bodies in distant cantonments, when, above all, your majesty had solemnly announced that they should return to France as soon as the affair of Cattaro, the cause of the prolongation of their stay in Germany, should be settled by an agreement with Austria, and that already the order for their return was given.

Prussia, who speaks of a negotiation to fix all the interests in question, knows well that there is no point of interest whatever in question between the two states; that the amicable discussion which should definitively fix the fate of the abbeys of Essen and Werden has not been deferred by any delay of the French cabinet. The French troops have evacuated those terri tories which the grand duke of Berg had caused to be occupied, in the perfect persuasion that numerous documents had given him, that they made part of the duchy of Cleves, and that they were comprehended in the cession of that duchy.

Thus the demands of Prussia, on these different points, and others of the same nature, and the pretended grievances which she seems to indicate, do not offer the real mind of the cabinet of Berlin. It does not reveal it. It lets its secret escape only, when it demands that no further obstacle whatever shall be made, on the part of France, to the formation of the northern league, which shall embrace, without any ex. ception, all the states not named in the fundamental act of the confederaton of the Rhine.

Thus, to satisfy the most unjust ambition, Prussia consents to break the bonds that united her to France, to call down new calamities upon the continent, of which your majesty would wish to cicatrize the

wounds and to assure the tranquillity, to provoke a faithful ally, to put him under the cruel necessity of repelling force by force, and once more to snatch his army from the repose which he aspires to make it enjoy, after so many fatigues and triumphs.

I say it with grief, I lose the hope of the ability to preserve peace, from the moment it is made to depend upon conditions that equity and honour equally oppose--proposed as they are, in a tone, and in forms that the French people endured in no time, and from no power, and which it can less than ever endure under your majesty's reign.

(Signed) C. M. TALLEYRAND, &c. Mayence, Oct. 6, 1806.

NOTE.

The undersigned minister of his Prussian majesty, by the same courier who brought the letter to his imperial majesty, which he has had the honour to transmit to-day ́ to his excellency the prince of Benevento, has received orders to make the following communications.--Their object is to have the relations of the two courts no longer in suspense. Each of them is so eminently interested in remaining no longer in doubt upon the sentiments of the other, that the king flatters himself that his majesty the emperor will applaud his frankness. His Prussian majesty has expressed in the letter mentioned above, his entire thoughts, and the whole view of the subject of complaint, which, from a faithful and honest ally, have made him become a neighbour alarmed for his existence, and necessarily aroused for the defence of his dearest interests. The perusal of it will recall to his ma

jesty

so many years has seen, without jealousy, the glory of a brave peo. ple, for whose prosperity he has been anxious. But the latest intelligence of the march of the French troops compels his majesty to ascertain immediately what he is to do. The undersigned is charged to insist on an immediate answer, which at all events must reach his majesty's head-quarters by the 8th of October; his jesty still hoping that it will arrive there time enough, that the unexpected and rapid progress of events, and the presence of the troops, should not put either party under the necessity of providing for his safety.

The undersigned is particularly instructed to declare, in the most solemn manner, that peace is the most sincere wish of his majesty; and that he only requires that which can contribute to make it permanent. The causes of hi, apprehensions, the claims which he had for another connection, from France, are unfolded in the letter of his majesty to the emperor, and are calculated to obtain from that monarch the last permanent pledge of a new order of things.

The undersigned embraces this opportunity to renew to the prince of Benevento the assurances of his high consideration. (Signed)

Paris, Oct. 1, 1806.

KNOBELSDORFF.

You are called upon to shed your blood for an interest to which you are not only strangers, but which is even in opposition to your in

terests.

My army was upon the point of evacuating Germany when your territory was violated: it shall return to France as soon as Prussia has acknowledged your independence, and renounced the execution of the plan which she had formed against you.

Saxons! your prince had, till that moment, refused to enter into an alliance so opposite to his duties; if he has since consented to the conditions imposed upon him, it has only been in consequence of being compelled to it by the irruption of the Prussians.

I was deaf to the idle provocation which the Prussians offered against my people. I was deaf to them so long as their armaments were confined to the Prussian states, and my minister did not quit Berlin till your territory had been violated.

Saxons, your destiny is in your own hands! Will you remain undetermined between those who would bring you under the yoke, and those who would defend you? My victories shall secure the existence and the independence of your prince, and your nation. The conquests of the Prussians will only rivet your chains. But what do I say-Have they not already tried every experiment?-Have they not, for a long time past, used every effort to compel your prince to acknowledge a sovereignty, which, once directly imposed upon you, would erase you from the list of nations?

Your independence, your constitution, your liberty, would then only exist in the pages of memory;

and

and the shades of your forefathers, those valiant Saxons, would disdain you for suffering yourselves to be reduced to slavery without resist ance a slavery prepared for you so long beforehand-and thus becoming witnesses of the degradation of your country into a Prússian province.

Given at our head-quarters at Ebersdorff, Qct. 11, 1806.

NAPOLEON.

PROCLAMATION.

Francis II. &c. &c.

I have given peace to my good and faithful people. My resolutions have united with their wishes. I renounced all hopes of a change in the fortune of war, to banish with promptitude all the dangers and sufferings to which my flourishing country, and even the heart of the monarchy, my capital and residence, were exposed. The sacrifices were great, and were with difficulty wrung from my heart: but they could not stand in competition with the welfare, the domestic and civil welfare, of millions. For these I made the sacrifice; and I expect my indemnification in the blessings which are promised to my people by the return of peace. I know no other happiness than that of my people; and no glory superior to that of the father of these people, who in loyalty, unshakenfidelity, and disinterested love to their sovereign and their country, give place to no nation in Europe. The fame of their national character has exacted an unwil

ling tribute of esteem even from the enemy; but if my heart they

have fixed a monument which time itself will not be able to destroy. Under these emotions Í returned to my residence, in the circle of my loyal and estimable citizens and inhabitants, and to the resumption of the direction of my affairs. The wounds inflicted by the war are deep several years may be necessary to heal them, and to obliterate the impressions inflicted by the Sufferings of this unfortunate pe riod. The administration of the state has greater, and duties more difficult than ever to fulfil; and they will fulfil them: but they have at the same time stronger claims than ever upon the co-ope-" ration of all classes, for the laudable purpose of restoring the vigour of the interior, by disseminating the true culture of the mind, and animating the national industry in all its branches, through the restoration and increase of the national credit; and by these means to establish the monarchy upon that basis which the variable fate of the states of Europe has rendered necessary. Every moment of my life will be directed to this object, and devoted to the improvement of the welfare of the noble and good people who are dear to me as the children of my affection. United by the mutual obligations of reciprocal confidence, and the cordial love of my subjects, I shall only believe I have done enough for Austria, as a prince and a father, when its prosperity is again secured; when the sufferings of the citizens are forgotten, and nothing remains alive but the remembrance of my saerifices, your fidelity, and your exalted and unshaken patriotism. Vienna,

Feb. 1, 1806.

FRANCIS

Abdication

Abdication of the office of emperor of Germany, by Francis, emperor of Austria..

We Francis Second, &c.

Since the peace of Presburgh, all our attention and all our care have been employed to fulfil with scrupulous fidelity all the engage ments contracted by that treaty, to preserve to our subjects the happiness of peace, to consolidate every where the amicable relations happi ly re-established, waiting to discover whether the changes caused by the peace would permit us to perform our important duties, as chief of the Germanic empire, conformably to the capitulation of election.

The consequences, however, which ensued from some articles of the treaty of Presburgh, immediately after its publication, and which still exist, and those events generally known, which have since taken place in the Germanic em. pire, have convinced us that it will be impossible, under these circum. stances, to continue the obligations contracted by the capitulation of election; and even, if, in reflecting on these political relations, it were possible to imagine a change of affairs, the convention of the 12th of July, signed at Paris, and ratified by the contracting parties, relative to an entire separation of several considerable states of the empire, and their peculiar consideration, has entirely destroyed every such hope.

Being thus convinced of the impossibility of being any longer enabled to fulfil the duties of our imperial functions, we owe it to our principles and to our duty, to renounce, a crown which was only valuable in our eyes, whilst we were able to enjoy the confidence of the elec

tors, princes, and other states of the Germanic empire, and to per form the duties which were im posed upon us. We declare, there fore, by these presents, that we, considering as dissolved the ties which have hitherto attached us to the states of the Germanic empire; that we, considering as extinguished by the confederation of the states of the Rhine, the charge in chief of the empire; and that we, considering ourselves thus acquit ted of all our duties towards the Germanic empire, do resign the imperial crown, and the imperial government; we absolve, at the same time, the electors, princes, and states, and all that belong to the empire, particularly the members of the supreme tribunal, and all other magistrates of the empire, from those duties by which they were united to us as the legal chief of the empire, according to the constitution.

We absolve all our German provinces aud states of the empire from their reciprocal duties to wards the Germanic empire; and we desire, in incorporating them with our Austrian states, as empe ror of Austria, and in preserving them in those amicable ralations subsisting with the neighbouring powers and states, that they should attain that height of prosperity and happiness, which is the end of all our desires, and the object of our dearest wishes.

Done at our residence under our imperial seal. Vienna, Aug. 6, -1806.

ADDRESS.

FRANCIS.