our intention to depart from the basis of the treaty of Bafie refpecting the civil or financial adminiftration 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 should be concluded with the Emperor: and this intention, which has been taken as a bafis in the negotiation, is fufficiently manifeft 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 fill oppofe fuch evident reafoning. 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 justice.

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 fhould remain in quiet enjoyment of their goods and revenues: we therefore conftantly expect the revocation of the order for the fale of woods, and, in general, a renunciation of all thofe deAtructive 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 purchafers for reftitution in kind, or for the value at which the property fold fhall be eftimated by our agents, and for the damages which fhall refult from the wafte committed on these woods.

In thofe cafes where the purchafers cannot be found, we fhall exercise our severity 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 allured of our lafting and efficacious protection, and to wait with

I

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 Majefty.

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 administration of thofe countries, could not fee, without the greatest furprife, the order of the royal chamber of war and domains of Wefel, 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 feveral times ordinances emanating from thofe authorities; you have feen alfo that the French government has not, on that account, difcontinued the direction of Pruffian 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.

1

We appeal to the members of thofe chambers, if a foreign authority were to intimate orders to them, would not they say, 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 punith exemplarily all thofe 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.

Subftante

Subflance of the Correfpondence between the Cabinet of Berlin and the Court of Vienna, refpecting the Line of Demarcation established between his Pruffian Majefty and the French Republic.

Α

AN official note, tranfmitted by M. the Marquis Lucchefini to the minifter of his Imperial Majefty, acquainted the court of Vienna with "the intention of the court of Berlin to obtain from his Imperial Majefty his approbation of measures 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 moft facred and the moft effential, bafis 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 constitution, 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 ftep 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 stopping an invafion ftill at a distance, and of which we apprehend only the poffibility.

Thefe

These measures of fecurity, confidered in themselves, do not appear to be contrary to the bafis and the spirit 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 resolutions 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 use of his power as head of the empire, fince the laws renewed in the prefent war forbid the ftates to separate, on any occafion, from the general affociation, and any armanent, under the title of an armed neutrality, during the continuance of a war of the empire, and interdict them in the most positive manner from arbitrarily renouncing obligations formerly imposed upon them for the common defence.

His Imperial Majefty, in virtue of the facred duties imposed upon him by his high office as fupreme head of the empire, on the other hand, being called upon to defend the rights of the Germanic conftitution against every step and every principle incompatible with their fafety, to preferve to the empire, and to every particular ftate, its immunities entire, and to guard them against the prejudices which may arife from thefe 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, prefcribed by the laws and the constitution.

Papers

Papers relative to Neutral Powers,

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Philadelphia, June 15.

Prateft from Captain George Dominick and the first and second Officers of the Ship Mount Vernon, lately captured by the Flying Fish French Privateer.

BY

Y this public inftrument of proteft, be it made known and manifeft, that on this day, the 11th of June, in the year of our Lord 1796, before me, Clement Biddle, notary public of the commonwealth of Pennfylvania, duly commiffioned and by law authorifed to adminifter oaths, dwelling in the city of PhiLadelphia, perfonally came and appeared Captain G. Dominick, commander of the fhip Mount Vernon, of Philadelphia, of the burden of 425 tons, or thereabouts, and being duly fworn according to law, on his folemn oath depofes and fays, that the faid fhip, under his command, left the city of Philadelphia on the 2d day of this prefent month, bound to Cowes in Great Britain, and a market; that on the 4th day of this fame month, the appearer got under weigh with his hip at Newcastle, and proceeded on his voyage down the river and bay of Delaware, and on the 9th inftant, about fix o'clock in the morning, he dif charged his pilot, and in about two hours after, with a light wind from the fouth-fouth-eaft, Cape Helopen bearing weft, ftance about fix leagues, and the light-houfe then in fight, about eight o'clock in the morning, they difcovered a schooner about one league a-head, and to windward, which bore down on them, and fired a gun, and ordered the ship to fend their boat on board the fchooner, which this appearer immediately complied with, fuppoting there was nothing wanting but to fee his papers, which he knew to be perfectly clear; and fuppofing he had nothing to apprehend from the fchooner, therefore fent his fecond officer and four hands in his boat on board her, to know their demands, but they detained his officer and the boat's crew, and fent the boat back to the fhip with fourteen armed men, with orders to take him on board the fchooner, with the fhip's papers; they declared that the thip was loaded with naval ftores, and this appearer knowing that their fufpicions were groundless,

and