1797.

ingly, notwithstanding the treaty of Campo Formio, fummoned by the French general, Hatry, to fur render, with the menace, that he would fubject the territory of that electorate to all the calamities of war, if that city did not open its gates to him. The menace was afterwards put in execution and the gates opened; and, for the fortrefs of Ehrenbritstein, it was closely befieged. The count de Metternich publicly complained of thefe violations of the treaty, in a note addreffed to the citizens Trailhard and Bonnier, dated at Raftadt, the twenty-fourth of December, "He had learnt," he faid, “from all quarters, that the French troops, without any provocation whatever, had paled the lines marked out by the armiftice, that they had fummoned the fortrefs of Ehrenbritftein to furrender, had paffed the Rhine as well as the Nidda, near Openheim, and that they had formed lines of circumvallation round Mentz." On the fubject of grievances, the count proceeded to mention another, which was, "The political organization that the French would, by force of arms, compel a people to accept, who were accuftomed to a conftitution which formed their happiness. Such an enterprize," he obferved, was in direct and avowed oppofition to the fpirit of the French conftitution, and which could refult only from a definitive treaty of peace, that should eftablifh fuch a people under the dominion of France. Befides, this attempt was made during an armiflice, religioufly obferved by the ftates of the empire, and at the moment of a negociation, whofe object was to enfure, by a folid and durable

peace, the return of that ancient confidence and friendship which, for the intereft of fuffering humanity, fhould be restored between the two nation." To these com-, plaints no reply was made, nor does it appear that any was infifted on. The plenipotentiaries, after not a little difcuffion on the fubjects of defignations, titles, and a paßport, for a French citizen, named Bocher, entered feriously on the bufinefs for which the congrefs was called, on the feventeenth of Janu ary, 1799. Citizen Trailhard, ha ving ftated, as an incontrovertible fact, that a war had been provoked by the German empire, proceeded to represent, that his government had an inconteftible right to an indemnification for all the facrifices which it had made; and that, in compliance with its principles of loyalty and juftice, whofe object was to terminate the calamities of war, and to establish peace on the moft folid foundation, he proposed, for the first basis, "That the course of the Rhine fhould be acknowledged as a boundary. To this propofition, the count Metternich, in a note of the twenty-feventh of January, replied, That, by the new frontier propofed, Germany would be difmembered, independently of the circle of Burgandy, of the most confiderable parts of the three circles of the Rhine; and that, by fuch a difpofition, several ftates, the exifting nobility, and other members of the empire, would lofe either the whole, or, at least, a great part of their, poffeffions. The ceffion, to France, of the provinces beyond the Rhine, would flake, to the very foundations, the Germanic conftitution, and difable the empire from fupporting its poli

tical existence, and maintaining the relations which it hitherto preferved with the other ftates of Europe. By the preliminaries, fettled at Leoben, on the eighteenth of April, 1797, an affurance was given, that the empire fhould preferve its integrity and this affurance was alfo confirmed afterwards, by the definitive treaty of Campo Formio. The emperor and empire, it was ftated by the imperial plenipotentiary, confidently expected, from the juftice and generofity of the French government, that it would be difpofed to fubftitute, instead of the propofition already made, a bafis of negociation more accordant to that which was ftipulated, in favour of the empire, by the preliminaries of Leoben. Some pro pofitions," he farther obferved, were indifpenfably neceffary to be made, concerning the wretched ftate of those parts of Germany, at that moment occupied by the French troops. The propofitions, to be made on this head, would be favourably received, fince they refted on conventions fettled with the French nation, were in ftrict conformity to the law of nations and the natural confequence of nego ciations, now entered on, for the purpose of arranging a definitive treaty. They were refolved into the following heads:

I. That, in confequence of the preliminaries of peace, figned at Leoben, the armistice fhould be ftrictly observed till a definitive treaty fhould be concluded.

II. That the French troops should remove, altogether, from the right bank of the Rhine; and, refpecting the left bank, that they fiould retire beyond the lines fettled by the armiflice.

III. That all hoftilities, and confequently all contributions and requifitions, of every denomination, fhould ceafe, from that moment, and without any future renewal.

IV. That all fale or alienation of the poffeffions, fituated as well on the German territory as out of it, belonging to the ftates of the empire, and other members of it, fhould be difcontinued that a ftop frould be put to the deftruction of forefts, the fale of woods, as well as the fuppreffion of ecclefiaftical and pious foundations: and, that thofe faithful fubjects, who had ma nifested a zeal for their masters, and particularly those who, being fill in the civil or military fervice of the princes and lords, had, with- . out any just reason, been claffed as emigrants, and had their properties fequeftered or fold, fhould be free from all future perfecution: that thofe fervants or fubjects, who had inhabited, to the present moment, the countries, fome time fince, or more recently, occupied by the French troops, fhould not be difturbed by the arreft of their perfons, or fequeftration of their goods; and that they should be permitted, on the contrary, to remove with their effects and to follow their mafters: and that, in those parts of Germany, where there were ány French troops, none of the penal confequences of emigrations fhould be exercifed against thofe who had withdrawn from the theatre of war and the countries that were occupied by the armies.

V. That, in all the different places, whether occupied or not by the French troops, a ftop fhould be put to all thofe new doctrines and revolutionary difpofitions, whose object was to feduce fubjects from [K3]

the

the conftitution which was fuited to them, and to affociate them with the republican fyftem.

VI. Finally, to prevent the total ruin of the countries occupied by the French troops, that the number of thefe fhould be proportioned to the means and refources of thofe countries.

This anfwer from the deputation of the empire, to the propofition, that the Rhine fhould be established as a limit of the French republic, the minifters plenipotentiary of the republic tranfmitted to their govern ment. At the fame time, they ftill infifted, that the indemnity required by the republie was equitable. The boundary of the Rhine was effential to its fafety, and the tranquillity of the empire was ftill more immediately interested in forming thofe limits.

Meanwhile, the French not only declined to retire beyond the limits fettled by the armistice, but proceeded to inveft Manheim and to other acts of aggreffion. The imperial plenipotentiary did not fail to make loud complaints of fuch conduct, as well as of various flagrant attempts to excite, through out the territories of the empire, a fpirit of infurrection. In thefe attempts, the plenipotentiaries, on the part of the republic, difavowed all concern or participation, and faid, that the executive directory had taken very strong measures to difcover and punish their authors and accomplices. As to the conftant acts of aggreffion they were filent. Difputes were allo continued concerning the origin and commencement of the war. Count Metternich confidered it as an incontrovertible fact, that the empire did not attack France, and that it

66

engaged in the war from no other caufe than that it was attacked itfelf. According to the Germanic conftitution, the empire could not engage in a war without a refolution of the diet to that effect, ratified by its chief. The refolution of the diet, on the twenty-fecond of March, 1793, expreffly declared, That, fince France made war on the empire, by acts of hottility, without any formal declaration; fince fie had attacked and difpoffed, by means of her armies, the countries belonging and states of the empire, this war, undertaken by France, and declared by acts of hoftility alone, muft be confidered as a war common to all the

empire." The French plenipotentiaries replied, "That the open and fcandalous protection, given, notwithstanding the moft ardent remonftrances, to the emigrants, who were brought back to threaten the French frontiers, was the first act of hoftility against France, which not only wified for peace but must be acknowledged to have been deeply interested in maintaining it. The continued refufal, to disperse the affembling of thefe implacable enemies, compelled France to take fuch measures as were neceflary for her fecurity: but, fo far from endeavouring to fufpend them, by giving reafonable fatisfaction, the empire proceeded to declare itself in a ftate of war. These facts were of fuch public notoriety, that they could not be contested." fuch difcuffions were equally endles and unimportant. It was not by appeals to any principles of justice, or to any thing that had paffed, that the points in queftion were to be fettled, but by the prefent fituation of affairs and future profpec$.

But

That

That the Rhine fliould form the boundary between the French and German empires had been affented to, in the fecret articles of the treaty of Campo Formio, was no fecret. The whole of Bavaria, beyond the Inn, was to be the compenfation for this ceffion. Bavaria was to receive, in return, a part of Suabia and certain ftates in Franconia. No doubt was entertained of the good understanding that exifted, on this point, between France, Pruffia, and Auftria. That the fyftem of fecularization, which was to make up the refpective koffes, had been previously agreed on among thefe three refpective powers: but the deputation of the empire were not prepared to make, at once, fo great facrifices. The French plenipotentiaries reprefented, that the ceffions, on the left bank of the Rhine, were of no great confequence, as an addition of territory to fuch a republic as France, while the boundary of the Rhine was eftablished by nature, and would equally conduce to the tranquillity of both empires. The deputation of the empire, on the contrary, ftated, that, by giving up the left fide of the Rhine, and the indemnities propofed, thirtyone fecular and thirteen ecclefiafti cal ftates of the empire would be fubjected to loffes, which amounted to upwards of eleven hundred fquare-miles; the population of which was upwards of three millions of inhabitants. France had drawn from this country, fince the beginning of the war, in requifitions and contributions, more than eighty, millions. For fertility and fituation, it was one of the first provinces of Europe. The French plenipotentiaries, not, probably, difcouraged by this laft argument,

perfifted in their firft propofitions, from which, they declared, they would never depart. France, they faid, demanded the left fide of the Rhine, not fo much for t the purpole of aggrandizement as for that of fecuring to the republic a determinate and fecure frontier. The deputation was still indifpofed to make fo large a facrifice. But, on the third of March, 1798, the deputation, in a note of the third of March, agreed to a ceffion of half the territory demanded; and this they did in confideration that the French government, according to the declaration of its minifters, ple nipotentiary, had no view of ag grandizement, and that its princi pal object was to procure natural and determined limits for botli France and the empire. As a line of demarcation, of this kind, they propofed the Rhine and Mofelle, leaving to the French government the choice between the countries of the empire, fituated beyond the Rhine, on the right bank of the Mofelle; or thofe on the fame fide of the Rhine on the left. But, in confenting to fuch an important ceffion, they declared, it would be abfolutely neceflary to make every poffible provision to alleviate the condition of those states of the empire, of the nobles, and other members of the Germanic body, who, by fuch a difpofition, would fuftain very confiderable loffes. Nothing, in the way of negociation, on equal terms, could have been more reafonable than this propofition, which, in the tyle of common business, was a fair divifion of the difference. But the French plenipotentiaries peremptorily declared, that the boundary of the Rhine was a bafis of negociation from which the re

[K4]

public

public would never depart. The imperious demands of France, as might naturally be expected, gave rife to very animated debates in the diet of the empire. The duke of Bavaria not only refufed to agree to the ceffion propofed, but went fo far as to propofe, to the other ftates, to invite the empire, Ruffia, Pruffia, and England, to oppofe it by main force. But the deftiny of the empire was in the hands of Pruffia and Auftria. After multiplied fittings, long debates, and the interchange of preparatory notes, the deputation of the empire, on the thirteenth of March, finally confented to the ceffion of the whole left fide of the Rhine; but on the conditions that the French troops fhould immediately withdraw from the right bank of the Rhine, and that all military engagements and requifitions fhould immediately ceafe; that the French republic fhould immediately with draw all its troops from the right fide, and, confining itself to the countries of Germany, which fhould be ceded to it, on the left bank of the Rhine, should not form any farther pretenfions, on the empire, of any kind; that indemnities fhould be fixed for the ftates which had fuftained any lofs on the left bank of the Rhine; that all perfecution, of whatever kind, in the countries to be ceded, fhould ceafe, and individuals be fafe and fecure in their perfons and properties. The French plenipotentiaries agreed, that the ceffion of all pofts, on the right bank of the Rhine, fhould be the first confequence of a final pacification. They also agreed to the principle of indemnities, which, they faid, were to be found in a fecularization of the ecclefiaftical

estates; which principle was alfo adopted by the deputation of the empire. But in the difcuffions which enfued, on the application of this general principle, there was a great interference and oppofition of interefts; and it was evident, that each state thought only of its own aggrandizement, and of throwing the fum of damages and losses on thofe who were the least capable of defending their own interefts. The states of the first rank did not diffemble that these loffes were to fall on the fecondary ftates; and thefe, again, fhifted them off on thofe of inferior order. The Auf trian minifters propofed the great fecularizations; the ecclefiaftical electors demanded to be indemnified by thofe of the prince bishops; the prince bifhops required the fuppreffion of abbeys, monafteries, and the inferior prelacies. Many, in order to lighten the ftroke with which they were threatened, and which they had not the power to avert, began to form a fund for their future fupport, by putting to fale not only their moveables and other portable objects, but also confiderable portions of their landed property: fo that, in cafe of the fecularizations expected, the new poffeffors fhould have the lefs be nefit, unlefs a law fhould be paffed for invalidating fuch dilapidations.

It was decided, by the deputation, that they should begin with the total fecularization of the abbeys and private prelacies. If these fhould not be fufficient to cover the balance of the loffes, a part of the poffeffions of the prince bifhops fhould be taken to their account. Auftria and Pruffia declared, that, in order to avoid too great a number of feculariza