The Sun.
London, England, 1805-10-04 00:00:00

sures may have given rise to : Still the Midis, pl.
parations redoubling every day in extent and aflivitr,,,
became mere diffieplt tobe justified. The Emperor
ordered. that Count PHILIP DE Com/TEEL, Am-,
bassador of the Court of Vienna, should be invited
to fresh conferences, and that the correspondence of
the diplomatic and commercial Agents of his Ma-
jesty should be communicated to him.. For four
successive days M. DE COBENTZEL waited on the
Minister of Foreign Relations, who-placed before
his eyes the Dispatches previously received, and those
which arrived successively from all parts of Ger-
tnany and Italy: The. Cabinets of Europe will find
in their archives few examples of similar corm-Mini:.
cations made in cucumstances in which suspicion
Was .so natural. The Emperor could not give'a more
convincing proof of, his good, faith ; he could not
carry sincerity or delicacy farther. The Ambassador
from Vienna took a 'iew of ,the most positive, the
most incontestible documents, which, from all
parts, announced the speedy breaking out of a War,
always preparing, though so studiously concealed.
What answer could he make ? Up to that mo-
ment Peace had been loudly profested by his
Court at Paris and at Vienna ; but on a: ita
frontiers War was at length openly organized. The
Emperor, however, was unwilling to reject all hope
of accommodation: he persuaded himself that Austria
may have been led away by foreign suggestions ; he
resolved to do every thing to bring her back to a
sense of her true interests I he represented to her,
that if she did not wish for War, all her preparations
were without an objea, inasmuch as all her neigh-
bours were at Peace ; that therefore she was uncon-
sciously, and 'contrary to her intention, serving the
cause,of Englani, by making in her fayour a diver-
sion not less powerful, nor less injurious to France,
than a ddelared War would be.

If she wished for War, he made her see its pro-
bable consequences. Superior to all the considera
tions, which are bars only to weakness, he did not
dissemble that he dreaded war : not that after so
many battles fought - in the. three parts of the old
World ;he could tear dangers, so often braved, and
so often surmounted—but he feared war on account
of the blood it causes to be spilled, on account -of
the Sacrifices ' without number it must cost to Etr-
ripe; and in consequence of a, love, perhaps exces-
sive, for peace, he conjured Austria to desist from
preparations, which, in the preseet state of Europe,
and in the particular situation of France, could be
considered only as a Declaration of War, fled as Ufa'
result of an agreeMent made:with England, Still
further,
.he desired that siMilar.representations should
be addressed to the Court of Vienna hyall,his neigh-
hours, who, though. Strangers to.the cause of War,
whatever that cause may be, had to fear being:the
victims of it: The conduct ril the Court of Vienna
%veal:cued the hope every day—Far from. detisaing
I.:on) its .pretosiops, it increased. them. It terrified
by its armaments the People of Bavaria and Swabia.
It gave the People of Helvetia reason to dread seeing
ravished froin theni the repose whiCh the a& of me-
diation had restored to them, All invoked France
as their:support, as the guarantee of theft rights.—
However, it dissembled still, and as a,pledge..of its
paeifie intentions; it :offered a sort of 'intervention
whirl) it is difficult to Chargierise, but which, con,
sidering only its apparent objea,, conic' be regarded
only as idle and puerile. The Emperor of 'Russia
had caused passports to be demandqd for.one of his
Ilartiberlains, whom he bad an intention of sending
10.Pari. The Emperor knew .not what' were the
views of the Cabinet 'Of St. Petersburgh, they in
never been communicated to hint ; but, always rr4dy
to seize on every thing that could contribute to an
apProximation, 'he had grapt:d- the passports without
delay and without otplanation. 1111 littrope knows
what was the reward of his def!rence. : The Plape.7
tor learned afterwards, 'by indirea ways, and, also
by the reports that were circulated, through Europe
on the selijeCt., that the designs of the Coert 'of
Russia bad been, to try, by means of parleys, to
illirOduce at Paris a very- strange system of Nego-
tiation, by means of which she would ,at the
same time I*o Stipulated flrEtigland,ftain whom,
as she : said, she-had full powers, which proves bow
'much England was sure Of her, and have negotiated
on her own account.' So that. While nominally a
mediator, she would haVe been in 'faCt a party,. and
that by two different title:;.
Such was the end of the intervention RnSSia had
. . .... ~. , .
prejeCtecf, and which she herself renounced, with-
out doubt, because refleCtion made her feel the in-
convenience of it. But it vitas precisely this same
intervention which the good offices of Austria had
for their objeEt to re-produce. It was not likely
that France Should have sitiffered herself to be placed
in a situation in which her real enemies, under the
plausible nanie of mediators, dared to'flatter them-
, selves with imposieg on
.her a
,hard and insulting
law ; but the Cabinet of Vienna, perhaps, without
hoping that its good offices would be accepted, found
mgreat advantage in offering them—that ofabusing
France for a longer time, making.. France lose time;
and gaining time itself. At length, throwing off the
mask, Austria has, in a tardy answer, manifested
by her language what she had announced by her
preparations. To the representations of France she
has answered by ifccusations. She has made herself
the. apologist of England; and announcing that she
was opening her States to two Russian Armies, she
avowed Openly the concert that exists between her
arid Russia in favour of England. This aniwer of
the Court of Vienna, full at once of injurious allega-
tions, of menaces„ and of craft, tended naturally to
excite the indignation of the:Emperor; but think-
.ing tlitit through the insults and threats lie had a
&nee of'some ideas which permitted.him to hope
that an arrangement would be still possible, the -Em-
peror made his natural pride yield to considerations
. all powerful over his heart, 'the interest of his Peo-
ple,, that of hie, Allies, and of Germany, which was
going to beeOrne the Theatre of War; the desire,
too, of doing a thing agreeable to a Prince, .who re-
pelling with an honourable constancy - the insinua-
tions, the instaeces, the offers so often repeated of
England„,and' those she had 'seduced, bad shewn
lahnneeselpfta. always ready rieaacillytht:ecoittntoritl:ietes bleyohtihs .0 gueno:pi.
cc:::
61;:si,weitinh4erkeoktnhoo:ne-teisiteabblaissristt,ntlepnotnorwthhiecl3ont.
to make' his just refieetions.- He determined to ae,
manci' of Conit of Vienna explanatiOns, which
tiatios could be carried on. He ordered the Ml.
&stet. of , For6ge
,Re'la'tions - to ,p'repare.n ' Note to
this effedi The ceurier who . was, to he the bearer
of it was on t.,le poi;lt of setting out, when the gin.,,