XIII. 1793. 54. And the the Com Public Sal Committee of Public Salvation,* joined to the ferment CHAP. excited by the total subversion of society, the despotic power wielded by the Convention, and the extraordinary want of capacity in the Allied cabinets and generals, that the real secret is to be found of the successful resistance ability of by France to the formidable invasion of 1793. The mittee of inability of Napoleon to resist a similar attack in 1815, vation. demonstrates this important truth, and should be a warning to future ages not to incur the same risk, in the hope of obtaining a similar triumph. Superior in military talent, heading a band of veterans, supported by a terrible name, he sought in vain to communicate to the empire the energy which, under the iron grasp of the Convention, had been brought into action in the Republic. A rational being will never succeed in equalling the strength Jom. iii. which, in a transport of frenzy, a madman can for a brief ii. 278. period exert.1 1 6. Hard. of Kaunitz direction affairs. While such extraordinary and unheard-of efforts were 55. making in France to resist the invasion with which they Retirement were menaced, a change, fraught in its ultimate results at Vienna, with important consequences, took place in the Imperial and acces government. Kaunitz, so long at the head of the Austrian gut to the cabinet, had survived the age to which he belonged; his of foreign cautious habits, long experience, and great abilities, were inadequate to supply the want of that practical acquaintance with affairs which arises from having grown up under their influence. The French Revolution had opened up a new era in human affairs: the old actors, how distinguished soever, were unacquainted with the novel machinery, and unfit to play their parts in the mighty drama which was approaching. The veteran Austrian diplomatist retired from the helm, full of years and loaded with honours, from a prudent disinclination to risk his great reputation 2 Hard. ii. in the stormy scenes which had already arisen, and the 259, 260. still more difficult ones which his sagacity foresaw.2 He * Their names were at first Barère, Delmas, Bréard, Cambon, Debry, Danton, Guyton Morveaux, Treilhard, and Lacroix.-See HARD. ii. 772. CHAP. was succeeded in the direction of foreign affairs by THUGUT,* Who long kept possession of the situation of 1793. prime minister during the revolutionary war. The son March 28. of a poor boatman at Lintz, he had, by the industry of his parents, been early placed at the school of Oriental languages at Vienna, where his diligence and abilities attracted the notice of the Empress Maria Theresa. She recommended him to the director of the college, and at the age of fifteen he was attached, by her desire, as interpreter to the Austrian embassy at Constantinople, from whence he gradually rose in the diplomatic line to the portfolio of foreign affairs. 56. Though he had long resided at Paris, and was intiHis charac- mately connected with Mirabeau, whose conversion to the ter and first interests of the court was partly owing to his exertions, measures. he maintained throughout his career an inflexible hostility to Republican principles. His combinations were not always crowned with success often they terminated in disaster; yet his bitterest enemies cannot deny him the credit of a truly patriotic spirit, an energetic character, profound skill in diplomacy, and a fidelity to his engagements, as unusual as it was honourable in those days of * Thugut's history was very remarkable, and affords a striking instance of the manner in which, in seeking for the diplomatic or military ability of which they stand in need to sustain the fortunes of the state, even the most aristocratic governments on the Continent descend to the very humblest ranks of society. He was born at Lintz in 1739, and was the son of a poor boatman at that place, who, by great exertions, had succeeded in getting him placed at the Oriental School of Vienna, where the ability with which he underwent an examination in the Eastern languages attracted the notice of Maria Theresa, who was present on the occasion, and who directed that, on leaving the academy, he should be attached to the Austrian embassy at Constantinople. In 1754 he commenced his career at the Turkish capital in that capacity at the early age of fifteen; and such was the extraordinary progress he made in Eastern languages, that in three years he was appointed interpreter to the embassy. He continued in that important situation till 1770, and in 1772 was sent as envoy to the Congress of Torkchany, where he executed the delicate duties intrusted to him with such ability, that in 1774 he was made by Maria Theresa a baron, with the dignity of Commander of the Order of St Stephen. In 1774 he performed, by order of the Empress, several journeys in the suite of her daughters, the future Queens of France and Naples. In 1778, when the death of the Elector of Bavaria had rekindled the flames of war between Prussia and Austria, he was sent on a secret mission to endeavour to accom CHAP. XIII. 1793. weakness and tergiversation. His accession to office was soon followed by an evident increase of vigour in diplomatic measures. Pressing notes to the inferior German powers brought about the equipment of that tardy and 22d March. inefficient force, the Germanic contingents; while a menacing proclamation from the Diet of Ratisbon prohibited all circulation of French assignats or revolutionary writings, and ordered the immediate departure from their territory of all subjects of that country who could not give a sufficient reason for their residence. But though these measures might be well calculated to prevent the inundation of the empire with democratic principles, it was with very different weapons that the formidable army which lxv. 573. had grown up out of the agonies of the Republic required 260, 274. to be combated.1 1Biog. Univ. Hard.ii.259. 57. divisions Prussia and At the time, however, that the zeal of Austria was thus warming in the common cause, that of Prussia was rapidly Incipient cooling; and to the lukewarmness and indifference of between that power in the contest with France, more than to any Austria. other cause, the extraordinary success which for some years attended the Republican arms is to be ascribed. The selfish ambition of the cabinets of Vienna, St Peters modate matters with the Great Frederick, who at once divined his astute character. Subsequently he was sent in 1780, as minister of Austria, to the court of Warsaw; and in 1788, when Moldavia and Wallachia were conquered by the united arms of Russia and Austria, he was intrusted jointly by the two powers with the government of those provinces; which important situation he held till the peace of Teschen in 1790. After this he went to Paris, ostensibly to enjoy his fortune, but really as joint ambassador in secret with Count de Mery, who held that situation, and who was desirous of his aid to observe the progress and mitigate the disasters of the Revolution. He there had several interviews with Mirabeau, and powerfully contributed to fix that redoubtable orator in the interests of the court, and the prosecution of those designs in which he was unhappily interrupted by his death. In 1792, the advanced age and increasing infirmities of Kaunitz caused him to be recalled to Vienna, where he soon came to acquire a preponderating influence; and, though the former still held the situation of chancellor of state, or prime minister, yet Thugut really had the entire direction of affairs; and on his death, in June 1794, he was appointed in his stead, and entirely directed the imperial diplomacy till June 1801, when Napoleon, after the battle of Marengo, made his retirement a sine qua non of any accommodation - deeming any peace insecure as long as so decided an opponent of the Revolution directed the Austrian councils.-See Biographie Universelle, xlv. 573, 576, (THUGUT.) XIII. 1793. CHAP. burg, and Berlin, was the cause of this unhappy disunion. Hardly was the ink of the treaty of the 14th July with Great Britain dry, when the hoisting of the Austrian flag on the walls of Valenciennes and Condé opened the eyes of the Prussian ministry to the projects of aggrandisement which were entertained by the Imperial cabinet, and which Thugut supported with his whole talents and influence. Irritated and chagrined at this prospect of material accession of power to their dreaded rival, the cabinet of Berlin derived some consolation from the completion of their arrangements with the Empress Catherine for the partition of Poland, in virtue of which the Prussian force had recently taken possession of Dantzic, with its noble harbour and fortifications, besides Thorn, and a large circumjacent territory, to the no small annoyance of Austria, which saw itself excluded from all share in the projected spoliation. Nor was Russia likely to be a more disinterested combatant in the common cause: for she, too, was intent on the work of partition, and had already inundated the duchy of Warsaw with troops, with the fixed design of rendering it the frontier of the Muscovite dominions. Thus, at the moment when the evident approach of peril to the national independence was closing those frightful divisions which had hitherto paralysed the strength of France, the Allied powers, intent on separate projects of aggrandisement, were rapidly relaxing the bonds of the confederacy, and engaging in the most iniquitous partition recorded in modern times, at the very time when that vast power was arising, which was so soon destined to make them all tremble for their own possessions.1 1 Hard. ii. 332, 333. 58. This stage of the contest was marked by an important Recognition step in the maritime relations of Europe, which afterwards of the mari- became of the utmost moment in the important discussions the Allies. on neutral rights which took place at the close of the cen time law by tury. The Empress Catherine publicly announced the departure of Russia from the principles of the Armed CHAP. XIII. 1793. Neutrality, and her resolution to act on those usages which Great Britain had uniformly maintained to be in conformity with the practice of all belligerent states, forming the common naval code of Europe. She equipped a fleet of twenty-five ships of the line, which was destined to cruise in the Baltic and North Seas, and whose instructions were "to seize all vessels, without distinction, navigating under the flag of the French Republic, or that of any other state which they might assume; and also to arrest every neutral vessel destined and loaded for a French harbour oblige them to retrace their steps, or make for the nearest neutral harbour which might suit their convenience." These instructions were publicly announced to the Prussian, Swedish, and Danish courts; and although the cabinet of Copenhagen, which early perceived the advantages of the lucrative neutral commerce which the general hostility was likely to throw into the hands of its subjects, at first made some difficulties, yet it yielded at length, and all the maritime powers agreed to revert to the usages of war in regard to the neutrals, which had existed prior to 334, 341. the Armed Neutrality in 1780.1 1 Hard. ii. 59. the same By a declaration issued on June 8, the British government enjoined its naval commanders to search all neutral Adoption of vessels bound for France for articles contraband of war; principles and Sweden, Denmark, and Prussia, successively adopted Prussia, and the same principles. The latter power, in particular, Denmark. declared, in a note to Count Bernstorff, intended to obviate the objections of the cabinet of Denmark, “His Majesty the King of Prussia, who has no interest but what is com * M. Bernstorff declared to the Danish cabinet, after announcing these instructions: Her Imperial Majesty, in issuing such orders, cannot be supposed to have in the slightest degree deviated from the beneficent system which is calculated to secure the interest of neutrals in war, seeing that it is noways applicable to the present circumstances. The French Revolutionists, after having overturned every thing in their own country, and bathed their impious hands in the blood of their sovereign, have, by a public decree, declared themselves the allies of every people who shall commit similar atrocities, and have followed this up by attacking with an armed force all their neighbours. Neutrality cannot exist with such a power, except in so far as it may be assumed from prudential considerations. Should there be any states whose situation by Britain, |