Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

and social relations; and that as an enemy and disturber of the tranquillity of the world he has rendered himself liable to public vengeance. They declare at the same time, that firmly resolved to main

told, this deposition. But, just so we were told in the case of Mr. Madison. "No "peace! No peace! No peace with JAMES "MADISON!" was the cry of this faction. Down with him! Send Duke Wellington! Kill! kill! kill! Keep killing; keep bom-tain entire the Treaty of Paris of the barding; keep burning; keep on till James 30th May, 1814, and the dispositions sancMadison be deposed; 'till that "rebel tioned by that Treaty, and those which and traitor;" 'till that "mischievous ex- they have resolved on, or shall hereafter "ample of the success of democratic rc- resolve on, to complete and to consolidate "bellion be destroyed." They said our | it, they will employ all their means, and work was but half done, 'till this was ac- will unite all their efforts; that the genecomplished; and, they have become al- ral peace, the object of the wishes of Eumost mad since their scheme was defeated. rope, and the constant purpose of their Well, then, Englishmen, can you be- labours, may not again be troubled; and lieve, that these same men; that this same to guarantee against every attempt which wicked faction, wish to put down Napo- shall threaten to replunge the world into leon for the love of freedom? Was it for the disorders and miseries of revolutions. the love of freedom that they wished to And although entirely persuaded that all depose Mr. Madison? Can you believe, France, rallying round its legitimate Sovethat it is from the fear of our safety being reign, will immediately annihilate this last put in danger by Napoleon? Was it attempt of a criminal and impotent delirifrom the fear of our safety being endan- um; all the Sovereigns of Europe anigered by Mr. Madison that they wished mated by the same sentiments, and guided to depose him? Do you think, that they by the same principles, declare that if, conwere afraid, that Mr. Madison would trary to all calculations, there should reover-run Europe with his armies? Alas! sult from this event any real danger, they do you not see what is their real fear? will be ready to give to the King of France, Do you not see, that it is liberty; that it and to the French nation, or to any other is free government; that it is the rights Government that shall be attacked, as of mankind, which they wish to see de- soon as they shall be called upon, all the posed? Some patriot said: "where liberty assistance requisite to restore public tran is, there is my country." If this faction quillity, and to make a common cause were to speak out honestly, they would against all those who should undertake say: "where liberty is, there is our Hell." to compromise it. The present Declaration inserted in the Register of the Congress assembled at Vienna, on the 13th March, 1815, shall be made public. Done and attested by the Plenipotentiaries of the High Powers who signed the Treaty of Paris, Vienna, 13th March, 1815. Austria-Prince Metternich, Baron Wissenberg.

DECLARATION OF THE ALLIES.

France.-Prince Talleyrand, the Duke of Dalberg, Latoar du Pin, Count Alexis and Noailles.

The Powers who have signed the Treaty of Paris, assembled at the Congress at Vienna, being informed of the escape of NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, and of his entrance into France with an armed force, owe it to their own dignity and the interest of social order, to make a solemn declaration of the sentiments which this event has excited in them. By thus breaking the convention which has established him in the island of Elba, Bonaparte destroys the only legal title on which his existence depended-by appearing again in France Portugal.-Count Pamella Saldanha Lobs. with projects of confusion and disorder, Prussia.-Prince Hardenberg, Baron he has deprived himself of the protection

Great Britain.-Wellington, Clancarty,
Cathcart, Stewart.

Humboldt.

of the law, and has manifested to the uni-Russia.-Count Rasumowsky, Count verse, that there can be neither peace nor

truce with him.. The Powers consequently

Staeckelberg, Count Nesselrode.

declare, that on Bonaparte has Spain.-P. Gomez Labrador.

[ocr errors]

placed huselungul teple of civil Sweden.-Lafmenhelm.

ANSWER OF THE FRENCII GO- and as a Sovereign Prince by all the Powers,

VERNMENT.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF PRESIDENTS

was no more than any one triable by the Congress of Vienna. An oblivion of those principles, which it is impossible to ascribe OF THE COUNCIL OF STATE, APRIL 2. to Plenipotentiaries who weigh the rights. In consequence of the remit which has of natious with deliberation and prudence, been made to it, the Committee, composed has in it nothing astonishing when t is dis of Presidents of Sections of the Council of played by some French ministers, whose State, has examined the Declaration of the consciences reproach them with more than 13th of March, the report of the Minister one act of treason, in whom fear has proof General Police, and the documents duced rage, and whom remorse deprives thereto subjoined. The Declaration is in of reason. Such persons might have riska form so unusual, conceived in terms so ed the fabrication, the publication of a strange, expresses ideas so anti-social, that document like the pretended declaration the Committee was ready to consider it as of the 13th of March, in the hope of stopone of those forgeries by which despicable ping the progress of Napoleon, and mismen seek to mislead the people, and pro-leading the French people as to the true duce a change in public opinion. But the principles of foreign powers. But such verification of legal minutes drawn up at men are not qualified, like the latter, to Metz and of the examinations of couriers, judge of the merit of a nation which they has left no ground for doubt that the trans- have misconceived, betrayed, delivered up mission of this declaration was made by to the arms of foreigners. That nation, the Members of the French Legation at brave and generous, revolts against every Vienna, and it must, therefore, be regard-thing bearing the character of baseness and ed as adopted and signed by them. It was oppression; its affections become enthuin this first point of view that the Com-siastic when their object is threatened or mittee thought it their duty to examine, in the first instance, this production, which is without precedent in the annals of diplomacy, and in which Frenchmen, men invested with a public character the most respectable, begin by a sort of placing without the law, or, to speak more precisely, by an incitement to the assassination of the Emperor Napoleon. We say with the Minister of Police that this Declaration is the work of the French Plenipoten'tiaries; because those of Austria, Russia, Prussia, and England, could not have signed a deed which the Sovereigns and the nations to which they belong will hasten to disavow. For in the first place these Plenipotentiaries, most of whom co-operated in the treaty of Paris, know that Napoleon was there recognised as retaining the title of Emperor, and as Sovereign of the isle of Elba: they would have designated him by these titles, nor would have departed, either in substance or form, from the respectful notice which they impose. They would have felt that, according to the law of nations, the Prince least powerful from the extent or population of his States, enjoys, in regard to his political and civil character, the rights belonging to every Sovereign Prince equally with the most powerful Monarch; and Napoleon, recognized under the title of Emperor,

attacked by a great injustice; and the assassination to which the declaration of the 13th of March incites, will find an arm for its execution neither among the 25 millions of Frenchmen, the majority of whom followed, guarded, protected Napoleon from the Mediterranean to the capital, nor among the 18 millions of Italians, the 6 millions of Belgians and Rhenish, nor the numerous nations of Germany, who, at this solemn crisis, have not pronounced his name but with respectful recollections; nor amidst the indignant English nation, whose honourable sentiments disavow the language which has been audaciously put into the mouths of Sovereigns. The nations of Europe are enlightened; they judge the rights of the Allied Princes, and those of the Bourbons. They know that the convention of Fontainbleau was a treaty among Sovereigns; its violation, the entrance of Napoleon on the French territory, like every infraction of a diplo matic act, like every hostile invasion, could only lead to an ordinary war, the result of which can only be, in respect of persons, that of being conqueror or conquered, free, or a prisoner of war; in respect of possessions, that of being either preserved or lost, increased or diminished; and that every thought, every threat, every attempt against the life of a Prince at war with

Q2

4

another, is a thing unheard of in the his-
tory of nations and the cabinets of Eu-
rope. In the violence, the rage, the ob-
livion of principles which characterise the
Declaration of the 13th of March, we re-
cognise the envoys of the same Prince, the
of the same Councils, which, by
organs
the Ordinance of the 9th of March, also
placed Napoleon without the law, also in-
vited against him the poniards of assassins,
and promised a reward to the bringer of
his head. What, however, did Napoleon
do? He did honour by his confidence to
the men of all nations, insulted by the in-
famous mission to which it was wished to
invite them; he shewed himself moderate,
generous, the protector even of those who
had devoted him to death. When he spoke
to General Excelmans, marching towards
the column which closely followed Louis
Stanislas Xavier; to Count D'Erlon,
who had to receive him at Lille; to General
Clausel, who went to Bordeaux, where
was the Duchess D'Angouleme; to Gene-
ral Grouchy, dispatched to put a period
to the civil dissensions excited by the Duke
D'Angouleme everywhere, in short, or-
ders were given by the Emperor that per-
sons should be protected and sheltered
from every attack, every danger, every
violence, while on the French territory,
and when they quitted it. Nations and
posterity will judge on which side, at this
great conjuncture, has been respect for
the rights of the people and of sovereigns,
for the laws of war, the principles of ciri-
lization, the maxims of laws, civil and reli-
gious. They will decide between Napo-
leon and the IIouse of Bourbon.

[ocr errors]

wife from the husband, the son from the father, and that during distressing circumstances, when the firmest soul has nced of looking for consolation and support to the bosom of its family, and

domestic affections.

Secondly-The safety of Napoleon, of his imperial family, and of their attendants, was guaranteed (14th article of treaty), by all the Powers; and bands of assassins have been organised in France under the eyes of the French Government, and even by its orders, as wil soon be proved by the solemu process against the Sieur Demontbreuil, for the purpose of attacking the Emperor and his brothers and their wives: in default of the success which was expected from this first branch of the plot, a commotion had been planned at Orgon, on the Emperor's road, to attempt an attack on his life by the hands of some brigands: they sent as governor to Corsica an assassin of George's, the Sieur Brulart, raised purposely to the rank of Marshal-de-Camp, known in Britany, in Anjou, in Normandy, iu La Vendee, in all Englaud, by the blood which he had shed, that he might prepare and make sure the crime and in fact severat isolated assassins attempted, in the Isle of Elba, to gain by the murder of Napoleon the guilty and disgraceful salary which was promised

to them.

Thirdly-The Duchies of Parma and Placentia were given in full property to MariaLonisa for herself, her son, and her descendants ;

and after loug refusals to put her in possession, they gave the fiuish to their injustice by an absolute spoliation, under the delusive pretext of a change without valuation, without proportion, without sovereignty, without consent: and documents existing in the Foreign-office, which have been submitted to us, prove that it was on the solicitations, at the instance, and by the intrigues of the Prince of Benevent, that Maria Louisa and her son have been plundered,

If, after having examined the pretended Declaration of the Congress under this first view, it is discussed in its relations to diplomatic conventions, and to the treaty of Fontainbleau of the 11th of April, 1814, Fourthly-There should have been given to the ratified by the French government, it will Prince Eugene, adopted son of the Emperor, be found that its violation is only imputa- | who has done honour to France, which gave ble to the very persons who reproach Na-him birth, and who has conquered the affection poleon therewith. The treaty of Fontain-of Italy, which adopted him, a suitable estabbleau has been violated by the Allied lishment out of France, and he has obtained noPowers, and the House of Bourbon, in thing. what regards the Emperor Napoleon and his family, in what regards the interests and the rights of the French nation.

First-The Empress Maria-Louisa and her son ought to have obtained passports, and an escort to repair to the Emperor; and far from executing this promise, they separated violently the

Fifthly-The Emperor had (art. 9, of the treaty) stipulated in favour of the heroes of the army, for the preservation of their endowments on the Monte Napoleone: he had reserved on the extraordinary domains, and on the funds of the civil list, means of recompensing his servants, of paying the soldiers who attached themselves

to liis destiny: all was carried away and kept back by the Ministers of the Bourbons. An agent for the French Military, M. Bresson, went in vain to Vienna, to claim for them the most sacred of properties-the price of their courage

and blood.

:

Sixthly-The preservation of the goods, moveable and immoveable, of the family of the Emperor, is stipulated by the same treaty (art. 6); and they have been plundered of one and of the other; that is to say, by main force in France, by commissioned brigands; in Italy, by the violence of the military chiefs; in the two countries, by sequestrations, and by seizures soJemnly decreed

could Napoleon do? Ought he, after having endured so many affronts, supported so many injuries, to have consented to the complete violation of the engagements made with him, and resigning himself personally to the lot which was prepared for him, abandon once more his wife, his son, his family, his faithful servants to their frightful destiny? Such a resolution appears above human strength; and yet Napoleon would have taken it, if peace and the happiness of France had been the price of this new sacrifice. He would have devoted himself again for the French people, of whom, as he wishes to declare to Europe, he makes it his glory to hold every thing, to whom he wishes to ascribe every thing, to whom alone he wishes to answer for all his actions, and to devote his life. It was for France alone, and to avert from it the misfortune of civil war, that he abdicated the crown in 1814. He restored to the French people the rights

Seventhly--The Emperor Napoleon was to have received 2,000,000, and his family 2,500,000 francs per annum, according to the arrangement established in the 6th article of the treaty and the French Government has constantly refused to fulfil this engagement, and Napoleon would soon have been reduced to dismiss his faithful guard for want of means to secure their pay, if he had not found in the grateful recollections of the bank-which he held of them: he left it free to ers, and merchants of Genoa and of Italy, the honourable resource of a loan of 12 millions which was offered to him.

Eighthly-In short, it was not without a reason that they wished by all means to separate from Napoleon those companions of his glory, models of devotedness and constancy, the unshaken guarantees of his safety and of his life. The island of Elha was secured to him in full property (art. 3, of the treaty) and the resolution to spoil him of it, which was desired by the Bourbons, and solicited by their agents, had been taken at the Congress.

2

choose for itself a new monarch, and to establish its liberty and its happiness on institutions which might protect both. He hoped for the nation the preservation of all which he had acquired by 25 years of combats and of glory, the exercise of its sovereignty in the choice of a dynasty, and in the stipulation of the conditions on which it would be called upon to reign. He expected from the new government respect for the glory of the armies, the rights of the brave, the guarantee of all the new interests, of those interests which had arisen and been maintained for a quarter of a century, resulting from all the laws political and civil, observed, revered during this period, because they were identified with the manners, the habits, the wants of the nation. Far from that, all idea of the sovereignty of the people was discarded. The principle on which all legislation, political and civil, since the Revolution, had rested, was equally discarded. France has been treated by the Bourbons like a revolted country, re-conquered by the arms of its ancient masters, and subjected anew to a feudal dominion. Louis Stanislas Xavier did not recognise the treaty, which alone made the Throne of France vacant, and the abdication which

And if Providence had not in its justice provided for him, Europe would have seen an attack made on the person on the liberty of Napoleon, banished for the future to the mercy of his enemies, far from his family, and separated from his servants, either to Saint Lucia, or St. Helena, which was intended for his prison. And when the Allied Powers, yielding to the imprudent wishes, to the cruel importunities of the house of Bourbon, had condescended to violate the solemn contract, on the faith of which Napoleon had released the French nation from its oaths: when himself and the members of his family saw themselves threatened, attacked in their persons, in their property, in their affec-alone permitted him to ascend it. He pretions, in the rights stipulated in their faTour, as Princes, even in those rights secured by the laws to simple citizens, what

tended to have reigned 19 years, thus insulting both the governments which had been established in this period, and the

He

people who had consecrated them by its the citizens, oppressed, degraded, humisuffrages, and the army which had de- liated by nobles, would have been compelfended them, and even the Sovereigns who led to declare against their oppressors; the had recognized them in their numerous war which Protestants, Jews, men of vatreaties. A charter digested by the Se- rious religions, would have been compelled nate, all imperfect as it was, was thrown to sustain against their persecutors. into oblivion. There was imposed on came to deliver France, and was received France a pretended constitutional law, as as a deliverer. He arrived almost alone; easy to elude as to revoke, and in the form he traversed 220 leagues without opposiof simple royal decrecs, without consult- tion, without combats, and resumed withing the nation, without hearing even those out resistance, amidst the capital and the bodies, become illegal-phantoms of the acclamations of an immense majority of national representation. And as the Bour- the citizens, the throne deserted by the bons passed ordinances without right, and Bourbons, who, in the army, in their promised without guarantee, they eluded household, among the national guards, without good faith, and executed without were unable to arm an individual to atfidelity. The violation of the pretended tempt to maintain them there. And yet, Charter was restrained only by the timi- replaced at the head of the nation, which dity of their government; the extent of the had already chosen him thrice, which has abuses of power was only confined by its just designated him a fourth time by the weakness. The dislocation of the army, reception it gave him in his rapid and trithe dispersion of its officers, the exile of umphant march and arrival,-of that namany of them, the degradation of the sol- tion by which and for the interest of which diers, the suppression of their endow-he means to reign, what is the wish of Naments, their deprivation of pay and half-poleon? That which the French people pay, the reduction of the salaries of legionaries, their being stripped of their honours, the pre-eminence of the decorations of the feudal monarchy, the contempt of citizens, designated anew by the Third Estate, the prepared and already commenced spoliation of the purchasers of national property, the actual depreciation of that which they were obliged to sell, the return of feudality in its titles, its privileges, its lucrative rights, the re-establishment of ultramontane principles, the abolition of the liberties of the Gallican church, the annihilation of the Concordat, the restoration of tithes, the intolerance arising from an exclusive religion, the domination of a handful of nobles over a people accustomed to équality,-such was what the Bourbons either did or wished to do for France. It was under such circumstances that the Emperor Napoleon quitted the isle of Elba; such were the motives of the determination which he took, and not the consideration of his personal interests, so weak with him, compared with the interests of the nation to which he has consecrated his existence. He did not bring war into the bosom of France; on the contrary, he extinguished the war which the proprietors of national property, forming four-fifths of French landholders, would have been compelled to make on their spoilers; the war which

wish-the independence of France, internal peace, peace with all nations, the execution of the treaty of Paris of the 30th of May, 1814. What is there then changéd in the state of Europe and in the hope of repose it had promised itself? What voice is raised to demand that succour which, according to the declaration, should be only given when claimed? There has been nothing changed,-should the Allied Powers return, as we are bound to expect they will, to just and moderate sentiments, if they admit that the existence of France in a respectable and independent situation, as far removod from conquering as from being conquered, from dominating as from being enslaved, is necessary to the balance of great kingdoms, and to the security of small states. There has been nothing changed,-if respecting the rights of a great nation which wishes to respect the rights of all others, which, proud and generous, has been lowered, but never debased, it be left to resume a monarch, and to give itself a constitution and laws suited to its manners, its interests, its habits, and its new wants. There is nothing changed,

if not attempting to compel France to resume a dynasty which it no longer wishes, feudal chains which it has broken, and to submit to seignorial and ecclesiastical claims from which it has been liberated, it is not wished to impose upon

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »