Germany from the Earliest Period, vol 4 | Page 9

of the distracted country,
however, ere long led to the resolution on their part of actively
interfering with its affairs. Austria was insulted in the person of the
French queen, and, as head of the empire, was bound to protect the
rights of the petty Rhenish princes and nobility, who possessed
property and ecclesiastical or feudal rights[1] on French territory, and
had been injured by the new constitution. Prussia, habituated to
despotism, came forward as its champion in the hope of gaining new
laurels for her unemployed army. A conference took place at Pilnitz in
Saxony, A.D. 1791, between Emperor Leopold and King Frederick
William, at which the Count D'Artois, the youngest brother of Louis
XVI., was present, and a league was formed against the Revolution.
The old ministers strongly opposed it. In Prussia, Herzberg drew upon
himself the displeasure of his sovereign by zealously advising a union
with France against Austria. In Austria, Kaunitz recommended peace,
and said that were he allowed to act he would defeat the impetuous
French by his "patience;" that, instead of attacking France, he would
calmly watch the event and allow her, like a volcano, to bring
destruction upon herself. Ferdinand of Brunswick, field-marshal of

Prussia, was equally opposed to war. His fame as the greatest general
of his time had been too easily gained, more by his manoeuvres than by
his victories, not to induce a fear on his side of being as easily deprived
of it in a fresh war; but the proposal of the revolutionary party in
France--within whose minds the memory of Rossbach was still
fresh--mistrustful of French skill, to nominate him generalissimo of the
troops of the republic, conspired with the incessant entreaties of the
emigrants to reanimate his courage; and he finally declared that,
followed by the famous troops of the great Frederick, he would put a
speedy termination to the French Revolution.
Leopold II. was, as brother to Marie Antoinette, greatly embittered
against the French. The disinclination of the Austrians to the reforms of
Joseph II. appears to have chiefly confirmed him in the conviction of
finding a sure support in the old system. He consequently strictly
prohibited the slightest innovation and placed a power hitherto
unknown in the hands of the police, more particularly in those of its
secret functionaries, who listened to every word and consigned the
suspected to the oblivion of a dungeon. This mute terrorism found
many a victim. This system was, on the death of Leopold II., A.D.
1792,[2] publicly abolished by his son and successor, Francis II., but
was ere long again carried on in secret.
Catherine II., with the view of seizing the rest of Poland, employed
every art in order to instigate Austria and Prussia to a war with France,
and by these means fully to occupy them in the West. The Prussian
king, although aware of her projects, deemed the French an easy
conquest, and that in case of necessity his armies could without
difficulty be thrown into Poland. He meanwhile secured the popular
feeling in Poland in his favor by concluding, A.D. 1790, an alliance
with Stanislaus and giving his consent to the improved constitution
established in Poland, A.D. 1791. Herzberg had even counselled an
alliance with France and Poland, the latter was to be bribed with a
promise of the annexation of Galicia, against Austria and Russia; this
plan was, however, merely whispered about for the purpose of blinding
the Poles and of alarming Russia.
The bursting storm was anticipated on the part of the French by a
declaration of war, A.D. 1792, and while Austria still remained behind
for the purpose of watching Russia, Poland, and Turkey, and the

unwieldy empire was engaged in raising troops, Ferdinand of
Brunswick had already led the Prussians across the Rhine. He was
joined by the emigrants under Conde, whose army almost entirely
consisted of officers. The well-known manifesto, published by the duke
of Brunswick on his entrance into France, and in which he declared his
intention to level Paris with the ground should the French refuse to
submit to the authority of their sovereign, was composed by Renfner,
the counsellor of the embassy at Berlin. The emperor and Frederick
William, persuaded that fear would reduce the French to obedience,
had approved of this manifesto, which was, on the contrary,
disapproved of by the duke of Brunswick, on account of its barbarity
and its ill-accordance with the rules of war.[3] He did not, however,
withdraw his signature on its publication. The effect of this manifesto
was that the French, instead of being struck with terror, were maddened
with rage, deposed their king, proclaimed a republic, and flew to arms
in order to defend their cities against the barbarians threatening them
with destruction. The Orleans party and the Jacobins, who were in