Page:The Political State of Europe for the Year MDCCXCII.djvu/13

THE POLITICAL STATE OF EUROPE, FOR THE YEAR MDCCXCII. FRANCE. The causes and circumstances of the wonderful Revolution which has happened in this kingdom, have been already detailed in various publications to the end of the year 1791. It is the intention of the Editors of this Work to preserve every interesting Paper of Authority, and impartially to relate every memorable Event of the War from that Period. On the last day December 1791, the French King sent the following letter to the National Assembly : Letter from the King to the National Assembly brought by a Message Dec. 31. "GENTLEMEN, "I have charged the Minister for Foreign Affairs, to com- municate to you the official notice which the Emperor has caused to be delivered to the ambassador from France at Vienna. This notice, I must say, has caused me the greatest astonish- ment. I had a right to reckon on the sentiments of the Em- peror, and of his desire of preserving with France the good intelligence and all the connexions that ought to subsist between two allies. I cannot yet think that his dispositions are changed : I wish to persuade myself that he has been deceived respecting the true state of facts; that he has supposed that the Elector of B Treves