The persons first pointed at by the menace are
certainly the princes of Germany, who harbor the persecuted House of
Bourbon and the nobility of France; the declaration, however, is
general, and goes to every state with which they may have a cause of
quarrel. But the terror of France has fallen upon all nations. A few
months since all sovereigns seemed disposed to unite against her; at
present they all seem to combine in her favor. At no period has the
power of France ever appeared with so formidable an aspect. In
particular the liberties of the Empire can have nothing more than an
existence the most tottering and precarious, whilst France exists with a
great power of fomenting rebellion, and the greatest in the
weakest,--but with neither power nor disposition to support the smaller
states in their independence against the attempts of the more powerful.
I wind up all in a full conviction within my own breast, and the
substance of which I must repeat over and over again, that the state of
France is the first consideration in the politics of Europe, and of each
state, externally as well as internally considered.
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