Revolutionary citizens, now that the crifis of the revolution is paffed; now that the vengeance of the people has been exercifed, the ideas of the citizens ought to be directed to the means of fecuring the profperity of the nation. To attain this end, each citizen ought to ufe his beft endeavours to convert the revolution itself to the advantage of the people. For this purpose you have a revolutionary authority to which this charge is intrufted: its principal duty being to determine on the reftitutions to be made by the enemies of the people, and of courfe on the contributions which the country has a right to exact from every citizen proprietor. It is to make a juft application of the fums which may refult from this meafire, by appropriating them to public eftablifhments, agricultural rewards, manufactories, &c. This plan demands the concurrence of all the citizens, who are well informed on any of thefe heads: and the country accordingly puts them in a state of requifition. Be confident, revolutionary citizens, in the iffue of the revolution. Confine yourselves at to the love of the country, the love of induftry is your chief duty. Recollect that tyrants employ two principal means to enflave nations idlenefs and corruption. Men who aim at being independent always become fo; and there can be no republic where debauched and corrupted men are to be found. The country requires that in this revolution all the virtues fhould be difplayed, and morality, both public and private, prevail in all the actions of the citizens. It demands a complete regeneration; and be confident of it, revolutionary citizens, you will in vain have brought about a revolution to crush ariftocracy, and all its vices; you will in vain have reprefled the abufes of riches, if you neglect to proclaim jufticé, probity, and virtue, not by words, but by deeds and good examples; you will otherwife, fooner or later, witnefs the return of corrupters and corrupted. The members of the tribunal return into the clafs of fimple citizens: in that quality they haften back with earneftnefs to their fire-fides, and unite themselves in every particular to the revolutionary citizens to defend the equality, the liberty, and the independence of the republic, Patent for the opening of a loan in a coin of inferior money, to the treafury of his Pruhan majey, publifhed by his government. this time to the cuftomary vigilance WE, Frederick William, by the it behoves every citizen to obferve; refume your civil duties; return to your manufactories and avocations; and fay to yourfelves, that next to grace of God, &c. It having been fubmiflively propofed and reprefented to us, that the prefent confiderable expences in fmall money, which are occafioned by the emergencies 03 emergencies of the war, are creating a pernicious increase of that fort of money in the country, which, in becoming incommodious to the public, might produce an interruption of the commerce of the interior; and, therefore, in order to prevent the difadvantageous confequences of this circulation of the enormous quantity of the fmall money, and at the fame time to procure means to proprietors of confiderable quantities of that clafs of money, to difpofe of it without difficulty or difadvantage, we, with our ufual paternal care, have determined to open a loan, to be accepted from our excife-officers in all provinces, in fmall money, at four per cent. interest per annum; the whole to be under the direction of our minifter of ftate, count Struenfee, and the bills to the bearer will confift of the fums of 25, 50, 100, to 1000 -rix dollars. Given at Potsdam, November 18, 1794. (Signed) I feel very fenfibly that the world judges of military characters by their fucceffes, without examining causes. Raifing the fiege or the blockade of Landau will make an epoch in the hiftory of this unfortunate war; and I have the misfortune of being im plicated in it. The reproach will fall upon me, and the innocent will be confounded with the guilty. Notwithstanding all misfortunes, I would not have given way to my inclination of laying at your ma jefty's feet my defire of relinquithiug a career which has been the principal ftudy of my life: but when one has loft one's trouble, one's labour, and efforts; when the objects of the campaign are loft, and there is no hope that a third campaign may offer a more favourable iffue, what part remains to be taken by the man the most attached to, the moft zealous for, your majefty's interefts and your caufe, but that of avoiding farther difafters? The fame reasons now divide the powers which have hitherto divided them : FREDERICK WILLIAM, Rex. the movements of the armies wili fuffer from it, as they have hithert done; their motions will be retard. ed and embarraffed, and the delay Letter from the duke of Brunswick to of re-establishing the Pruffian army, the king of Prufia. politically neceiiary, will become perhaps, the fource of a train misfortunes for next campaign; the confequences of which are not to be calculated. It is not war which I object to; it is not war which I with to avoid; but it is difhonour which I fear in my fituation, where the faults of other generals would fall upon me, and where I could neither act according to my prin ciples nor according to my pro pects. Your majefty will, perhaps remember what I had the honour to represent to you the day you quitted Efcheveiler royal of Pruffia. Efcheveiler: I exposed all my em- The duke of Brunswick to the prince barrafliments, my troubles, and my misfortunes; I exerted all my elforts to prevent any inconveniency: unfortunately the event has proved the infufficiency thereof; it is therefore only the intimate perfuafion I have of the impoffibility I am in to effect what is right, which dictates to me the measure of requefting your majefty to appoint a fucceffor to me as foon as poffible. This meafure, however afflicting to me, is nevertheless a confequence of thofe forrowful reflections I have made upon my fituation. Prudence requires I fhould retire, and honour advifes it. When a great nation, like that of France, is conducted by the terror of punishments, and by enthusiasm, an unanimous fentiment, and the fame principle, ought to prevail in the measure of the coalefced powers. But when, instead thereof, each army acts feparately and alone of its own accord, without any fixed plan, without unanimity, and without principles, the confequences are fuch as we have feen at Dunkirk, at railing the blockade of Maubeuge, at the ftorming of Lyons, at the deftruction of Toulon, and at the raifing of the blockade of Landau. Heaven preferve your majefty from great miffortunes! but every thing is to be feared, if confidence, harmony, uniformity of fentiments, of principles, and of actions, do not take place of the oppofite fentiments, which have been the fource of all misfortunes for two years paft. My beft wifhes always attend your majefty, and your glory will be my happiness. Oppenheim, Jan. 6, 1794. TH Mentz, Jan. 12. HE concern which your royal highness has been pleased to teftify on account of my retreat from the army, infpires me with the most heart-felt gratitude. Nothing but a conjuncture of circumstances, as difaftrous as uncommon, could have prevailed on me to adopt a mea fure which is fo afflicting for myfelf. I have been highly flattered by the opportunities I have now and then found to approach your royal highness, and to admire in you thofe talents which cannot fail to place you among the great men of our age. Europe ftands truly in need of them at a time when near 400,000 combatants, and 80 line of battle fhips, fupported by an inteftine war, have in vain endeavoured to crush that confederacy of crimes which is tyrannizing over France. I am eminently happy to find that my zeal in ferving a good caufe has not efcaped your royal highness's notice. Very unfortunately, indeed, the movements of the army have been often checked at the very time when the greatest energy and exer. tion was required. If, after the furrender of Mentz, Houchard had been attacked, forced back, and defeated, the reinforcements which ftrengthened the army of the North would not have reached it; and of course the check near Maubeuge would have been avoid. ed. Saar Louis, ill provided with provifions, and deftitute of all protection from bombs, would, in all 04 probability, probability, have been reduced within a fortnight. Alface might then have been turned by the Saar. The poffeffion of the Lauter would have afforded more folid advantages; and if, by all poffible means, the junction of the armies of the Rhine and the Mofelle had been prevented, and the point of Bouquenon gained, Strasburgh would have been threatened, and Landau very likely fubdued I beg your royal highness's pardon for expreffing my regrets. Complaints are ufelefs, I know; but fometimes they afford a momentary relief: permit me only to add, that if you have any influence over my fucceffor, I would with you to prevail on him to employ all his credit to prevent the frittering of the army into too numerous detachments; the confequence of which is, that being every where too weak to act on an offenfive plan, our troops are obliged to confine themselves to defenfive measures with the enemy we have to combat, which is a fault productive of the most pernicious confequences. It is with the fincereft regret I leave an army which has infpired me with the highest esteem, admiration, and attachment. country is thrown by a war without example, with a formidable, furious, and deftructive enemy, who already menaces the fix frontier circles, to enter them with fire and fword: fuch a crifis is too well known to your excellence, not to fee the neceflity of concurring with me and with every ftate, animated with a patriotic zeal, in the moft proper measures to ward off the danger. Among all the measures which the empire can employ, there is none which appears to me more inefficacious against an enemy, whose numbers diminish not, and who op pofe a fanatic fury in battle, the refources of tactics, and a numerous artillery; nothing, I fay, is more infufficient than the general armament of the inhabitants of the circles which has been propofed. This meafure, fo dangerous, and fo fin gularly delicate in itself, is ftill more inadmiffible, because it can in no ways accord with the defence of the empire by my troops; and their retreat muft infallibly be the confequence. As it is impoffible for me to continue a war fo far diftant from the frontiers of my eftates, and which is fo expenfive, I have, fome months fince, frankly opened myself on this head to the principal powers who take part in the war, and I have entered on negociations with them, which cannot yet be terminated. It is for this reason I now find myfelf obliged to demand of the empire to charge itfelf with the provifioning of my army. In reality, the neceffary measures on this fubject have been lately made at the diet; but your highnels will confider that it is impoffible to wait its decifion; fo that the only thing which remains to be done, is, for for the fix frontier circles, who have moft need of defence, to aflemble immediately, for the purpose of furnishing the faid provifions provifionally, until the diet has made its conclufum. In confequence, I beg of your highnefs, in the moft preffing manner, that your highnefs, in virtue of your quality of arch-chancellor and director of the circle, would immediately convoke the faid fix circles. The fpeedy convocation of the fix circles, and their furnishing my army with provifions, is the only means of faving Germany at this grand crifis. Without this, it will be impoffible for me to make my troops maintain the field any longer against the I fhall not fail, though with regret, to order them back into my ftates, for their own defence, and to abandon the empire to itself and to its fate. enemy. It is in the hands, therefore, of your highness, that I put the fafety of the empire; and, confident of your wildom and patriotifm, I expect you will employ the means which the laws of the empire give you, in such a manner that my views, directed to the good of the country, may be fulfilled; and that, by my troops being fupplied with provifions, I may be able to allure the empire of the most efficacious protection and defence. mafter, perceiving the indifpenfable neceflity of continuing the war a◄ gainft the common enemy, is not adverfe to the increase of his army on the Rhine to 80,000 fighting men; but as the hoftilities on the part of the French are rather directed against the empire, than against his majefty's own territories, nothing more can be required of him than his fimple contingent. Being willing, however, to forego all thefe confiderations, the king is ready to fulfil his engagements, provided the following demands are previously complied with: 1. That each of the princes and ftates of the empire fhall furnish immediately, and without delay, the contingents of men preferibed. 2. That the empire thall provide for the fubfiftence of the Pruffian troops, by referving for them 20,000 rations of bread, and 24,000 rations of hay and corn daily. If the Germanic body fhould refufe to acquiefce in the juft demands of his majefty, fo far from fending any future force to the fuccour of the empire, he will feel himfelf under the neceflity of recalling his troops on the Rhine, and leave no more than the fimple contingent prefcribed by the terms of alliance between the ftates of Germany. |