I. Are you able to effect a revolution in your government?

This question need never be asked of any peo­ple, when considered with reference to them­selves only, without regard to their neighbours. A whole people is essentially sovereign. [Page 7] They can at all times do as they please with their own affairs, unless they are overpowered by surrounding nations. It is the people who support the government as it now is; and the same sovereign people can at any time change its form, and support it in whatever manner it shall please them best. The ques­tion has no difficulty in it, but when viewed with reference to the interest which other go­vernments may have in preventing a revolu­tion in their neighbourhood.

The enquiry, pursued in this connexion, be­comes more extensive; especially when ap­plied to a country of small dimensions, and to a nation less powerful than some of its neigh­bours. Such is Piedmont. Had you been called upon seven years ago to look into your affairs, and take the government into your own hands, you must have considered it as a dangerous experiment. Even supposing the weight of your sufferings to have been as great then as they are now, and supposing you had been possessed of the same information which you have since drawn from the progress of liberty in Europe, it would scarcely have been prudent for you to have engaged in so daring an enterprise. All the tyrants in your neigh­bourhood would have brought forward their armies of slaves to crush the rebellion. The French court would have been, at that time, as much your enemy as the French nation is now your friend. And the house of Austria, [Page 8] with all the subdivisions of its power in Italy, posted at your gates, would have united with that of Bourbon, to have guaranteed your king in every possible extent of his oppres­sion.

Under these disadvantages your struggles for liberty might have been [...]; they might even have produced a new injury, instead of relieving you from the old. But the ground is now changed; the duty you owe to your­selves is clearly pointed out by the natural cur­rent of events; and the work you have to do, in establishing a perfect and undisturbed li­berty, is in my opinion much easier than you imagine. France is at this time, not only the most powerful nation in Europe, but when engaged, as she now is, in defence of liberty, she is a match for all the other pow­ers of Europe, when united in defence of ty­ranny. France is now your natural friend, the friend of all people and the enemy of all tyrants. She is indeed the only friend you have as a nation in this part of the world. France has brought liberty to your doors; and she invites you, in the name of all that is dear to you as men, in the name of all that can bind you to the interests of human nature in general, to accept the blessing at her hands. She has done more; she has taught you and all other people how public happiness is to be acquired and preserved. She has addressed herself to the great principles of reason which [Page 9] are common to all men; she has cleared away the mass of prejudice, of false doctrine, of superstition in the science of morals; a mass which the complicated abuses of tyranny, con­tinued for many centuries, had accumulat­ed on the human mind. She has laid down and clearly defined the rights and duties of man and of citizens, explained the great doc­trine of equality, the true design of govern­ment, the nature of the trust to be reposed in public officers, as servants of the people, by whom they are created and by whom they are paid. She has taught you a great practi­cal truth, which is too consoling to be reject­ed, and too clear to be called in question, that you are the sovereigns in your own country; that you have not, that you cannot have a master, unless you choose to give up your reason, and renounce the character of men; that for any man to call himself your sovereign is a blas­phemy against God the sovereign of nature, and against men the proprietors of the earth.

Obligations of gratitude are due to the French nation from you, and from every people in Europe. She has conquered liberty for all men, and laid the foundation for uni­versal public felicity. Other nations have only to build the superstructure, of which the model is given them in the constitution of this great republic.

But let us not amuse ourselves with words, nor rest the argument on theoretical principles, [Page 10] however incontestible they may be. Let us speak of facts that are passing before our eyes, and call to mind the events of the great year that is now drawing to a close. You have seen the principal tyrants and the most formi­dable armies of Europe, combined and march­ing in the full career of promised victory against the liberties of France. These armies, after sweeping over half Europe and famishing whole countries in their way to the French frontiers, have there been cut to pieces by a handful of freemen, and driven out of their country. Liberty has marched on the heels of the fugitives; the arch tyrant of Austria, at the head of this fatal conspiracy of kings, has lost the finest part of his dominions; many of the subaltern princes of the Empire have lost the whole of theirs, and are now beggars abroad among their brother brigands, who are in expectation of the same inevitable fate. The standard of liberty has reached the bor­ders of the Rhine by the miscarriage of the same combination which has brought it to the summit of the Alps.

All the crowned heads in Europe are now covered with thorns. The man of Turin, who calls himself your king, has been forced to relinquish one half of the usurpations of his ancestors, and is now menacing you with de­struction for fear you should reclaim the rest. The Duchy of Savoy and the county of Nice, more fortunate than you, have been the first [Page 11] to cast off his yoke, and are now ready to as­sist you with their arms to follow their exam­ple. The Pope and the other Italian despots, are occupied in restraining the spirit of liberty at home; so that no one of the neighbouring powers is in a condition to take any consider­able part in your affairs, except the French; and the French are wishing to give you every aid that you may ask.

Under these circumstances, we need no longer enquire whether you are able to effect a revolution; the more natural question is, are you able to resist it? It is true, the French have renounced all ideas of conquest, and have declared that they will never make war against the liberty of any people. But you will observe that this principle contains in it­self a declaration of war against all tyrants who are hostile to the liberty of France; especially against those whose vicinity renders them dangerous to the internal peace of the new republic, by fostering its fugitive traitors, and being the centre of new conspiracies against the rights of man. The court of Turin comes under this description. It is hostile to the liberties of France; it has been so from the beginning; the nature of its ex­ternal connexions and of its internal constitu­tion requires that it should be so to the end. The court of Turin must, therefore, be over­turned; the government of your country must [Page 12] be changed, and its powers restored to you, to whom they naturally belong.

This is a simple view of facts, which may serve to indicate the present crisis of your af­fairs, of which it is proper you should be ap­prised; that by a due consideration of the causes you may not be astonished at the ef­fects. I make known to you my opinion, with all the frankness that the solemnity of the subject demands; and it seems almost impossible that you should fail to turn the consequences to your advantage.

II. The more important question to be dis­cussed, is Whether you will be benefited by a revolution in your government?

Many of you will doubtless consider this enquiry as superfluous, because your condi­tion can scarcely be rendered worse, and the means of rendering it better are so obvious that they cannot escape the slightest observa­tion. But those of you who are accustomed to reflect on the principles of liberty will pardon the simplicity of the enquiry, in fa­vour of the great mass of the people whom it is our duty to instruct. There has been so much falsehood and folly imposed on that class of mankind, in order to debase and bru­talize their minds to the level of their condi­tion, that their ignorance has become preter­natural; it is almost necessary to begin their [Page 13] instruction by informing them that they are human creatures. But, citizens of Italy, de­scendants of Brutus and Cato, this state of degradation is not the condition designed for man. The God of equal liberty has allotted you a different birthright; you are now invited to reclaim your inheritance, to take possession of your portion among your brethren, to enjoy it in peace, and restore harmony to the great family of men.

You have been fatally misinformed with respect to the nature of the French revolu­tion, and the events that have attended it. Your religious teachers and your political masters have an interest in deceiving you. They unite their efforts for this purpose; they blind your eyes, as you blind the eyes of a mill-horse, that he may not see his harness, nor consider the weight he draws. If the mill-horse could know that he has only a fee­ble child for a conductor, and that he is made to go constantly round in the same small cir­cle, so that he cannot hope to come nearer his journey's end; especially if he could look into the neighbouring fields and see the other horses enjoying their liberty, he would soon revolt against his little despot, he would grow discouraged with the same unpromising round of fatigue, and refuse to do his work. It is for this reason that you blind his eyes. My friends, the same arts are used with you. The clergy and the nobles of your country, [Page 14] with a man at their head whom they call a King, do nothing but live upon your labours. They cannot support their luxury by any other means than by keeping you constantly at work. They know that if you were to be informed of their weakness and of your own strength, you would refuse to be their drudges. They are sensible that the moment you open your eyes, you will see that they are but men, that all men are equal in their rights, that they have no more right or power to be kings and lords over you than you have to be kings and lords over them; and that in consequence of this, you would immediately overturn that abomi­nable system of public robbery which they call a government, and establish a new and equal government, which should secure to every man the fruits of his own labours, protect the innocent, punish the guilty, and instruct every member of society in his duties and his rights.

This is precisely what the people of France have done; and the performance of this great work, so necessary to the happiness of man­kind, is called the French Revolution. It is the knowledge of this revolution which your court and clergy wish to conceal from you, lest you should follow the example. They prevent the French news-papers from coming into your country; they forbid the reading of all books that treat of this revolution, and all conversation on that or any other political subject; they have shut up the popular thea­tres [Page 15] at Turin, and left open none but that of the nobility, from which the citizens are ex­cluded; they have suppressed the great uni­versity of that capital, called the University of the Provinces, which used to bring students from all parts of Italy, and a considerable emolument to the town; they have doubled the number of their spies, and increased the powers of the police.

All this is to keep you ignorant of the French revolution, that you may not be dis­posed to follow the example. Observe the insult offered to your understanding. If the example were bad, your good sense would teach you to shun it; it would need only to be known, to be despised; and it ought to be explained to all people, that they might learn to avoid such a dangerous innovation. If it be good, it ought to be taught by your teach­ers, and imitated by all the world. But be assured that the very caution they use to pre­vent your coming to the knowledge of the fact, is a proof that such a revolution would be an advantage to you and a disadvantage to them.

But this is not all; they have invented a thousand falsehoods to supply the place of truth. They have told you lies, in order to excite your enmity against your best friends, and to rouse you to war against those princi­ples which ought to be as dear to you as to the French; because they are the principles of [Page 16] equal liberty and national happiness, applica­ble to all people. They have told you that the French nation is a race of robbers, assas­sins and atheists; that they have overturned the religion of their country, waged war against all property and against the lives of its owners. These are impudent falsehoods which never could have been imposed upon you for a moment, had you been permitted to judge for yourselves.

With regard to religion, I only request you to look into the first principles of liberty, as declared by the National Assembly. You will find them conformable to the system of the Catholic faith, as taught by the Apostles and recognized in your country, before the church was connected with the civil govern­ment, and before the ministers of the altar became the tyrants of the state. The French constitution has declared, that all men shall be free to worship God in their own way, and to follow the dictates of their conscience. If any man shall tell you that this is destroying reli­gion, he is a liar, and not worthy to be your teacher. The gospel of Jesus Christ preaches to you in the strongest language the great doc­trine of equality; that all men are equal in the sight of God, and that you shall call no man your master upon earth. This is the very language of the French revolution. But its authors have gone farther; and, to silence all cavillers who could persuade you or others that [Page 17] they have destroyed the Catholic religion, they have done more to maintain it than any le­gislative body ever did before; they have or­dained that the priests and bishops, chosen by the people shall be salaried and paid out of the national purse.

It is true, they have suppressed those haunts of idleness, hypocrisy and vice, known by the name of monasteries and convents. This is an advantage to religion, instead of being against it; for religion teaches men to do good, and to labour for their living; but these insti­tutions teach them to do nothing, and live upon the labours of others. Be assured, there­fore, that the French have done nothing to the disadvantage of religion; but, on the contra­ry, they have done much to maintain it in its native purity and independence. But I in­treat you in the sincerity of my heart not to receive this fact on the strength of my asser­tion, or that of any other man; but to look into their conduct and judge for your­selves.

You have been likewise taught to believe that the French have violated private property. This is a malicious calumny, which every step of their revolution will contradict, the moment you become acquainted with it. In all the decrees of the National Assembly, in all the irregular movements and insurrections of the people, whatever was the object, you will find they have paid a most sacred regard [Page 18] to individual property. Their conduct in this respect has been more laudable within the last three years than that of any other government in Europe. The same thing may be observed with regard to the private morals of the people; they are essentially better than they formerly were. There have been less instances of theft and robbery in France since the revolution, than at any former period; and probably less, in proportion to its popu­lation, than in any of the neighbouring coun­tries during the same period.

With regard to the National Assembly, I will give you some instances of their inviola­ble principle of preserving the property of in­dividuals amidst the shock of the revolution. The abuses of the ancient government had created thousands of useless offices in every department of state, in the law, the finance, and the king's household,—the same as you see at Turin. These offices were supposed to have been purchased and paid for by those who held them; though many of them had been given gratis through favour and intrigue. On the regeneration of the government and of the nation by the revolution, it was neces­sary that these destructive sinecures should be suppressed; and the Assembly, considering them as the property of the holders, purchas­ed up this property and paid the proprietors the full prices that they had given, or were supposed to have given, for their places. This [Page 19] act of justice was certainly not necessary to the revolution. It must therefore be consider­ed as a mark of that national dignity which forbids the violation of any kind of private property, however slender the title by which it is claimed.

Another instance may be observed in the public debt. It is well known that the public debt of France, as well as that of Pied­mont, was contracted by a wicked and infamous court, the greater part of it for the worst of purposes. It was in part con­tracted to support the vices of a horde of men and women at Versailles, who were a disgrace to human nature, and whom the nation was under no obligation to maintain; it was in part contracted to carry on foreign wars and conquests, the express purpose of which was to rivet the chains of the people at home. But as the creditors in general were not to be blamed for these things, they were declared to be the proprietors of the debt; and the na­tion assumed upon itself the payment, without any diminution. This must ever be remem­bered as an act of sovereign magnanimity and of disinterested protection to the property of individuals; an act to which they were not constrained by any necessity or previous obli­gation. A royal bankruptcy might have been declared, without affecting the future credit of the nation; and the revolution would have suffered no delay, but would have been faci­litated [Page 20] by proceeding on this principle. In­stead of doing this, the people have voluntarily taken an immense burden on themselves, even under the humiliating circumstance of giving a sanction to all the extravagance of the two last centuries, and paying at this day, under the rigid economy of a republic, for those splendid palaces, gardens, and water-works, which insult the poverty of millions, and stare the nation in the face with the unpunished crimes of a race of execrated kings.

The act of the assembly declaring the church lands to be the property of the nation, the sup­pression of tythes and other feudal claims, have been often mentioned as violations of property. Those who really consider them in this light are weak men, or they have not ex­amined the subject; those who persuade you to think so, without believing it them­selves, are wicked men, and not to be trusted. As to the church lands, this act of the Assem­bly did not change the property of them at all. They belonged to the nation before. What the Assembly did, was to change the mode of paying the clergy, equalize their salaries, and reduce the number of ecclesiastics. That laborious and more useful class of the clergy, who before were starving upon a beggarly pit­tance, have had their salaries raised; that idle and overgrown class, who, without doing any duty, were living in the style of princes and tyrants, have been reduced to a moderate in­come. [Page 21] All are now chosen by the people, and all paid by the nation. With regard to the feudal claims, they were founded in usurpation. The landlords and nobles, to whom they were attributed, had no right to them or property in them, any more than the King of Sardinia has a property in you, or in the people of Jerusalem, of which he likewise styles himself King. These feudal claims were mere badges of ser­vitude, which the establishment of equal liber­ty and the abolition of hereditary titles render­ed it necessary to destroy. The nation has in all instances showed itself able to distinguish between the empty superstition of pomp, which serves only to debase mankind, and the solid principles of society on which the revolution is founded.

You have heard it likewise asserted that the French revolution has been marked with cru­elty and murder. This is unfortunately true. But it has likewise been marked with trea­chery, with bribery, with perjury, with all the complicated wiles of expiring despotism. All the cruelty, all the crimes of every name or denomination, that have attended this re­volution, have proceeded from royalty, the adherents of royalty, and the refractory priests. The court of Versailles had been for ages a school of falsehood and deceit; and the exe­cution of the penal laws served as a public ex­hibition of torture, to familiarise the people [Page 22] with the most sanguinary punishments. If the court of Turin and the laws of Piedmont are any better, it is happier for you; you will have the less wickedness to combat in the course of your revolution. But I fear in some respects they are worse. These circumstances in France had trained up in all parts of the kingdom a numerous class of men versed in every art of treachery and perfidy. In this situ­tion of things the great mass of the people, who are naturally honest and good, set them­selves seriously to work in the business of the revolution; which might have been carried on with the greatest harmony; as it had nothing in view but the welfare of the whole. But these deceitful men, being enemies of the revolution, and finding that they could not oppose it by open force, assumed the mask of patriotism, and brought themselves into places of trust in every department of the le­gislative and executive power. The effect of this was that these good people found them­selves deceived and betrayed in every stage of their affairs, from the beginning of the revo­lution in 1789, till the tenth of August, 1792. Being surrounded by traitors, and not knowing whom to trust even with the exe­cution of their own vengeance, it was natural and sometimes necessary that they should as­sume this terrible task upon themselves. In some instances indeed the popular vengeance has been ill directed, and has fallen on inno­cent heads. But these instances are rare. ^*

[Page 23]The limits, I prescribe to my letter, will not allow of my entering into details on a subject so intricate and extensive. This, however, may be relied on as an undeniable truth, that nothing is more humane, generous and just, than the general spirit of the revolution; and whatever particular acts may seem to contra­vene these principles, those acts are charge­able upon its enemies, and not upon its friends.

But to arrive at the subject the most inte­resting for your immediate consideration, let us follow the course of the revolution in a geo­graphical sense, and pass with it from France to Piedmont. The revolution in this journey has stopped to winter in Savoy, from whence I write this letter; and before we mount the Alps, it is natural to make a pause, to contemplate the country where we are.— Here is a people who lately made part of yourselves, and who are now separated from you, rather on account of their vicinity to France, than for any particular interest dif­ferent from your own. For, in the great cause of liberty, the interests of all people are [Page 24] the same. It is the cause of tyranny that has made them enemies; it is the imposition and falsehood of those who would live on other men's labours, that have occasioned all the wars of every nation in the world. The people of Savoy were certainly under no obligation to be governed by the King of Jerusalem; tho' they had groaned under his yoke for many generations. Their late conduct in declaring their own sovereignty and independence, abolishing hereditary titles, and establishing a government of their own on the principles of equal liberty, is a subject which must strike your minds in a very interesting point of view. Your tyrants will represent it as a crime which ought to excite your indignation; and they will call on you to take arms and rush headlong into a destructive war, to assist them in reducing this country again to their obe­dience. They are now preparing their forces, augmenting their armies, borrowing money abroad, and extorting it from the hand of in­dustry at home, for this detestable purpose. You are to be taken from your farms and your shops, and enrolled in the regiments of death. If you are unwilling to engage in this new kind of slavery, you are to be seized upon like so many felons, dragged from your wives and children, and tortured into discipline un­der the lash of a military officer. Your fami­lies are to be left to perish in poverty, while you perhaps are slaughtered in the field.

[Page 25]But before you suffer yourselves to be dri­ven to this desperate business, I intreat you to resort to your own reason, and exercise the right of judging for yourselves. Consider the nature of the enterprise, and the object you have in view. Who are the people on whom you are going to let fall this terrible stroke of vengeance? What is their crime? Are they not your brothers and friends? Have they not acted as you would have done in their situation? And ought you not rather at this moment to follow their example, than to be the instruments of their destruction and your own? Let us attend to this enquiry before it be too late.

The people of Savoy, as to their local po­sition stand in the same relation to France as you stand in to Italy. They and you are post­ed in the marches of these two great fractions of the Continent. As long as this part of Europe is governed by tyrants, perpetually contending for dominion on each side of the Alps, these positions expose you both to the inroads of all parties. You cannot avoid be­ing insulted by foreign armies in their passage through your country, although you have no interest in their quarrels. Your history is full of examples of this kind, from the days of Hannibal, down to that infamous war of the Spanish succession, which involved your coun­try in blood and held half Europe in arms for many years together; a war in which you [Page 26] had no other concern, than that of being the victims of foreign disputes. The face of your country bears the insulting marks of this un­fortunate position in which you are placed. It is covered with fortifications. As if na­ture had not thrown rocks and mountains enough in your way, you have been forced to create them by the hand of art, to encompass your towns with walls, and disfigure your fields with towers and castles. Your agricul­ture has been ill-conducted, your manufac­tures neglected; all the useful arts have been forced to yield to a general system of defence against the enemies of your neighbours, when you had no enemies of your own.

In this situation, what is to be done? You cannot change the position which nature has given to your country. Your only resource is to change the policy of Europe from war to peace. You are more peculiarly interested in the perpetual peace of Europe than any other people on earth. This is a weighty consideration, a truth which your tyrants can­not deny. It is the knowledge of this truth which has influenced the people of Savoy in their late change of government. It is in this point of view that they have contemplated the French revolution; with this view they have adopted it themselves, and wish to extend it to you, whose situation so nearly resembles their own. With this view you ought to wish to extend it to all the States of Italy, to Spain, [Page 27] and to the circles of the empire, from whence it would travel through Europe and through the world.

The principles of this revolution are those of universal peace; and it is impossible that it should fail to produce the effect, because it takes away every motive for national hostility, and teaches the people of all countries to re­gard each other as friends and fellow-citizens of the world. Establish equal liberty among the people, and instruct them in the duties that arise from that situation, as the French are about to do; you will then find that the business of tyrants has ceased, and the race is forever extinct. Purge the earth of its tyrants, and it will no more be tormented with war.

The conduct of the people of Savoy in uniting themselves to the French republic de­serves a farther consideration. This was a measure incidental to their geographical posi­tion on the French side of the Alps; and the arguments which induced them to it, do not apply to you. It is probable that for the pur­poses of civil government you will hencefor­ward be two distinct people. But this step of their's cannot be considered by you as an act of hostility, or a breach of friendship. They are certainly not less your friends since they have ceased to be your fellow-subjects. It is an essential quality of a French citizen to be the friend of all people, especially of those in [Page 28] his neighbourhood, whose peace and happiness will always be necessary to his own.

The essence of tyranny is to counteract the economy of nature, the essence of liberty is to promote it. Nature has said that the French and the Savoyards should be one people; but tyranny has said that the Savoyards and the Piedmontese should be one people. Con­sult your history, and see what torrents of blood have been shed to cement this unnatural union. Come and view the condition of this unfortunate people; possessing one of the finest countries in the world, and deprived of the means of improving it; subjected for ages to a race of weak and impolitic princes, who, fixing their residence on the other side of the Alps, have paid no other attention to this part of their dominions, than to keep the people in poverty and ignorance, in order to secure their obedience. A military force, sent from your country, has been maintained here to insult the peaceable inhabitants, by exercis­ing the police in every town and village. The Senate of Savoy, which was formerly a legislative body, has been long since reduced to the simple functions of a judiciary tribunal, and its members appointed by the king. He has prevented the working of the mines of iron, lead and coals, with which the country abounds; he has prevented the establishment of any one of the different manufactures to which the inhabitants are peculiarly invited [Page 29] by the abundance of raw materials, by their numerous currents of water, by their vicinity to France, and the convenient navigation of the Isere and the Rhone; he has discourag­ed their agriculture by the shackles he has laid upon their commerce, even in the inte­rior of his own dominions; for the trade be­tween Piedmont and Savoy has been subject­ed to the same pernicious regulations and im­positions which exist between rival nations among the most jealous despots of Europe; he has interposed his authority between pa­rents and the duties they owe their children, by discouraging the education of youth, so far as to oblige those who are designed for the learned professions to perform their studies at Turin. ^*

[Page 30]It would be tedious to recount to you all the instances of folly and cruelty exercised by your government against the people of this country. One general complaint, which ap­pears to be well founded, is, that all your kings, especially the one from whom they have now revolted, have shown an humiliating distinction in their treatment of you and them. The Savoyards have been treated as your slaves, as well as the slaves of your common master. Their hard earnings have been drain­ed from them, to increase the wealth and po­pulation of Piedmont. You must observe, however, that this was not designed as an advantage to you, neither has it been so in fact. It was done to facilitate the collection of the king's revenue. You have been made the instruments of drawing money from these people, for no other reason than that it was more easy to draw it immediately from you, than from them, by the tyrants of Turin.

The condition of these people was perhaps no worse than yours. You have in your country more wealth than they, but you have infinitely more of real indigence. You were both taxed as high as you could bear ^*; and [Page 31] your taxes were imposed in the most arbitrary manner. The King could augment or vary them any day at his pleasure. The Savoyard was poor, but he was not miserable; he was not insulted by the display of luxury passing before his eyes, though he was sensible that he supported a set of infamous courtiers be­yond the mountains, who riot on the labours of mankind.

[Page 32]The effect of tyranny has usually been to vitiate the morals of society, and destroy that energy of mind which is natural to man in a state of freedom. The people of Savoy exhibit a remarkable exception to this rule. They re­tain a singular purity of morals, and a firmness of character, which the weight of a long and complicated tyranny has not been able to de­base. They have long witnessed the vices and endured the injustice of their masters, with­out learning to be vicious or unjust. They have felt the inconvenience of that unnatural combination of things which cut them off from the country to which they really belong­ed, and bound them to a distant lord. But almighty liberty has at last dissolved the chain, and restored them to nature and to France.

The moral character of this people, which renders them so worthy of our esteem, has likewise fitted them for the enjoyment of the liberty to which they have been so suddenly born. No people, rising at once from slavery to a state of equality and independence, ever conducted themselves with so much dignity and moderation. They rose, like the infant Hercules, to the vigour of manhood in a sin­gle day. They showed themselves masters of the whole system of government, the moment they became masters of themselves. They have committed no blunders; they have taken no retrograde steps; they have lost no time in idle disputes, and useless etiquette. Their [Page 33] National Assembly, which was the first repre­sentative body that ever was heard of in the country, and consisted of six hundred and fif­ty members, organised itself and finished its sessions in nine days; during which time it did more business than any body of men un­der like circumstances could be expected to perform in so many months. But there is one fact more remarkable than all the rest, a fact which history will announce to the admiration of the latest ages: the revolution in Savoy has not yet cost a single drop of blood. It has been attended with no acts of violence, no tumultuous meetings, no necessity for the intervention of military force. The force of reason has conducted the whole operation; and the sacred energy of liberty has proved itself to be the source and guarantee of the moral attributes of man.

Such is the condition of this respectable people; and such is the point of view in which you are to consider the late measures they have taken to reclaim and secure their rights. From this consideration you will naturally turn your attention to yourselves, and contemplate the duties you are called upon to perform. For the time is fast approaching when you can no longer be the idle spectators of the triumphs of liberty. Although the revolution in Savoy is hitherto free from the violence of war, it depends on you to say whether it shall con­tinue so to the end of another year. It is in [Page 34] your power at this moment to declare that the Alps shall never more re-echo the sound of a cannon, nor their majestic streams be stained with human blood. Your destiny calls you either to pronounce the sentence of misery and slaughter upon thousands of yourselves and of your neighhours who will follow your ex­ample, or to declare the immediate emancipa­tion, peace and happiness of all the States of Italy.

This is doubtless a serious commission, as it renders you responsible for the fate of so considerable a portion of your fellow-crea­tures. But observe the limits as well as the extent of your power. Though you hold the balance of great benefits and of great disasters, which the present state of affairs is ready to offer to your country; though you are able by the assistance of France to rise as one man and reclaim your own sovereignty, establish your own liberty and provide for the future tranquility of this part of Europe; though by a contrary conduct you may fight the battles of your tyrant against the friends of your peace; yet remember, you cannot long im­pede the progress of liberty. Her cause is that of reason and of God; she will not listen to any capitulation with despotism; the mons­ter must be driven beyond the Adriatic, and banished from the face of the earth. Italy must be free; she cannot wear her chains much longer; it would be glorious for you to [Page 35] be the first in this regeneration of society in that ancient garden of the world. Such a measure would be an example of virtue to your children, a consolation to the shades of your ancestors, who for a long succession of ages have passed away in the clouds of preju­dice, without knowing the means of happi­ness, or perceiving the dignity of man.

Your king has joined the coalition of des­pots against the people of all nations. Their arms are directed against France; but their hostility is really against their own subjects. What cause of quarrel had the King of Hun­gary, or the Elector of Brandenburg with the people of France? None. Their jealousy was against the people of Hungary, of Aus­tria, of Brabant, and of Brandenburg. They saw that these nations were about to reclaim the rights of man and to cast off the yoke of oppression, as the French had done. They, therefore, to retain their unjust power at home, concluded that it was best to strike the revolution at its root, and conquer Germany in France. They knew, if they could sub­due the French, and completely vanquish the spirit of liberty in that country, that all the people of Europe would shrink beneath their chains, and their masters might probably sleep upon their thrones for another half cen­tury.

Such was the policy of your master. You cannot suppose that, as King of Jerusalem or [Page 36] Prince of Peidmont, he had any ground or colour of dispute with the French nation. That nation had no concern with him, nor with any part of his dominions. They were occupied in their own affairs, at peace with all the world, and declared that they meant to remain so. He entered into the war with them for no other purpose but to keep you in subjection. The war was against you, and is still to be carried on against you the next cam­paign. He intends to make you his soldiers to fight his own battles against yourselves, al­though he orders you to point your cannon against the French.

This is the true state of the case. The whole of this war on the part of your mo­narch is maintained by deceiving you. Indeed the whole business of monarchy is deception; kings must govern by deception, as long as they govern at all; for it is impossible for one man to tyrannise over a whole people, but by deceiving them. I have no particular dis­like to your king, any more than to all others; he is probably no worse than kings in general. They hold an office that is perfectly useless in society, and exceedingly destructive to the peace and happiness of mankind. In this view they ought to be detested by every man, and rejected by every nation.

France has been forced into the field, to encounter this infamous combination of rob­bers, this war of all crimes against the prin­ciples [Page 37] of all virtue. She has undertaken the defence of human nature. She has assumed a new kind of tactique unknown to the art of war, and irresistible to the armies of kings. She has armed herself in the panoply of rea­son; her manifesto is the rights of man, her sword the pledge of peace. In this species of warfare we need not be astonished at her suc­cess. What people can resist the hand that comes to break their chains? The armies of liberty are every where triumphant, while their standards are scarcely stained with blood. Victory completes her work, before they ar­rive to celebrate the conquest; and the en­trance of the French troops into the conquer­ed country is regarded by the people rather as the procession of a civic feast, than as the dreaded violence of war. Their general, in­stead of punishing the new recovered citizens with confiscation, imprisonment, and death, meets them in their Jacobin societies, and in­vites them to form their primary assemblies. The forts and garrisons which he erects to se­cure his conquests, are printing presses and reading clubs.

Such is the war in which the illustrious monarch of Turin is engaged. These are the armies he expects you to encounter in the field. If you wish to know in what manner the combat ought to be conducted, you may learn it from the people of Savoy, whose ex­ample in this respect, as in many others, is [Page 38] worthy to be followed by every nation. You may learn it likewise from the people of Nice, from those of Hainault, Flanders, Brabant, Ma­lines, Antwerp, Guelderland, Namur Liege, Spires, and Mayenee; all provinces, princi­palities, or independent states, conquered to liberty within the last three months. As I have kept no complete register of these con­quests, perhaps the above list may be incom­plete. But it matters not; if it were com­plete for to day, perhaps it would not be so for to-morrow. This advice is intended for the instruction of the people; if your king should deem it inconsistent with his warlike character to follow the same advice, he can take a lesson from the battle of Gemmappe.

The French army destined for your deliver­ance will probably not pass the Alps till the spring. You have the remainder of the win­ter to deliberate on the part you have to act. You can by that time decide whether you will receive them as enemies or as friends.— In the latter case, you have only to study the principles of republican government, send away your tyrants, and prepare yourselves to give lessons of liberty to all the Italian States. The troops of Austria, which are now about to enter your territories from Milan and Tus­cany, under pretence of aiding you against the French, will flee before them, as they have done in the Low Countries, the moment you [Page 39] manifest your intention of doing your own bu­siness in a peaceable way.

But, after a due consideration of the circum­stances which I have endeavoured to detail, should you conclude to regard the French peo­ple as your enemies, and to meet their armies in the field, I shall tremble for the conse­quences of your unfortunate decision. Thou­sands among you must fall the victims of the infamous cause of your tyrant, which can­not be supported. On that day, I beg you would call to mind the honest advice of a stran­ger, who now speaks to you the words of truth; who has been a steady observer of the rise and progress of liberty in America and in France; and, who, from these advantages is able to estimate the force of its principles, and predict the triumph of its arms.

I advise you above all things to be cautious of the troops in the pay of Austria, who are marching to join your army. You cannot be so blinded by your leaders as to suppose that this band of ruffiians is brought into your country to render service to you. They are designed to keep you in subjection, and to take from you the freedom of your choice in the great question, Whether you will adopt the principles of the French revolution? They will be posted in your rear, to act against you, if you should refuse to act against the French. Your position may seem a critical one, placed in the interval between two contending pow­ers; [Page 40] but, remember that one is an army of freemen, the other a horde of slaves; on one side is the permanent force of a nation, whose means are inexhaustible, on the other the accidental hireling of a despot whose sceptre is falling from his hands; from one you have the offer of equal liberty and perpetual peace, from the other a continuance of your slavery, augmentation of your burthens, and a cer­tainty of future wars.

Italy is destined to form one great republic. The boundaries which nature has given it are peculiarly suited to this purpose; and as long as we follow nature, in politics as well as morals, we are sure to be in the right. Politicians, who have not well consi­dered the effects of liberty, are alarmed at the extention of the French republic, fearing it will become too powerful for its neighbours. For this reason the union of Savoy is men­tioned as a subject of jealousy to other nations. The enemies of your liberty will not fail to make use of this circumstance to excite your fears and provoke your resentment. Men who reason in this manner have formed their max­ims on those despotic systems of government to which they have been accustomed. They are maxims which can no longer apply to na­tions, when masters of their own actions, and at liberty to govern themselves by the collected wisdom of the great body of the people. A nation in this condition will never disturb the [Page 41] peace of its neighbours in any manner what­ever. Its interest, on the contrary, will be to promote the peace and prosperity of every country in the world.

When a nation is governed by one man, like Piedmont, or by a few families, like the ancient aristocracy of Rome, and several mo­dern ones in Italy, the interest of those who govern, is to extend their dominions; because it augments their personal revenue and adds to the weight of their influence over the peo­ple, whom they consider as their property.— For this reason they make war; for this rea­son they form treaties of alliance to guaran­tee each other in their conquests, and in the property which they have in the people.— In pursuance of this policy, the Prince of Piedmont, in the course of that long Spanish war which I have mentioned, purchased with the blood and treasure of your nation, the title of King of Sardinia; and at the close of the war, he obtained from the Houses of Austria and Bourbon, and from the King of England, a guarantee of the possession.

It is easy to conceive that a system of rob­bery and murder of this kind, carried on thro' all Europe for centuries together, must be re­duced to some certain rules. These rules by a misapplication of terms, are called the law of nations. ^* It is rather the law of despots, [Page 42] who know no law but their own fears. It has likewise been necessary to establish some general ideas of what is called the balance of power among the states of Europe, requiring that each state should be restrained to certain fixed limits. On this principle, when any particular power endeavours to extend its limits, it is natural to tax that power with ambitious views, and to regard it as an object of jealousy. This reasoning is perfectly just when applied to regal and aristocratical do­minions; but under the reign of liberty the argument has lost its ground; dominion itself is at an end; all the technical terms in the science of politics have changed their mean­ing; and as we must begin the science anew, it is to be regretted that we are not furnished with new words, to express our ideas with more precision than we can with the old.

If all the nations of Europe were as free as the French, and every individual member of society were equally independent of every other individual, the question respecting the boundaries of any particular government would become in a great measure indifferent, both to the people of that government and to all their neighbours. No person would have any interest in extending or contracting the [Page 43] territorial limits of a state. They would be established purely on the principle of conven­ience for the administration of the interior concerns of the people, and by the free con­sent of all parties. And whenever it should be found more convenient to change them, they might be extended or contracted on the same principle, without injury to any person, and without exciting the jealousy of any na­tion.

I could cite you many instances from the United States of America, in which this theo­ry has been carried into practice; which would prove to you that the doctrine I here advance, as one of the effects of liberty, is not chimerical. But an instance more striking to you, and which will form an epoch in the his­tory of Europe, is the conduct of the Nation­al Convention of France on the proposition of Savoy to be united to that republic. Here we see a sovereign people, uninfluenced by any fears, hopes, or connections from abroad, deliberating in the most solemn manner, whether they will extend their territorial boundaries, by the admission of seven new provinces, inhabited by four hundred thou­sand freemen who had sent their deputies to solicit an union. ^* To raise a question on a [Page 44] proposition of this kind is certainly a new thing in politics. Louis XIV. would have carried on a war for half a century, and sacra­ficed twice that number of his own subjects, to have made such an acquisition to his do­minions. But the members of the Convention who deliberated on this question had no per­sonal interest to serve, no ambition to gratify. It was merely a question of national conveni­ence, whether the frontiers of the republic should remain fixed on the limits of Dauphiny and Lyonnois, or be extended to the Alps which appear to be the natural boundary of France.

The latter opinion prevailed; but it was rather on account of the present circumstances of Italy than of France. Italy is still govern­ed by despots; and it is to be expected, that as long as they remain in power, they will con­tinue the war they have undertaken against the French. To prevent their incursions, it was necessary to oppose them the barrier of the Alps. But if Italy were as free as France, all causes of hostility between them would be for ever removed. It would be scarcely pos­sible in the course of human events, that they would ever more have any ground of conten­tion. In that case it would be perfectly in­different, as to personal interest, both to the French and the Savoyards, whether they should form one people, or two, or ten.— And whatever resolution they should take, as [Page 45] most convenient to themselves, would never excite your jealousy or resentment.

No people has more to gain by this pacific system than those of Piedmont. You inhabit a fertile country, productive of all the most necessary articles of life; several of which are in great demand among your neighbours. All that is wanting to render you happy is to be masters of the fruits of your own labours at home, to be secured against war, and to have a free circulation of the objects of commerce.

These three things are now within your reach; they would follow as a necessary con­sequence of adopting the principles of the French revolution, and establishing the liber­ties of Italy.

With the most ardent wishes to render you service, in the present solemn crisis of your af­fairs, I have written you this letter. If it should answer no other purpose, it will at least serve as a testimony to my conscience, that I have endeavoured to do my duty, and to me­rit the title which I claim, that of your sincere and disinterested friend,