onviction that it is ne general opinion of his people, that no probable advantages to be obtained by continuing the war with the prefent ftate of his Majelty's alliances, will bear the flightest comparison with the folid benefit likely to accrue from an immediate negotiation for peace "That without entering into a painful enumeration of domestic diftreffes, which, as they early called forth the falutary and healing interpofition of the Legislature, cannot have efcaped his Majefty's paternal attention; or without minutely detailing the difficulties which embarrass every ftate in Europe that now remains in alliance with his Majefty, we trust that the mere "VIII. The republic of the United Provinces fhall furnish for the prefent campaign half the number of the troops which the republic fhall have on foot. "IX. All the forces employed in actual fervice fhall be under the command of French Generals. The arrangements for the campaign fhall be made in concert. The States General may fend a deputy, who shall fit and have a deliberate voice in the Committee of Public Safety at Paris. "XX. As an indemnification for the expences of the war, the republic of the United Provinces fhall pay to the republic of France one hundred millions of livres, either in fpecie or in bills upon foreign powers, as thall be agreed upon. The following important places have, in the courfe of the prefent feffion, petitioned the Houle of Commons against the war: Extra& from the Exhortation of the Prince de Sax Cobourg, dated Fouron le Compte, July 30, 1794. "Rife, then, German brothers and friends! on you will depend the making it poffible for your deliverers to live or die for your defence. I myfelf, a German Prince, full of folicitude, not lefs for the fafety of my country than the prefervation of my warriors, call upon you. Procure us fubfiftence, bring us provifions from your magazines. Think that in forwarding to us thefe painful fuccours, you care, at the fame time, your approaching harveft. Share with us your favings. To obtain what we want, employ the treatures of your churches: Give your utenfils and vafes of filver to the Emperor, for the pay of your defenders. You will receive receipts for the payment in due form, and you will be paid intereft for the pecuniary aids you have this procured. Replace the refources of Belgium, which have been cut off from us, and now flow for our enemies. Nurfe and relieve, with a folicitude full of charity, our fick and wounded." This exhortation, we find, did not produce its defired effect, for, in his Majesty's Meffage on the Aufhian loan, it is ftated, that fome temporary advance which his Majefly was induced to make for the immediate fupply of the Austrian army, under the preffare of unforeseen circumstances, in the latter part of the last campaign, will be included in any arrange ment, mere fuggeftion of thefe important confiderations will induce his Majesty speedily to use every honourable and expedient means for restoring the necessary bleffings of peace. "That Subftance of a Decree of the Imperial Court, dated Vienna, August 13, 1794, and prefented foon afterwards to the Diet at Ratisbon. "Unfortunately, fince the month of last January, the neceffity of increafing the forces of the Empire is become moft urgent. "The war, on the part of the enemy, from the violent measures taken by the ruling party in France, and from the formidable fuperiority of numbers of their armies, having taken the appearance of the most obftinate offenfive war, renders even the defenfive operation of the combined powers not only painful and difficult, but requires an extraordinary exertion, combination, and union of power, to refift the destructive enter prifes of enthufiaftic hordes, encouraged by various and alarming fucceffes; which exertion and extraordinary efforts, on our fide, are the more preffing, and require the fpeedier to be put into execution, as there is no time to be loft, left the evil fhould rife to a degree which would render the united forces of the Empire infufficient to ftop its progrefs. "The country being in danger, ought to found the alarm-bell through. out the German Empire. The meature of a quintuple contingent cannot but be an afflicting effort for the paternal heart of your Imperial Sovereign. His Majefty, however, hopes that fuch a measure, confidering the prefent urgent circumftance and the population of the German Empire, will not be looked upon as extravagant. The Emperor thinks it almost unnecessary further to declare, that, on account of the facrifices made during the three laft obftinate campaigns in men and money, that bis Majefty, without the ca. operation of the fates of the Empire, is totally incapable by himself to continue the protection of the Empire, his domeftic refources being entirely exhaufted, by having already firained all the political nerves of his hereditary dominions, for the defence and protection of the Empire." Extras from the Memorial of the Imperial Minifter Count Schlick, to the Affembly of the Circle of the Upper Rhine, prefented on the 16th of Auguft 1794. The putting on foot fuch numerous armies; the great expence of main. taining them with the current coin of the Empire, the events of the war which have fucceeded each other with fuch rapidity and changes of fortune, have required immenfe fums which it was neceffary to fend from the hereditary ftates into foreign provinces; and to fupply this his Majefty has facrificed with an unexampled generosity, his own revenues, the voluntary fubfidies of his faithful fubje&ts, and his individual abilities. "The fpiritual and temporal communities of the fuperior and lower claffes are ftill poffeffed of treasures which remain untouched, but which might be beneficially applied. The people of property of every defcription have a credit, which they ought to lend to raife great fums of money to complete that which the Houfe of Auftria, after fuch an immenfe influx of money into the Empire, only drawn from its own hereditary dominions, is no longer able to afford by itself." His Majefty's meffage to the two Houses of Parliament accordingly ftates, That his Majefty thinks it proper to acquaint his Houfe of Parliament that he has received from the Emperor ftrong affurances of a difpofition to make the greateft exertions for the common caufe in the courfe of the next campaigni That it is with pleasure and fatisfaction we reflect, that a negotiation fo defirable in itself cannot be deemed inconfiftent with any of those rules of campaign; but it is reprefented, on the part of his Imperial Majefty, that thefe efforts cannot be made without the affistance of a loan, which his Imperial Majefty is defirous of raiting on the credit of the revenues of his hereditary dominions, under the guarantee of his Majefty with the concurrence of Parliament. With regard to our other German allies, Parliament has this year voted To the Elector of Hanover Landgrave of Heffe Caffel Heffe Darmstadt And to the Duke of Brunfwick £495,655 92,242 The King of Sardinia receives annually, by treaty 200,000 The reduced fituation of Spain may be collected from the nature of the refources it had recourfe to even during the laft campaign. Extract from the Madrid Gazette, Sept. 2nd, 1794. "The various events of war having, fince the commencement of this fecond campaign, occafioned great expences and laffes which could not be forefeen when the calculation of the neceffary funds to conduct it were made in the outlet, and it having become indifpenfible to feek new means to fecure the intereft, and the confiderable capital which will be wanted to provide with the fame exactnefs as heretofore for the fubfiftence and maintenance of the armies and the fleet, my paternal feelings do not permit me to burden afresh the poorer part of my fubjects, who, on account of their great number, contribute in a larger proportion to the exigencies of the ftate, and at the fame time, with immente hazards and fatigues, expofe their perfons for the defence of all. I have thought juftice and equity required, that the more eafy claffes-the most affluent, and thofe who receive more immediate benefis from the government-fhould contribute with its property towards the expence: Upon this principle, and by the unanimous opinion of my council of ftate, among other things I have refolved, that, from the firit of the enfuing month of September, a deduction shall be made in the respective pay offices, from all falaries, pentions, grants, or other affignments, enjoyed by the perfons employed in my royal fervice, be it in what department foever (the military alone excepted), either in Spain or in the Indies, of 4 per cent. on their grofs amount, provided it exceeds 800 ducados (about 160) per ann. and that the fame be alfo deducted from the military enjoying the rank of marefchal de camp inclusively, who are not in the actual fervice, oblerving that the exception I grant to the other officers of my army and navy, not ferving the campaign, extends merely to their pay according to rank, and not the penfions, falaries, or other grants they may have in any other, even should it be of a military nature; and the amount of all fuch deductions to continue not longer than two years after the termination of this war, fhall be paid from the refpective offices into my chief treafory. And moreover, my counsellors of flate having reprefented to me with the most ardent and patriotic zeal, that the deduction in their falaries might be 25 per cent. fince, convinced of the juftice and neceffity of the war, they were ready to make not only fuch a facrifice, but to extend it even to their lives and fortunes; I have thought expedient to accept of their loyal and gracious offer; and in confequence, the deduction of 25 per cent. fhall be made from the falary of every individual counsellor of ftate, upon the fame terms, and under the fame reftrictions and direction as the deduction of 4 per cent. aforementioned from the falaries of all other placemen and penfioners." The of the law of nations, which the wisdom of ages and the common confent of mankind have confecrated as the leading principles of national intercourfe. For every nation which governs itself, under what form foever, without any dependence on foreign power, is a fovereign state*,' and the existence of government acquiefced in by the people under its controul, is the only feature in the condition of a country to which foreign powers, for the purpofe of difcovering a capacity of negotiation, ought to direct their attention, there being no form of government which has not fhewn itself capable of maintaining the accustomed relations of peace and amity with other countries †. "That The clergy in clerical courts are largely taxed by confent of his Holiness the Pope. The military orders, national as well as foreign, are taxed 8 per cent. on all their incomes in money, and 12 per cent. on all incomes in kind, by an order dated 4th February 1795. Paper dollars have been iffued to an immenfe amount. * Vattel. We find it stated by a modern author of received authority, that the fame power who has a night of making war, of declaring it, or directing its operations, has naturally that of making and concluding a treaty of peace: Thele two powers are connected together, and the latter naturally follows the former. He ellewhere Bates, that a right of embaffy (which undoubtedly implies a capacity to negotiate) is incident to the existence of a fovereign fate. And in another remarkable paffage it is laid down, that foreign nations may receive ambaffadors and other minifters, even from an ufurper, and fend fuch ainifters to him. The doctrine is afferted by the author in the following clear and explicit terms: "Before I clofe this chapter, it will be proper to examine a question, famous for being often debated, whether foreign nations may receive ambas fadors and other minifters of an ufurper, and fend fuch minifters to him. Here foreign powers, if the advantage of their affairs invites them to it, follow poffeffion; there is no rule more certain, or more agreeable to the law of nations and the independency of them. As foreigners have no right to interfere in the domeftic concerns of a people, they are not obliged to canvals and inspect its economy in thofe particulars, or to weigh either the justice or injustice of thein. They may, if they think proper, fuppofe the right to be annexed to the poffeffion. When a nation has expelled its fovereign, the other powers, which are not willing to declare against it, and would not draw on themiclves its arms or enmity, confider that nation as a free and fovereign ftate, without taking on them felves to determine whether it has acted justly in withdrawing from the allegiance of fubjects and dethroning the prince. Cardinal Mazarine received Lockhart, who had been fent as ambaffador from the republic of England, and would neither fee King Charles the Second nor his minifters. If a nation, after driving out its prince, fubmits to anether, or changes the order of fucceffion, and acknowledges a fovereign to the prejudice of the natural and appointed heir, foreign powers may here likewife confidler what has been done as legal-it is no quarrel or bufinefs of theirs. At the beginning of the latt century, Charles, Duke of Sudermania, having obtained the crown of Sweden, to the prejudice of Sigifmund, King of Poland, his nephew, was foon acknowledged by moft fovereigns. Villeroy, minister of Henry the Fourth, King of France, at that court, in a memoir of the Sth of April 1608, plainly faid to the "That if doubt should any where exist on this fubject, as the law of nations itself is a rule of action growing out of the common confent of independent states, it cannot fail to be removed by the acquiefcence in these doctrines of fo confiderable a number of thofe powers, whofe united authority forms the only competent tribunal in questions of fuch univerfal importance to the rights of nations. "We cannot therefore reflect on the intercourfe maintained by France with the United States of America, as well as with the neutral powers of Europe during the whole of the prefent war*; on the treaties lately con. cluded with the Duke of Tuscany, the King of Pruffia, and the provisional government of Holland; on the negotiations that have been carried on by Spain, and on the strong declarations of defire to negotiate, recently made by his Majesty's intimate ally, the Emperor, as head of the Germanic the prefident Jeanin, All these reasons and confiderations shall not hinder the King from treating with Charles, if he finds it to his intereft, and that of his kingdom." VATTEL, b. iv. c. 2.: * Extract of an Answer from the Republic of Genoa to the Official Note from the Emperor, dated February 1794. "That at present the republic was most grievously oppressed by the British navy; that there was no probability of the French committing any violation of territory against the republic, because that nation had always more particularly refpected the neutrality of Genoa than the combined powers; and that above all, the republic of Genoa was determined to persevere in the obfervance of the ftricteft neutrality." Extract from Counter-Declaration of the Gourt of Denmark, in Reply to the Memorial delivered by the British Minifter. "The nation (meaning France) is true, and the authority which it acknowledges is that to which application is made in cafes concerning individuals. The commercial connexions fubfift likewife in the fame manner as they did between England and France, as long as the latter chofe to preferve peace. The nation has not ceased to acknowledge her treaties with us, at least the conforms herself agreeable to thofe treaties. As the appeals to them, fo do we appeal to them-and frequently with good fuccefs, both for ourfelves, and even in favour of thofe fubjects of the belligerent powers who commit their effects to the protection of our flag. In cafe of refufal and delay, we have frequently been obliged to hear often and reluctantly, that they only used to make reprifals, fince the nations with whom they were at war, fhewed as little regard to their treaties with us; and thus the neutral flag becomes the victim of errors which it cannot reproach itself with. The path of justice fill continues open in France." Extract from the Edit of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, iffued in March 1795, announcing the Peace with France. "Whilft his Royal Highness enjoyed the fatisfaction of seeing that Tuf cany, fuperior, as it were, to the occurrences of the times, refted peaceful and quiet on that neutrality, which was conflantly respected by thẻ French republic, he found himself involved in thofe unpleasant tranfactions, which, are already known to all Europe." VOL. III. a Q body |
