facilitate the meafures which, in cafe of emergency, it will be neceffary for the government to adopt.

I have the honour to be, &c. &c.

The Sovereign of Belfast, Dec. 27.

THOMAS PELHAM.

To the Lord Mayor of Dublin.

MY LORD, Dublin Cafle, Dec. 29, 1796. THE laft accounts from General Dalrymple are by his aid-de-camp, Captain Gordon, who left Bantry at ten Á. M on Tuesday, and arrived here this morning. Seventeen fail of French fhips of the line were at that time at anchor at the lower part of Bear Ifland, but at fuch a distance as their force could not be afcertained. The lieutenant of a French frigate was driven on fhore in his boat, in going from his veffel (which was difmafted) to the admiral. He confirms the account of the fleet being French, and with views hoftile to this country; but does not appear to know whether the whole fleet (which confifted of about feventeen fail of the line, fifteen frigates, and, including transports and luggers, amounting to fifty fail) were all to reaffemble at Bantry Bay. General Hoche was on board, commanding a confiderable force.

I have the honour to be, my Lord, &c.

T. PELHAM.

Refeript, published by Order of the King of Pruffia, respecting the Pruffian Territories on the left Bank of the Rhine.

FREDERICK WILLIAM.

WE

E having been informed that an opinion has been propagated through a part of our ftate of Weftphalia, fituated on the left bank of the Rhine, to wit, the provinces of Cleves, Meurs, and Gueldres, in the actual poffeffion of the French troops, that fufficient remonftrances and proteftations had not been made on our part against the various innovations and oppreffions which the French commiffaries and agents excrcife over our faithful fubjects; we have therefore thought it good to make this public declaration, by means of our regency, jointly with our chamber of war and of territory; and we do publicly declare, that we have never ceafed, nor fhall we ever cease, to intereft ourselves in behalf of our faid fubjects, by the intervention of our envoy to the French Republic; and that it is far from

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our

our intention to depart from the basis of the treaty of Bafle refpecting the civil or financial administration of those coun

tries.

In concluding the treaty, by which the war between our state and the French Republic was put an end to, it was never our intention to grant them more than a mere military poffeffion of our provinces on the left fide of the Rhine, till peace fhould be concluded with the Emperor: and this intention, which has been taken as a bafis in the negotiation, is fufficiently manifest by the tenor of the 5th article, which exprefsly declares, "that the troops of the Republic fhall occupy thefe countries belonging

to us."

The difference between provinces conquered from an enemy, and those which belong to a power in alliance, and which have been merely conceded for a temporary military occupation, is fufficiently evident, and it is obvious that they ought not to be treated in the fame manner.

It is therefore impoffible for us to believe that the French government, confidering the amicable ties fubfifting between us and it, will still oppofe fuch evident reasoning. It cannot fail to conceive, that neither fequeftration nor confifcation of the goods of the clergy, nor the projected fale of woods, nor the enormous contribution of three millions, impofed on the country between the Meufe and the Rhine, which would entirely ruin that country, can take place with any regard to appearance of juftice.

It has already in effect given our envoy at Paris the most pofitive affurance, that the measures taken with respect to the clergy fhould be put an end to, and that the ecclefiaftics should remain in quiet enjoyment of their goods and revenues: we therefore constantly expect the revocation of the order for the fale of woods, and, in general, a renunciation of all thofe deftructive innovations relative to our dominions.

We shall not by any means recognize as valid the fale of woods, which has already taken place, to our great aftonishment; and we are pofitively determined to have recourse to the purchasers for reftitution in kind, or for the value at which the property fold fhall be estimated by our agents, and for the damages which shall refult from the wafte committed on these woods.

In those cafes where the purchasers cannot be found, we fhall exercise our feverity on all thofe who are employed by thefe laft for cutting and carrying wood. We, in confequence, exhort our faithful fubjects of the faid provinces to remain affured of our lafting and efficacious protection, and to wait with

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con

confidence for the return of that ancient order of things fo highly to be defired.

At Wefel, in our chamber of war and territory, 29th December, 1796, in the name and on the behalf of his Majefty.

BARON DE STEIN, First Prefident.

Given at Emmerick, in our regency, the 29th December, 1796, in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty.

ELBERS.

Note from the Adminiftrators of the Cantons of Cleves and Xanten to the Inhabitants of the faid Cantons.

CITIZENS,

Cleves, Jan. 3. THE HE Director-general of the conquered countries between the Meuse and the Rhine, having the entire adminiftration of thofe countries, could not fee, without the greatest surprise, the order of the royal chamber of war and domains of Wesel, and of the regency of Emmerick, dated the 29th December (O. S.) which forbids the cutting down of wood fold, under the penalty of reftitution and reprisal.

We thould be effentially wanting in the discharge of our duties, and obedience, if we fuffered other authorities to interfere in the administrative affairs of our cantons, without having previously received a formal order from our fuperiors.

You have seen several times ordinances emanating from thofe authorities; you have feen alfo that the French government has not, on that account, difcontinued the direction of Pruthan as well as of other countries-Do not doubt that they will still continue it; you will, perhaps, be convinced of it, when you shall pay attention to the manner in which the ordinances have been communicated.

We appeal to the members of those chambers, if a foreign authority were to intimate orders to them, would not they fay, with reafon, "we have a fovereign, it is only to him that we owe obedience;" and would not they continue their functions without paying any attention to the order? We are therefore determined, citizens, to maintain with firmnefs all the operations undertaken, or to be undertaken, in the name of the government which we reprefent, and to punish exemplarily all those who fhall fhew any difobedience in any manner whatever. But you have already given us fufficient marks of your obedience to make us believe, that we fhall not be forced to have recourfe to fuch extremities. (Signed)

WASSEINEL.
SEIDA.

Subftance

Subftance of the Correfpondence between the Cabinet of Berlin and the Court of Vienna, refpetting the Line of Demarcation established between his Pruffian Majefty and the French Republic

AN official note, tranfmitted by M. the Marquis Lucchesini to the minifter of his Imperial Vajefty, acquainted the court of Vienna with the intention of the court of Berlin to obtain from his Imperial Majefty his approbation of nealures adopted for the fecurity of that part of Germany, by means of an armed neutrality, announcing to him, at the fame time, that the fecurity of these countries was the motive in which the measures referred to had originated.”

Subftance of the Reply made to the above Note by the Court of Vienna.

HIS Imperial Majesty, as fupreme head of the empire, cannot doubt that the states are obliged to concur in a war, rendered neceffary from the preffure of circumftances, and formally declared, with all their force, for the common defence. This obligation is derived from the principle of individual and general fecurity, which is the most facred and the m ft effential batis of every conftitution. It is in a particular manner blended with the fubftance of the Germanic conftitution, and is recognized by feveral of its laws in the moft pofitive terms.

Such is the refult dictated by the fpirit of our conftitution, which fubjects all the refpective ftates, and all the means of defence, to the general controul of the fovereign power of the Germanic empire. Such is the refult of the oath of fealty, which the electors, princes, and ftates of the empire, in order to ftrengthen the focial bond, take in their capacity of vaffals, by which they fwear actively to concur in every step which can tend to the honour, to the advantage, and to the profperity of his Imperial Majefty and of the empire, and which, by confequence, impofes upon them an obligation to fecond, with all their might, the measures adopted by the chief and the ftates of the empire, to avert the danger which threatens them with total deftruction.

His Imperial Majefty fees with pain that the appearances of the war by no means anfwer the expectation which he had been led to entertain; but in confidering the, fundamental laws of every well organized conftitution, and the principles recognized in the moft pofitive terms in the laws of the empire, full of anxiety for the good of the country, his Majefty cannot refrain from manifefting a defire that the corps, affembled at a crifis the moft alarming and the most dangerous, may be employed rather in aiding a moft juft defence, by oppofing the common enemy, than in flopping an invafion ftill at a distance, and of which we apprehend only the poffibility.

The fe

These measures of fecurity, confidered in themselves, do not appear to be contrary to the bafis and the fpirit of the conftitution, provided that the arrangements, for the fafety and the particular defence of the north of Germany, are not founded upon illegal fuppofitions, and provided they are not employed to fanction the unconftitutional pretext of freeing them from the obligations binding upon them by the register of the refolutions of the empire, decreed for the purpose of the general fecurity of Germany.

If his Imperial Majefty on the prefent occafion were to grant to this measure of fecurity, as it is termed in the circular letter of the Pruffian minifter, in the letters of convocation, and in the declarations of the plenipotentiaries of the King, an unlimited approbation, all who fhould compare it with the tenor of the decree of ratification of the 29th of July, 1795, would accufe him of adopting contradictory measures, and of making an arbitrary ufe of his power as head of the empire, fince the laws renewed in the prefent war forbid the ita es to feparate, on any occafion, from the general affociation, and any armanent, under the title of an armed neutra jy, during the continuance of a war of the empire, and interdicten in the mot pofitive manner from arbitrarily renouncing obligations formerly impofed upon them for the common defence.

His Imperial Majefty, in virtue of the facred duties impofed upon him by his high office as fupreme head of the empire, on the other and, being called upon to defend the rights of the Germanic confitution against every step and every principle incompatible with their fafety, to preserve to the empire, and to every particular ftate, its immunities entire, and to guard them against the prejudices which may arife from these measures, will be difpofed in the mean time to grant them his approbation, if they are confined to the legal defence of the countries, and if they do not depart from the principles, the forms, and the obligations, prescribed by the laws and the conftitution.

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