ure, in all kinds, as have been carried on in
France, without any signification of resentment, would be in effect to
ratify them, and thus to become accessaries after the fact in all those
enormities which it is impossible to repeat or think of without horror.
An absolute silence appears to me to be at this time the only safe
course.

The second usual matter of manifestoes is composed of _promises_ to
those who cooperate with our designs. These promises depend in a great
measure, if not wholly, on the apparent power of the person who makes
them to fulfil his engagements. A time of disaster on the part of the
promiser seems not to add much to the dignity of his person or to the
effect of his offers. One would hardly wish to seduce any unhappy
persons to give the last provocation to a merciless tyranny, without
very effectual means of protecting them.

The time, therefore, seems (as I said) not favorable to a general
manifesto, on account of the unpleasant situation of our affairs.
However, I write in a changing scene, when a measure very imprudent
to-day may be very proper to-morrow. Some great victory may alter the
whole state of the question, so far as it regards our _power_ of
fulfilling any engagement we may think fit to make.

But there is another consideration of far greater importance for all the
purposes of this manifesto. The public, and the parties concerned, will
look somewhat to the disposition of the promiser indicated by his
conduct, as well as to his power of fulfilling his engagements.

Speaking of this nation as part of a general combination of powers, are
we quite sure that others can believe us to be sincere, or that we can
be even fully assured of our own sincerity, in the protection of those
who shall risk their lives for the restoration of monarchy in France,
when the world sees that those who are the natural, legal,
constitutional representatives of that monarchy, if it has any, have not
had their names so much as mentioned in any one public act, that in no
way whatever are their persons brought forward, that their rights have
not been expressly or implicitly allowed, and that they have not been in
the least consulted on the important interests they have at stake? On
the contrary, they are kept in a state of obscurity and contempt, and in
a degree of indigence at times bordering on beggary. They are, in fact,
little less prisoners in the village of Hanau than the royal captives
who are locked u