STATE PAPERS.
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try, and paying for e\ery thing that Ihall be furnifhed them for their fubfiftcnce.
To apply thefe regulations to the pailage demanded of the king. The empire had not confented to the introduftion of the French troop?. [France had lately iignified to the dyet, that fhe thought it juft to take what revenge fhe could of the king's ftates in Ger- many, on account of the differ- ences that had arifen in America. It was not France that could give fuch fecuricy ; flie demanded the king to deliver up his fortrefles, to difarm himfelf, and leave ic to the difcretion of France, whether fhe fhould think proper, under pretence of a pafTage, to exercil'e her declared revenge, and ruin the elefloral il:ates as much as fhe could by an open war. The very demand of a pafTage fufficiently proves, that this was the defign of France. She needs only throw an eye upon a map to be con- vinced, that the fliorteft way to go from France to Saxony and Bohe- mia, which were then the theatre of the war, was not to pafs through the territories of the king in Germany, nor thofe of his neigh- bours, ft is no wonder that France finds the conditions, which fhe propofed to the king, neither diihonourable, unjufl, or danger- ous. Having imbibed ideas of defpotifm, fhe thinks, that all other powers ought to confider every thing that fhe thinks fit to im- pofe upon them, as equitable, juft, and proper. Delicate with regard 'to her own honour^ fne would have others to be indiffer- ent about theirs ; but fuch no- tions will never alter the nature of things, nor hinder every one from being psrfuaded, that there
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is nothing more hard, more un- juft, or more incompatible v.i:h the dignity of a free flate of the empire, than to fee that power, that iirength, and authority, for which fhe is alone indebted to Providence, taken from her by the hand of a llranger. The flates of the empire may fee, from this example, of what nature the paf- fage is, which the court of France thinks fhe has a right to demand as a guarantee of the treaty of Weitphalia, and with the appro- bation of the court of Vienna. The imperial town of Cologn has experienced it in this war, and per- haps the time is nearer at hand, than they expeO, when thofe, whofe zeal for their religion, the fubfidies which they receive, and other views, make the-n look up- on the fufFerings cf their co-eftates with a carelefs indifference, will themfelves fhare the fame fate in their turns.
We flatter ourfelves that we have faid enough to fet the conduct of the king and that of France, with regard to the neutrality, in a clear light. We have feen that the king' feized the offer that was made himi to repeat the afTurances that ha would endeavour, on his fide, to maintain peace in Germany. That, on the contrary, the courts of Vi- enna and Verfailleshavebeen, from, the beginning, very equivocal and fufpicious; that while they made a fhew of procuring the neutrality of the electorate, they figned a convention, by which the combined armies were to enter the eledorate after the loth of July ; and laflly, that the conditions propofed to the king, were fo hard, fo dangerous, and fo inconfillent v/ith his honour, that they were onlv intended to ciake him reject them, to give them Q^ a pre-
