these motives unite in prescribing the only line of conduct which his Imperial Majesty has to pursue.Russia cannot now recommence the negotiation which has been broken off, under any circumstance, until she has placed herself in a situation to be able to assist her allies at the moment when they might be attacked, and to preserve Europe from total subversion. Her measures must be so combined as to afford a well ments and principles which have led his Imperial Majesty to exert himself with incessant anxiety for the restoration of the general tranquillity.Since the rupture between England and France, his Majesty has beheld, with astonishment and commiseration, the greater part of the states of the Continent compelled, in succession, to bear the burden of a war, which in its origin is plainly of a maritime nature, and foreign to their direct interests. He could not, how-grounded hope that a negotiation for peace ever, cherish the hope, that this melancholy state of things might be put an end to, by means of a frank and friendly negotiation, when he perceived that, without the slightest regard to these solemn proceedings, which tended to the restoration of peace, and even at the very moment when Russia offered to negotiate for its attainment, the number of states which lost their independence continued to increase.- -When his Imperial Majestyresolved to recall his plenipotentiary, he was actuated merely by the consideration that this mission could not produce any pacific result, and not from his having, in any respect, renounced his ardent desire of restoring peace to Europe. Of this disposition the Emperor gave the most convincing demonstration, in his acceding to the application made by his Imperial Roman and Apostolic Majesty to England, France, and Russia, with the view of renewing the negotiation which had been broken off. His Imperial Majesty, however, cannot, at the same time, conceal the possibility that a conduct, on the part of France, similar to that which has already compelled the Emperor to tread back his first steps towards a negotiation for peace, may likewise render nugatory the negotiation which Austria is desirous of renewing.The painful apprehension is justified by experience, that new usurpations might be accomplished at the moment when the negotiation was recommenced, or whilst it was carrying on. apprehension that still greater dangers might arise to the happines of Europe, from a measure, the obvious tendency of which is its entire deliverance; the certainty that these dangers would become inevitable, as soon as the just demands of the continental powers became totally irreconcileable with the pretensions which might be urged by the French government, in virtue of its successive usurpations; the obligation also which his Majesty feels, in the present melancholy and difficult circumstances, of aiding his allies, whose safety and even existence is so seriously threatened, and, in short, of affording them not an illusory, but an effective, immediate, and energetic assistance; all The will augur happier results than those which were expected from all the pacific advances hitherto made, and which unfortunately have been distinguished only by the want of re spect shown on the pait of France to the remonstrances and propositions of Russia and other continental powers, and by a continually progressive increase of the dangers of Europe.- -In consequence of the above considerations, the undersigned has it in charge to notify to the ministry of his Imperial, Royal, and Apostolic Majesty, in answer to the note presented by Count Von Stadion to the cabinet of St. Petersburgh, on the 26th of July (7th August), that his Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, upon the subject thereof, has come to the following resolutions:-To accede to the request of renewing the negotiation for peace, which had been broken off by the recall of M. Novosiltzoff, and to take measures for that purpose, as soon as the head of the French government should manifest a similar disposition, without delay to march two armies of 50,000 men each, through Gallicia to the Danube, as a measure of precaution, in order to confine the support of a powerful army of observation, with the negotiations for peace; which army would be in a situation to prevent all farther aggressions during the period of pacification, and to secure at its completion, Austria, and all the neighbouring powers, against any farther attack on the part of France; to invite his Imperial and Apostolic Majesty, and some other powers, to co-operate on their part in this salutary measure, the propriety of which the French government itself, upon an impartial consideration of the case, could not fail to see.-Whilst the undersigned acquits himself of this duty towards the Austrian cabinet, h❤ must likewise, in compliance with the strict injunctions of the Emperor his master, add, that nothing but the sincere wish of restoring peace to Europe actuates his conduct upon this occasion; that Russia will manifest the most conciliatory disposition in any negotiation for peace, and adopt every measure that may promote its happy.comple tion; and his Imperial Majesty solemnly de clares, that he is ready to recall his troops, as soon as the much desired security of all the states of Europe shall be obtained.-His Imperial Majesty formally invites his Imperial Royal, and Apostolic Majesty to join in the measures which he has adopted; and the undersigned is fully authorised to concert with the Austrian cabinet every thing connected with the prescut important state of affairs. Second Declaration of the Court of Vienna to the French Court; transmitted from Vienna to Paris, on the 3d of September, 1805. It The court of Vienna yields, without delay, to the request which the Emperor of France has made of a categorical explanation respecting the motive of its preparations. The court of Vienna has no other motive than that of maintaining peace and friendship with France, and securing the general tranquillity of the Continent. It has no other wish than that the Emperor of the French may entertain corresponding sentiments.The maintenance of peace, however, between two states, does not merely consist in their not attacking each other, depends not less, in reality, on the initilment of those treaties on which peace is founded. That power which transgre su in so essential a point, and refuses to attend the reclamations to which such a conduct gives rise, is as much the aggressor as if it openly and unjustly attacked the other party.- -The peace between Austria and France was founded upon the treaty of Luneville. One of the articles of that treaty stipulated and guaranteed the independence of the Italian, Helvetic, and Batavian republics, and left them at liberty to chuse their own governments. Any measures, therefore, which tend to compel these states to chuse a government, constitution, or sovereign, otherwise than according to their free will, or otherwise than is consistent with the maintenance of a real political independence, is a breach of the peace of Luneville, and it is the duty of Austria to complain of such a violation.I wish to maintain reciprocal friendship, to acquire confidence, to secure the public tranquillity from great dangers, may, under critical and delicate circumstances, induce the reclaiming party to adopt precautions, to shew great moderation in Complaints, and to deter the discussion of them to future negotiations. This conduct does not imply any contradiction of the stipulations of the treaty; but that power which goes farther, which refuses all explanation, which avoids all mediation, and ein ploys menaces instead of the means of reconciliation, forgets as much the laws of friendship as the sacred rights of peace.The maintenance of general tranquillity requires that each power should confine itself within its own frontiers, and respect the rights and independence. of other states, whether strong or weak. That tranquillity is troubled, when any power appropriates to herself a right of occupation, protection, or influence, when that right is neither founded on the laws of nations nor on treaties; when she speaks after peace of the right of conquest; when she employs force and menaces to prescribe laws to her neighbours, and compels them to sign treaties of alliance, concession, subjugation, or incorporation, at her will; when she, above all, in her own journals, attacks every Sovereign, one after another, with language oftensive to their dignity; when, finalle, she sets herself up as an arbitress to regulate the common interests of nations, and wishes to exclude every other state from taking any part in the maintenance of tranquillity and the balance of power. One she would exclude, because it is too distant; another, because it is separated by an arm of the sea from the Continent; and evading an answer to the remonstrances of the powers nearest the danger,assembles troops on their frontiers, and threatens them with a rupture if they place themselves in a state of defence.- -Under such circumstances, it becomes necessary for other powers to arm, to support each other, and to join in maintaining their own, and the general security. Thus the military preparations of the court of Vienna are pro-' voked by the preparations of France, as well as by her neglect of all means of securing and maintaining a true peace, and future tranquillity.All Europe knows the sincerity of the wish for peace which his Imperial Majesty has displayed, and the punctuality wherewith he has fulfilled the obligations of the treaty of Luneville; that sincerity cannot fail to be recognized in the great concessions made in consequence of the injurious extension given to that treaty in Germany, and in the not less great raode-ration with which his Imperial Majesty has conducted himself on the first departure of the French republic from that treaty, in respect to the concerns of the other republics. While these changes were ascribed to the necessity of securing from all danger the dis- ' closure of the plans for the restoration of monarchical government in France, his Majesty made no difficulty to recognize the state of things which, towards the end of the year 1802, was established in Italy. His Majesty's confidence in the views of the First Consul was confirmed by the obligations which the latter owed to the Italian republic in his character of president, by his frequent and solemn assurances, before and after his elevation to the imperial dignity, that he was far from entertaining any plans of farther aggrandisement or of encroachment on the independence of the Italian states. In fine, by the pledges which he had given to the Emperor of Russia, particularly with respect to the indemnification of the King of Sardinia, and the general arrangement of the affairs of Italy.- -All these considerations concurred in exciting and cherishing in his Majesty's bosom the hope that the consolidation of the new empire of the French would speedily bring back the policy and proceedings of its government to a system of deportment compatible with the balance of power and the safety of Europe; and some time after, when the first reports of new meditated changes in the states of Lombardy, induced the ambassador from the court of Vienna, at Paris, to demand explanations upon this subject; his Majesty, by the official assurance communicated in the name of the Emperor Napoleon, was confirmed in his hopes that the Italian republic would not be united with France, and that no innovation should take place which might prove injurious to its political independence.- -Europe will decide whether these promises have been fulfilled. The Emperor has not ceased to demand their execution, as the correspondence evinces, which took place between the two governments, and also the official and ostensible propositions which were transmitted to the Ambassador Count Philip Cobentzel: and though the notes in which the Emperor Napoleon communicated his intentions as to the establishment of a kingdom of Italy, were accompanied with threats and military preparations; though every thing, at the very. time, indicated what events have since confirmed, that the Emperor of the French was resolved to accomplish these innovations by force, his Majesty, nevertheless, did not remonstrate against dispositions, which were announced to him as nothing more than a provisional arrangement. He rested satisfed with refuting the charges which furnished a pretext for those menaces, and with expressing his hope, that the principle of se-. paration and independence, which had been consecrated by the treaty, should be carried ito complete execution by the definitive arrangements, which the Emperor Napoleon left to depend upon ulterior negotiations with the Courts of St. Petersburgh and London, at the period of the re-establishment of peace.- -These negotiations were, in fact, the only hope which remained to his Majesty of succeeding, by conciliatory means, in maintaining peace, and ultimately to restore repose to Europe, which, from its northern to its southern extremity, laboured under alarms excited by enterprizes, which momentarily increased, both in number and magnitude.magnitude. His Majesty the Emperor of the French had made a pacific overture to the King of England, in terms which pretended to preclude the latter from the right of taking any concern in the important interests of the Continent. This restriction, combined with the relations existing between the King of England and the Court of St. Petersburgh, induced his Britannic Majesty to have recourse to the mediation of his Majesty the Emperor of Russia. Notwithstanding the suspension of all official relations with France, his Majesty did not hesitate to employ his mediation, to dispatch an ambassador for that purpose, and to make application to the Sovereign of France to furnish him with passports.-The hopes, however, to which these pacific steps gave birth, speedily vanished. At the very moment when the requisite passports were transmitted to the Russian negotiator, to enable him to proceed on his journey to France, fresh attacks were made on the po litical existence of other independent states in Italy. From that instant the Emperor Alexander conceived that his character must have been compromised as a mediator. On the other hand, French armies were rapidly assembled in Italy, without any regard to the promises given that no military preparations should take place in that country. An encampment of thirty thousand men in the plain of Marengo, was speedily followed by another encampment of forty thousand on the frontiers of the Tyrol and the AustroVenetian provinces. His Majesty thus found himself under the necessity of providing, without delay, for his own safety. He was now convinced that his pacific, friendly, and moderate sentiments, were not met by such sentiments on the part of his Majesty the Emperor of the French, as to permit him any longer to neglect taking the necessary measures for asserting his just rights, and maintaining the dignity of his empire. This is the cause of his present armament. The same dispositions, however, which made his Majesty so anxious to avoid a recurrence to such measures, have also determined their precise object. The Emperor arms not with hostile views: he arms not to operate a diversion against a landing in England. Besides, the execution of this descent, after two years' menaces, does not seem to be exactly calculated for the moment when France provokes Austria and Russia, by enterprizes which have no relation whatever to the quarrel with Great Britain. The Emperor arms for the maintenance of the peace existing between him and France. He arms for the maintenance of those pacific stipulations, without which this peace would become illusory, and to attain that just equipoise which depends on the moderation of all the powers interested, and which is calculated to secure the balance and the permanent tranquillity of Europe.The step by which his Majesty has at the same time invited all the courts interested to renew the negotiations which have been broken off, is directed to the same object. The unexpected rejection which his interposition has experienced on the part of his Majesty the Emperor of the French, does not prevent him from renewing that invitation. the integrity of whose dominions they are on the contrary, prepared to defend to the utmost of their power: Finally, That the sentiments of Great Britain are conformable with those herein expressed, and that she has displayed the same moderate disposition for the restoration of peace between her and France."-His Majesty hopes that this sincere and frank declaration will serve to remove any doubts which his Majesty the Emperor Napoleon may entertain respecting his views and motives. His Majesty will be happy, and his highest wish will be gratified, if this declaration tend to prevent those misfortunes which it is not in his power alone to avert from mankind. -He has been more fortunate in his application to the Emperor Alexander. This Monarch, who fills so honourable and distinguished a place in the senate of the powers of Europe, whose equality and general prosperity form the objects of his constant solicitude, testifies, in the answer he has transmitted, and which is hereto annexed [vide supra] a similar wish with that of his Majesty, for the conclusion of a just and moderate arrangement. He is also convinced of the necessity of an eventual armament; and, on account of the distance which he has to pass, in order to support the cause of justice and the issue of his moderation, he feels it to be his duty to cause a part of his troops to advance, for the purpose of conferring on the said mediation all the im portance and all the effect which are worthy of so great a power.—As a demonstration of the rectitude of the sentiments entertained by the two imperial courts of Austria and Russia, it is hereby formally declared in the name of both: "That they are ready to enter into a negotiation with France, for maintaining the peace of the Continent on the most moderate terms which are compatible with the general tranquillity and security: That whatever shall be the issue of the negotiations, and even should the commencement of hostilities become unavoidable, they, at the same time, pledge themselves to abstain from every proceeding tending to interfere with the internal concerns of France; or to alter the state of possession, and the legally existing relations in the German empire: or, in the slightest degree, to injure the rights or interests of the Ottoman Porte, FOREIGN OFFICIAL PAPERS. GREGORIAN CALENDAR.- -Decree of the Conservative Senate; September 9, 1805. The Conservative Senate, the number of members being assembled prescribed by the 90th article of the constitutional act of the 13th of December, 1799. Having seen the projet of a senatus consultum, prepared in the form prescribed by the 57th article of the constitutional act of the 4th of August, 1801. After having heard, respecting the motives of the said projet, the orators of government, and the report of the special committee, appointed in the sitting of the 2d in-, stant, decree as follows: Art. 1. From the 1st of January, 1806, the Gregorian Calendar shall be used throughout the French empire. Art. 2. The present senatus consultum shall be transmitted by a message to his Imperial Majesty. (Signed) FRANCOIS (DE NEUFCHATEAU), President.-COLAUD and PORCHER, Secretaries.-Examined and sealed. The Chancellor of the Senate,(Signed) LAPLACE. Report of the Minister of the Interior, to the Emperor Napoleon, respecting the National Guards, September the 18th, 1805. SIRE, The menaces of the enemies of France, have excited in the bosons of Frenchmen, an universal emotion of indignation; they have awakened with fresh vigour, their attachment to your august person, their devotion to their country; the Frenchman, whom the two-fold sentiment, of love for his prince and for his country, has at all times rendered capable of such mighty efforts, will now more than ever experience all its influence.Amongst the measures calculated to prevent the success of every hostile design, and even to disconcert them at their birth, there is one which would have a peculiar effect in securing these sentiments; which under circumstances 539] POLITICAL REGISTER. Report of the Minister of the Interior. nearly similar contributed to the salvation of France; which seems to be invoked by our recollection; which, besides is authorised by the established laws, or rather is itself in existence, at least in principle, and which requires only a prompt developement, and a fresh activity. I mean, Sire, the employment of the national guards.- -Whilst this active army, which is itself, in its organization and its spirit, but a detachment from the grand national army, whilst the active army shall be pursuing beyond our frontiers an enemy, whom it has been accustomed to behold retreating before it, whilst it shall be penetrating into the scenes of its past con-quests by routes well known to it, the national guard will resume internally the exercise of that vigilance, from which it had been for some time exempt by the repose of our brave soldiers. It will watch over the maintenance of order and the laws; will secure the respect due to the public authorities; will keep guard round the temples, the tribunals, the public institutions; will protect the plains, private property, the workshops of industry; and will maintain the security necessary for every description of works; it will, in a two-fold manner, contribute to the execution of the laws of conscription, by furnishing more multiplied means of superintendance, and by weakening the prejudices that obstruct them, in reviving a taste for a military life in the hearts of the youth. Established on the bounds of the empire, it will encourage your soldiers to march, will secure their retreat in case of a reverse, will present an imposing barrier to the enemy, will insure to France in the midst of all the chances of battles, the greatest advantage in war, that of not being compelled to wage it on its own territory; it will recall those ancient times when the arriere ban, quiet by their fire sides, but ready to take the field at the call of their Prince, formed an immense and formidable rear guard: it will recall these late times, when a similar institution overthrew a still more powerful coalition, whilst France possessed not either the same internal forces, or the same genius to put them in operation. It will give to public opinion a salutary impulse; it will direct every thought to the salvation of the state. It will also, of itself, make an impression upon our enemies, as great, perhaps, as our other military preparations, and the force, that it will have created, though yet in repose, will even be equivalent to active troops.Why should their Prince and their country have less claims now than at other periods, on the affection of Frenchinen? Why should not gra : [540 titude for real benefits operate as powerfully as enthusiasm, which was only the expectation of them? No! there is not a single public functionary, whatever his employment or rank, that does not feel, the incitement of vice, to be a consequence and a part of his his sons and grandsons to this internal serduty. There is not a man of property, a presiding over any industrious establishment, man in the enjoyment of any fortune, or who does not feel it to be his first interest to contribute in person, and by his people, to the only service that can secure his repose. Those then, who have an interest in the preservation of public order, whose sentiments are guaranteed by their education, will be the first to form this, in reality, Garde d'Elité, upon which the government, equal security.and the well-disposed citizens, may rely with -The law of the 7th of January, and of the 16th of March, 1790, of gust, 1791, and of the 24th of May, year 3d, the 14th of October, and of the 3d of Auhave never been repealed, and exist in all their force; they have regulated the organization of the national guards, their description of service, their connexion with the civil authorities they have even provided for the case, in which their co-operation might be Majesty in person, has shewn what sentinecessary for the defence of the state. Your ments you entertained respecting this instination you assembled the deputies of all the tution, when on the occasion of your coro national guards, when you presented them with colours. These colours, received with transport, preserved in all the departments, will now be unfurled, and become the banners of patriotism and of honour. There are, however, in the details of organization, established by these laws, two objects, which riod, particular attention and essential moappear to me to call for, at the present pedifications. The first is the appointment of officers. In March last I laid before your Majesty some observations on this subject: I reminded you that the national guards sought your Majesty to take notice, that the wanted officers almost universally; I beexisting form of our establishments, that the state of public opinion, as well as the interests of subordination, no longer warranted the admission of that mode of nomination which had been introduced at a period when all the ideas of democracy were carried to excess; I proposed to your Majesty to decree, that the officers of the national guard should be appointed by the head of the state, like those of the active army, and receive from a hero, who could distinguish the valiant, their com |