not less unjust than their example is dangerous to all legitimate sovereigns. As soon as the answers on this point shall have been received, and as soon as his majesty shall have learnt the sentiments of the king of Sweden, and those of the government of Spain, I shall not fail to receive the commands of his majesty for such communications as it may be necessary to make upon the ulterior objects of the letter of count Romanzoff. I have the honour to be, &c. (Signed) GEORGE CANNING. To his excellency the Russian ambassador at Paris. No. VIII.-Letter from Mr. se cretary Canning to M. de Champagny, dated Foreign Office, Oc. tober 28th, 1808. SIR,-Having laid before the king my master the two letters which your excellency transmitted to me from Erfurth, one of which was addressed to his majesty, I have received his majesty's commands to return, in answer to that letter, the official note which I have the honour herewith to enclose. I am commanded to add, that his majesty' will lose no time in communicating to the king of Sweden and to the government of Spain the proposals which have been made to his majesty. Your excellency will see the necessity of an assurance being immediately afforded to his majesty, that the admission of the government of Spain as a party to the negociation is understood and agreed to by France. After the answer of your excel lency upon this point shall have been received, and so soon as his majesty shall be in possession of the sentiments of the king of SweVOL. L. den, and of the government of Spain, I shall receive his majesty's commands to communicate with your excellency on the remaining points of your letter.-I have the honour to be, &c. (Signed) GEORGE CANNING. No. IX.-OFFICIAL NOTE. The king has uniformly declared his readiness and desire to enter into negociations for a general peace on terms consistent with the honour of his majesty's crown, with fidelity to his engagements, and with the permanent repose and security of Europe. His majesty repeats that declaration. If the condition of the continent be one of agitation and of wretchedness; if many states have been overthrown, and more are still menaced with subversion; it is a consolation to the king to reflect, that no part of the convul sions which have already been experienced, or of those which are threatened for the future, can be in any degree imputable to his majesty. The king is most willing to acknowledge that all such dreadful changes are indeed contrary to the policy of Great Britain.-If the cause of so much misery is to be found in the stagnation of commer cial intercourse, although his mas jesty cannot be expected to hear, with unqualified regret, that the system devised for the destruction of the commerce of his subjects has recoiled upon its authors, or its instruments,-yet is it neither in the disposition of his majesty, nor in the character of the people over whom he reigns, to rejoice in the privations and unhappiness even of the nations which are combined against him. His majesty anxiously desires the termination of the sufferings of the continent, The The war in which his majesty is engaged, was entered into by his majesty for the immediate object of national safety. It has been prolonged only because no secure and honourable means of terminating it have hitherto been afforded by his enemies. But in the progress of a war, begun for self-defence, new obligations have been imposed upon his majesty, in behalf of powers whom the aggressions of a common enemy have compelled to make common cause with his majesty; or who have solicited his majesty's as sistance and support, in the vindi. cation of their national indepen dence. The interests of the crown of Portugal, and of his Sicilian majesty, are confided to his majesty's friendship and protection. With the king of Sweden his majesty is connected by ties of the closest alliance, and by stipulations which unite their counsels for peace as well as for war. To Spain his majesty is not yet bound by any formal instrument; but his majesty has, in the face of the world, contracted with that nation engagements not less sacred and not less binding upon his majesty's mind than the most solemn treaties. His majesty therefore assumes that, in an overture made to his majesty for entering into nego. ciations for a general peace, the relations subsisting between his majesty and the Spanish monarchy have been distinctly taken into con. sideration, and that the govern ment acting in the name of his Ca tholic majesty Ferdinand the Seventh is understood to be a party to any negociation in which his majes. ty is invited to engage, (Signed) GEORGE CANNING. No. 12,-Letter from count Nico. las de Romanzoff to Mr. secre tary Canning, dated Paris, 16th-(28th Nov.) 1808. Received December 6th. (Translation.) SIR, I transmit to your excellency my answer to the note of the 28th October, which you were pleased to address to count de Tol. stoi; and I hasten to seize this fresh opportunity of renewing to your excellency the assurances of the high consideration with which I have the honour to be, &c. (Signed) LE COMTE NICOLAS DE ROMANZOFF. His excellency Mr. Canning, &c. &c. (Translation.)-NOTE, The undersigned minister for foreign affairs of his majesty the em peror of all the Russias, has the honour to reply to the note of the 28th October, signed by Mr. Can ning, secretary of state for foreign affairs to his majesty the king of Great Britain, and addressed by his excellency the Russian ambassador at Paris:-That the admission of the sovereigns in alliance with Eu gland, to a congress, cannot be a point of any difficulty, and that Russia and France consent to it. But this principle by no means ex. tends to the necessity of admitting the plenipotentiaries of the Spanish insurgents: The emperor of Russia cannot admit them. His empire, in similar circumstances, and England can recollect one particular instance, has always been true to the same principle. Moreover, he has already acknowledged the king Joseph Napoleon. He bas an nounced to his Britannic majesty, that he was united with the emperor of the French for peace as well as for war; and his imperial majesty here repeats that declaration. He is resolved not to separate his interests from those of that monarch; but they are both ready to conclude a peace, provided that it be just, honourable, and equal for all parties. new to his excellency Mr. Can. Exposé; or, State of the French IN The undersigned sees with pleasure, that, in this difference of opinion respecting the Spaniards, nothing presents itself which can either prevent or delay the opening of a congress. He derives his persua. sion in this respect from that which his Britannic majesty has himself confided to the two emperors, that he is bound by no positive engagement with those who have taken up arms in Spain. After fifteen years of war, Europe has a right to demand peace. The interest of all the powers, including that of En. gland, is to render it general. Hu-, manity commands it; and such a desire, surely, cannot be foreign to the feelings of his Britannic ma. jesty. How can it be, that he alone can withdraw himself from such an object, and refuse to termi-information, I have only to retrace nate the miseries of suffering huma. nity? The undersigned consequently renews, in the name of the emperor his angust master, the proposal al ready made, to send plenipotenti. aries to any city on the continent, which his Britannic majesty may please to point out; to admit to the congress the plenipotentiaries of the sovereigns in alliance with Great Britain; to treat upon the basis of the uti possidetis, and upon that of the respective power of the bel ligerent parties: in fine, to accept any basis which may have for its object the conclusion of a peace, in which all parties shall find honour, justice, and equality. The undersigned has the honour to re N the sitting of yesterday, his excellency the minister of the in terior, accompanied by Messrs. de Segur and Corretto, councillors of state, pronounced the following speech on the situation of the French empire:-Gentlemen, you terminated your last session, leav ing the empire happy, and its chief loaded with glory. The year has passed away, and a multitude of new circumstances have added to the good fortune of the country, and increased our hopes of future benefits. All that I have to state to you, gentlemen, is already known to you; and, for your full to your memory the principal events which have filled up the interval between your last and your present session, and to recal to you the ad ditional advantages for which France is indebted to the wisdom and valour of her sovereign. I will speak to you first of the wants of nations; justice, public instruction, the arts and sciences, the numerous branches of internal administration, public worship, the finances, and our principal relations with the states of the continent. The recital will bring us of course to this lamenta. ble war, which we maintain against one single people. The glory of our nation wounds that people, our strength alarms them; the inde. pendence of our commerce and our industry disquiets them; every thing is again subjected to the for tune of war; but the days of jus. tice are not far distant.-[Here follows a long detail respecting the administration of justice, the principal amelioration of which consists inta stablishment of the trial by jury, on the precise principles of the English law. The next head is that of public worship, which is followed by that of sciences and literature, public instruction, &c.-These articles being of great length, and less immediate importance, we reserve them for a future opportunity, and proceed to the heads which are most interesting to the English reader. Among, the arts of industry which have made progress in the course of this year, we must enumerate the ma. nufactory of tin. In two of our manufactories they have attained a degree of perfection no ways yield ing to that of the English. A premium of encouragement has been given accordingly; and another is also destined to ulterior efforts in the same branch.-The mechanics, in their endeavours of simplifying their looms, and introducing economy in their labours, have often also improved the quality of their stuffs. Those that are used in the weaving of cotton, have, for several years, been much multiplied; the spirit of invention has brought them to perfection. There is nothing now but what we can make, and very well. The weaving of the cotton has made as marked a progress as the spinning. These two kinds of industry are already adequate to the consumption of the empire, which is for ever liberated of the grievous taxation it has hi therto been under to the Indian manufacturers and to their oppressors. The machines best calculated for the manufacture of cloths, are already in wide circulation; they have lately been much encouraged by advances made to different manufacturers in the departments.The conservatory of arts and handicraft is daily enriching by the requisition of new patterns, and is entitled to commendation for the information which the pupils receive, who frequent its school of drawing and descriptive geometry. Reforms have been made in the school at Chalons-sur-Marne.-The consultation chambers of the ma nufactures are hastening to present useful views, which will be taken advantage of. The institution of arbitrators, for the purpose of deciding with celerity variances that may arise between the workmen and their employers, render to industry services which, have been set fortb. Since your last session, gentlemen, several towns have de. manded them, and there are alrea dy some established at Nimes, Aixla-Chapelle, Avignon, Troies, Mul hausen, Sedan, and Thiers. Commerce. The political events have been unfavourable to com. merce. It still was kept alive in the midst of the contentions that have deluged the continent in blood, because those nations that were involved in the war preferred their neutrality-that right deemed, even in our times, inviolable. But the English legislation, already misled by the ambition of universal mo. nopoly, has overthrown the ancient barrier of the law of nations, and trampled their independence under foot, substituting in the room of them a new maritime code. The ordinances of his Britannic majesty have realized these innovations: that of the 11th of November, 1807, is particularly remarkable; it pronounces, by an universal blockade, the interdiction of all our ports, in subjecting the ships of neutral powers, friendly and even allied to Great Britain, to the visitation of its cruisers, to be conducted to British ports, and there to be taxed by an arbitrary inquisition.-The emperor, obliged to oppose just reprisals to this strange legislation, gave out the decree of the 23d of November, ordaining the seizure and confiscation of the ships which, after having touched in England, should enter the ports of France. From these measures, provoked by the British laws, the almost abşolute cessation of the maritime relations, and many privations for the French merchants, manufactur. ers, and consumers, must have necessarily ensued. We all know with what resignation these privations were endured; we know that they are already become habitual, that they have awakened the genius of invention, and produced a thousand resources in substitution of the objects which we are in want of; we know, finally, that a great nation, essentially agricultural, can, by possessing in abundance all articles of utility, easily forego those, which only form certain luxuries or conveniencies of life, particularly when its independence and glory should be put at stake. These circumstances have favoured one of the greatest scourges of commerce, smuggling. But it has been strongly repressed. The government is preparing new means against this foe to the public revenue, and national industry; the great emoluments it procures excites the most ardent cupidity. Those, who ought not to be honoured with the approbation of merchants, lest we should degrade commerce, are still devoting themselves to cri. minal peculations; they think that they are only braving the shame of an ordinary transgression; but the public indignation and vengeance will overtake them, and teach them that under circumstances where the nation employs for its defence, in an unexampled war, the interdiction of all commercial relations. with the enemy, the violation of these dispositions is an hostile declaration, a true alliance with this same enemy; that consequently every smuggler renounces the benefit of the municipal laws, to be subjected solely to those of war, and that he ought to dread the terrible and rapid application of those laws, which authorise the invasion of his fortune, and personal castigation.-The government, pene. trated with the situation of the French commerce, has strove to mitigate the evils, to provide for its wants.-Abroad, a treaty with the kingdom of Italy secures to France all the advantages which are compatible with the reciprocal justice. In the interior, various sums have been advanced to manufacturers and proprietors of produce, which public events had accumulated or cramped in their stores.-The Coisse d'Armortissement has interfered in the outfittings of adventurers.-A law has limited the bounds of the interest on money; offices established at Lyons and Rouen are prelusive to a grand system of facility in the circulation of the numerary and merchandize. The exchange and the commercial tribunal of Z 3 Paris |