His Majesty, thinks it right to inform the House of Commons, that the Events which have lately occurred in France, in direct contravention of the Engagements concluded with the Allied Powers, at Paris, in the course of the last Year, and which threaten consequences highly dangerous to the tranquillity and independence of Europe, have induced His Royal Highness to give directions for the augmen. tation of His Majesty's Land and Sea Forces.

The Prince Regent has likewise deemed it incumbent upon him, to lose no time in entering into Communications with His Majesty's Allies, for the purpose of forming such a Concert as may most effectually provide for the general and permanent security of Europe.

And His Royal Highness confidently relies on the support of the House of Commons, in all measures which may be necessary for the accomplishment of this important object.

SIR,

GEORGE, P. R.

(4.)-Viscount Castlereagh to General Caulaincourt.

Downing Street, 8th April, 1815. I HAVE been honoured with 2 Letters from Your Excellency, bearing date the 4th Instant, from Paris; one of them covering a Letter addressed to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent.

I aim to acquaint Your Excellency, that the Prince Regent has declined receiving the Letter addressed to him, and has, at the same time, given me his orders to transmit the Letters, addressed by Your Excellency to me, to Vienna, for the information and consideration of the Allied Sovereigns and Plenipotentiaries there assembled.

H. E. M. de Caulaincourt.

I am, &c.

CASTLEREAGH.

(5.)-Viscount Castlereagh to The Earl of Clancarty.

MY LORD,

Foreign Office, 8th April, 1815. I HEREWITH inclose a Copy of an Overture this day received from M. de Caulaincourt, and of the Answer returned. You will communicate the same to the Allied Sovereigns and Plenipotentiaries at Vienna, for their information. I have, &c.,

H. E. The Earl of Clancarty.

CASTLEREAGH.

(6.)-The Earl of Clancarty to Viscount Castlereagh.

MY LORD,

Vienna, 6th May, 1815. ADVERTING to your Lordship's Despatch of the 8th ultimo, and to its several Inclosures, conveying a proposal made by the existing Government in France, and your Lordship's Answer thereto, I have the honour to acquaint you, for the information of His Majesty's Govern

ment, that at a Conference held on the 3rd Instant, His Highness Prince Metternich acquainted us, that a M. de Strassant, who had been stopped, on his way hither, at Lintz, from not having been furnished with proper Passports, had addressed a Letter to His Imperial Majesty, and therewith forwarded some unopened Letters which the Emperor had directed him to unseal in the presence of the Plenipotentiaries of the Allied Powers.

These proved to be a Letter from Buonaparte, addressed to His Majesty, professing a desire to continue at peace, to observe the stipulations of the Treaty of Paris, &c., and a Letter from M. de Caulaincourt to Prince Metternich, containing similar professions.

After reading these Papers, it was considered whether any, and what answer should be made thereto, when the general opinion appeared to be, that none should be returned, and no notice whatever taken of the proposal.

Upon this, as indeed upon all other occasions subsequent to the resumption of authority by Buonaparte, wherein the present state of the Continental Powers, with regard to France, has come under discussion, but one opinion has appeared to direct the Councils of the several Sovereigns. They adhere, and from the commencement have never ceased to adhere, to their Declaration of the 13th of March, with respect to the actual Ruler of France. They are in a state of hostility with him and his Adherents, not from choice, but from necessity, because past experience has shown, that no faith has been kept by him, and that no reliance can be placed on the professions of one who has hitherto no longer regarded the most solemn compacts, than as it may have suited his own convenience to observe them; whose word, the only assurance he can afford for his peaceable disposition, is not less in direct opposition to the tenor of his former life, than it is to the military position in which he is actually placed. They feel that they should neither perform their duty to themselves, or to the People committed by Providence to their charge, if they were now to listen to those professions of a desire for peace which have been made, and suffer themselves thus to be lulled into the supposition that they might now relieve their People from the burthen of supporting immense military masses, by diminishing their Forces to a Peace Establishment; convinced as the several Sovereigns are, from past experience, that no sooner should they have been disarmed, than advantage would be taken of their want of preparation, to renew those scenes of aggression and bloodshed, from which they had hoped that the Peace so gloriously won at Paris. would long have secured them.

They are at War, then, for the purpose of obtaining some security for their own independence, and for the reconquest of that peace and permanent tranquillity, for which the World has so long panted. They are not even at war for the greater or less proportion of security which

France can afford them of future tranquillity, but because France, under its present Chiefs, is unable to afford them any security what

ever.

In this War, they do not desire to interfere with any legitimate right of the French People; they have no design to oppose the claim of that Nation to choose their own form of Government, or intention to trench, in any respect, upon their independence as a great and free People; but they do think they have a right, and that of the highest nature, to contend against the re-establishment of an Individual, as the Head of the French Government, whose past conduct has invariably demonstrated, that in such a situation he will not suffer other Nations to be at peace,-whose restless ambition, whose thirst for foreign conquest, and whose disregard for the rights and independence of other States, must expose the whole of Europe to renewed scenes of plunder and devastation.

However general the feeling of the Sovereigns may be in favour of the restoration of the King, they no otherwise seek to influence the proceedings of the French, in the choice of this or of any other Dynasty, or form of Government, than may be essential to the safety and permanent tranquillity of the rest of Europe; such reasonable security being afforded by France in this respect, as other States have a legitimate right to claim in their own defence. Their object will be satisfied; and they will joyfully return to that state of peace, which will then, and then only, be open to them, and lay down those arms which they have only taken up, for the purpose of acquiring that tranquillity so eagerly desired by them on the part of their respective Empires.

Such, My Lord, are the general sentiments of the Sovereigns and of their Ministers here assembled; and it should seem, that the glorious forbearance observed by them, when Masters of the French Capital in the early part of the last year, ought to prove to the French, that this is not a War against their freedom and independence, or excited by any spirit of ambition, or desire of conquest, but one arising out of necessity, urged on the principles of self-preservation, and founded on that legitimate and incontrovertible right of obtaining reasonable security for their own tranquillity and independence,-to which, if France has on her part a claim, other Nations have an equal title to claim at the hands of France.

I this day laid before the Plenipotentiaries of the 3 Allied Powers in Conference, the Note proposed to be delivered upon the exchange of the Ratifications of the Treaty of the 25th March,*

After the opinions which I have above detailed, as those with which the Allied Sovereigns are impressed, with respect to the object of the War, it is scarcely necessary for me to add, that the explanation afforded in this Note, as to the construction put by His Royal Highness the Prince

* See Page 727.

Regent on the VIIIth Article of that Treaty, was favourably received. Immediate Instructions will consequently be issued to the Ambassadors of the Imperial Courts of Austria and Russia, and to the Minister of His Prussian Majesty, to accept of this Note on the exchange of the Ratifications of the Treaty in question.

In order to be assured that I have advanced nothing in this Despatch which does not accord with the views of the Cabinets of the Allied Sovereigns, I have acquainted the Plenipotentiaries of the High Allied Powers with the contents thereof, and have the honour to inform you, that the sentiments contained in it entirely coincide with those of their respective Courts. I have, &c., Viscount Castlereagh, K.G.

CLANCARTY.

(7.)—MESSAGE from the Prince Regent to the House of Commons.-22d May, 1815.

GEORGE P. R.

The Prince Regent, acting in the name and on the behalf of His Majesty, thinks it right to inform the House of Commons, that, in consequence of the Events which have occurred in France, in direct contravention of the Treaties concluded at Paris in the course of last year; His Royal Highness has judged it necessary to enter into Engagenients with His Majesty's Allies, for the purpose of forming such a Concert as present circumstances indispensably require, and as may prevent the revival of a system which experience has proved to be incompatible with the Peace and Independence of the Nations of Europe.

The Prince Regent has directed Copies of the Treaties which have been concluded, to be laid before the House of Commons; and he confidently relies on the support of this House, in all measures which it may be necessary for him to adopt, in conjunction with His Majesty's Allies, against the Common Enemy, at this important crisis.

GEORGE, P. R.

ACTES, &c. du Gouvernement Français à Paris, depuis l'Abdication de Napoléon Bonaparte, jusqu'au retour du Roi.— Juin, Juillet, 1815.

en-Chef de l'Armée Alliée devant Paris.... .... Paris....27 Juin... 1036

3. Le Commandant-en-Chef de l'Armée Alliée au Ministre des Affaires Etrangères......

4. Loi des 2 Chambres, concernant les Droits de la

Nation..

28 Juin... 1037

Paris....2 Juillet... 1037

5. Convention pour la suspension des Hostilités

6. Proclamation de la Commission de Gouvernement

aux Français....

1815.

St. Cloud, 3 Juillet.. 1039

Paris, 5 Juillet.. 1039

(1.)—PROCLAMATION de la Commission de Gouvernement aux

FRANÇAIS,

Français.

Paris, le 24 Juin, 1815.

DANS l'espace de quelques jours, des succès glorieux et un revers affreux ont de nouveau agité vos destinées.

Un graud sacrifice a paru nécessaire à votre paix et à celle du Monde: Napoléon a abdiqué le pouvoir Impérial; son abdication a été le terme de sa vie politique; son Fils est proclamé.

Votre Constitution nouvelle, qui n'avait encore que de bons principes, va recevoir tous ses développemens, et ses principes mêmes vont être épurés et agrandis.

Il n'existe plus de pouvoirs jaloux l'un de l'autre; l'espace est libre au patriotisme éclairé de vos Représentans; et les Pairs sentent, pensent et votent comme vos mandataires.

Après 25 années de tempêtes politiques, voici le moment où tout ce qui a été conçu de sage, de sublime, sur les institutions sociales, peut être perfectionné encore dans les vôtres.

Que la raison et le génie parlent, et de quelque côté que se fasse entendre leur voix, elle sera écoutée.

Des Plénipotentiaires sont partis pour traiter au nom de la Nation, et négocier avec les Puissances de l'Europe, cette paix qu'elles ont promise à une condition qui est aujourd'hui remplie.

Le Monde entier va être attentif comme vous à leur réponse; leur réponse fera connaître si la justice et les promesses sont quelque chose sur la terre.

Français soyez unis; ralliez-vous tous dans des circonstances si

graves.

Que les discordes civiles s'appaisent; que les dissentimens mêmes se taisent en ce moment où vont se discuter les grands intérêts des Nations.

Soyez unis du Nord de la France aux Pyrénées, de la Vendée à Marseille.

Quel qu'ait été son parti, quels que soient ses dogmes politiques quel homme né sur le sol de la France, pourrait ne pas se ranger sous le Drapeau National pour défendre l'indépendance de la Patrie!

On peut détruire en partie des Armees; mais l'expérience de tous les siécles et de tous les Peuples le prouve,-on ne détruit pas, on ne soumet pas surtout une Nation intrépide qui combat pour la justice et pour sa liberté.

L'Empereur s'est offert en sacrifice, en abdiquant.