WRITTEN IN NOVEMBER, 1792.
That France by its mere geographical position, independently of every
other circumstance, must affect every state of Europe: some of them
immediately, all of them through mediums not very remote.
That the standing policy of this kingdom ever has been to watch over the
_external_ proceedings of France, (whatever form the _interior_
government of that kingdom might take,) and to prevent the extension of
its dominion or its ruling influence over other states.
That there is nothing in the present _internal_ state of things in
France which alters the national policy with regard to the exterior
relations of that country.
That there are, on the contrary, many things in the internal
circumstances of France (and perhaps of this country, too) which tend to
fortify the principles of that fundamental policy, and which render the
active assertion of those principles more pressing at this than at any
former time.
That, by a change effected in about three weeks, France has been able to
penetrate into the heart of Germany, to make an absolute conquest of
Savoy, to menace an immediate invasion of the Netherlands, and to awe
and overbear the whole Helvetic body, which is in a most perilous
situation: the great aristocratic Cantons having, perhaps, as much or
more to dread from their own people, whom they arm, but do not choose
or dare to employ, as from the foreign enemy, which against all public
faith has butchered their troops serving by treaty in France.
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