Letter from General Vaubois to the Commander of the English Troops in the land of Malta, dated 17th Fructidor (4th September), 8th Year.

"By your letter, dated the 17th of July laft, you propose to me, Sir, to fend to La Valette an officer of distinction to treat. Honour leads me to receive him. I engage that he shall be respected as an officer invested with fuch a character ought. Entering at this moment into a negotiation to capitulate, I apprize you that I have given orders that all hoftilities fhould ceafe. I hope that you will be fo good as to give the fame. I have the honour to be, &c,

Substance of a Memoir published by the States of the Dutchy of Wirtemberg t.

SINCE

INCE the year 1796, the armiflice and the peace with France, comprising therein the contributions, paffage, and accommodation of the French troops, coft the Dutchy of Wirtemberg the fum of 6,739,811 florins (13,795,952 liv. tournois).

After the retreat of the French army, the troops of his Imperial Majefty levied immenfe requifitions, which were reiterated after the diffolution of the congrefs of Raftadt. These Imperial requifitions amount to the fum of 16,110,273 florins (35,149,686 liv. tournois).

1

Thus in a period of three years and a half the burden of expenfes has amounted to a fum of 22,850,085 florins (48,946,639 liv. tournois); of which the ecclefiaftical proprietors have only fupported 800,000 florins (1,745,457 liv. tournois); and the chamber of the finances of the Duke, 197,367 florins 3 kreutzers (430,620 liv. tournois); fo that the fubjects alone have paid the enormous fum of 21,851,718 florins (near 48,000,000 of livres tournois); nor has this difpenfed with the payment of the ordinary taxes. They have been obliged to borrow about 14,000,000 of florins, to meet thefe 21,851,718 florins; and the coffers of the, country, the cities and villages, are thus oppreffed with a permanent interest of 700,000 florins a year.

This correfpondence, which is tranflated from the periodical work of M. Peltier, is become interefting in confequence of the claim advanced by the Emperor of Ruffia to the island of Malta.

+ This article is extracted from a Paris paper, which gives the following account of it: "The States of the Dutchy of Wirtemberg have printed in a city of an adjacent country, a very detailed memoir, containing a statement of the loffes which the fubjects of the Duke have fuitained, without his Highness having deigned to take fhare in them. It is a piece extremely pointed, and which will excite a lively fenfation in Germany. Politicians of all countries will read the analysis with interest."

The

The paffage of General Jourdan in the fpring of 1799 caufed a lofs of 150,000 livres to the fouthern part of the dutchy, and a the autumn following the northern part was not lefs injured by the incurfions of the French and Auftrian quarters. In the cam paign of 1800 the two belligerent armies have caufed enormous Tolles by their paffage; the one and the other have exacted requi fitions in provifions, forage, beeves, horfes, fhoes, &c. to the amount of three millions of francs, exclufive of the expenfes of Jodging and relays.

All thefe burdens have been fupported by the country. In vain did the committee of the ftates pray the chamber of the finances of the Duke and the clergy to take to their account a part of the requifitions in wheat and oats, with which the magazines of his Highnefs were crammed: the fubjects have been obliged to furwith all thefe requifitions, and ftill muft pay the ufual taxes, even in a higher rate than before,

To crown the general difcontent, the Duke has ordered a levy of 4000 men, not to complete his contingent of the Empire, but to form a corps in the pay of England.

The refult of his conduct has been, that a great number of subjes, grown indifferent to their country, have emigrated into Pruffian and Auftrian Poland.

The principal complaint of the ftates against the Duke relates to the late contribution of fix millions impofed upon the dutchy by an order of General Moreau, of the 1ft of September (14th Fruc tidor). We are perfuaded (fays the memoir) that this contribu tion, which is in a triple proportion greater than that of the other ftates of Suabia, would not have preffed upon this country if the Duke had not taken up arms again against France after having. made peace with her, and particularly if he had not concluded his fubfidiary treaty with the crown of England; in fine, if he had permitted a deputation from Wirtemberg to attend the conferences of Memmingen, whither General Moreau had invited the ftates of Suabia to fend their deputies: the oppofition of the Duke to it irritated General Moreau, and probably induced him to impofe on the dutchy fo heavy a contribution. But finally, the order of the French general ftated, that of the fix millions three must be paid by the regency of the Duke, and three by the ftates; it might, therefore, have been expected, that his Highnefs would have offered, of his own accord, a proportional aid, his finances not having fuffered any lofs by the war, but being, on the con trary, ameliorated by the high price of provifions, and particu larly by the English fubfidies, which are the principal caufe of the evils which opprefs the country.

The hopes entertained in this refpect not having been realized, the ftates have been obliged to redouble their efforts to avoid ftill

greater

greater calamities; and at the beginning of October 1800, four millions and a half were already paid upon the fix millions. The ftates having been obliged to pay more than their moiety, protefting, however, that the furplus was only an advance which、 they should make to the chamber of finances, they hoped, at least, to obtain remiffion of the 1,500,000 francs remaining, feeing that they had paid other requifitions to the amount of three millions of francs; but the Chief of the Staff, Defolles, decided provifionally that only 500,000 francs fhould be remitted, and that the furplus fhould be paid, viz. 500,000 francs by the regency, and 500,000 by the ftates. The privy council of the Duke fought to throw the whole fum upon the ftates; and, to convince the French general that the chamber of finances was not in a ftate to pay any thing, it laid before him a ftatement of the receipts and difbursements of the treafuries of the Duke, to which it oppofed a statenfent of the receipts and difburfements of the treafury of the ftates. Upon that General Defolles demanded of the deputies of the states that they should point out to him in what manner he might be able to exact by force the payments which fhould be made by the regency of the Duke; that otherwife the wants of the army would oblige him to make the fubject pay the 1,500,000 francs. This question was embarraffing for the members of the ftates; they answered, that they were in fuch a fituation with refpect to the Duke, that their duty and their confcience would not allow them to enter into the details required; that moreover they could not give precife proofs of the revenues of the ducal chamber of finance, feeing that for feveral years paft they had ceafed to be officially communicated to them; but that they could affure him that the ftatement prefented of the receipts and expenfes of the treafury of the ftates was not accurate. In confequence of the above-mentioned decifion of General Defolles, the deputies have found themselves obliged to give bills of exchange, payable at three and fix months, for 500,000 francs; but they hope to obtain a remiflion of that fum, as they fear they will not be able to pay them when the bills fhall become due: meanwhile they have laid on a new impoft, but they apprehend that it will not fuffice for the payment of the bills*.

Note of the French Editor.

Such is the analysis of this memoir, interefting in many points: the most ftriking is to fee a country of between 4 and 500,000 inhabitants fupporting, in four years, a burden of more than fixty-nine millions of extraordinary con ributions in money or requifitions.

VOL. X.

U u

England

England and Sweden.

Note from the Swedish Minifter for foreign Affairs to the Minifter of bis Pruffian Majefty at Stockholm, on the Subject of the Affair at Barcelona.

HA

WAVING ftated to the King the manner in which his Pruffian Majefty has viewed the memorial of the court of Spain, on the fubject of an infult offered to the Swedish flag by the English, the undersigned, chancellor of the court, has been commanded to exprefs to M. de Tarach the grateful acknowledgments of his Majefty for the conftant attention which the court of Berlin has fhown to the interefts of the neutral flags, and the full confidence which he repofes in the mode in which they are regarded by that court. The King has viewed with furprise the public refponfibility to which the court of Spain has called Sweden upon this occafion, and the menaces which it has thereto added: notwithstanding all the vexations to which neutral flags have been expofed during the prefent war, this is the most oppreffive proceeding which they have yet experienced. Being thus inceffantly placed between the offence and the reparation, they muft foon be dragged into a concern in the war, or cease to appear on the feas where it is carried on. Thefe truths, involving confequences fo important to the other neutral powers as well as to Sweden, his Swedish Majefty could not, in general, take upon himself any share of refponfibility for the improper ufe which the belligerent powers may make of the Swedish veffels which they may feize upon. This principle appears to his Swedish Majefty fo well founded, that he flatters himself the court of Berlin will give it all the fupport which juftice and the common interest appear equally to demand; and it has been hitherto refpected amidst all the outrages which have been committed on both fides, without which the war muft have become general. Had the Ottoman Porte, Ruffia, and England, attached fuch refponfibility to all the flags in the port of Alexandria; had they claimed the reftitution of Egypt from the refpective governments, because their merchant-veffels had been compelled to carry French troops to take that country by furprise; and had they ufed the fame forms of application, and infifted on the fame peremptory terms and conditions, all commerce, all neutrality must have been at once annihilated. His Majefty, therefore, conceived that the violence offered to the Swedish flag at Barcelona was not to be treated in any other manner than that of which he had previoufly to complain, and he referves to himfelf the privilege of demanding reparation for the injuries done to his fubjects or his flag at fuch opportunity, and by fuch means, as - his particular fituation may afford. His Majefty, however, ought, not to conceal, that, in the prefent cafe, the injury which has

thence

thence refulted to a friendly power gives him fo much more uneafinefs, as he regards the capture made by the English as very illegal, and he is anxiously defirous of being able, by his reprefentations, to contribute to its reftitution. His Majelly will certainly make every exertion to effect an arrangement upon which the continuance of amicable relations between Sweden and Spain is unexpectedly made to depend; but he cannot, at present, take thofe fteps with refpect to the two frigates which he has not hitherto taken with refpect to his own convoys, nor give the court of Spain any better hopes than he has himself.

The underfigned embraces this occafion, &c.

D'EHRENHEIM.

Note delivered by the Pruffian Ambassador at Vienna to the Ministers of his Imperial Majefty.

THE underfigned ambaffador extraordinary and minifter plenipotentiary of his Majefty the King of Pruffia, has been charged to complain to the Imperial Royal court of the occupation of a place fituated in the territory of the Duke of Saxe Hildburghaufen, and confequently within the limits of the line of demarcation of the north of Germany. A detachment of the corps of Loewenftein Werthheim, in British pay, and placed at the difpofal of the Imperial court, entered on the 3d of October, at the exprefs command of the Austrian Lieutenant-general Von Simfchen, with an officer and twenty rangers, the bailiwick of Koenigfberg, in the diftrict of Hildburghaufen, and, regardless of the remonftrances and proteftations of the Saxon Lieutenant Von Pape, who was ftationed there with an advanced poft, occupied the principal market-town. Soon after two companies of the fame corps followed under the command of a major, and the Saxon officer was obliged with his weak detachment to retreat to Cobourg.

His Pruflian Majefty has heard with the utmoft furprise of this proceeding, contrary to the principles of neutrality of the north of Germany. The fyftem adopted by his Majefty is fufficiently known, and of equal publicity is the refolution his Majesty has ferioufly taken of maintaining this fyftem with energy, and of never fuffering it to be infringed in any manner. This encroachment muft, therefore, have happened without the knowledge or confent of his Imperial Majefty; and the King expects, therefore, immediate redrefs. A formal difapprobation of the order given to the corps, of Loewenstein Werthheim to pafs the line of demarcation, the recall of the troops, and the fevereft inju: ctions against fimilar tranfgreffions for the future, can alone anfwer the defired end.