Page:The Constitutions and Other Select Documents Illustrative of the History of France, 1789-1907, Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged.pdf/87

Rh of His Most Christian Majesty; but the effort undertaken by that prince to set himself at liberty, being a most manifest proof of the state of confinement in which he formerly found himself, no longer left any doubt that he had been made to do violence to his religion in serveral respects, at the same time that the last attack in his actual arrest and that of the queen, the dauphin and Madame Elizabeth, inspires just alarms about the ultimate projects of the dominant party;

That the said sovereigns cannot delay any longer to manifest the sentiments and resolutions which in this state of things the honor of their crowns, the ties of blood, and the maintenance of the public order and tranquility of Europe require of them: they have ordered thei undersigned ministers to declare:

That they ask that this prince and his family may be immediately put at liberty and they claim for all these royal persons the inviolability and respect which the law of nature and men imposes upon subjects toward their princes;

That they will unite in order to avenge in a striking manner subsequent attacks which may be committed or may be allowed to be committed against the security, the person and honor of the king, queen, and royal family;

That, finally, they will recognize as law and constitution legally established in France only those which they shall find provided with the voluntary consent of the king, in enjoyment of a perfect liberty; but that in the contrary case, they will employ in concert all the means placed in their power to cause to cease the scandal of a usurpation of power which bears the character of an open revolt, and of which it is important for all governments to check the disastrous example.

 14. The Declaration of Pilnitz

August 27, 1791. Vivenot, Kaiserpolitik Oesterreichs, I, 234. Translation, James Harvey Robinson, University of Pennsylvania Translations and Reprints.

This document was a direct result of No. 13. It seems certain that the signatories, the sovereigns of Austria and Prussia, attached but little importance to it. For them the qualifying words were the emphatic ones. This, however, was not thoroughly understood in France, and a little later the declaration was an important factor in persuading the French people that they must fight Europe in order to prevent interference with the course of the revolution in France.

