ts involved the possessions of many
German princes _enclaves_ in Alsace and Lorraine, the Constituent Assembly
had made the first move in the war against the established European system.
Leopold protested as sovereign of Germany; and the protest was soon
enlarged into one made in the name of Europe. The circular letter of Count
Kaunitz, dated the 6th of July 1791, calling on the sovereigns to unite
against the Revolution, was at once the beginning of the Concert of Europe,
and in a sense the last manifesto of the Holy Roman Empire as "the centre
of political unity." But the common policy proclaimed in the famous
declaration of Pillnitz (August 27), was soon wrecked upon the particular
interests of the powers. Both Austria and Prussia [v.03 p.0012] were much
occupied with the Polish question, and to have plunged into a crusade
against France would have been to have left Poland, where the new
constitution had been proclaimed on the 3rd of May, to the mercy of Russia.
Towards the further development of events in France, therefore, Leopold
assumed at first a studiously moderate attitude; but his refusal to respond
to the demand of the French government for the dispersal of the corps of
_emigres_ assembled under the protection of the German princes on the
frontier of France, and the insistence on the rights of princes
dispossessed in Alsace and Lorraine, precipitated the crisis. On the 25th
of January 1792 the French Assembly adopted the decree declaring that, in
the event of no satisfactory reply having been received from the emperor by
the 1st of March, war should be declared. On the 7th of February Austria
and Prussia signed at Berlin an offensive and defensive treaty of alliance.
Thus was ushered in the series of stupendous events which were to change
the face of Europe and profoundly to affect the destinies of Austria.
Leopold himself did not live to see the beginning of the struggle; he died
on the 1st of March 1792, the day fixed by the Legislative Assembly as that
on which the question of peace or war was to be decided.

[Sidenote: Effects of the Revolutionary Wars.]

The events of the period that followed, in which Austria necessarily played
a conspicuous part, are dealt with elsewhere (see EUROPE, FRENCH
REVOLUTIONARY WARS, NAPOLEON, NAPOLEONIC CAMPAIGNS). Here it will only be
necessary to mention those which form permanent landmarks in the
progressive conformation of the Austrian monarchy. Such was the second
part