The National Register. — London, England, 1815-05-28 00:00:00

)IAY 2S. ,Sovereigns are disposed, .as his Majesty is, to make their honour cowist in the preservation of peace, by placing peace under the saCeguard of hononr. Such are, my Lord, the sentiments with vitieli Lis ,7,1'8.1e - sty is sincerely animated, and which he has com- I mmled me to make known to your Government. I have the homier, &c. (signed) • • CAULAINcOURT ) Dake of Vicence. His Excellency Loral Castlereagh, &c. LETTER FROM VISCOUNT CASTLEREABH TO M. CACLAINCOURT , DATED, DOWNOW-STREET, APRIL 8, Isls. Strt—l have been honoured with two letters from your excel lency 'waling date the 4th inst. from Paris, one of them cover in.; a letter addressed to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent. I 2ln to acquaint your Excellency, that the Prince Regent has declined teeeivirg the letter addressed to him, and has, at the same time' gimi me his order, to transmit the letters by your Excellency to me, Li a, for the Information and consideration of the Allied Sore• .led Plenipotentiaries there assembled. I am, ei:c. CASTLERE4G H. VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH TO I'HE EARL OF CLANCARTY, DATED FOREIGN OFFICE, BTH APRIL, 1815, 11Iv Loan—l herewith inclose a copy of an Overture this day Frei ived tom Lde Caulaincourt, with the answer return( d. You %%di cilomonicate the same to the Allied Sovereigns and Plenipo tmtiioivs at Vienna, fur their inforhaition. I have the honour to be, &c. (Signed) CASTLER SAG H. Earl of Clanoarty, &e. VIE EARL OF CL ANCAR TY TO VISCOUNT CASTLIREAGII, DATED %I EN NA, MAY 6, 1815. My Loan—Adverting to your Lordship's dispatch, No. 3, and to its several inelosures, conveying a proposal made by the- existing Government in France, and your Lordship's answer thereto, I have the honour to acquaint you, for the information of his Ma jcst)'s Government, that at a conference held on the 3d inst. his Hine s Prince Metternich acquainted us, that a M. de Stress saut, oho had been stopped on his way hither, at Lintz, from nut having been furnished with proper passports, had addressed a letter to his Imperial Majesty, and therewith forwarded some nn opened letters which the Emperor had directed him to unseal in the presence of the Plenipotentiaries of the Allied Powers, These Proved to be a letter (rein Bonaparte, addressed to his Majesty, professing a desire to continue at peace, to observe the stipulations of the Tteaty of Paris, Scc. and a letter from M. de Caulaincourt to Prince :WM:midi, containing similar professions. After reads these Papers, it was considered whether any, and what answer should lhe made thereto, when the general opinion appeared to he, th e "(The slonild be returned, and no notice whatever taken of the proposal. Upon this, as indeed upon all other occasions subse quent t o the resumption of authority by Bunnaparte, ‘vherein the piesunt state or the C9ntinental Po‘vers, with regard to France, has c'''ite tinder tliscussion, but one opinion has appeared to direct the C ° ll6 vik 't the several Sovereigns. They adhere, and from the "InmcHrement have never ceased to adhere, to the it Declaration of !:;tl, 01 March, with respeot to the actual Ruler of France. , +say are iu a state of hostility with him and his adherent, not from choice, but from necessity, because past experience has sites n, that no faith has been kept by him, and that no reliance ran be placed on the professions of one who has hitherto no longer re. gardtd the most solemn compacts than as it may have suited his own convenience to observe them, whose word, the only assurance he can afford for his peaceable disposition, is not less its direct oppositicn to the tenor of his former life, than it is to the military position ia which he is actually placed. They feel that they should neither perform their duty to themselves or to the people committed by Providence to their charge, if they were now to listen to those professions of a desire fur peace which have been made, and suffer themselves thus to be lulled into the supposition that they might now relieve their people bum the hurdles, of supporting immense military masses, by diminishing their forces to a peace establishment, convinced as the several Sovereigns are from past experience, that no sooner should they have been dis armed, than advantage would be taken of their want of preparation, to renew those scenes of aggression and bloodshed, from which they had hoped that the peace so gloriously won at Paris, would long have secured them. They are at war, then; for the purpose of ob• taiuing some security far their own independence, and for the re. conquest of that peaCe and permanent tranquillity, for which the would has set Jung panted. They are not even at war fur the greater or less portion of security which France can afford them of future trancieWity,,but because France, under its present chief, is unable to afford them any security whatever. Is, this war, they do not desire to interfere with any legitimate right of the French people ; they have no design to oppose the claim of that nation to choose their own form of Government, or intention to trench, in any respect, upon their independence as a great and free people : lint they do think they base a right, and that of the highest natme, to contend against the re-establishment of an individual as the head of the French Government, whose past conduct has invariably demonstrated, that in such a situatiun he will not stiffer other nations to be at peace—whose rest!ess ambition, whose thirst for foreign conquests and whose disregard for the tights and independence of other States, must expose the whole of Enrope to renewed scenes of plunder and devastation. However general the feelings of the Sovereigns may be in favour of the restoration of the King, they no otherwise seek to influence the proceedings of the French in the choice of this or of any other dynasty, or form of Go. vernment, than may be essential to the safety and permanent tranquillity of the rest of - Europe; such reasonable security being afforded by France in this respect, as other tate.; have a legitimate right to claim in their tiwp defence, their object will be satisfied; and they shall joyfully return to that state of peace, which will then, and then only, be open to them, and lay Joan those 'arms which they have only taken up fOr the purpose of acqniring that tranquillity so eagtrly desired by them on the part of their respective Empires.—Such, my Lord, art the general sentimects of the Sovereigns and of their Ministers here ossembled ; and it should seem, that the glorious forbearance observed by than, when masters of the French capital is the eatly part of the last year, ought to prove to the French, that this is not a war against their freedom and Milcpenetenee, or excited by any spirit of ambition, or desire of convest, Wit one arising out of necessity, 'treed on the prlncipki of self:preservation, and founded on that legitimate and incontrovertible right of obtaining re .sonahle secu rity fur their own tranquillity and independence--to which, if