Imatges de pàgina
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open book with the following words in letters of gold," French Republic-Conftitution of the eighth year."

replaced by General Brune, out of the conftitution, and treated as the enemies of the French people.

After fome difputes about the oath, and The late change in the government bea few regulations relative to the internal ing confidered by the Senate of Hamburg, police, the affembly adjourned until next as a favourable opportunity for obtaining morning, when three counsellors of ftate forgiveness, it immediately addreffed a prefented projects of two laws, the first re- long and laboured apology to "the Confative to the intercourfe between the vafuls" relative to Napper Tandy and his afrious public bodies, and the fecond con- fociates, in which they remark, that cerning the redemption and alienation of their ruin and utter annihilation would the rents due to the republic, which are have been the inevitable confequence of a now valued at fifteen years purchase, a refufal.” tenth payable within three decades, and the remainder in three feparate installments, at the end of fix, twelve, and eighteen months.

One of the first acts of power on the part General Bonaparte was, to dispatch an aide de-camp to the King of Pruffia announcing the late changes.

He alfo liberated feveral imprisoned priefts and nobles, and exhibited the most ardent defire to enter into a treaty with the infurgents in the interior; in confequence of which, a fufpenfion of hoftilities immediately enfued; but their terms, from a consciousness of their own power, were faid to be of an extravagant nature, and hoftilities have ere this, moft probably, recommenced.

Previously to this event, a proclamation was iffued from the Confuls of the Republic to the Inhabitants of the departments of the Weft," in which, after stating

that an impious war was threatened to be kindled a fecond time," they obferve, that they do not wish to employ force until they had firft exhaufted all the means of perfuafion. They at the fame time promife liberty of worship, and inform them that the destructive laws relative to hoftages and the forced loan have been repealed. The minifters of a God of Peace, are called on to promote reconciliation and concord," and they are defired" to speak to the hearts of the people the language which they have learned in the fchool of their mafter."

A decree is annexed to this proclamation-requiring

1. All the infurgents to separate within the space of one decade.

2. To deliver up their arms and cannon of every kind, particularly thofe furnished by England.

3. A complete amnefty for all paft of fences is held out.

And 4. Such of the communes as shall perfift in rebellion, fhall be declared by General Hedouville, who has been lately

The following note contains the answer tranfmitted:

BONAPARTE, Firft Conful of the Republic, to
the Burgomafiers and Senate of the Free and
Imperial City of Hamburg.

Paris, 9th Nivafe, (8th year.)
WE have received your letter, gentlemen;
it is no juftification of your conduct
It is by courage and virtue alone that
States are preferved; cowardice and vice prove

their ruin.

You have violated the laws of hofpitality: Such a violation would not have taken place among the barbarian hordes of the desert. Your fellow citizens will impute it to you, as an eternal reproach.

The two unfortunate men will die illuftrious; but their blood will be a fource of greater evils to their perfecutors than could be brought upon them by a whole army.

BONAPARTE, First Conful.

H. B. MARET, Secretary, &c.

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MY LORD,

Difpatch, by order of General Bonaparte,

First Conful of the French Republic, a meffenger to London; he is the bearer of a letter from the First Conful of the Republic to his Majesty the King of England. I requeft you to give the neceffary orders, that he may be enabled to deliver it directly into your own hands. This ftep, in itfelf, announces the importance of its object.

Accept, my Lord, the affurance of my higheft confideration.

(Signed) CH. MAU. TALLEYRAND, Paris, the 5th Niwofe, 8th year of the

French Republic, (Dec. 25, 1799-)

French Republic-Sovereignty of the People

Liberty-Equality.

Bonaparte, Firft Conful of the Republic, to his Majesty the King of Great Britain and Ireland.

Paris, 5th Nivost, 8th Year of the Republic. CALLED by the wishes of the French mation to occupy the first magiftracy of the Republic, I think it proper, on entering into office, to make a direct communication of it to your Majefty.

The war, which for eight years has ravaged the four quarters of the world, muft it be eternal? Are there no means of coming te an understanding?

How can the two most enlightened nations of Europe, powerful and ftrong beyond what their fafety and independence require, facrifice to ideas of vain greatnefs the benefits of commerce, internal profperity, and the happiness of families? How is it that they do not feel that Peace is of the first neceffity, well as of the first glory?

These fentiments cannot be foreign to the heart of your Majefty, who reigns over a free nation, and with the fole view of rendering it happy.

Your Majefty will only fee, in this overture, my fincere desire to contribute efficacierfly, for a fecond time, to a general pacification by a step, fpeedy, entirely of confidence, and difengaged from thofe forms which neceffary perhaps to difguife the dependence of weak ftates, prove only in thofe which are strong the mutual defire of decerving each other.

France and England, by the abufe of their ftrength, may ftill, for a long time,, for the misfortune of all nations, retard the period of their being exhaufted. But I will venture to. fay, the fate of all civilized nations is attached to the termination of a war which involves the whole world.

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*(Signed)

conteft for a vain and falle glory. He has had no other view than that of maintaining, against all aggreflion, the rights and happinefs of his fubjects. For thele he has contended against an unprovoked attack; and for the fame objects he is ftill obliged to contends nor can he hope that this neceffity could. be removed by entering, at the pretent moment, into negotiation with thofe whom a, fresh revolution has fo recently placed in the exercife of power in France. Since no real advantage can arife from fuch negotiation tom the great and desirable object of general peace, until it fhall distinctly appear that thofe caufes have ceafed to operate, which originally produced the war, and by which it, has fince been protracted, and, in more than one inftance, renewed.The fame fyftem, to the prevalence of which France justly, afcribes all her prefent miferies, is that which has alfo involved the rest of Europe in a long and destructive warfare, of a nature long fince unknown to the practice of civilized

nations.

. For the extenfion of this fyftem, and for the extermination of all established Governments, the refources of France have from year to year, and in the midst of the most unparalleled diftrefs, been lavished and exhaufted. To this indifcriminate fpirit of destruction, the Netherlands, the United Provinces, the Swiss Cantons, (his Majefty's ancient friends and allies) have fucceflively been facrificed. Germany has been ravaged; Italy, though now refcued from its invaders, has been made the fcene of unbounded rapine and anarchy. His Majefty has himself been compelled to maintain an arduous and burthenfome contest for the independence and exitence of his kingdoms.

No have thefe calamities been confined to Europe alone: they have been extended to the most diftant quarters of the world, and. even to countries fo remote both in fituation and interest from the prefent contest, that the BONAPARTE. very exiftence of fuch war was perhaps un

Downing-freet, Jan. 4, 1800. HAVE received and laid before the King the two letters which you have tranfmit ted to me; and his Majesty, feeing no reason to depart from thote forms which have long been established in Europe, for tranfacting bu finefs with Foreign States, has commanded me, to return in his name the Official Anfwer which I fend you herewith inclofed." I have the honour to be, with high confideration, Sir, your most obedient, humble fer(Signed) GRENVILLE. To the Minifter for Foreign Affairs, St. at Paris.

vant,

NOTE.

THE King has given frequent proofs of his fincere defire for the re-establishment of fecure and permanent tranquillity in Europe. He neither is, nor has been, engaged in any

known to thofe who found themfelves fud-' denly involved in all its horrors.--While fuch a fyftem continues to prevail, and while the blood and treature of a numerous and powerful nation can be lavished in its fup-, port, experience has the wn that no defence, but that of open and fteady hoftility, can be availing. The moft folemn treaties have only prepared the way for fresh aggreffion;, and it is to a determined refiitance alone that is now due whatever remains in Europe of ftability for property, for períonal liberty, for focial order, or for the free exercife of religion.

For the fecurity, therefore, of thofe effential objects, his Majefty cannot place his reliance on the mere renewal of general profeflions of pacific difpofitions. Such profeflions have been repeatedly held out by a.1 those who have fucceffively directed the refources of France to the deftruction of Europe;. and whom the prefent rulers have declared to.

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Bave been all, from the beginning, and uniformly, incapable of maintaining the relations of amity and peace.Greatly, indeed, will his Majesty rejoice, whenever it fall appear that the danger to which his own dominions and thofe of his allies have been fo long expofed, has really ceafed; whenever he shall be tatisfied that the neceflity of refiftance is at an end; that, after the experience of fo many years of crimes and miferies, better principles have ultimately prevailed in France; and that all the gigantic projects of ambition, and all the reftlefsichemes of deftruction which have en

dangered the very existence or civil fociety, have at length been finally relinquished :but the conviction of fuch a change, how ever agreeable to his Majesty's wishes, can refult only from experience, and from the evi

dence of facts.

The best and most natural pledge of its reality and permanence would be the restoration of that line of princes which for fo many centuries maintained the French nation in profperity at home, and in confideration and refpect abroad :-fuch an event would at once have removed, and will at any time remove, all objects in the way of negotiation of peace." It would confirm to France the unmolefted enjoyment of its ancient territory; and it would give to all the other nations of Europe, in tranquility and peace, that fecurity which they are now compelled to feek by other

zeans.

But, defirable as fuch an event must be Both to France and to the world, it is not to this mode exclufively that his Majefty limits the poffibility of fecure and folid pacification. His Majefty makes no claim to prefcribe to France what fhall be the form of her Government, or in whofe hands the fhall veft the authority neceffary for conducting the affairs of a great and powerful nation.

His Majefty looks only to the fecurity of his own dominions and thofe of his allies, and to the general fafety of Europe.-Whenever he fhall judge that fuch fecurity can in any manner be attained, as refulting either from the internal fituation of that country, from whofe internal fituation the danger has arifen, or from fuch other circumftances of whatever nature as may produce the fame end, his Majefty will eagerly embrace the opportunity to concert with his allies the means of immediate and general pacification.

Unhappily no fuch fecurity hitherto exifts: no fufficient evidence of the principles by which the new Government will be directed; no reasonable ground by which to judge of its Яability. In this fituation, it can for the prefent only remain for his Majefty to purfue, in conjunction with other powers, thofe exertions of just and defenfive war, which his regard to the happinefs of his fubjects will never permit him either to continue beyond the neceffity in which they originate, or to terminate on any other grounds, than fuch as may beft contribute to the fecure enjoyment

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The Official Note, under date of the 14th Nivofe, the 8th year, addreffed by the Minifter of his Britannic Majesty, having been laid before the First Conful of the French Repulic, he obferved with furprife, that it refted upon an opinion which is not exact, refpecting the origin and confequences of the prefent war. Very far from its being France which provoked it, he had, it must be remembered, from the commencement of her revolution, folemnly proclaimed her love of peace, and her difinclination to conquefts, her refpect for the independance of all Governments; and it is not to be doubted that, occupied at that time entirely with her own internal affairs, the would have avoided taking part in thofe of Europe, and would have remained faithful to her declarations.

But from an oppofite difpofition, as foon as the French Revolution had broken out, almost all Europe entered into a league for its deftruction. The aggreffion was real, long time before it was public; internal refiitance was excited; its opponents were favourably received; their extravagant declamations were fupported; the French nation was infulted in the perfon of its Agents; and England fet particularly this example by the difmiffal of the Minifter accredited to her. Finally, France was, in fact, attacked in her independance, in her honour, and in her fafety, long time before the war was declared.

Thus it is to the projects of subjection, diffolution, and difmemberment, which were prepared against her, and the execution of which was feveral times attempted and purfued, that France has a right to impute the evils which he has fuffered, and thofe which have afflicted Europe. Such projects, for a. long time without example, with refpect to fo powerful a nation, could not fail to bring on the most fatal confequences.

Affailed on all fides, the Republic could not but extend univerfally the efforts of her, defence; and it is only for the maintenance of her own independance that the has made

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ufe of thofe means which the poffeffed, in her own ftrength and the courage of her citizens. As long as the faw that her enemies obftinately refufed to recognize her rights, the counted only upon the energy of her refiftance; but as foon as they were obliged to abandon the hope of invafion, the fought for means of conciliation, and manifefted pacific intentions: and if thefe have not always been efficacious; if, in the midst of the critical circumftances of her internal fituation, which the revolution and the war have fucceffively brought on, the former depofitaries of the Executive Authority of France have not always fhewn as much moderation, as the nation itself has fhewn courage, it must, above all, be imputed to the fatal and perfevering animofity with which the refources of Enghand have been lavished to accomplish the ruin

of France.

But if the wishes of his Britannic Majefty (in conformity with his affurances) are, in unifon with thofe of the French Republic, for the re-establishment of Peace, why, inftead of attempting the apology of the war, fhould not attention be rather paid to the means of terminating it? And what obftacle can prevent a mutual understanding, of which the utility is reciprocal, and is felt, efpecially when the First Conful of the French Republic has perfonally given so many proofs of his eagerness to put an end to the calamities of war, and of his difpofition to maintain the rigid obfervance of all treaties concluded? The First Conful of the French Republic could not doubt that his Britannic Majefty recognized the right of nations to choose the form of their Government, fince it is from the exercife of this right that he holds his Crown: but he has been unable to comprehend how to this fundamental principle, upon which refts the existence of Political Societies, the Minifter of his Majefty could annex infinuations which tend to an interference in the internal affairs of the Republic, and which are no lefs injurious to the French nation and to its Government, than it would be to England and his Majefty, if a fort of invitation were held out in favour of that Republican Government of which England adopted the forms in the middle of the last century, or an exhortation to recall to the throne that family whom their birth had placed there, and whom a Revolution compelled to defcend from it.

If at periods not far diftant, when the conAitational fyftem of the Republic prefented neither the strength nor the falidity which it contains at prefent, his Britannic Majefty thought himfelf enabled to invite a negotiatos and pacific conferences; how is it poffibis that he should not be eager to renew negotiations to which the prefent and reciprocal Stuation of affairs promifes a rapid progrefs? Os every fide the voice of nations and of humanity implores the conclufion of a war, arked already by fuch great calamities, and

the prolongation of which threatens Europe with an univerfal convulfion and irremediablé evils. It is, therefore, to put a stop to the courfe of these calamities, or in order that their terrible confequences may be reproached to thofe only who fhall have provoked them, that the First Conful of the French Republic propofes to put an immediate end to hoftilities, by agreeing to a fufpenfion of arms, and naming Plenipotentiaries on each file, who should repair to Dunkirk, or any other town as advantageously fituated for the quickness of the refpective communications, and who fhould apply themselves without any delay to effect the re-establishment of peace and a good underftanding between the French Republic and England.

The First Conful offers to give the paffports which may be neceffary for this purpofe.

(Signed) C. M. TALLEYRAND. Paris, the 20th Nivose (14th Jan. 1800) eighth year of the French Republic.

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THE Official Note tranfmitted by the Mini

fter for Foreign Affairs in France, and received by the underfigned on the 18th inft, has been laid before the King.

His Majefty cannot forbear expreffing the concern with which he obferves in that Note, that the unprovoked aggreffions of France, the fole caufe and origin of the war, are fyftematically defended by her prefent rulers, under the fame injurious pretences by which they were originally attempted to be difguifed. His Majefty will not enter into the refutation of allegations now univerfally exploded, and (in fo far as they refpect his Ma jefty's conduct, not only in themselves utterly ground lefs, but contradicted both by the internal evidence of the tranfactions, to which they relate, and also by the exprefs teftimony (given at the time) of the Government of France itself.

With respect to the object of the Note, his Majesty can only refer to the Anfwer which he has already given.

He has explained, without referve, the obftacles which, in his judgment, preclude, at the prefent moment, all hope of advantage from negotiation. All the inducements

to

to treat, which are relied upon in the French Official Note; the perfonal ifpofitions which are faid to prevail for the conclufion of Peace, and for the future obfervance of treaties; the power of enfuring the effect of thofe difpofiions, fuppofing them to exift; and the folidity of the fyftem newly established, after fo rapid a fucceffion of revolutions-All thefe are points which can be known only from that teft to which his Majefty has already referred them the refult of experience, and the evidence of facts.

With that fincerity and plainnefs which his anxiety for the re-establishment of peace indifpenfably required, his Majefty has pointed out to France the fureft and speediest means for the attainment of that great object. But he has declared in terms equally explicit, and with the fame fincerity, that he entertains no defire to prefcribe to a foreign nation the form of its Government. That he looks only to the fecurity of his own dominions and of Europe; and that whenever that effential object can in his judgment be, in any manner whatever, fufficiently provided for, he will eagerly concert with his Allies the means of immediate and joint negotiation, for the re-establishment of general tranquillity.

To thefe declarations his Majefty fteadily adheres; and it is only on the grounds thus ftated, that his regard to the fafety of his fubjects will fuffer him to renounce that fyftem of vigorous defence, to which, under the favour of Providence, his kingdoms owe the fecurity of thofe bleffings which they now enjoy.

(Signed) Downing-fireet, Jan. 20, 18co.

GRENVILLE.

The military affairs of France, notwithAtanding the late brilliant actions on the part of Generals Brune, Maffena, and St. Cyr, do not wear a very favourable afpect.

The army of the Rhine appears to be in a deplorable fituation; that of Italy is now confined to Genoa and the adjacent country, where it maintains itfelf by the odious fyftem of requifitions; while, if we were to eredit pretended letters from Egypt, the troops there are reduced to a state of inexPoftepreffible diftrefs and defpondency. rior accounts, however, announce no lefs than three great victories in that quarter. In respect to internal affairs, it appears from the last mails that the embargo on neutral yeffels has been taken off, and that Bonaparte has fuppreffed a prodigious number of newfpapers by a new effort of authority, and only permitted thofe under his own immediate influence to be published !!

No less than two of her allies have imitated France in her late revolution, and

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both Switzerland and Genoa have given themselves new rulers, and in fome refpe&is, a new form of government.

GREAT-BRITAIN.

One of the chief objects of the British cabinet, for fome time paft, appears to have been an union with Ireland; and it feems extremely probable, from fome re cent debates in the fifter kingdom, that this event will fpeedily take place, and that too with far greater facility than was at first fufpected.

The Chouans are faid to have lately received a supply of arms, money, and military stores from this country, so that, in cafe of a renewal of hoftilities, which the last mails confider as inevitable, the infur gents are likely to make a more sturdy defence than before.

The late gallant action performed by Capt. Hamilton, can scarcely be paralleled even in the naval annals of this kingdom. "The honour of my country, and the glory of the British navy," fays he, "were ftrong inducements for me to make an attempt to cut out, by the boats of his Majetty's fhip under my command, his Majefty's late fhip Hermoine, from the harbour of Porto Cavallo, where there are about 200 pieces of cannon mounted on the batteries." This brave officer accordingly boarded her with a body of chofen men to the number of 50, while the remainder in the boats cut the cables, the English frigate coming down at the fame time. The forecastle was carried without much diffculty; the quarter-deck, however, difputed the point during a quarter of an hour; but the main deck held out much longer, and a moft dreadful carnage enfued; nor was it before both cables had been cut, fail made on the hip, and the boats fent a-head to tow, that the main deck could be fecured. Laftly, the enemy retreated between decks, and continued firing till their ammunition was all expended; and it was then, and then only; that they demanded quarter!

On the other hand two of our frigates, forming part of Commodore Blanket's fquadron in the Red Sea, have failed in an attempt on El Cofir.

We have already mentioned under the head" France," the diplomatic intercourfe that has taken place between the new Government of that country and our own, relative to a peace. It is confidently afferted, that a fresh fubfidiary treaty has been concluded between the courts of St. James's, Vienna, and Peterfburg; that a large body of Suabians is to be taken into our pay, and that the war will be

renewed

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