for peace on the part of the enemy, but rather the direct contrary. Men
do not make sacrifices to obtain what they do not desire: and as for the
balance of power, it was so far from being admitted by France, either on
the general system, or with regard to the particular systems that I have
mentioned, that, in the whole body of their authorized or encouraged
reports and discussions upon the theory of the diplomatic system, they
constantly rejected the very idea of the balance of power, and treated
it as the true cause of all the wars and calamities that had afflicted
Europe; and their practice was correspondent to the dogmatic positions
they had laid down. The Empire and the Papacy it was their great object
to destroy; and this, now openly avowed and steadfastly acted upon,
might have been discerned with very little acuteness of sight, from the
very first dawnings of the Revolution, to be the main drift of their
policy: for they professed a resolution to destroy everything which can
hold states together by the tie of opinion.

Exploding, therefore, all sorts of balances, they avow their design to
erect themselves into a new description of empire, which is not grounded
on any balance, but forms a sort of impious hierarchy, of which France
is to be the head and the guardian. The law of this their empire is
anything rather than the public law of Europe, the ancient conventions
of its several states, or the ancient opinions which assign to them
superiority or preeminence of any sort, or any other kind of connection
in virtue of ancient relations. They permit, and that is all, the
temporary existence of some of the old communities: but whilst they give
to these tolerated states this temporary respite, in order to secure
them in a condition of real dependence on themselves, they invest them
on every side by a body of republics, formed on the model, and dependent
ostensibly, as well as substantially, on the will of the mother republic
to which they owe their origin. These are to be so many garrisons to
check and control the states which are to be permitted to remain on the
old model until they are ripe for a change. It is in this manner that
France, on her new system, means to form an universal empire, by
producing an universal revolution. By this means, forming a new code of
communities according to what she calls the natural rights of man and of
states, she pretends to secure eternal peace to the world, guarantied by
her gene