208 Reason and Its Rivals (ca. 1550– 1815)of natural right on behalf of a liberated people. Th is controversy formed one
of the principal bases for Britain’s declaration of war against France the fol-
lowing year.
Th e opposing powers advanced some innovations, too. Th e principal one
was the Declaration of Pilnitz, promulgated jointly in August 1791 by the
Holy Roman Empire and Prus sia, prior to the actual outbreak of war. Th e
noteworthy part of this declaration was the assertion that the events in
France could not be regarded as internal matters aff ecting France alone, but
instead must be seen as “a matter of common interest to all the sovereigns of
Eu rope.” Th e declaring states went on to announce preparations for a pos-
sible armed intervention into France in support of King Louis XVI against
the revolutionaries. Nothing concrete came of this, as it happened, but
more would be heard of the idea, in a variety of contexts, in the future.
Th e following year, the revolutionary government announced an inter-
ventionist policy of its own, in the form of exporting the French Revolution
to other countries. Aft er the outbreak of war against Austria and Prus sia,
and the decisive French victories at the Battles of Valmy and Jemappes in
1792, the National Convention resolved that it would no longer respect the
rights of enemy powers as domestic sovereigns over their own nations. In-
stead, France would “grant fraternity and aid to all peoples who wish to re-
cover their liberty.” War, in the phrase of the revolutionary leader Georges
Jacques Danton, was to be “the exterminating angel of liberty.”
Fears soon grew, however, that the angel’s homicidal tendencies might be
exercised in undesirable directions. In April 1793, the “fraternity decree” (as
it was sometimes called) was revoked. It was replaced by another one, stat-
ing that France “will not interfere in any way in the government of other
powers.” Danton, of all people, announced the change. Th e fraternity decree,
he explained, may have had a “beautiful motive,” but realism now demanded
steady attention to France’s own self- preservation and avoiding unnecessary
off ense to others. Sobriety sometimes prevailed over enthusiasm, even in
those tumultuous times.
Another—and decidedly tamer— indication of the association of natural
law with reformist (and even radical) politics was a proposed charter on the
rights of peoples, which was designed as a counterpart to the earlier Decla-
ration on the Rights of Man and the Citizen. It was presented to the Na-
tional Convention in 1793 by Henri Grégoire. He was a priest and a general