedfor his fuccefs . The king was carried off to Grodno, and obliged to abdicate his throne ; while Q Poland 128 Poland was divided by the three eagles: thusfar was the treaty of Pavia accompliffied. Thank God no other part has been, nor is likely fo to be. It is hardly neceflary to notice another anecdote of Suwarrow, which I heard from his murder-growling lips rnyfelf.-—A Pruffian colonel, von Lubtow, with whom I was intimately acquainted, rode out with me to Praga, to fee the veftiges of modern Vandalifm. We there faw Su¬ warrow on horfeback, viewing the pits into which they were throwing the dead, as it was not deemed proper to throw them into the Viftula; my friend, who was acquainted with him>faid, “ General what are you about here ?” the Anglo-Ruffianhero replies, with barbarous, frantic joy, “ I came here to contemplate the glorious fcene achieved by my brave Ruffians.” Here concludes my painful recital of the horrors caufed by our regular govern¬ ments. I may fay with propriety that r T. Davifon f IVHiti-Friars. no 199 no lefs than 30,000 Poles were malTacred in twenty-four hours; a greater number than even the Revolutionary Tribunal of France did during the three years' exercife of its June - tions. As Englifhmen, it was our duty to have taken up the caufe of the Poles. It Was what my gallant friends expedted from the free and generous minds of Englishmen; Alas ! they erroneoufly judged by what our ■ forefathers were. For Englifhmen feem now fo loft to every fenfe of patriotifm and phi¬ lanthropy, that they only think of god Belly^ god Pitt, and god Plutus ; even God Jehovah is negledted, unthought of* for this ftupid polytheifm of modern Britain ! Here I think it relevant to mention a cir- cumftance that occurred on the continent* which at once betrayed the real" intentions of the Britifh cabinet; Till the period alluded to, fubfidies were not thought of in the prefent war 5 a war undertaken to defend k defpotifm 130 dejpotifm and popery. It was, indeed, gene* rally fuppofed then that none of the members of the coalition, would give it up till the name of Liberty was eradicated from the minds of men ; how panic-ftruck then muft the British cabinet have been, when it heard that its faithful, fceptred, heaven-anointed ally, the late King of Pruffia, was going to withdraw from the coalition ; that is to fay, point d'argent , point de P ruffe . His Majefty of Pruffia accordingly iffued a proclamation on the 13 th of March, 1794 , in which he an¬ nounced his feceffion from the confederacy, and that he had made every exertion, nay, even EXPOSED HIS SACRED PERSON, in order to check a daring enemy, which, in his opinion, was unconquerable; and that as he was not properly feconded in his efforts, he muft withdraw. The cabinet of Vienna, which certainly intended in future to menace a feceffion from the coalition, mo ft cheerfully co-operated in the extortion with his Ma- jefty 131 jefty of Pruffia, and therefore Colonel Mack (of parole-breaking memory) was fent hither to alarm the Britifh miniflers; and the alarm was fo great, that on the 16 th of April, a treaty was figned at the Hague, between Great Britain and the States General, on the one part, and Pruffia on the other, by which they agreed to take 62 , 40 oPruffians into their pay, to be com- t ' manded by a PruJJian officer , for which Great Britain w r as to pay 1 , 200 , 000 /. per annum, and the States General 400,000 /. not per annum, but only fo much down, and a folemn affiirance * that, for them, His Pruffian Majefty might do what he pleafed in Poland. This was publi¬ city enough to all Europe, that the Britiih cabi¬ net was not only adlive in promoting the war on the continent, but that all the devaftations, conflagrations, and murders, and all the horrid confequences of all the continental wars for a century pafl, are to be attributed to the weighty arguments and gilded intrigues of a certain cabinet . Peace would long fince have been reftored to the haraiTed, bleeding* defolated continent K 2 tinent of Europe, were it not for the machi¬ nations of that cabinet. It has always been obferved by the French* as well as by other nations, that the conquefts of Britain, have only been made by the agency of gold, and the mod: contemptible arts ufed to achieve that mercenary fuccefs. The follow¬ ing fadt gives a fpecimen of modern ENG¬ LISH BRAVERY, as alfo of FRENCH Collar dice and Corruption. Lieutenant Colonel Whitlock befieged Port, au Paix in St. Domingo, defended by Genera! Lavaux, A letter, dated the 9th of February, 1794, is fent by the EnglUh General to the French Commandant, in which he promifes him a higher rank in the new order of things, if he will furrender; and will further make him a prefent of 5000 crowns Tournois for his treachery. Thus anfwered the Republican General: u Sir, 133 Sir, € ‘ Permit me to complain to yourfelf of the ** indignity you have offered me in thinking me ■v t 4C fo vile* fo flagitious, fo bafe, as not to refent ' €C an offer of a fum of money. In this you have wronged yourfelf. I am a General $ hitherto * c I have been thought worthy to command an army: You have endeavoured to dif- 44 honour me in the eyes of my comrades. This is an offence between you and me, and for which you owe me fatisfadion. I e€ demand it in the name of honour, which mud exift among all nations; therefore previous to any general adion, I offer you a fingle combat, till either of us falls ; leav- “ ing to you the choice of arms, either on foot “ or horfeback. Your quality of enemy, in “ the name of your nation, did not give you a right to offer me a perfonal iniult: as g “ private perfon I afk fatisfadion for an injury done me by an individual. Our two na- cc tions have often made war with each other, k 3 “ hut 154 cc but always with equal weapons: ceafe then “ to attack us by tenders of money. Let us “ be equally generous; let us contend in “ honourable hoftility $ and let us fcorn the “ arts of fedudtiond* The gallant Colonel, however, did not condefcend to accept the challenge of General Lavaux, who made a brave refiftance, and always retained that part of the ifland where he commanded. CHAP. 1 35 • ■ CHAP. IX. Shortly after the bloody fcenes I wit- nefied in Poland, I left that unhappy coun¬ try, with an anguifh not eafily .defcribed, and went to Holland, which was then menaced by the French under the command of Gene- # ral Pichegru; and at this period the defpon- dency of the allies, was manifeft. They were convinced that even their hordes from . Croatia and Wallachia, no more than the well-difciplined, and brave army, under the command of the Duke of York*, could make any Hand againft the half-trained fons of freedom. The government of that country, which they wanted to difmember and deflroy, was richer than united Eu- * To the domeftic virtues and peiTonal bravery of this prince, I moll cheerfully pay due acknowledgment. But, as an Englifhinan, he mu ft have been out of the natural exertion of his valor, when directed againft reafon, juftice, and freedom. k 4 * i rope. About twenty millions * of gold were - depofited in the coffers of the National Con- vention, in the mint of Paris. Thither alfct was conveyed all the bullion of the fuppreffed provincial mints* containing about three mil ¬ lions of pounds fterling in metal, and daily additions were thrown in by depolits, collec¬ tions, and penalties. Seven-ninths of the cultivated foil of Europe belonged to the re¬ public, together with 850,000 brave fellows, burning with zeal to fight their own and the enemies of freedom. As a counterbalance to. fuch immenfe refources, one of the Englifli fecretaries of ftate, Lord Grenville, tells the world, that the mifery and poverty of France were aftonifhlng; that they have no further refources; and that he pledged himfelf (pre¬ cious pawn!) that the finances of France were exhaufied; and nnally, that there was not a man in France fit to treat with for * . See Count de Montgaillard on the State ot France* in v/ 9 d. peace. 137 peace. All this he fays in reply to a fpeecH of the Marquis of Lanfdowne’s, one of the ableft that ever was delivered in the Britifu Senate. This enlightened ftatefman knew much better what the ftate of France, and, indeed, that of Europe in general, was, than my Lord Grenville, or the whole cabinet put together, notwithftanding all their bribery and efpionage . With refources of the magnitude above alluded to, and an energy that nought but the enthufiafm of liberty could infpire, it is no wonder that the French had brilliant fuccefs* It was generally fuppofed that the patrio¬ tic party in Holland favoured the French cauie; yet I never could perceive that they gave them any affiftance. Indeed if they had, not one Englifh or Hanoverian foldier would have returned from the crufade. Every inch, of ground was difputed with the French, even after they had croffed the Waal, and 138 got to Nimeguen, and even to Utrecht, which is only twenty-feven Englifh miles from the Hague, the then feat of government, and re- ,, * • • iidence of the Prince of Orange, and only thirty fix Englifh miles from Amfterdam. Even then there was not the lead fymptom of revolt among them, not even among the well-known patriots. The French army were two days in Utrecht before the Prince went away; and how did he go ? not clandeftinely, but pub¬ licly in the open day, with leveral carriages full of effedts. I was at the Hague when he ■ ■ * was departing for Scheveling, about three Englifh miles from the Hague, to take fhip- ping for England. I was juft then riding on that road with Mr. Cafpar Meyer, fmce Bata¬ vian minifter at Paris, when that gentleman fa id to me, “ You fee, my friend, what , . * N X 44 imperfect ideas people have of the Dutch “ patriots. The Prince, whom they ought 44 to keep as an hoftage again ft the attacks € * on our country by the Englifh, they fuffer to u efcape; 139 ** efcape; not a foul about to molelt him : nay, “ I am furprifed the Oranje Klanten * don’t “ rife and deftroy the patriots.” Nay more ! when the French army entered Holland, they did riot even change the burgo-matters of any of the towns, or change the government, for a confiderable time after. One of the bureo- mafters of Amfterdam waited on the French general, and offered to refign, which the French general obje&ed to, faying, “ We do “ not mean to interfere with the govern- u ment, unlefs the Dutch do it themfelves.’* * Acircumftance that occurred at Amfterdam, when the French were at Nimeguen (only forty Englifh miles from the former city) de¬ fer ves notice, as it fhews that the patriots had no energy whatever, and that the Orange , \ *' Oranje Klanten , fignifying, in the Dutch Language, Orange Cujlomers, or cuftomers to the Orange-man; a nick-name given to the Orange Party. party HO party were convinced of their own ftrength, and the imbecility of their adversaries. When the bank of Amfterdam was eftabliflied, a law was enaded, that the bank fliould not * advance money to the government or to the Eaft-India Company, either upon their bonds or notes; but that the (peeie fliould always remain bona-fide in the bank, and any in- dividual holding money there, might at any ' \ J < _ 'i '■■ ' . 1 * ’ ' x • time have accefs to the treafury and the books. At the approach of the French, the. perfons who had money in the bank, naturally * became alarmed, and a meeting was called, at which were prefent the principal merchants and bankers of that city, when it was agreed that four eminent merchants, viz. Meflfrs. de Bruyn and Pontoi ; Couderc and Company ; De Witt and Company; and Braunlberg and Company; attended by a profeflional man, M. Van Staphorft, fhould wait on the bank diredors, and examine the books. When they arrived 141 arrived at the Stadt Huis they made knowri their bufinefs. The burgomaiter defired them to wait a few moments, and he would fatisfy them. Upon this he withdrew, returned fhortiy after,, and led them to the window, whence he {hewed them a fquadron of horfe, with four field-pieces with lighted matches, and faid, that is the an fiver. I ap¬ peal to any Dutchman in this country for the truth of this anecdote. When there was a report that the Englijh troops, which had been hunted (ehafiee) all through Flanders and Holland, were to be quartered at Atnfterdam, the burghers una- mmoufiy, Orangitls as well as Patriots, pre- fented a petition againft fucn a meafurc. l ns two perfons who prefented it, M. Fan Slap- horft, above alluded to, and a M. V filer, were put into clofe confinement, and not liberated * Thetown-houfe, the bank, and the pnfon ior debtors and criminals, are all in the fame building. until 142 until the French entered Amfterdam *. Does this prove that the Dutch co-operated with the French ? or that they entered Holland by their own bravery and courage, and by hard fighting? % Here it may not be improper to notice* that fuch was the cordial co-operation and unanimity among the regular governments in €C the good caufe,” that Auftria would not fend any troops to the a Alliance of her Eng¬ lish allies for the defence of Holland, unlefs paid for it. Accordingly fixteen thoufand Auftrian troops were purchafed for the pur- » pofe, with the property of that liberalperfon- age , Mr. John Bull. Having clearly fhewn how the French entered Holland, and the temper of its in¬ habitants, it is inconceivable why the Britifh * The magiftrates apologized for their conduct after¬ wards, by laying, that it was at the requell of the Englilh mini Iters—not unlikely. cabinet. ) I 143 cabinet, without waiting to fee what the Dutch meant to do, or becaufe the Prince of Orange took it into his head to run away from his office and country, ffiould have pro¬ ceeded to plunder and hoftility againft the people of Holland, where great numbers were attached to the fugitive Prince# The very moment he arrived in England, orders were fent to Plymouth to feize two Dutch fixty- fours, two frigates, two floops, nine richly laden Eaft-India ffiips, and about feventy fail of other veffels; letters of marque were alfo given againft all Dutch veffels, and even neutral veffels bound to any Dutch port with naval ftores or provijions; and all thefe adts of hoftility without a formal declaration of war This was ftridtly a la Ruffe , or the Ruffian has rather adted a T Anglaife. a ^ A * In all wars a formal declaration is required: if not done, it is unjuft, and contrary to the laws of nations.—* Grotius de Jure Belli et Pacis, lib. cap. m. § 4. » A pub- I S' t , r A publicise *, often before quoted, fays, “ A n Sovereign (or in fuch a conftitution as ourY his Minifrers) ought, in all their quarrels* to entertain a fincere defire of rendering * juftice and prefervirig peace. They are * e bound before they take up arms, and alfio after having taken them up, to offer equi- table conditions, and then alone are they • . . % * c juftifiable in appealing to the fword againft an enemy who fefufes to liften to the voice of juftice A Has this ever been done by the firitifh cabinet, except when it / ferved their purpofe to fend minifters to aft as fpies ? Then indeed they were ready to give every aft of their’s the air of moderation and * concefiion. Were net the Dutch actually and evidently facrificed to the pride, avarice, and ambition of that cabinet ? We wifhed to defend them, and did fo, as long as we could; and the Dutch in every refpeB , as I have already fhewn, co-operated with us. * Vattel’s Law of Nations, p. 28*. 14 5 and not with the French *. What do the injured, patient Dutch on this occation ? They refpedtfully fend two commiffioners to London, Meftrs, Vitriarius and Pafteur-f-, not only to claim their property, hut alfo to exprefs their earneft delire to remain in profound peace and amity with this country y and alio to ftate, with veracity, that the French had declared the United Provinces to* be independent, and exclusively fubjedt to their own laws ; and that there was not a word in the treaty, juft then concluded between the two Republics* of the moft diftant tendency to prevent the * I have heard from am unquellionable authority, that had the Prince remained at his poll, and himfelf con¬ cluded a peace with the French, he might have remained in Holland to this day; the French only wilhed him to break off the connexion with England : but the fa£t was, the Englifh would not Jiuff'er him to do it ; they were the inafters of Holland. t I appeal to the refpcFtable mercantile houfe of Mr. Van Dyk, of this town, and to him efpecially, as the Dutch conful, lor the truth of the above flatement. L continuance 146 continuance or eftabliflhment of peace and harmony between Great Britain and Holland. «.. But their candour, truth, and humility, were of no avail. The two commiffioners were indignantly treated, and had juft caufe to tell their countrymen that it would not avail t© «r attempt to negociate with England. Can any thing juftify fuch criminal and impolitic con- dud: in our councils ? It would feem, that when Vattel wrote his Laws of Nations, he had fome prophetic an¬ ticipation of the violent and vicious principles which fhould govern the Britijfh cabinet in the prefent wild and wicked war. Every meafure he condemns, feems abfolutely to have been adopted by that cabinet; yet, like a devout {trumpet, they inceflantly mouth forth the laws ofnations , the rights of nations , the good order and religion of nations . But let u-s try them by their own appeal, and ftate a few fads which I believe are not agreeable to the 147 the laws of nations, and not provided againft by the wifdom of any publicift. Immediately on the arrival of the Stadt- holder in England, the Britifh cabinet made him fign an order to the refpediive go¬ vernors, civil and military, of the Dutch colonies, to farrender to the Britifh arms. This order was couched in terms as if they were to be ceded by virtue of a new tx*eaty. The commanders of thofe colonies, accuflom- ed to the fignature of the Stadtholder, little fufpedting that the Prince was at Kew, and not at the Hague , inflantly obeyed his orders. By fuch means did ‘the regular government of Great Britain, get hold of St. Euftatius and other iflands. Let us now, for a moment, turn from the unjuftifiabie to the juflifiable means adopted by the fame cabinet to weaken an enemy; I mean tranfciently to advert to its conduct re- l 2 fpedting L 2 ✓ 148 fpedting the expedition to Quiberon. Civil war had too long raged in that unhappy pro* vince of France, called La Vendee. And after war was declared between France and England, the moft extraordinary means \yere taken to aid its progrefs. When the expedition for Quiberon was fitting out, French priefts were ordered to go to the prifons at Plymouth and Portf- mouth to perfuade the Frenchmen confined there to enter into the Englifh navy and army deftined to adt againft their native country. * i The priefts were not much attended to. What was next to be done? Their ufual al¬ lowance ofprovifions was flopped; and nothing but bread and water, and of that not enough, became the only food of thofe honeft unfor¬ tunate men; but even fuch unprecedented cruelty did not make the honeft Republicans forget the duty they owed to their country. t French emigrant officers were fent to inform them, that if they did not immediately enlift in ihe Britiffi lervice, they would be fent to fome i V 149 feme of our colonies, and fold as flaves. Such means were never before heard of in any i Chriftian nation, and it is devoutly to be wifhed there never more may. In every point the Britifh cabinet feems refolved to violate the * laws of nations. No government has a right to compel foreigners, much lefs prifoners of war, to enlift in their fervice *, and more efpecially to fight againft their native country. It muft not even employ ftratagern or artifice in order to induce them to it; however, this double violation took place. But mark the juft confequence of it ! Thofe very men were, as might have been expedted, the caufe of the failure and deftrudlion of the memorable Quiberon army ! Another crime was committed by that fame cabinet againft the laws of nations, which is not to be met with in hiftory, ancient or modern. An artift was employed to manu- * See Vattel and Grotius. fadiur'e \50 facture French affignats : a whole cargo ac¬ companied that juftly unfortunate expedition. A great many bundles of them were fent on fhore, but feized by the French General, Hoche. The greateff part, however, returned; and fome time after I happened to be at Falmouth, and faw thofe forged affignats lying on the beach* and the foldiers employed in making mufket cartridges of them. I appeal to any refident of Falmouth for the truth of this ftatement.—A V lingular trial took place at Guildhall, London * 9 relative to this affair 5 and the Judge fays, “ it is “ not contrary to the laws of nations i fhould like to know how his Lord/hip’s *f* library is fupplied with treatifes of that nature ? If he i / ,, has any, they muff be in Welch. And Cym- bryan publicifm muff be about as wild and * 1 1 \ ■ equitable as the bearded inhabitants of Snow- * See Appendix, E, i It is but juflice to obferve, that the noble Judge here alluded to, has invariably acquitted himfeli:, in civil cafes, with a candour and public fpirit that would have done honour to a Holt or a Somers . don. don. But I would recommend Vattel #, and N the example of the French, to his learned adoption. The French, when they entered an enemy's country fword in hand, honourably paid for every thing they had—not in affignats, but in hard fpecie. Let the members of all forts and fizes of cabinets learn integrity and focial juftice frorp thofe men. They will then profit extenfively by the principles of a nation they have fo long laboured to difmember or an¬ nihilate, Fas ejl et abhojle doceri\ As a fair contraji to the Jhuffiing , juggling conduct of “ regular governments,” I fhall next exhibit true Republican greatnefs, wifdom, and candour in negotiation, V * If one nation counterfeits the money of another, or if fhe allows and protects falfe coiners, the a£ts hoftile to all ufages and cufloms. Vattehs Laws of Nations, p. 47, $ 108, And though the laws of England have never regarded bank-notes, or any other paper currency, as money , until the Bank of Pitt and Co. in Threadnecdle- flreet, ran dry ; yet publicifls regard, as fuch, any medium of public, accredited interchange or traffic. *. L 4 CHAP. t CHAR X. IT has always been laid by the Britifh cabinet, that in all France there was not a * * man to treat with ; fuch has been the lan¬ guage from 1792, to the prefent year of 1800, and probably longer. The Executive Council, the Committee of Public Safety, the Executive Directory, and the Confulate, have all and each of them been not only able to conclude a peace, but were always defirous of it; frank- \ nefs, candour, and moderation {confidering exifiing circumjlances) to their van qui died eric- mies, appeared in ail the negotiations of Re¬ publican France. But their moderation is not in their fpeeches ; it is in their addons, ft is well known that the campaign of 1795 commenced moil difaftroully for the barbarous 153 The Auftrian and Pruffian armies almoft difoanded; the Anglo-Hanoverians running in all directions before a victorious foe; thou- lands perifhing by hunger and froft; Holland conquered by the French ; the capital of Spain threatened by the victorious Republicans; the bell: part of the German dominions on the Rhine, in their pofleffion. Yet not with ftand- ing all thefe advantages, they had no objection to liften to peace with Spain and Pruffia, and that at the very time the French, in poffef- iion of Weftphalia and Holland, might have taken Hanover, Embden, Bremen, Brunfwick, all Saxony, and even march to Berlin; there was not a ftrong place to impede them. But notwithftanding all their provocations, their prejudices, and advantages, they made peace with all thefe powers, and would, if pofhble, with all the other powers at war with them. Had the allies, thofe fceptred champions of good order and the meek dodrines of Jefus, been equally fuccefsful, would they have done the a 154 the fame ? Well and painfully convinced o£ their inexorable malice, the French Republic hehtated not to grant peace, even to the Elector of Hanover, whofe cabinet, in another country, has long proved the implacable foe of France in her freedom, her profperity, and even in her exiftence, , » ■ \ • • / , With Spain the French a£led with a libe¬ rality that marked their love of juftice, and i • * their love of peace. For the expence of a ’ £. ■ • \ two years’ unprovoked war, France acquired* by way of refutation, only a part of St* Do- mingo. A very lingular circiimftance occurred at Bails, during the negociations for peace, which were commenced on the part of Prufiia' by Baron Goltz: this nobleman died fuddenly i and his phyficians, after opening hi§ body, publicly declared that he had been poifoned. During the buflle attending his hidden and alarming 1 55 alarming illnefs, he was robbed, not of his 77 iofy valuables , BUT OF HIS PORT- FEUILLE, WHICH CONTAINED ALL HIS PAPERS!!!—and it was well known i •' ' ; ' “ . t : V t '• '. 4 ■ ’ ’ * that this was managed by the adroitnefs of i * > • .. V i ... i i a certain automaton, then difgracing the facred character of a diplomat if ! The fub- ftance of the Baron's Rate-papers fomehow found its way to our cabinet. Thereby in- formed of the intention of the crufaders of ’ . . • . ' » '< ’ ' ■ I x V the Continent, to relinquifh “ the good caufe,” • ■ ■ • they immediately addrefled their golden argu- v I ■ • •• • t ments to the exhaufted Emperor. They were • . *. * j * :• ‘ { ‘ . - > . weighty. But had Francis been lefs open to \ \ . • . . * * ? ’.>««. r t ~ - * • i» convidlion, they would have been trebled. t • ; - * • ; ., '.•••/ . • y h * *. t . . * ' Our miniftry alarmed, left the game of blood, fhould foon fubfide, granted him ^4,600,000. ,' - . * < - • >. . 1 •« • — \ * . ...... Had it been four times as much, they would i. ■ . • ! i t ; . - . - <' v ■ have cheerfully given it. For this the war- > . •• * ; > ■ '' > ■ breathing John Bull was told he would be ^ , i 3. ■ * , > \ * « paid intereft. Now, good Mr. Bull, do you r . f t fuppofe that our immaculate cabinet did not ' '* ' know 1,56 know that it was not a loan, but actually a fubikly. If our imperial ally is fuch a fwin¬ die r, why truft him again ? But the fa ' * fon and of liberty, applied, when he was in Germany, to the Britilh cabinet for permif- ‘ \ , * • : > " lion to land at Yarmouth to proceed to FaL 1 4 V, ; i » v- vi - 4 . - . mouth, 170 mouth, and there to embark for Lifbon, where he intended to make fome flay for the benefit of his lady’s health. This .requeft was readily granted. But on his arrival at Lifbon, he was, at the requeft of the Britifh minijier , arrefted, with his lady, his lovely daughters, and family, conveyed feparately to fubterra¬ neous dungeons, where they remained near two months, deprived of day-light and every convenience of life. At the interpofition of the Imperial' minifter, he was releafed from Anglo-Lufitanian captivity f : but how ? he and his family were conveyed on board an Englifh tranfport, to the care of an admiral then on the Gibraltar ftation, who Jent the?n all in an open boat to the coajl of Barbary , where they were put on fhore without mo¬ ney, without a change of clothes, and with- * Count Zenobio being a Venetian* and having an im- raenfe landed property in that country, and Venice being then under Auftrian dominion, the Aulirian minilter at Liibon claimed him as an Auftriau fubje6i. out 171 out any letters or paflports. The confe- quence was, that they were immediately made prifoners, and fent to Mogadore, where they would have been fpld as flaves, had not \ the Venetian conful, who knew the count, i * claimed and protected him and his family. N ' l an any man or woman read this anecdote i / without fimddering at the barbarity of this diabolical confpiracy againft the lives of this worthy man, his countefs, and their beauti- ful, accomplifhed, and virtuous daughters ? flow, gallant admiral! with this deed ac * curled full in thy face, couldfl thou return to thy indignant countrymen with fuch tar- nidged laurels ? V Another circumftance occurred at Lifbon during my flay there, which fhews the HO¬ NEST views of the agents of regular govern¬ ments, When the news firft arrived at Lifbon, of the French being in poffefiion of Holland, there were'fix richly laden Dutch Ead In¬ diana en m diamen put in there by ftrefs of weather. The captain wifhed to depart for his coun¬ try, but was not permitted. They have fince been fold, but the Dutch government never received a farthing of it. The com¬ modore of thefe fhips is there to this day. Two Dutch commiffioners arrived there fhortly after to claim them. The commo¬ dore fays, certain diplomatic agents received the money . M. Gildemeefter, the Dutch con- ful at Lifbon, who is now in England, I be¬ lieve, knows this to be a fad:. So much for Portugal* i . • Preliminaries of peace having, as before no¬ ticed, been figned between France and Auftria * in the courfe of a few months after, it was definitively fettled by the title of the Peace of Campo Formio; the affairs of the empire to be fettled by a congrefs to be held at Rafladt, Thus ended for the prefent the crufade under¬ taken 173 taken for the purpofe of exterminating opi¬ nions founded on the purefl: principles of phi- lofophy. But, alas! the fond hopes arifing from this event were but illufionary ! for in a very ffiort time after peace was figned. Gene¬ ral Bernadotte was appointed minifter of the French republic to the court of Vienna. But on his arrival there, he found it difficult to procure lodgings, every inn-keeper and hotel- keeper, was intimidated by the hirelings of the Auftrian and Ruffian minifters. It was there¬ fore with confiderable difficulty, he procured an hotel unfurnifhed\ at the enormous fum of 20,000 livres! near 1000 /. fterling per an - I num . Nor, as circumftances operated, was this exorbitant; for the landlord, from whom he hired the houfe, faid he received a dou¬ ceur of 500 florins not to let him his houfe, to which we may add the calculation to be made on the moral certainty of having his houfe demoliffied, if the French ambaffador 0 lived 174 < % " lived in it; as the penfioned populace wSlila he much incenfed at feeing a French minif- ter at Vienna. M. Bcrnadotte not having the arms for his hotel finifhed, had the republican colours hoifted. This was too favourable art opportunity for the agents of the common dif- turbers of Europe, to let flip. Accordingly the mob were directed to affail the windows* and commit all other adts of violence again ft perfons going into or coming out from it. Six hours the mob were rioting and vociferating Eslebe der Konig von Engel land, es lebe derKai - fer Thus do we frequently fee mobs, the terror of kings, occafionally become their ufeful allies. MefFage after meffage was fent to Baron Thugut-f-? who did not deign to at¬ tend to them. At length the mob, too pu~ fillanimous to do farther mifchief, retired; * * Long live the king of England and the Emperor. + Thugut , literally is, do good; an extraordinary name ior a man who will facrihce the intereils of his country, to gratify the ambition of a foreign power. and I 1 75 ■> and Bernadotte very properly applied for paff- ports to quit Vienna, which he did next day* Thugut was difmiiTed for a fhort time to appeafe the wrath of the French. Thus we fee every diabolical mean ufed to keep up the ferment by the agents of regular religious governments. I CHAP. XI. LeT us now take a peep into the Vatican, and fee how its heaven-officed mafter was, in the mean while, employed. We left him, in the year 1793, fending forth all his facred curfes againft the French, which were, how¬ ever, not attended with half fo much effect as the fabre of a Hulan. Early in 1794, when the Emperor went to Flanders, to place himfelf at the head of the army, Pius fent him a golden medal, reprefenting St. Peter and St. Paul, in- clofed in a relique cafe : Fight,” faid he to him, in a letter which accompanied the pre¬ fen t, “ fight in the name of thofe two valiant foldiers of Chrift.” Every aft of this mitred hypocrite was fraught with increafing viru¬ lence againfl the French. However, when Bonaparte threatened the Papal territories with 377 with invafion, his Holinefs was alarmed fent commiffioners to treat for an armiftice, and fent an envoy to fign a definitive treaty of peace. But even while the armiftice was negociating, the Priefts opened to their flocks the treafures of celeftial liberality ; promifed forty thoufand years of indulgence to him that fhould kill a Frenchman . But immediately after the armiftice was figned, by virtue of which His Holinefs was to pay a very large furn of money; to raife it, he was obliged to tax his people ; and the very lame means that were ufed to inflame the bigotted Romans to aflafiinate Frenchmen, were now exerted in their favour. * The Pope iiTued a proclamation at that time, which fhews the fpirit of the vicegerant of Chrilt. u lo all our “ dearly beloved Catholic Tons, brethren in Jefus Chriftl 4< We pray you for the good of Chriflianity and of his “ Holinefs, to take up arms in defence of religion. W ho- ever fhall kill a Frenchman will perform a facrifict ac- “ ceptahle to God: their name fhall be inferibed among ,s the names of the ele£l of the Lord.” N Thank ft 178 Thankfgivings and proclamations were made, wherein it was faid, that the Virgin Mary interfered. The madonnas of Rome were faid to have opened, rolled, and fhut their faintly eyes. Nay, fome of the wither¬ ed flowers that adorned thofe wooden faints and virgins, recovered their bloom, and dry branches their verdure, while the believing multitudes flocked in crowds to the miraculous fight. Citizen Miot arrived at Rome fhortly after the figning of the armiftice. Rut the French armies having, about that time, received a flight check near Mantua, orders were fent immediately to Pezzack, the Pope’s envoy at Paris, to delay the figning of the definitive treaty, till further orders. Miot, with four commifiioners, were infulted by the populace, and one of them murdered. They were led on by Priefts, calling out, “ Kill them s they “ are Frenchmen/’ » m On On learning from France that his Holinefs’s agent was fent away, the Vatican became alarmed. Bonaparte was again ready to enter the Papal territories. And feveral letters, in¬ tercepted by Bonaparte, amongft which was one wrote by the Pope's prime-minifter, Car¬ dinal B——, to the Pope's nuncio at Vienna, at once fhewed the real fentiments and mur¬ derous perfidy of the Vatican. It fays, 44 So • s long as I am allowed to hope for affiftance * c from the Emperor, and Naples, I will c temporize with refpe£t to the propofitions iS of peace made to us by the French.” And then entering on a fpeculation relative to the interior Hate of France, it adds, . i ' \ nean, which was the chief objed: of his June- , » . • * k , 1 • k * lion in the crufade. His brother of Germany, contrived different means to delay and protract . ? .. ' h '■ i the negociation at Raftadt, and by irritating notes and memorials to induce the French to » ^ f * „, 1 , , , t break off the negociations, as Paul had pro- mifed fpeedily to fend ioo,ooo men (if fuch * they can be called) to Germany, under the command of that arch-afiaffin, Suwarrow. fn November, 3798, about three months 1 • * . after the battle of the Nile, the vaunted legions of defpotifm, ignorance, and barbarity, * , * » * • * are already on their march towards Germany, but the Emperor of all the Ruffias had already made his bargain for two millions. j \ The Britifh cabinet, the pay-all of Eu¬ rope, fo often and defervedly cheated by the pious chiefs of regular, religious govern- ■» > meats, declared that its facred wifdom would not be duped any more, and would not fend u money” without having e€ money's worthy and 50,000 Ruffians muft arrive in Germany before the autocrat could touch the cafh. Thefe obfervations are corroborated by the fpeech from the throne, at the opening of the feflions of 1798. It ftates, That the battle €< of the Nile has aroufed the Turks and the u Emperor of Ruffia; and expreffes a fincere * c hope that it will have the fame effedt on every State of Europe,” See. &c. But as no Ruffian was yet in Germany, nothing was therefore faid about money. They arrive at la ft, and on Monday the lft of April, 1799, 1,200,000/. fterling were voted as a fubfidy to the Emperor of Ruffia. * I mu ft now take a view of the bafe conduct and \90 and aggreffions of the court of Naples which are chiefly to be attributed to the Anglo-Auftrian faction; for if the court of Naples had not expedted Anglo-Auftrian and Ruffian affiftance, it never would have com¬ menced hoftilities. The aggreffions of that vile Court, even before it declared war, were numerous. When Admiral Nelfon, after the battle of the Nile, arrived at Naples, the moft extravagant joy was manifefted: fetes, illuminations, and public rejoicings took place. The King and Queen went out to fea to meet and congratulate the Britifh Admiral. i When the French ambafiador. Citizen Garat, a fcholar and a gentleman, went to * The court of Naples never could forget, or forgive, the French Republic fending a grenadier on fhore, from Admiral Truguet’s fquadron, to adjufl fome differences with the court of Naples.—That was a terrible thing to Kings, for the world, or the bell part of it, to learn, that a trench grenadier is jully competent to treat with Jiich kings ! court 181 court on the day when Lord Nelfon was firft introduced, the Queen adually turned her back upon him, i • When it was known that Malta remained in the hands of the French, the King of Naples iiTued an edidt, which made it death for any Neapolitan to fend provifions to Malta; he alfo committed a variety of other aggref- fions. At laft this King, with his great cham¬ pion and advifer. General Mack, inftigated by \ Lord Nelfon, could not check their crufading violence: .for in November, 1798, this great potentate, and his great commander, enter the Roman territories with a numerous band of cut-throats and affaffins, preceded by a decla¬ ration, addreiTed in the following words, to General Championet, commanding the French troops, which were by no means nume¬ rous : 66 I purpofe taking Rome, which I “ deiire you to evacuate, as alfo its territories, “ as it has been revolutionized fince the treaty **- * of 192 “ of Campo Formio I further charge you cc not to fend any of your troops into the Tufcan territories; and if a {hot is fired on “ any Neapolitan foldier, every Frenchman, “ in my power, fhall be put to death.” (This was alfo given out in general orders.) And, in this inftance, Mack was as good as his word. At Arcoli three French foldiers were tied to a tree, and fhot: and at the hofpital of Oftricoli, which fell into the hands of Mack, thirty French foldiers, who had undergone an am¬ putation the preceding day, were {hot, and the remainder burnt ! ! ! As the neutrality of Tufcany, is mentioned In Mack’s proclamation, we fhall fee how thefe honeft agents, in an honourable caufe, afted in this bufinefs. * By the treaty of Campo Formio, it was not ftipulated that the French minifter fhould be murdered with impu¬ nity.—Brave M. Mack ! i See the account from Terni of the nth December, 1798, in any of the London newfpapers of the 3d of Ja¬ nuary, 1799. When 193 When this King, equally brave and wife, \vith his bully, Mack, Tallied forth from Naples, defiring the French to obferve the neutrality of Fife any, Admiral Nelfon conveyed 8000 Nea¬ politan troops on board Englifh and Portu- guefe (hips, to Leghorn, to attack the rear of the French. They arrive at Leghorn, and prepare to land; the commandant pretends to refill, but afterwards iffued the following oroclamation: * Leghorn , Nov. 30 , 1798 . iC The illuftrious Jacob Lavaillete, major- 1 _ 46 general of the Grand Duke of Tufcany, “ commandant of Leghorn, notifies and makes iC known, that there appealed in the Port of “ Leghorn a fquadron of Englifh and Portu- “ guefe men of war, having Neapolitan “ troops on board, notifying that they mull u efred a landing, and if refilled, to effed it by force. That in confequence of his in- o a ability «v “ ability to make refinance, he allowed therii to difembark, under the exprefs condition i€ of refpefting the neutrality of Tufcany/' Eut how was this neutrality of Tufcany ob- ferved ? The inftant the fquadron entered the harbour, Admiral Nelfon feized, as lawful prizes, a very rich fleet of Genoefe merchant¬ men , \ n r $ ’ Ip * 3 On the approach of the King and Mack* the French army evacuated Rome, which, thereupon, became a fcene of blood and horror. The cardinals Abani, Brafca, and Brafchi (the Pope’s nephew), entered Rome with the Neapolitan cut-throats, and Commenced their functions by committing every outrage, and almoft every violation of the rights and feelings of human nature. In V ‘ ^ * See an article from Leghorn, dated the 10th of De¬ cember, 1798, in the Hamburgh Correfpondent of th£ 10th of January, 1799, finr I 195 . fine, all the Jews, young and old, men, wo¬ men, and children, were maffacred ! not a foul of 10,000 of thefe unfortunate people, efcaped the champions of order and religion ; and a thoufand ads of lingular cruelty were alfo pradifed on Catholics who were known^ of fulpeded, to be attached to the French caufe —the caufe of freedom > and genuine virtue l f i . * The perfidy of the court of Sardinia, was not lefs notorious, though it miffed the de- ledable opportunity of rivalling that of Naples in barbarities which attach to the good order and religion of the coalefced cabinets-, eternal infamy and execration. The Executive Di~ redory of the Freiich Republic, after fuch facinorous aggreffions, declared war againft Sardinia and Naples; and in a very fhort time after, the vidorlous Republicans entered Turin and Naples. The King of Sardinia was per- o 2 mitted / 196 mitted to retire to the ifland of Sardinia : hi ✓ bloody brother of Naples, made his efcape to Palermo; and on his arrival there caufed every Frenchman to be put to death. The Directory now began to take public notice, through the medium of its minifters at Raftadt of the arrival of the Ruffian troops on the German territories. This was publiffied in all the newfpapers feveral months before the official communication took place. They well knew it was a preconcerted plan between Naples, Sardinia, Ruffia, Auftria, and Great Britain. Naples and Sardinia began too foon, which was very fortunate for the Directory, then having only thole two powers to contend with; powers they could crulli at a blow. The ftrong-holds in Piedmont, and the polfeffion of Naples was, no doubt, a great acquifition to the,French; and thus, in * See State Papers, Raftadt, 2d January, 1799. the \ i ca 197 the firffc onfet, the projects of the allies, were thwarted. The minifters of the empire at Raftadt, took up the matter ferioufly, about the Ruffian troops, and prefented a note in reply to the French minifter’s, dated Raftadt, 14th of Ja¬ nuary, wherein they fay, “ That no requifi- horror. I allude to the affafiination of the French plenipotentiaries on their quitting Radadt. From fome former datements in this Work, it has appeared, that the houfe of Audria., more than once, embrued its brutal hands in the blood of French ambaffadors. Baron de Jacobi, 201 \ Jacobi, Pruffian minifter to the court of St- James’s, then at Raftadt, and all the other minifters, drew up a narrative of the horrid fad *, which correfponded fully and exadly with the account previoufly given by the fur- viying minifter, Jean de Brie. The horror of the crime hardly exceeds the effrontery of thofe who ftrove to attribute the bloody deed to the French themfelves. The puny echoes of this flander, in the Journals of this metro¬ polis, of every defcripiion , are, in one refped, unworthy of notice ; but, in the other, they call for cenfare and regret, I have occafton to fee newfpapers of every country in Europe• but in none of them, not even in the court Gazettes of Petersburg and Vienna, was it / treated in fo trifling and unbecoming a man¬ ner. The moll hoftile and prejudiced Gazettes of the Continent, feemed to confider it as having been perpetrated by robbers, or by French emigrants: both which iiippofitions * See Appendix, G, are 202 are abfurd. No emigrants could enter the Auftrian lines ; and furely common robbers, would have taken their valuables, which, ^ ^ .S’ however, were, not touched* But the True Bn ton and Morning Chronicle know better * \ and give more than an indired lip tp Baron Jacobi, and his diplomatic colleagues. But tD the fad:!—- Three days before the French deputies had any idea of quitting Raftadt, they lent off a courier with difpaches. to France. Fie had not proceeded far on his journey ere he was arrefted, taken to the quarters of the ruffian Barbaczy % who put him under arrefl, took his difpatches from him, atfd forwarded them to the. Archduke , who, in his turn, took very good care of them. Thefe difpatches contained feme references in them which would be further explained by papers in the pofTefficn of the French deputies. It was therefore necedary to get hold of them, ccute qui coute. As foon as this violation oi the laws of nations, was known, all the mi-, * Colonel of the regiment of Szeklcr huflfars. niilcr, & 203 ntfters at Radadt applied to Baron D’Albini^ the directorial envoy of Mayence, who writes to Barbaczy to give up the difpatches, and releaie the courier. But to which that adaffin re¬ plies, “ That the feizure of the French courier, ‘‘ and his papers, was an important effedt, re- “ fulting from the operations of the advanced “ polls, and was only to he decided by fupe- • 4 rior authorities, which circumdance pre~ ' Thou rnayeft again fay, “ That it was an ‘ m t ■+■ of a foul murder* Pofterity will ihudder, or aot believe, that this horrid affair was no further inveftigated—than by putting Bar- t ^ ■» baczy under arreft for twenty-four hours , to be again placed at the head of his regi- tnent ! ! ! v CHAP, no CHAP. X. rip JL HIS difaflrous war which every humane heart long wifhed, and lately confidered at an end, was, thanks to the Hero of the Nile ! re¬ kindled in a manner not more injurious than difgraceful to civilized Europe. The cam¬ paigns of 1792 and 1793 were indeed marked with wanton murders *. But on the hero of Prague’s arrival at the feat of war, his barbarity baffled dcfcription, and proved that fame * X was at Frankfurth on the Mayn, when it was re¬ taken by the Heflians, in 1792, who got pofTeflion of it by a coup de main?. Hundreds of men threw away their mufkets and hid themfelves in houfes, in clofets, and chimnies. When an Heflian thought there was a Frenchman in a houfe, he fet fire to it to bring him out, and then mur¬ dered him. About 600 Frenchmen were di(patched in this barbarous, wanton manner. « N A party of French prifoners, about forty in number, were brought into the inn in Flanders, where I was, under an efcort of a Dutch, picket: they wrapped themfelves up by 1 211 fame had hardly done him jufiice ; for ac¬ cording to letters from Venice, which ap¬ peared in the Hamburgh correfpondence, a French picket of about lixty men were made prifoners; and, to give eclat to his debut, he had them all murdered, except two, whom he / W ■ ' fent back to France, defiring them to tell their comrades that Suwarrow was come . It is with the blufhine* regret of an Englifh- o o o man, that I attach any blame to a Britifh of¬ ficer lets illuflrious by rank than valour. I allud to the tragical, fate of Prince CarraciolL It feems he embraced the popular caufe at Naples; and when that city was re-taken, the Prince, who was an Admiral in the Neapo¬ litan navy, and who had his flag on board, furrendered exprefsly to the Englifh Admiral, i by the fire-fide, and went to ileep. Soon after, Tome Croats entered, and perceiving that the men afleep, were French prifoners (there being a centinel over them), they rufhed on and murdered them all with a frantic joy. p 2 under l 112 under the facred guarrantee of his word of honour , that he fhould have permiffion to re¬ tire in fafety whither he pleafed : but when he came on board Lord Nelforfs fhip, he was feized, thrown into a dungeon, tried by a Court Martial, and hanged. The next bloody item in this catalogue, i is the maflfacre of the garrifon of the Caftle of St. Elino, which cofifted of the Neapoli¬ tan patriots and French troops. They would not furrender to the Calabrian ruffians, but to the Englifh, who figned a capitulation with them ''h that the whole garrifon, as well as every other perfon in the place, that wifhed it, fhould be conveyed fafely to Toulon, protected by the Englifh, How were the terms of this capitulation fulfilled ? The in dan t they got the Neapolitans out of the caftle, they were * \ t * Captain Foote of the Sea-Horfe frigate figned the ca¬ pitulation on the part of the Englifh. mo given up to their barbarous countrymen, who put every man of them to death *. About this period a circumflance occurred at Ham¬ burg, which alfo deferves to be taken notice of. J. Napper Tandy, declared a rebel by his country, it is true, but being in a neutral country, and his perfon therefore inviolable, was fuzed, and in defpite of the laws of na¬ tions, he was thence conveyed to England. Such a tranfaflion (lands unparalled in hif- tory, excepting the king of Pruffia*s fuzing Baron Trenck in the neutral city of Dantzig, which was proteded again ft by all the Ger¬ man powers. I do not mean to fay that be- caufe Tandy bore an officer's commiffion in the French fervice, that he was not amenable to the laws of his country. The crime con- lifts in feizing him on a neutral territory. The French government never made an ap¬ plication to have an emigrant arrefted H \ 0 * See Appendix Hi. p 3 Hamburgh, 214 Hamburgh, though that city was latterly quite a la Coblentz . * ^ . * It is alfo neceflary to notice the violation of the peace concluded between the Turks and general Ivleber, by the Britifh cabinet. Kle- ber is on Turkijfh territory, concludes a peace with his adverfary in arms. The commo¬ dore of the Englifh fquadron in that quarter, by way of guarantee,-was invited to take a part in it. General Defaix, one of the principal officers commanding in Egypt, accordingly let fail for France, furniffied with the necef- fary paffports from all the parties who figned the treaty. This brave officer was neverthe- lefs flopped by an Englifli cruifer, and feat by Lord Keith as prifoner to Leghorn, where he was put into the common lazaretto; ho wrote to the Britiffi Admiral for the indulg¬ ence of pen, ink, and papers, and to be put in a (ituation according to his rank; the gal¬ lant admiral replied, “ Sir, I am furprized t t * » “ you 915 u you wifh for a fituation different from your crew, as you are in France all for equality, “ you may now enjoy the practical part of equality which you hitherto only have had in theory.” By this morfel of marine wit, was this brave man precluded every indulg¬ ence. Afk any of the Engliih officers who were prifoners in France, how they were treated? Let the officers in the memorable Offend, Helder, and Toulon expeditions, let captain Briftow of the guards, and captain lord Proby of the navy, fpeak of their treatment - i r in France. It may be faid that general Don and Sir Sidney Smith were confined in prifons; but it muft alfo be admitted that in other countries they would have been worfe treated . For it is‘well known that when the latter and his boat’s crew were taken prifoners at Havre, combuftibles, &c. were found upon them, for the purpofe of fetling fire to Havre, and the fhips in its harbour. The crime of the for¬ mer, was greater. p 4 We 2 1 6 We are now come to the period when the faviour of France, returned from Egypt to that country. The incapacity of the Executive Directory, as well as the corruption of its agents, caufcd much trouble in France ; its brave armies in Germany and Italy, from the t , •* v want of food and clothing, as well as their great inferiority in number, to their barbarous foes, could not make a ftand againft them > aflonifhed Europe, beheld the once mighty and victorious republican phalanxes quickly- retiring from their foes. The philosopher and philanthropift began to tremble at the progrefs of the blood-drinker, Suwarrow, and his ruf¬ fian hoft. France was now threatened to become a fecond Poland ; to have her fertile foil patritioned by the defpots of the continent, as agreed on by the treaty of Pavia. It was in¬ verted on every fide, its treafury exhaufted, the two councils and the executive power, as well as the conftituted authorities, in open hortility with each other, and the worft of all evils which can /• $17 can afflidl any date, namely, the people withu out confidence in their government. Such f was thedefperate date of the French Republic when the HERO of LODI arrived; the me¬ morable epoch that followed mud be freffi in the memory of my readers ; I allude to the revolution of Brumaire, which called BONA¬ PARTE to the office of firft Magidrate of the Republic. Yes, he was called by the unani¬ mous voice of the nation, to refcue it from a demagogical yoke, to fend fuccour to the threat- ened frontiers, and to procure for France the bleffings of a permanent peace. In the former he was fuccefsful. Mafena foon after obtain ed a complete vidlory over the Ruffians in Swit¬ zerland, and to this battle (as well as the ill- treatment of their countrymen in the expedi¬ tion to Holland) is owing the feceffion of the Imperial Paul from the confederacy, as without doubt, the Auftrians very much contributed towards it. In the latter he was not fo, though he immediately wrote to the Em¬ peror, 21 $ peror, requefting an armiftice, and- to enter into negociations j his letter to the Em¬ peror, was pofitively fent back: here then is a contraft between the Republican Chief and the Roman Emperor of the Weft. When the legions of the latter, were entirely fur- rounded and could eafily have been annihi¬ lated in the following campaign, he begged for an armiftice, and it was granted. The Firft Conful next addreffes a letter, the herald of peace, to the King of Great Britain. The anfwer was, that the government is young, and that only the Bourbons, as the legal heirs to the French feeptre, could reftore peace to the French nation : Does not our fage cabinet make ufe of words juft as they fuit them ? is it confiftent with the laws of nations, as laid down by all publicifts, to reject the propofals for peace from any government, even from a military ufurper * ? Has not the Britifh ca¬ binet * When an unjuft conqueror, or any other lias in¬ vaded the kingdom, he becomes poftefi’cd of all the pow¬ ers 219 binet treated with black Emperors and white Empreffes who have murdered their neareft re¬ lations ? But thofe honourable dealers in blood, Pitt, Thu gut, and Co. feem to have wifhed a little more of their commodity to be expended ; for at leaft 150,000 men, French and Ger¬ man have perifiied, from the time of Bonaparte’s offering to treat for peace, till the memorable battle of Maringo, by which the French got the entire poiTeffion of Italy, and almoft an¬ nihilated their enemies; upon this a conven¬ tion is entered into, by which the Auftrian army is allowed to file oft towards their own country. This convention brought on an ar~ xniftice for a limited time, both for the armies in Italy and Germany. 1 . « . t About / . ers of government, when once the people have fubmittcd to him, and by a voluntary homage, acknowledged him as their fovereign. Other hates as having no right to inter¬ meddle with the domeilic concerns of that nation, or to interfere in her government, are bound to abide by her elecifibn, and to look no further than the circumftances of * .' " . aftual * / ( 220 About this period, the Emperor fends the Count de St, Julien to Paris, to treat for peace. This nobleman, befide his FULL POWERS to treat on any terms, took two letters with him to the Firft Oonful ; one from the Em- \ ». * v peror, the other from the Archduke, who had become perfonally acquainted with. Bonaparte during the negotiations at Leoben. This ne- gociator signs Preliminaries of Peace, and returns to Vienna. General Duroc, on the part of the French government, was to, have accompanied him to Vienna to adjuft fome trifling difference which ft ill exifled. But, as foon as this was known to Thugut, he immediately difpatched a courier to General Kray, with orders not to fuffer General Duroc to pafs the Auftrian lines, as his prefence at*- aftual pofieffion. They may therefore broach and con¬ clude a treaty of peace with the ufurper. vide VatelTs. Laws ol Nations, p. 436, lib. iv. And this do&rinc is much like our own relative to regal power de jure and dejado , Vienna 221 Vienna, would not be defirable. Even this in-* dignity was patiently endured by the Repub¬ lican Chief. The preliminaries were fent back to Paris to undergo fome modifications. In the interim, up darts the Lord Min to, one of our diplomatic drawcanfirs, and abfolutely declares vengeance again ft Auftria—if fhe makes a feparate peace. Though thefe threats were difregarded by the Imperial government, yet fome weightier confiderations prevailed with the palm, if not with the confcience of Thugut: thus was he perfuaded to receive John / Bull’s gracious prelent, together with about two millions more for his mailer. The mo¬ difications, as propofed by the court of Vienna, were accepted by Bonaparte. But, when thefe were fent to Vienna to be ratified, frefh objections were made ; and fo they go on, fhifting, fhuffling, and fvvindling, till the French are about to recommence hoftilities; when the Emperor, after taking the facrament, and 222 and making his will, repairs to the army, and, inftead of fighting, pawns three fortreffes which do not belong to him, as a proof of his ' x i fincerity. For what? Not furely for the ar- miftice, for that is at an end. But he pawns thefe fortreffes as a pledge of his making peace with France within a certain time. The French were wifely willing to negociate, and fight at the fame time; to make new conquefts, and obtain new imperial pawns: for the re¬ commencement of hoftilities has nothing to do with thefe negotiations, as no ceffation of arms , was admitted in the preliminaries Jigned by Count fulien . The French General would not liften to fuch a propofal. Thus then the French are ready to meet the armies of the Emperor* even at a time when negociations were carry¬ ing on: but the Emperor, witneffmg the diflrefs and difcomfiture of his army, durft not lead them to adtion. Peace not being made, inftead of fighting, he furrenders the three fortreffes 225 fortrelfes as the price of their forbearance. Even at this period, when Count de Cobenzel is at Luneville, if peace is not figned and rati¬ fied by the time agreed on, the French and Auftrians will come to blows, at leaft unlefs new pledges are given of Aujlrian Jincerity . The different armiftices were only concluded for a certain time, and bear no reference whatever to the Preliminaries of Peace. This is obvioufly done by the French to prefs the Emperor to come to a refolution, either to profecute the war, or to make new facrifices, and all without breaking off the negociation for peace. This is certainly a new and mafterly, becaufe moderate and humane, piece of diplo¬ macy on the part of France, as armiftices, and negociations for peace, have never before been feparately treated for: The French government is well aware that Auftria will be no gainer if they again come to blows; and the A u Uriah cabinet, even Mr. Pitt's reprefentative there. is is alfo well convinced of it, Which accOufitS for the facrifices that have been made 1 have now been told a circumftance rela¬ tive to the negociations, the veracity of which may be depended on. Indeed* my authority is unqueftionable, but Im not at liberty to name it; The court of Vienna, the people of Vienna, the Vienna court Gazette, and all * In the recent eorrefpondence between Lora Gren¬ ville and M. Otto, the latter gentleman very juftly and very honeftly obferved, that, “ In the eyes of fome flatef- “ men we the French may appear guilty of grofs mif- “ conduft in fufFering fo much time to elapfe, without “ having compelled the Emperor to make a peace.” In this obfervation I fully agree with Mr. Otto. And General Melas might have laid, with the Conful Poflhumius, upon his re¬ turn to Rome. In his fpeech to the Senate, he fays, Your Generals, and thofe of the enemy, were equally “ guilty of imprudence; we, in incautioufly involving “ ourfelves in a dangerous fituation,—they, in fuffering “ us to efcape. Why did they not keep us fhut up in “ our camp ? Why did they not fend to Rome to treat i “ for peace on fure grounds with the Senate and the “ people?” Vid. Livy, L. Germany 9 225 Germany, never faid that which the Britifh minifters had the audacity to avow, namely, that Count St. Julien had no powers to treat. i I alk, would the French have fuffered the Count to remain in Paris one hour, if he had not proper credentials ? I believe the French have always fhewn themfelves too good publicifts not to diftinguifh full from limit¬ ed powers. Even Lord Malmefbury will do them the juftice to fay fo. It is matter of furprize that the refpedlable talents and time of the oppofition, fhould have been occupied in replying to fuch prima facie falfehoods and wickednefs. Had not fo much been faid about the negociation, it would not have here been noticed, as here clofes the CATA¬ LOGUE of the Crimes of % CABI¬ NETS, \ * There have been a number of Crimes committed by Cabinets, which I think not quite fo enormous, and of fuch magnitude, as thofe I have Rated in the book. Tor • jnftance; our cabinets purchafmg cargoes of Rones to o choke v / 226 NETS, which the Public are requefted to read as coming from a man who has met with no difappointment from any cabinet, and whofe intentions are not hoftile to fociai order, but who conceives it as a duty he owes mankind, to relate that which came under his own immediate knowledge $ fadts of which he had occular demonftration. And he here declares that he could get every fact contained in thefe pages, corroborated by teftimonies of the fir ft refpedtability, did their Jiations admit of it. In the honeft conviction that what he has dated, is nothing but truth; nor his motive any other than an earned, ardent clioke up an enemy’s port * ; and a captain of an Englifh man of war taking a Swedifh fhip by a coup de pirate in the harbour of .Barcelona ; for the purpofe of tak¬ ing two Spanifli frigates; a captain in the Englifh navy wantonly deftroying a defencelefs pport and town in the Mediterranean, for having, two years ago, fired on fome Britifh foldiers. Were all to be enumerated, it would fill fome folios. f See the Albion newfpaper of Oft. 10, 180a. wifix 227 vvifli for the return of moderation, liberality, peace, and foiid profperity, to this deluded, af¬ flicted country. Juftum & tenacem propofiti virum, Non civium ardor prava jubentium. Non vultus kiflantis tyranni, Mcnte quatit foiida. Hor.ace, He is prepared to meet al! the prejudice, infolence, and refentment of thofe who are enemies to truth, peace, candour, and philan¬ thropy. If it be afked whether the conduit of the French government, has been imma¬ culate ? the anfwer is very obvious, they have been incalculably more fo than thofe regular, religious governments that by every crime, art, and every falfehood, have laboured to deftroy them. The French government, from the year 1792, till the prefent moment, have inceiTantly been worried abroad by thofe governments, and at home, by fadtions, in their pay. Never fince, have they had the bl citings 3 of 52S of peace allowed them, obliged to be always on the alert, to raife money to fupport the war, a war of unprecedented acrimony, difficulty, End extent, which was forced upon them by an unprovoked confederacy. Did the govern¬ ment of France murder, rob, and torture Ambaffadors * ? Did their Ambaffadors ever attempt to bribe the Generals or Minifters of any belligerent powers ? / Did they ever fet fire to arfeiials and fhipping ? \ Was there ever an inftance of the va¬ rious governments of France, forging the paper currency of their enemies ? and give * When Lord Malmfbury was performing at Lille, two King’s Meffengers were loft going into Calais with difpatehes; two days after, the difpatches were found, and were forwarded to their deftination, by the municipality of Calais, to his Lordfhip. Hear this, ye Archdukes, and Archdevils, and Barbaczzis. it 229 it a public fandtion in a court of juf- tice ? Did their foldiers or officers ever kill their enemies in cold blood, although there \yas a. cjecree of the convention to that effedt * l Did the French government ever refufe to ratify any treaty or engagement entered into by its agents ? Without entering into any further recapitulation of the Crimes of Cabi¬ nets, can the French government be charged with anything fimilar ? Very recently there was much nonfenfe afloat about French armies entering Leghorn, Such a proceeding was * I don’t know if General Pichegru is in the country. I however, appeal to him if he has not faid that al¬ though the decree of the Convention was to that effe£l, he received private inftruQions not to enforce it by any means, as it was onlv done with a view to friffhten the . / . Englifh and Hanoverian troops. It is well known that not one Englifh or Hanoverian foldier was thus murdered, and had Pichegru a£ied contrary to his orders, the guillo¬ tine would have awaited him. 0 .3 no ( not contrary to the laws of nations *, as Tuf- cany had at that time, encouraged the enemies of France, and fuffered people of different na¬ tions at war with France, to organize thern- felves for hoftility there. Proper notice was fent to the fovereign of that country, to dif- band them; but he did not. I have before no¬ ticed the conduit of Admiral Nelfon in the / port of Leghorn, which was infinitely more repugnant to the Laws of Nations. * Vide Vattel, Laws of Nations. % Conclusion. 251 CONCLUSION As we have now nearly attained the com- \ mencement of the ninth year of this war, it may not be improper to notice the guilt which is ftill attached to the Britifh cabinet ; every man that has his intellects, muft fee, and be convinced, that all the blood that has been fpilt fince the confederacy began to be dis¬ jointed, is owing to its diftraCted councils. When the manufactories of Exeter, Leeds, i - t *r" ' and Birmingham, have no trade—when taxes, and our “ folid fyftem of finance,” opprefs every clafs of perfons—when provillons are 400 per cent, dearer than in France, and 300 per cent, i: - : ' v . 1 dearer than in Italy, Germany, and in Hol¬ land—and when the WANT of BREAD flares Englifhmen in the face, one of his Ma- ' J i 4 i i * ' * . • . » ? . i • i * x * - — ^ - y i * . i <■.«.! Appendix A. Partition Treaty* between the Courts in concert , T ' ■*-'** ' • - * k> 1 - < • • • concluded and figned at Pavia in the Month of * j i < I \J 1 * * * V J » July, 1791. ... - •"u .. * .. .. a , . A * His Majefty, the Emperor, will retake all that Louis XIV. conquered in the Auftrian Netherlands, and uniting thefe Provinces to - .... 0 . the faid Netherlands, will give them to -■ • - / v : '■>*' j, • U\ ; ■ ’ > j,( his ferene highnefs the elector Palatine, fo that thefe new pofleffions added to the Pa¬ latinate may hereafter have the name of Auftraha. * With this treaty was circulated a map , in which the purpofed partitions were deiignated with a minutenefs 1 that betrayed the fanguine aflurance of the royal plunderers of the continent: and one of thofe maps has fince found its way to the national archives of France. * ~ 1 r R 2 His T. Davlfon, Whitc-Friaxs. 244 His majefty the emperor will prefervc for ever the property and poffeffion of Bavaria, to make in future an indivifible mafs with the domains and hereditary pofleffions of the houfe of Auftria. r r r + - \ • L ✓ ! ill L : m ■ - • - • \ . *•' . • * ’ -■ . Her lerene highnefs, the archduchefs, Maria Chriftina, fhall be, conjointly with \ ' ; his ferene highnefs, her nephew, the arch¬ duke Charles, put into hereditary pofleffion of the duchy of Lorraine, . -, Alface fhall be reftored to the empire, * * i . . . » * / I • *«'.■< j ■ 1 /. x and the bifhop of Strafburg, as well as the * - f • . , t i i w/ . > w i ' » - i ., ... i l ». a * ^ * chapter, fhall receive their ancient privi- leges: and the ecclefiaftical fovereigns of Germany, fhall do the fame. u:k If the Svvifs cantons confent and ac- v . ( i r .. * . , m A I. . ^ V •« /■>*-., i. ' '..!■■■ . , •.»*.* * ■ ' 4^ * * cede to the coalition, it may be propofed ^ V i | ■* I?' *“» to them to annex to the Helvetic league, i » , f i . T f , • ♦ * "/ ' • r . # # ... V I. « the bimopric of Porentrui, the defiles of Franche f 245 Franche Comte, and even thofe of Tyrol, with the neighbouring bailiwicks, as well as the territory of Veuvey which interfefts the Pays de Vaud. * f . 1 r * * Should his majefty the king of Sardinia fubferibe to the coalition, La Breffe, Le Bugey, and the Pays de Gex, ufurped by France from Savoy, fhall be reftored to him, ^ / In cafe his Sardinian majefty can make a grand diverfion, he fhall be fuffered to take Dauphiny to belong to him for ever, as the neareft defeendant of the ancient dauphin, * / His majefty the king of Spain fhall have Roufillon and Bear with the illand of Cor- fica, and he fhall take pofleffion of the French part of St, Domingo, • X . J i ■. i ; . . ? i ■ < < K ■ .v s t • • ) f 3 ' Her i 245 Her majefty, the emprefs of the Ruflias, fhall take upon herfelf the invafion of Poland, and at the fame time retain Ka- minieck, with that part of Padolia which borders on Moldavia. His majefty, the emperor, fhall oblige the Porte to give up Choczim, as well as the * fmall forts of Servia, and thofe on the river Lurna. His majefty, the king of Pruffia, by the means of the abovementioned invafion, by the emprefs of all the Rufiias, of Poland, fhall make an acquifition of Thorn and Dantzic, and there unite the Pala- tinate on the eafl: to the confines of Silefia. i His majefty, the king of Pruflia, fhall befides acquire Luface; and his ferene highnefs, the ele&or of Saxony, fhall, in ex¬ change . 247 / change, receive the reft of Poland, and occupy the throne as hereditary fovereign. His majefty, the prefent king of Po¬ land, {hall abdicate the throne on receiv¬ ing a fuitable annuity. His royal highnefs, the elector of Sa^s- ony, fhall give his daughter in marriage to his ferene highnefs, the youngeft foil of his royal highnefs the grand duke of all the Ruflias, who will be the father of the race of the hereditary kings of Po¬ land and Lithuani. (Signed) Leopold, Emperor, (On the part of Ruffia) Prince Nassau, (Spain) Count Florida Blanca, (Pruffia) Bischoffswerder. r 4 Appendix 248 Appendix B» • ' ( • J 0 j 4 i * . 2d September > 17 QS 9 \ * , \ » . / . Lord Hervey s Note to the Grand Duke of Tufcany , t Whereas the Britifh Fleet has its principal magazines and ftore-houfes on your coaft, and fince the commanders of the Englifh fleets are determined to pals the winter in Leghorn, it is neceflary for his highnefs to give orders to the French minifter to quit the dominions of the grand duke, and that all the em¬ blems of French democracy Ihould be ef- faced from the palace in which the minifter lived. He 249 He further requefts that all the fof? lowers of French anarchy fhould be feverely punifhed; that all communications between France and Tufcany fhould ceafe ; and that the grand duke will lofe no time to effectuate what his Britifh majefly re* quires, &c* Appendix 25 0 Appendix C, Amjterdam, 22e Novembre, 1794 , Mon cher ami* J’ai appris* avec grand plaifir, ton heu~ reufe arrivee de Pologne, et je te remercie de la part que tu prends a ma fante ; la voila, Dieu mercie, affez bonne, et j’elpere qu’avec un peu de menagement, je me tirerai d’affaires. La fombre humeur dans laquelle tu m’a vu ici par rapport a la trifle fituation de ma patrie, ne m’a pas quitte encore, car je crains tres fort que quelle que foit I’iffue de la lutte aftuelle. V 251 ma trop phlegmatique nation en fera la vie- time e Le but du minifterc Anglois etant indu- bitablement de ruiner totalement ce pais* ci, s’il lie pent pas le conferver comme foa efclave \ une partie de la befogne eft deja faite, et il la' fera achever en abandonnant le territoire. Les Francis \ ' ne fouroient gueres Fempecher, par les moyens qu’on a employe, et par ceux qu’on employra encore* II n s y a que les Hollandois eux*memes, et eux feuls, qui pourroient y porter ob- ftacles, en fe delivrant energiquement du defpotifme de la faction Angloife fous la- quelle ils gemiflent, C’eft a Finfluence de cette fa£Hon qu’il faut attribuer tous les aftes arbitraires que Fon fait, mais qui joint a la conduite abominable des troupes Angloifes 2 52 Angloifes eommencent a dejfiller les yeux de plufieurs egoijles , &c. &c, &c. Caspar Meyerb, * *' i . .j .. .. M. Goldjmith ? chez M. Si eve king* Hamburg* i Appendix 253 i Appendix D* The following Letters were delivered to Lord Grenville (No. 1. and No. 2.) on Friday T 26 th April\ 1793, by Mr. John Salter, of Poplar , at bis Lordjhip's Office , White - half on his Lordjhif s Requifition, after i « having perufed Mr. Salter's Authority. t NUMBER 1. 66 My Lord, “ The French Republic being delirous to terminate all its differences with Great Britain, and to end a war which, by the manner 254 manner it is otherwife likely to rage, can¬ not fail to bring miferies dreadful to hu¬ manity on both nations : I have the ho¬ nour to demand of your lordfhip, as mi- nifter of his Britannic majefty, a paflport and fafe conduct for a perfon poffeffed with full powers to repair to London for that purpofe. -r * - r X t - • *> * r . ^ , , f ; \ ‘ * • * , ' * . \ / *v" ’■ * K'- • v * x 1 *x‘ ■ j u Mr. John Salter, notary-public in Lon¬ don, will deliver this to your lordfhip ; and on the condition of its being requifite, another letter, containing the name of the perfon who will have the confidence of his nation. V “ I have the honour to be, &c. &c. €t Le Brun, “ The Minifter for Foreign Affairs.’' \ Paris, April 2, 17 Q 3 . • 'J* p ♦ > * i ' • k * f ' t, M' * “ • - ' ! r . . * ' •- I . O . - : • .k > — . * * - His 'Excellency Lord Grenville . V NUMBER / I 255 / NUMBER 2. ** My Lord, 6i Agreeable to the intimation given in my firft letter, and which has for its object the reftoration of peace, I have the honour to inform your lordfhip that Mr. Maret will be deputed to give to our nation that defira- ble event. i • > .*•», ' I need not remind your lordfhip that it will be neceffary to attach to him three per- fons, as his fecretary, valet, and courier ; but I claim from your lordfhip the neceffary protection for them. / “ I have the honour to be, &c. &c. “ Le Brun.” Paris, April 2, 1793 . His Excellency Lord Grenville. Copy 250 Copy of M. Le Brun's Letter to Mr. Salter. < C Sir, • A % % « You will deliver to his excellency, lord Grenville, minifter and fecrctary of I ' ftate to his Britannic majefty for foreign af¬ fairs, the enclofed letter No. I; and if his t *■ * * r _ . lordfliip demands it, alfo the enclofed let¬ ter No. 2; on behalf of the French Re¬ public. . ' « w I am, fir, &c. -- . r c -. ,- v ; { 4C Le Brun.’ > Paris, April 2, 1793. Mr. Salter, Poplar , London. * “ And I do atteft the truth of the be- * • * 4 . v u forementioned copies of letters. No. i “ and 251 u and No, 2, as alfo the letter to Mr. Sal* ter, to have been figned by M. Le Ki Brun, minifter for foreign affairs in France, in my prefence ; to have received the u letter fo delivered to lord Grenville (as u alfo copies of the fame) from the faid iC minifter ; and to have delivered the fame 46 into the hands of Mr* Salter : and I do here- “ by authorife and defire the publication # thereof. “ James Matthews,” Biggen Houfe, Surrey, May 21, 1793. 1 s. Appendix 258 , i . ' t . / ' / ; r 1 H « . i l: ) • V i. > ^ '. i '•■;• i >; * Appendix E. i^h ■'&'*! if ' / t ‘ ; Cl COURT OF KING'S BENCH, November 18 . 1795 * Sittings in Term before Lord Kenyon. < i * t i * ■ - i 4 • — Forged AJjignats for the Duke of York's Army , other Expeditions to the Con¬ tinent. Strongitharm v, Lukyn. j From the ftate of the pleadings, the affirmative in this cafe being on the defendant. 259 defendant, Mr* Erfldne, who was leading Counfel for Mr, Lukyn, opened the cafe :— *' ' •* * * * ? j .. . . , % \ * - This he faid was an aflion brought by the > * . . i plaintiff, who was the holder of a bill of exchange for 5oh againft the defendant as drawer. Nothing was clearer than that the law would take care that no man fliould come into a court of juftice to enforce a corrupt and illegal contraft. , The cafe he had to lay before his lord- fhip and the gentlemen of the jury was \ • this: Mr. Lukyn applied to the plaintiff (no matter by whom defired) to do that, which when it was done, in the opinion of' the learned counfel, was one of the wick- edeft things that could be done, and cer¬ tainly extremely difgraceful to a nation r that praftifed it ; as it was effedling the ruin of thoufands of innocent perfons. Al- s 2 though 200 though the plaintiff might not be fubjeCl to any indictment, for forging plates for French affignats; yet he apprehended his lordfhip would be of opinion, if it turned out that the confideration of the bill in queflion was, plates for printing off forged affignats, that # the plaintiff could not recover; if his lord- fhip entertained any doubt upon the point, he would referve the confideration of it till another opportunity. Independently of the principle of the aCtion, it might be ex¬ tremely dangerous to encourage fuch applica¬ tions, in as much as they might lead to other forgeries of that fort that might prove fa¬ tal to ourfelves. A man poffeffing the dex¬ terity of the art, might be tempted to de- ftroy the public credit of our own country, by forging our own bank notes: very few perfons, it was confeffed, had arrived at fuch a degree of dexterity : only one perfon had appeared dextrous enough in the art of en¬ graving, to be able to accomplifh it. The foundation 261 foundation of this adtion was forgery, fraud, and falfhood. Mr. Caflon, letter-founder, was here called on the part of the defendant. Mr. Mingay, the leading counfel for the plaintiff, objedted to his being examined. He contended Mr. Caflon was not a compe¬ tent witnefs, in as much as he was an in- dorfer of this bill, and therefore came to in¬ validate his own fecurity. i j Mr. Erfkine fubmitted to the court, that Mr. Caflon came to fpeak againft his in- tereft, for if the plaintiff obtained a ver- didt in confequence of Mr. Caflon’s evi¬ dence, he would be obliged to pay one half of the bill, becaufe he and the defendant were partners in this bufinels. On the other hand, if the plaintiff was defeated in this adtion, he might commence another s 3 agaAnii 202 againft Mr. Gallon, as indorfer of the bill in queftion. * 1 Mr. Caflon was here examined, who . laid, that the confideration of the bill in queftion, was plates made by the plaintiff, in confequence of dire&ions from him (the witnefs), and which directions he had re¬ ceived from Lukyn. He faid he was em¬ ployed as the middle perfon between the plaintiff and the defendant : Lukyn gave i him a copy of a French affignat, which was produced in court, and that affignat, he faid, he delivered to the plaintiff, to diredt him in making his plates. The plaintiff at firft re¬ futed to do it; but Lukyn faid they were for the expedition, and for the duke of York’s army, and THAT IT WAS WITH THE KNOWLEDGE AND APPROBATION OF THE SECRE¬ TARY OF STATE; that the plain¬ tiff was perfectly fafe in doing it, and that if 203 if he ftill entertained doubts, he MIGHT CALL ON THE SECRETARIES OF STATE ; this he faid was confirm- i _ • V, ' ' v ED BY COLONEL SMITH, AGENT TO THE duke of York’s army ! ! ! The wit- nefs believed the plates were very well done. Lukyn had immenfe numbers of thefe forged affignats printed off, and went abroad with them. On crofs-examination he faid, ■ ' the plaintiff certainly refufed to make thefe plates, till he was told the government of this country thought it was a good mea- fure. Lord Kenyon faid, if the plaintiff had forged thefe , plates for the purpofe of fraud, he was opinion that it ought not to have been made the foundation of an aftion. But Mr. Caflon fwore the con¬ trary. If the plaintiff, in obedience to the higher powers, had made thefe plates for s 4 - the 264 \ / r ' the duke of York's army, that circum • Jlance altered the cafe . There were certain laws, not to be tranfgrelTed by one nation, even at war with another, as abftaining from poifoned arms, quarters in war, &c. But his Lordfhip faid he did not know that this was contrary to the laws of nations . The Jury found a verdidt for the plain- tiff, I mull here relate an anecdote, the au~ \ theqticity of which my reader may rely on During the revolutionary career of Ro~ befpierre, an Englishman, then in Paris, prefented a plan to the committee of Public Safety, for the forging of Englifh bank notes.—He was defired to attend the above committee • when after an exa* ruination 205 ruination of fix hours, inftead of re* warding him, as he expedted, he was com¬ mitted to the Conciergerie , where he remain * id upwards of two years ! Appendix 266 t Appendix F. General Bonaparte to the Archduke ' Charles . ii Germinal\ 5 th Tear of * the Republic—( March 31 , 1797 / M. General in Chief, * Brave foldiers make war and defire peace. Has not the war lafted for fix years? Have we not killed men and committed evils enough againfl fuffering humanity ? \ Such are the exclamations ufed on all fides. i 207 / / fides. Europe, who had taken up arms againft „ , V the French Republic, has laid them down: your nation alone remains; and yet blood is about to flow more than ever. The fixth campaign is announced under the mod: portentous aufpices. Whatever may be the refult, many thoufands of gallant foldiers muft ftill fall a facrifice in the profecution of hoftilities. At fome period we muft come to an underftandino*; fince time will bring; all things to a conclufion, and ex- tinguilh the moft inveterate refentments. / % The Executive Diredory of the French Republic, communicated to his Imperial Ma~ jefty their inclination to terminate a conflid ^which defolates the two countries ; their pa- # cific overtures were defeated by the interven¬ tion of the Briti/7: Cabinet . Is there no hope then of accommodation? Is it eflential to r ' '• the interefts, or gratifying to the paflions of a nation far removed from the theatre - of 268 \ of war, that we flhould continue to murder each other ? Are not you, who are fo nearly allied to the throne, and who are above all the defpicable pafiions, which ge- V nerally influence minifters and govern¬ ments, ambitious to merit the .appellati¬ ons of 64 the benefaftor of the human race,” and 46 the Saviour of the German « Empire?” Do not imagine, my dear gene¬ ral, that I wifh to infinuate that you can¬ not poffibly fave your country by force of arms ; but on the fuppofition that the chances of war were even to become fa¬ vorable, Germany will not fuffer lefs on that account. With refped: to myfelf, gallant general, if the overture which I have now the honour to make to you, could be the means of fparing the life of a Angle man, I Ihould think myfelf prouder of the civic crown, to which my interference would entitle me, than of the r melancholy ' ' '26 q melancholy glofy which would refiftt from the moft brilliant military exploits. \ * . -v I beg of you to believe me to be, / General in Chief, ► ■ ’ ^ *; ' ' \ V- * with fentiments of the moft profound v v * v j v./ v *‘ * refpeft and efteem, &c. &c. / / Bonaparte. Appendix Appendix G. \ Report of the Miniflers Plenipotentiaries at Rajladt, on the events of the 28 th V '*'■ » j % v . •* «• ' \ f ? ' * and 2Qth of April, 1799* The Imperial Plenipotentiaries being recalled from Raftadt, and having quitted that town on the 13 th of laft month, the deputation of the Empire declared in its fitting of the 23 d, that its functions were fufpended, and notified to the French Legati¬ on the motives of that declaration. On the 25th the minifters of France alfo de¬ clared that they would depart within three 1 ■" ' ■ * : 1 ■ ■ days. In 271 In the evening of the fame day, the courier of the French Legation, furniffied with a paffport, and his badge, and charged » v -» • f i . , * * ' > with difpatches for Strafburg, was arreft- r s v ed on the road to Seitz, between the vil¬ lages of Pittefdorf and Raftadt, by fome Auftrian huflars, and conduced to the head **i * r quarters of the Imperial Colonel Barbaczy I ■ ■ f r , / at Gernfbach, after having had his papers taken from him. On the requifition of the French Lega¬ tion, the directorial envoy of Mentz, in the name of all the members of the de¬ putation, interpofed his good offices in the / fame manner as the Pruffian Legation, in order 64 that according to the univerfal 46 principles of the rights of nations, the 4£ courier who had been arrefted fhould be fet at liberty, along with his difpatches, 44 and that the fecurity of the correfpon- u dence of the French million fhould not 44 be 272 u be interrupted during the fhort delay of “ three days fixed for their departure/* r * t v ? - r r ^ „ . <% ' ‘ * ' ■ ' “* ‘ - v- V '» * . * f ■ + x ' ' * The letter of the minifter of Mentz was! ~ • - • 4 £. J- . ( • ) t , f fent on the fame night to Gernfbach, by a ' - ^ L L v .. V courier who returned with a fliort reply from Colonel Barbaczy, flating, that “ he had “ rendered an account to his fuperiors of “ the arreftation of the French courier, €i and that he could not yield to the views u of the French deputation until he re- 66 ceived farther orders/ 9 The letter of the Pruflian Legation was fent on the 25th, at five in the morning, by the count BernftorfF, counfellor of the Legation, with an injun&ion to fupport the contents of it verbally. The French Le¬ gation having alfo addrefied themfelves to o o baron d’Edelfheirrr, minifter of ftate to the margrave of Baden*, to claim the protec- * Raftadt is part of the territory of the margrave of Baden. tion 273 tion of the margrave, that minifter judged it proper to accompany count Bernftorff, and to make every reprefentation fuitable to the circumftances of the cafe to colonel Barbatzy. The verbal anfwer of the colo- nel was, that iC he would tranfmit thefe re- “ prefentations to his fuperiors along with the €€ letter of the Pruflian Legation, and that * c he would communicate the refult as u loon as poffible ; but that until then he t( could not any farther explain himfelf.’* The account of the million, written by the count de BernftorfF, proves that this re- fufal to explain himfelf was politive. Meanwhile the French minifters re- folved to depart for Seitz, on the third day, the a8th, at eight in the morning. Every preparation was made, and the car¬ riages, loaded with their baggage, were al¬ ready in the court of the caftle. But looking at circumftances, confidering that patroles of hulfars were conftantly pair¬ ing o T 274 ing on the road from Raftadt to Seitz, that they had already arrefted feveral Ger¬ man minifters, and among others the mi- nifter of Wurtzburgh, from whom they had taken and detained his papers ; con- fidering befides, that the declarations of colonel Barbatzy, both on this affair, and on the arreft of the French courier, were no way encouraging for the journey of the French Legation, it was impoffible to be without fome uneafinefs on that fubjed, for it appeared at leaft poflible that the minifters might be arrefted out of con- 4 tempt; a tranfaclion from which great in¬ convenience might refult. For thefe rea- fons, all the diplomatic perfons, who ftill communicated with the French minifters, advifed them to defer their journey fome hours, or to the next day; the reply of co¬ lonel Barbatzy to the reprefentations of the minifters of Prufiia, Mentz, and Baden* being expeded every moment. The . t 2 75 The French minifters yielded to this ad« vice, particularly on the obfervation that it was proper to wait the refult of the fteps taken by the other minifters, for whom the Pruflian Legation teftified much gratitude. o o As, at eleven in the morning, no anfwer had arrived, the minifter of Mentz, baron d’Albi- ni, wrote again to colonel Barbatzy, and required from him a categorical reply to this queftion, “ Whether the French minifters, 46 who were ready to depart, and who were furnifhed with paffports from baron d’Al- 46 bini, were likely to meet with any gi interruption ?” It was hoped that the of¬ ficer of the margrave of Baden, who was difpatched with this letter, would return about three or four o’clock in the after¬ noon with a reply, but thefe expeditions * . . 1 , were difappointed. In the evening, between feven and eight o’clock, an officer of huftars arrived with fome t 2 foldiers, 270 ioldiers. The officer proceeded immediately to the minifters of France and Mentz in the caftle, and according to the teftimony of the underfigned minifters, the counts de Goertz, de Dohm, and de Solms, who were prefent, he begged then to excuie colonel Barbatzy* who was too bufy to reply in writing, but he declared in his name that the French mi¬ nifters might travel in perfedi fafety, and that for that efFedt the term of twenty-four hours was fixed for them. As to the Pruffian Legation, they received no infor¬ mation from colonel Barbatzy, either writ¬ ten or verbal. The Imperial officer delivered a letter to the French minifters; M„ de Dohm is the only other minifter who faw it, and that was by accident! He guarantees its contents to be as follows :—> u Minifters, « • • . T > • 4 J 0-1. Y 1 fore obliged to delay the execution of his de- fign until day-light, but in the mean time he brought the carriages into the city. The ^ v wives of Jean Debry, and of Roberjot, the daughters of the former, and the domeftics, came with him : none of them were wound- ed, though feveral of them had been robbed of their money, their watches, &c. The three minifters only were attacked by the murderers. The carriages ftopped before the / caftle ; every one haftened to approach the unfortunate perfons who were in them, in order to give their affiftance; but all were kept back without diftinclion, even the mod conftderable of the foreign minifters ; be¬ lt £aufe 2Q0 ■\ t j «- '> 1 i '*• caule no officer being prefent, it was found necdTary to wait for orders. At laft permiflion was obtained to carry to the apartments of M. de Jacobi, minifter of the king of Pruffia, madame Roberjot, who was extended half dead in the carriage, which flopped before the door of that mink- •* * »t j * r .... Tx. ter. Madame Debry and her two daugh- ' ‘ r * _ 5 . t tors were obliged to deicend from their car- * * j **T ■ >' ~ * riage into the ftreet, on the pretext that carriages were never permitted to enter the court of the caftle. They were conducted- to the gate of Etlingen. The horl'es of the o & • • ►. court were demanded to conduc'd them the ■ next day to Gernfbach ; this was counter- J manded however the fame day. The wo- r ^ \ f ^ men - were conducted a-foot to their former r~ lodgings in the caftle, by feveral members of the diplomatic corps; but they were foon af¬ ter removed to the houfe of the underiigned minifter of Brandenburg, in order that they might 2QI might be more within the reach of fuccour. The details of the alTaffination of Roberjot were learnt from his valet-de-chambre, who r ^ A * * * was in the fame carriage : he depofed that “ fome huftars prefented themfelves at the “ door of the coach, broke the glaffes, and 44 aflked the minifter if he was Roberjot; up- on which the minifter anfwered Yes in f f French, producing at the fame time the <€ r. t: paiTport of the directorial envoy of Mentz ; that the hu liars tore this paffport; that they forced the minifter out of his carri- 4 age, and ftruck him feveral very violent .i ^ * ' • • * > % -N * ... ^ t r . * • : • Jl'i i bv • . .... \ . * The lecretary of legation Rofentiel, who. was in the lafl of the carriages, and confe- quently neareft the town, efcaped through the gardens about the commencement of the affair. He was found at the houfe of the minifler V minifcer of Baden in a ftate of delirium. All the other perfons attached to the French le¬ gation arrived in fucceffion either as fugitives on foot or with the carriages. The minuter Jean Debry was ftill miffing : no proof of his death was eftabliffied by eye-wimefs. It was then confidered to be abfolutelv effential, that < * everything fhould be attempted to fave him. Some of us applied to the captain of the Auftrian huffiars, and foiicited him to grant an efcort to major de Harrant, who, accom¬ panied by fome huffiars of Baden, wifhed to go in fearch of Jean Debry. The under¬ filled count de Solms de Laubach offered to accompany him, in order to call the French minifter by his name, as his voice was known to Jean Debry. The captain granted the efcort, and at day-break, about four in the morning, count Solms, major Harrant, and two huffiars of Baden, under the efcort of a corporal and four Imperial huffiars, mounted on horfeback to fearch the environs, and par- tr 3 ticularly 2Q4 ticularly the forefts of Sleinmaner and Pittef- dorfi They had not the fatisfadtion of finding the minifter Jean Debry; but they learnt fome circumftances connected with the tranfadiion. Major Harrant having ad- dreiTed himfelf to the baillie of Rheinau to obtain information of the abfent minifter, the baiilie informed him that fome Imperial huf- fars had already made very ftridt enquiries relative to a wounded Frenchman, whofe difcovery they faid was of great importance to them ; and they had recommended ftrongly in cafe a Frenchman fhould be found, re fern- bling the perfon they defcribed, to take care not to conduct him to Raftadt, but to make him pafs without the town, and bring him to them at Muckenftrum, by a road which they pointed out, and fimply to take care of him, and give them notice of his being foundo Every thing had hitherto been clone to ameliorate 205 . ameliorate as much as poffible this horrible Hate of things. The prefent bufinefs was to provide for the fafety of the members of the diplomatic body and their families. The un¬ derlined therefore addreffed themfelves to colonel Barbatzy, by a letter (No. 5 .), with which M. Jordan, fecretarv of the Pruffian legation was charged, and who let out at four in the morning of the 2Qth, accohapa- nied by an Imperial ordonnance. At fcveii ill the morning Jean Debry came to the houfe of the Pruffian minifter M. de Goertzi His appearance caufed as much pleafure to thole who were prefent as the ftate in which he was infpired them with intereft.—They were the witnefies of the firft tranfports of his joy, and of his gratitude towards Provi¬ dence, when he learnt that his wife and children were ftill in life. His clothes were torn, he was wounded in the left arm, the fhoulder, and the nofe ; his wig and hat had laved him from the cut of a fibre, in fuch a V 4 man ne manner that he only received a contufion from the blow. Every neceffary fuccour was immediately adminiftered to him > and we heard the affedting relation of the mira^ eulous manner in which he had e leaped “ A huffar afked him in French, if he was 66 Jean Debry ? to which he anfwered in the “ affirmative, and produced his paffport, ** wlfich was inttantly torn: he, his wife, and his daughters, were then dragged out “ of the carriage ; the huffars ft ruck him, “ and threw him into a ditch by the fide of the highway : he had the prefence of mind a to counterfeit death, and to allow himfelf u to be ftripped : this faved him.. When the u huffars went off, he rofe and ran into the 41 ‘ foreft ; not wifhing to lay himfelf down ♦ ^ “ on the ground, which was wet with rain, he climbed a tree, where he (lumbered from time to time, in conference of laff “ fitude and fatigue : he remained there un- < 4 - til morning, when he proceeded towards t * are re* ; turned, Joan Debry himfelf •endeavoured to prevent it from being immediately known. M. M* Harrant and Jordan return-* ed to Raftadt, which the German Legations # had left at five o’clock. Not having heard any accounts of the travellers, they had every reafon to believe they had accom- plilhed their journey in fafety. The underfigned atteft upon their honour and their duty, that all the fads above Rated are moll corredly true. We have been eye-witneflfes of the greater part of thefe events, and we have verified the others with the mod fcrupulous attention upon the evidence of perfons who were prefent, and concerned in the tranfadions. We have had only in view the proving fads in all their purity , and of placing them beyond the reach of any future mifrepre- fentation. We have avoided, as much as pofiible, giving any opinion of our own, « making 305 making any obfervation, or yielding to the impulfe of fenfibility„ Carlfruhe , May 1, 1799® The Count de Goertz, The Baron de Jacobi, de Dohm, de Rofenkranz, de Rechberg, de Reeden* The Baron Gatzert* The Count de Solms-Laubach* The Baron Otto de Gemmingenu The Baron de Kreufn* The Count de Taube, >T Appendix Appendix H. Naples , July 14, 1/QQ. In confequence of the exertions of Car¬ dinal General Ruffo, with 3 o,ooo Calabrians, affifted by 500 Ruffian marines from Corfu, Ferdinand IV. has been put in poffeffiqn of his abdicated dominions, almoft without the lofs of a man ! Immediately after the depar¬ ture of General Macdonald’s army from this Rate, the cardinal advanced to Salerno, 24 miles from the capital y and having only the French garrifon in the caftle of St. Elmo (about 1000 men) to oppofe his progrefs, together with a few Neapolitan patriots, who occupied the pofts of Caltel Neuovo and Caf- tel Uovo, he entered the city about the 20th ult. 307 ult. An adtion had taken place at the Ponte Maddalena, in which the Ruffians dif- L 1 •* tinguiflied themfelves by their bravery, and the Calabrians for their cowardice ; it re¬ quired the greateft exertions of the officers of the former to prevent their firing on their allies, who began to fly at the moment of the of this Thole _ ._„ ., } _.. jfl - rib who efcaped retreated into the caftle. ^ o fpeedily attack: from the aftanifhing valour ■ v i /:" ( .. yv handful of Ruffians the Jacobins were routed, and 300 put to the fword. ~. t a JtX + . v . J . Kj Soon after this affair the cardinal feized - ... .• . . . q ;ii } uoon 0 or 700 of thefe unhappy wretches in ■ . ' - * different parts of the town, and (hut them, . : V, ’ J . ■ . > DC . 1 . up in the public granary. The Calabrians • •. ■. • . > ■ id • u .. .■ being anxious to make an auto de fe, could O v 7 . hardly be reft rained from fetting fire to the ^ : ' ' , ^ • j • 1 1 . prifon ! the moft horrible exceffes and mu.r- r ders were committed by thefe lavages in i i •: ’ . . • C . every quarter of the city; and thofp. who efcaped.roafting and impaling formed, a pro- , • • s 1 > » x 2 ceffion 308 eeffion about the ftreets flripped and flayed alive. r About this period the Britifh fleet in Pa¬ lermo bay failed to co-operate with the roy- alifts, having on board the gallant hereditary prince, and a few Sicilian regiments. Cn 4 ■ their paflage a difpatch overtook them from* lord Keith, with the neWs of the French fqua- dron having again put to fea; our fleet w r as therefore obliged to return to Palermo, to difembark the troops* In confequence of this difappointment, the patriots here began to pluck up a little courage ; and Ruffo hav- i . " t , | I - I ^ • * t < 1 j 'i * i ■ ing learned that he had no aid to expedi from / * , • . .• r ‘ > » #» the Bnglifh* determined to offer terms to the *■ . f 1 v . • - r•* patriots in the caftles. A treaty was accord- • . • v • • ingly drawn up, in which it was flipulated that they fhould furrender their polls upon condi¬ tion that a general and complete amnefiy Ihould be granted; that they fliould march out with the honours of war; that all their effedts, moveable 30Q moveable and immoveable, fliould be gua- O ranteed; and that they fhould have an unli¬ mited time to dilpofe of their property, if they chofe to retire to France. In fhort, that they fhould be put on the Jiatus quo of fubjefls, as if nothing had happened. Thefe terms were no doubt very difgraceful on the part of the king; but RufFo, without reiources or regular troops, and the French fleet at fea, thought it prudent to get pofleflion of the ilrong holds of the city, at any price, efpeci- ally as the king had inftrufted him fo to do. The treaty was figned by RufFo, and guaran¬ teed by Capt. Foote, of the Seahorfe, on the part of the Englifli. In purfuance of thefe ftipulations, the pa¬ triots, to the amount of 5 or Ooo, defired to be embarked for Toulon, under convoy of an Englifh man-of-war, and tranfports were provided for their conveyance, when lord Nelfon 310 Nelfon having learnt that lord Keith had been reinforced, arrived in the bay of Naples* His it ifhip immediately annulled the FLAG OF TRUCE, and REFUSED TO RATIFY, till the king’s pleafure could be known, the 4 ^ • * conditions which had been ftipulated by t r 4 , '• ' . I • Ruffo, and fandhoned by captain Foote. On the following day, however, to prevent the % - ‘ ■ confufion which muft have arifen had the treaty on the faith of which the patriots fur- rendered been totally fet abide, he gave orders * to his officers to fuperintend the embarkation of the jacobins, who were thunderftruck at the news that the ftipulations in their favour were to be annulled. In the mean time, however, ■ \ they had been difarmed, and eighteen of THE MOST OBNOXIOUS OF THE PARTY WERE DETAINED, SENT ON BOARD THE ENGLISH FLEET, AND CONFINED IN IRONS. His lord- fhip, no doubt, muft have fome ftrong reafons for this proceeding, which, however criminal the 311 \ the individuals might have been, was contrary', to an exprefs agreement on the faith of which they had affied. Nothing now was wanting to the re-eftab- lifhment of the king on his throne, and the tranquillity of the city, but the expulsion of the French from St. Elmo. By its fituation it cannot be taken by ftorm; batteries were therefore eredied by the Englifh and Ruffians, and a fevere and conftant fire kept up for ten days. The parapets were knocked down, and a great many guns difmounted, while the fire of the enemy produced little or no effedt on the befiegers. Six 32-pounders, under the dirediion of the gallant captain Hallowel, were opened a few days ago with¬ in 150 yards of the caftle, which had fuch a tremendous effedt, that after two hours’ bat¬ tering a flag of truce was hoifted, and the garrifon furrendered. % The 312 The garrifon marched out on the 12th,, and the place was garrifoned by our marines, all of whom had been landed from the fleet to afiift at the liege. The only lofs fuftained on our part is lieut. Milbanke, of the royal artillery, who was fhot reconnoitring, one marine killed and two wounded. Twenty- two Swifs were killed by a difcharge of grape- fhot. The king came over a few days ago in one of his frigates, convoyed by the Seahorfe, but has not yet thought proper to come afhore. He lives on board the Foudroyant, and returns to Palermo to-morrow, in order to affifl at / . the famous feaffc of St. Rofolia, which he had ord red to he put off until his arrival. No public execution of the Jacobins has as yet taken place, except that of the once highly favoured and brave Caraccoli, who had 313 had ferved his king for thirty years. The fate of this unfortunate man has excited compaf- fion. On the entry of the French into Na¬ ples, he carried the vefTel he commanded to Medina. He then obtained leave to return to Naples to endeavour to fave his property, all of which he had left behind him. On his arrival at Naples he was obliged, as is fuppoled, to give his affiftance to the French, and had the command of the gun-boats, and in this department he was obliged to fign many violent proclamations againft the Eng- lifh. He was tried by a court-martial, con¬ demned, and three hours after his fentence was hanged at the yard-arm of the Neapoli¬ tan frigate, Minerva. Though no public feverities have yet been exercifed, it is impoffible to conceive the ^ \ cruelties employed upon thofe who had been engaged in the revolution by the Calabrians, y who i 314 who are equally diftinguhhed by cruelty anti cowardice. I myfelf have feen the decapitated bodies of Jacobins carried about the ftreets, and their heads mutilated and fufpended on pikes. Nay, I actually beheld one monfter with two human hands, the blood of which he was fucking. While the Calabrians alone had pofTeffion of the city, fires were made in the fquares, and the bodies roafted publicly : th is favas;e barbarity is even combined with O j their religious myfteries. 1 paffed into a chapel yefterday in the fuburbs, where was exhibited human extremities on an altar, and a large congregation finging Te DeumUl Since the evacuation of the French, and the arrival of fome regular troops, one can now venture to walk out with fome confidence, though the Calabrians are particularly jea¬ lous of the Englifh, on account of their hav¬ ing prevented them from plundering the cables, and mafiacring the prisoners. I imagine- / 315 imagine the government will find itfelf not © O a little embarralfed with thole myrmidons before they can be prevailed upon to return home* FINIS. In the Prefs , and fpeedily will he publifhed j STATE * OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC AT THE END OF THE YEAR VIII ; * i Tranflated from the French of Citizen Hauterive, Chef de Relations exterieurs, and others ; By LEWIS GOLDSMITH. W. Taylor, Printer, LittlsSt, Thomas Apoftle. M . * . • H ■ ■ . ' * ■ \ TW 0