The king did more: he suggested to her imperial majesty
sufficient means either to excuse her not taking any part in the present
war, or to avoid, upon the justest grounds, the execution of those
engagements which the court of Vienna claimed by a manifest abuse of
obligations, which they employed to palliate their unlawful views. It
wholly depended upon the empress of Russia to extinguish the flames of
the war, without unsheathing the sword, by pursuing the measures
suggested by the king. This conduct would have immortalized her reign
throughout all Europe. It would have gained her more lasting glory than
can be acquired by the greatest triumphs. The king finds with regret,
that all his precautions and care to maintain peace with the Russian
empire are fruitless, and that the intrigues of his enemies have
prevailed. His majesty sees all the considerations of friendship and
good neighbourhood set aside by the imperial court of Russia, as well as
the observance of its engagements with his majesty. He sees that court
marching its troops through the territories of a foreign power, and,
contrary to the tenor of treaties, in order to attack the king in his
dominions; and thus taking part in a war, in which his enemies have
involved the Russian empire. In such circumstances, the king hath no
other part to take, but to employ the power which God hath intrusted to
him in defending himself, protecting his subjects, and repelling every
unjust attack. His majesty will never lose sight of the rules which are
observed, even in the midst of war, among civilized nations. But if,
contrary to all hope and expectation, these rules should be violated by
the troops of Russia, if they commit in the king's territories disorders
and excesses disallowed by the law of arms, his majesty must not be
blamed if he makes reprisals in Saxony; and if, instead of that good
order and rigorous discipline which have hitherto been observed by his
army, avoiding all sorts of violence, he finds himself forced, contrary
to his inclination, to suffer the provinces and subjects of Saxony to be
treated in the same manner as his own territories shall be treated. As
to the rest, the king will soon publish to the whole world the futility
of the reasons alleged by the imperial court of Russia to justify its
aggression; and as his majesty is forced upon making his defence, he
has room to hope, with confidence, that the Lord of Hosts will bless his
righteous arms: that h