ng the suit as,
during the delay, the claimants remained empty-handed.--If, now, behind
the ostensible motives, the real intentions are sought for, it is
certain that, up to January, 1792, the intentions of Austria were
pacific. The grants made to the Comte d'Artois, in the Declaration of
Pilnitz, were merely a court-sprinkling of holy-water, the semblance of
an illusory promise and subject to a European concert of action, that
is to say, annulled beforehand by an indefinite postponement, while this
pretended league of sovereigns is at once "placed by the politicians
in the class of august comedies.[2342]" Far from taking up arms against
"New France" in the name of old France, the emperor Leopold and his
prime minister Kaunitz, were delighted to see the constitution
completed and accepted by the King; it "got them out of an embarrassing
position,"[2343] and Prussia as well. In the running of governments,
political advantage is the great incentive and both powers needed all
their forces in another direction, in Poland. One for retarding, and the
other for accelerating the division of this country, and both, when the
partition took place, to get enough for themselves and prevent
Russia from getting too much.--The sovereigns of Prussia and Austria,
accordingly, did not have any idea of saving Louis XVI, nor of
conducting the emigres back, nor of conquering French provinces. If
anything was to be expected from them on account of personal ill-will,
there was no fear of their armed intervention.--In France it is not the
King who urges a rupture; he knows too well that the hazards of war
will place him and his dependents in mortal danger. Secretly as well as
publicly, in writing to the emigres, his wishes are to bring them
back or to restrain them. In his private correspondence he asks of the
European powers not physical but moral aid, the external support of a
congress which will permit moderate men, the partisans of order, all
owners of property, to raise their heads and rally around the throne
and the laws against anarchy. In his ministerial correspondence every
precaution is taken not to touch off or let someone touch off an
explosion. At the critical moment of the discussion[2344] he entreats
the deputies, through M. Delessart, his Minister of Foreign Affairs, to
weigh their words and especially not to send a demand containing a "dead
line." He resists, as far as his passive nature allows him, to the very
last. On being fo