Talleyrand..................................

      The contents of this document are of profound interest to the student of Talleyrand's foreign policy, and provide an invaluable testimony to the perspicacity of his vision and the consistency of his views.  The new France that has been created by the Revolution must, he maintains, adopt a new policy which will be in accordance with the philosophy of her Constitution.   The basis of this policy mus be the abandonment of the old ambition to be the greatest Power in Europe and of the old endeavour to acquire aggrandisement of territory.  "We have learnt, a little late no doubt, that for States as for individuals real wealth consists not in acquiring or invading the domains of others, but in developing one's own.  We have learnt that all extensions of territory, all usurpations, by force or by fraud, which have long been connected by prejudice with the idea of 'rank,' of 'hegemony.' of 'political stability,' of 'superiority,' in the order of  the Powers, are only the cruel jests of political lunacy, false estimates of power, and that their real effect is to increase the difficulty of administration and to diminish the happiness and security of the governed for the passing interest or for the vanity of those who govern. ... France ought, therefore, to remain within her own boundaries, she owes it to her glory, to her sense of justice and of reason, to her own interest and to that of the other nations who will become free."

-Duff Cooper, Talleyrand.   The document in question was written by Talleyrand in November of 1792.