ld not recognise him as having any formal
authority. On September 13 Louis was forced to accept the new French
constitution, and Leopold declared that his acceptance put an end to all
need for intervention.

[Sidenote: _REVOLUTIONARY PROPAGANDA._]

The French were not content to leave other peoples alone. To the more
ardent revolutionists the revolution was not a mere political event in
the history of their country; it was a religion which it was the mission
of France to propagate. No part of France was to remain outside it; the
feudal rights of princes of the empire in Alsace and Lorraine were
abolished, and Avignon and the Venaissin were declared French territory.
No people wishing to share in its benefits was to be left unenlightened,
and French democrats were already intriguing with the factions in the
Netherlands which were opposed to the Austrian rule. In England the
propaganda had as yet made little way, though the democrats were noisy.
At Birmingham, where Priestley had his chapel, they arranged to hold a
dinner on July 14 to celebrate the fall of the Bastille, and a seditious
address was circulated. In the evening of that day a violent riot broke
out. The mob, with shouts of "Church and king," wrecked two dissenting
chapels and seven houses belonging to prominent democrats, one of them
Priestley's house, where they destroyed his library, philosophical
apparatus, and papers. The riot lasted for two days and was finally
quelled by dragoons. Three of the rioters were hanged, and over L26,000
was paid by the neighbouring hundreds as compensation to the sufferers.

Though both as a king and as a German prince George was indignant at the
proceedings of the French revolutionists, he fully acquiesced in Pitt's
determined neutrality. How little at the beginning of the session of
1792 Pitt expected to be driven from his position is shown by the line
which he adopted in parliament. The king's speech declared that the
state of Europe seemed to promise that the country would continue to
enjoy tranquillity. The naval force was reduced to 16,000 men, and the
proposed reductions in the two services amounted to L200,000. For the
last four years there had been an average yearly surplus of L400,000,
and Pitt proposed to add L200,000 a year to the sinking fund and to
remit taxes to the same amount. He also instituted an additional system
for the reduction of debt by providing that every new loan should carry
a sinking fund of it