The Statesman. — London, England, 1815-10-13 00:00:00

• Iv.igoLgoN wn TDB rRENGIi PEOPLE. 171 1 ,F,1 ry " .1 I Pori'. Oct. 9. , I• , 'rbe following is-the translation of nn Mikes.; to Ow 1 , French ,fi l ile, -fthich is generally circulated in France, and m hick is believed to be tin authentic document, written by Napoleon on board the Bel ' 41sPejskon : " Tbe machinations of treason have obliged me to . SeparstleWain frefm yen); but ,ai Aiwa of the sante , trggernt..l lemma airily year misfortunes! (../ u I coveted the sceptre but to sway it for your / • glory and welfare! The knowledge of my devotion to your honour and prosperity elicited the hatred of .:e 1 the Sovereigns of Europe. Had I aught only to feign e ithnut regard to the interesti of my people, 1 qt. • . - stfould have established in their eyes the legitimacy ' of my title to the throne. Had agriculture been Istlected, had manufactories languished, had debt st.• becurnu!ated, anti public spirit been degraded, then 1 hilas,ured the friendship of rival Potentates: had I cffEur ~~ t 4 _Jrnscribed the prosperity of the empire to the 111Mbellishment of its palaces, or sacrificed the majesty gibe thrive. to the preservation of the royal autho- Vy, then my dynasty might have possessed the in. glorious inheritance. " The Sovereigns of Europe confederated against me as a Legislator whose establishments nurtured and animated the telentsand industry of the community of owllich I had been elected the Chief :Magistrate, and tiffs proscribed my person as the shield of the power end independence of the Slate. The enemies of a re. volution which had triumphed over the abuses that occasioned it, and mercenary traitors insensible to the calamities of an ipvaded country, associated their efforts .to paralyze national exertion, and to make you believe that war was my policy, and peace the boon which the Governments of Europe solicited from France. Unwilling to sacrifice the illustrious remnant of your defenders, thus isolated from their country, I yielded to the wishes of your Representatives; and, to consummate your security, l surrendered myself the4Pends 'of my enemies. " History offered no example where repose and in. dependence were the rewards of subissis.ion ; but many of individual dev elites to the lives of a Harlots ! Since the fatal mom-"t when France announced that s'eo ceased to combat for her liberties and safeties, what nosfortnoes, etimea, and humiliations hale de imitated and rlegr tiled the enipire•— W sr, h all its devastations, conquest, wi. h al; its violencies, tyranny with all its abases, and subjection enh all its s h am e s , have overwhelmed you ! Outrlge and fie: tidy have out-stepped--even my forebodings ! The perfidy of Austria, which uncovered my line, and oc casioned my disasters in Hernia —which bartered Poland., violated the NEtitary Convention of Dres den, and negotiated but to betray ; the perfidy of Pr.ssia, whose monarchy I preserved, ween cow ardice and treason had rendered the kingdom de fenceless, and treason had undersn tied its throne ; of Russia, *helot., civil, military, and political history is a series of systematic contempt of faith and equity ; or Bavaria, whose unparalleled turpitude obliged me to fight at Leipsic for preserva.ion, and not for conquest ; of Switzerland, who, far a paltry sold the tranquillity of her citizens, Hie safety of her country, and the sanctity of her neu trality ; of Engisoil, whose sophisms have an. nihilated public law, and whose policy since the lira of Pitt had unblushingly sishotituted pr wer for principle, and expedient for jesrice !—not the re. collection of all thew recent pet tidies had prepared the for those which have now been emulously perpe tuated by Sovereigns, who professed that they bore their arms against France only so long as I was seat ed on her throne !—The most lawless barbarians have never manifested such contempt of solemn en gagements. The darkest ages have never presented such scenes of' treachery and licentious direction of force in an unresisting country. " The miserable Kim; who was content to surren der France as their pre ! has even his wrongs to plead ! The mockery of his sway desecrates the ave. Pity of his right, and he trembles lest the vengeance of the nation should sweep him arid the despoilers from the soil before the work of ruin is accom plished. . 6 Frenchmen ! you are now told, that not only my ambition, but your concurrent spirit of conquest, d-rnands punishment ; even the acquisitions of former Sovereigns and epochs are now cited as your crimes ! And by whole are these charges advanced? By So vereigns whose empires have beets formed by success ful P croachments on the independence and exist k.•,. of iseiz'sbouring Stoles! Waist was Russia in the of the la,t centers , ?—llow became the Elector ..f Bruiel-isleirgh Nines irch of a piwer ful kingdoms ? lla- A astria ahsornt.4l no kingdom, dismetabored no province:, end does she now hold n.. thinner by the bole tenure of force ? Lnok at the mip of Europe.—llas France only usurped ? I).. all oho `4tates recogoked isselependent even by the Tries. iif Wt , st phali exist ? Look round the globe —ire the Eiseli•li II rg flyi.ig in every quarter, its countries where re'i4ion, laws, and language are dis sonant. II .4 she not subju4ated the greater part of A ? I she not mill endeaveurisig to force the ramparts that separate her from China ; and has she not been waging n second war to recover her influence on the American Continent ? Our ambition was se entity. If I.:• , glaistl had not asp', ed to the do. minion of three quarters of the glebe, I should have temporised with the unfriendly Councils of ; —if Russia had not partitioned Poland, end aimed at empire in Germany, I never should have pro posed to repulse her from the Vistula to the Volga. Europe has acknowledged the baneful iiilluence of England's usurpations; the blood that has flowed for the last twenty-five years has flowed at her pur. chase; anti Europe n ill Curtner rue the event of a strug gle that removes the ascuisrlancy of a civilized people for the domination of Northern barbarians. You are ncrused of having preferred war to peace, su long as war was succes3ol ; and your answers are those—who first warred against your Revolution ? who violated the Peace of Amiens, arid violated it with shameless eliidcits of truth ? who 'ejected sego. ciations repeatedly offered, or broke them off when conciliation was practicable? who made the war of which you are now the victims ? Is it lint a war o f their own decree I regretted your sacrifices, A was moved to vindicate your indignities , but I adopt- Ty fl the policy of peace--the will of the nation, and I respected it as the bond between we and my pee. Mans t rj a : v es4 ' 7 " ?`6 ' l‘"Prtvr...4.,_ • . . / 4 !".•• °nit E STATPs MAN. 1 1 "jr 79171.1 • • pl.. Frenchmen I posterity will judge how far I em respunaible to my cortotry for the events of our miNtary,elfurta. They will decide WllOl4 History •teP cords them, *battik could haVe mastered fortune ; but my.tovelor rritsce, my gratitude for her confi ' dente, Ind devotion to her welfare, can never be sub• jert to suspicion. To France I owe my existence, ! and the consciousness el that claim has confirmed the r i g ht of nature. Frenchmen ! I urn still your Ent peror ! but I hold the Crown for n%y son and your tntere•sts. ilia succession can alone ensure the fruits !of your efforts against a dynasty whose reign is i identified with your slavery, Foreign force may support the throne of a Parricide King, but the poser of 30 millions of Frenchmen is not to be permanently You have acquired mournful, _hut useful experienee. You now are convinced that arms alone can redeem you from vassalage and ignominy.— Cherish the brave men who have fought your battles —they will .be the pillars of your array, and they will conduct you to victory. u On the rock where I am doomed to pass my (a ttire days, by the disloyal sentence of your enemies, I shall yet hear the echo of yo ur t r iu mp h, an d h a il in the loom of its horizon, the flag of your inde • pendettre!" Q... Fraoce 1 , 6 ..,, Lisbon —.. l. i 1 . . ' HaCand 0 Flanders .•••,,,, . .. A 1 1 • 0 -4:..Ckniadmusis 1 PRICE uY '4TOVIIII TIM VAT AT cl‘kirCLOCl Alum low. Am 14i 4t 9 per Cent Rol 501 IM4t Rued. 4 p per (rat (I..iss 60e 61 Ilatebecpse 4 41 4 p 4 per (put 7j 73 thowes ISj U 4 15 . per Cwt. hair) no 90 CAMP% fur drtec 60 THE STATESMJN. LONDON: raiDAt. °crony' 13, 1315. We have waited with extreme anxiety till a late lour, in the hope of being able to lay before our Readers the details of the proceedings of the French Legislative Bodies en Monday last ; but no French Mail had arrived at the Pnst-office up to the moment of our giditg In Press. We are consequently without the Paris Pipers of Tuesday, which, in the ordinary course of the communication, we had reason to ex pect this morning. Their non.arrival is attributed to the state of the wind. We shall not fail to com municate their contents, as far as our ability will per mit, the moment they shall arrive. The Chambers would lore no time in taking the important subjects of the King's speech into consi deration, and expressing their sentiments thereon in an Address to the throne. The Chambers had 0- ready proceeded to the regulation of nominating five candidates for the office of President, out of a horn the King was to select one. M. LatNE, it was he lieved, would occupy that office. The Convention ait h " the Powers who still occupy the French terri tory," was expected to undergo some severe can vassing. It is denounced in the most forcible lan guage in every political circle in France ; and the Ministers who refused to sign it, are applauded to the skies. It is reported that active measures are taking with as much privacy as possible, to ',resent the fortresses which the Allies have not obtained, from falliog into their hands. A great portion of the French military are repairing to the North, and Paris is said to be still teeming with plots and conspi racies, and the matesials of insurrection and war. The King of Peus-tA is said to he still in great alarm. The Prussian cannon still menace the palace of Louts, and the Chambers in which his Parliament hold their sittings. The Representatives of the French nation must be loyal indeed, if they long put up with this state of things. The Frankfort Papers say that Louts has left the. decision in regard to the Treaty wholly to the Chambers, and that the late Ministers would ratify nothing but the demand for pecuniary contributions in payment of the expences of the war, on the ground that the foreign Powers had declared that they made war upon NAPOLEON only, and not upon France.— On this it is said, the Allies give in an energetic note, say i•►g they had declared war against NAPOLEON and his adherents, and therefore all those who had done homage to NAPOLEON at the Champ de Alai, were considered by the Allies as enemies; they there. fore declared war against France on the instant, un less the conditions proposed were signed. This we do not believe, but it has not altogether the app e ar.. ante of being a false statement. Are these conditions acceded to ? AVe are told they are. By w ho►n ? Not by the Representatives of the French nation— that nation has, with one voice, devoted them to exe cration. \Ve give in another page an interesting and well written document, said to be an address by Ns- POLEOX to the French nation, and now in ciicula lion in France. We cannot vouch for its authen ticity, but a little acquaintance with modern history would enable any one to vouch for the many weighty truths which it contains. A Dutch Mail arrived this forenoon, which, among other articles, has brirught us a copy of the - Duke of Weturactotes letilit to Lord 65vi.tnErost, ea planatory of his Grace's conduct in regard to the Dutch paintings. It . wiii be oltservell from this do cument that there was no treaty to warrant this stretch of military interference, arid that it was pure ly to gratify the King of the NETHER'. ANDS, who, one would think, had many reasons to rest satisfied without tasking our power to this extent, that the British hero ventured on this unpopular proceeding. His Grace labours hard to show that his conduct in this respect was no breech of the Military Convention by whirls the Allies entered Paris, and which sipu fated that public and private property should be re spected. After seeing this important stipulation ad mitted, we need no politician to tell us the connec tion between the Museum awl the Convention. We are sorry to see so much pains necessary to preserve unsullied a reputation which is so much connected with the glory and honour of our country. The Sovereigns themselves, it seems, refused to in terfere in this matter— they left it to their Generals" to resolve the knotty point, and to preach moral lessons about pictures and statues and national ar rogance to the French nation, by sword or pen as they chose. Again we say we wish that this war about pictures and statues, in which we have no in 'ere', had not occurred. But Ibis comes of our having to act for other nations, a.td our ambition to have the chief command on the Continent. Bausszt.s, Ocr. 7.—ln the 16th Military Division, is which Lille is situated, Gen. Bourmont, who com mends in this division, has found himself under the necessity of adopting very strict measures against a number of disbanded officers who are in the depart .nents of the North and Pas de Calais. In an Order of Rae Day the said General has commanded that all ,sficers who shall be found in these departments, and are not natives of them, shall immediately be sent out of them, with the threat of. amt. punishment. Ifettess from Lille say, they still expect foreign troops there. Trade and manufactures are in the most de 'plorable state in that part of France. They write from Luxemburgh that the Russian troops in the neighbourhood of Metz, Verdun, Tool, Pont-a- Mou sson, and Nancy, hare received orders to halt for the present. The same accounts say, that the prosecution of the attack upon Thionville is de ferred. It was hoped that a Prussian garrison would occupy the phice. Rorrsaoast, OCT. letter from Paris, of the 30th of September, informs u', that all the vo lunteer cavalry, which has heels stationed for some weeks its the neighbourhood of Park has received orders to march beck to the Netherlands. On the lst of October, the companies belonging to Am sterdam and Rotterdam are to bre4k up, and on the 3d, those of the Hague, Utrecht, Arstheim, and the others ; all taking the route by Peroone, Moos, &c. DUKE or VIEI.I.IN6TON'S LETTER. RorrEmnAm, OCT. IO.—A great many remarks haring been made nt Paris upon the occasion of the removal of the paintings from the Aluseum, the Duke of Wellinglon wrote the following letter to Lord Ce'llereogh, by the communication of which, as containing a genuine account of the transaction, we shall doubtless give pleasure to our readers. rari- Frpt. 23, 1815. 46 My LOPD,—A great deal has airly been said here concerning the measures which l have been obligati is adopt in order to obtain for the King of the Settlerlands his paintin4 and other things out of the tveum, and as those reports may reach the ears of the Pr hire Regent, I communicate to you the follow. jog account of the whole affair for his Royal High ness's information. " A short time after the arrival of the Sovereigns at Paris, the Minister of the King of the Netherlands demanders the pictures, &c. belonging to his Sovereign, as did the Ministers of the other Sovereigns, and as I was informed could not obtain a satisfactory answer from the French Government. After several mt. venations with me upon this subject he sent to your Lordship an official note, which was laid before the Ministers of the Allied Powers, assembled at a Con ference, upon which the business was several times taken into consideration, in order to discover a means of doing justice to the claimants of the objects of art in the Museum, without hurting the feelings of the King of France. Mean time the Prussians had ob. tamed from his Majesty, not only all the pictures belonging to Prussia Proper, but also those which belonged to the Prussian territory on the left bank of the Rhine, and all those that were the properly of the Allies of his Prussian Majesty : the affair now be came urgent, and your Lordship wrote a note of the * * * • *, jrr which the matter was fully treated. " The Minister of the King of the Netherlands having not yet received any satisfactory answer from the French Government, applied 10 me, as Comman der-in-Chief of the Army of the King of the Nether lands, and asked, whether I had any objection to employing his Majesty's troops to obtain possession ' of what was indubitably his Majesty's property ? I laid this question also before the Ministers of the Allied Courts; and as no objection was found, thought it my duty to take the necessary steps to The private advices from Paris state, that an in- chrain what was his right. spoke in consequence 0 ith Prinre 'Palle} rand o irpnn this subject, commo..irzted to him wh a t h a d nod the reasons I had for surrectiors had broken out at Niort, respecting the ! pro hibited p asse d n t th e c..oference, disbanding of the cavalry, which, by the ord er of the' Minister of Police, the Journals were I t n o g tii i e 4t pa t in h t e isig K s i , vg ar. ( Al 'f re t g he rtert l e e d l h" him ia ' t 'd o s la h y ad the a froth mentioning: The natural conclosion was, that tight tie inserrection eas of en allirming.bstotte. ; ~'. ~.. „ —t __s .luaiimi Ilk ~~. INte r 4 7 ,1 ~ : .~4 r matter before the King, and to beg his Majesty do me the favour to determine die manner in a' I might obtain the object of the King of the Netliei. lands, without in any manner offe n di ng hi s m ainly. 46 Prince Talleyrand promised me an answe r by the neat evening ; but as I did not receive it, I re. paired to him in the night, had a second rotiversaiii,u with him, iu which he gave me to understand that the King could give siii orders upon the subjeci that I might do as I thought proper, and uegociate vrit M. Dentin, the Director of the 11use m. " to the morning I sent my Aid.de-Camp, Cr. Freetnaole, to ht. Dentin, who told him that he 1 1 4 no orders to give up an painting , out of the Cal. levy, and that he should suffer none to be taken away but by force. 46 I then sent Colonel Freeman , le to 1'141(1.'1' 3 4 Itivratitl, to acquaint him with this answer, sum lo inform him that the troops would go the nest morn. ing, at twelve o'clock, to take. possesvi. , n ef paintings belonging to the King of the Nettie'hi n d s, end to declare, that if any thing uttplemant shoed arise from this measure, the King's Ministers, and not I, were answerable fur it. Colonel F re p mwe like%ise informed M. Denon, of the measure that was to be taken. " It was, however, not necessary to send any troops, because a Prussian guard constantly n em pied the gallery, and the pictures were taken sway, without any assistance being required from any et the troops under my command, except a few, w h o assisted as labourers in the taking d own an d lack. ing up. Flavin "It has been alleged, that by Flavin been the in. strument of carrying away from the cr y °t e a. tures of the King of the Netheil , ad X e guilty of a breach of a treaty which I had . ra)self 14 made; and as there is no mention o f t h e M e . scum, in the Treaty of the 25( March, it segos now, that the Treaty spoken of is the Ilia liter) Cont. minis of Paris. It is necessary to short how this Convention is cin netted with the Museums. C 6 I do not want to prove that the Allies were at war with France, there is no doubt that their a'mies entered Paris under a Military Cortrention, co '- eluded with an Officer of the Government, the Pre fect of the Department of the S.ine, and an Officer of the army, who represented both Authorities at that moment present at Paris, and emponered by these Authorities to negociate and conclude fur them. " Tlis Article of the Convention which is al leged to ave been bro is the 11th, which re. later to th e public pro . I positively (limy th at 0 this Article has any reference whatever to the Gsllery; of Paintings. " The French Commissioners introduced in the ori gin'sl project an Article to prov:de for the security of this species of property ; hut Prince Blocher %said not consent, saying, that there were in the Gallery paintings which had been taken from Prussia, and which Louis XVIII. had promised to reblure, which, however, had never been done. I repeated this circumstance to the French Commissioners, and they proposed to accept the Article, with the ex ception of the Prussian pictures ; and to this prepe. sal I antsered, that I was there as the:Ally of all the nations in Europe, and that I must claim for Witt nations all that was conceded to the Prussians. I added, that I had no instructions concerning the measure, nor any grounds to form an opinion how the Sovereigns would act ; that they would certainly urge that the King should fulfil his obligations, and that I advised to omit the Article entirely, and to reserve this affair for the decisiorrd the Sovereigns when they should arrive. 44 Thus stands the affair of the Museum in Terr ence to the Tresty. The Convention of Pith it silent upon it, and • negotiation took place, •hkh left the business to the decision of the Sovereigns. " Taking it for granted that the silence of Iks Treaty of Paris, of Nla),1814, had given the Freya Government an indisputable claim to the pieces o p. twined in it, upon all tutor, occasions, it mow be denied that this claim was annihilated by this nege• cation. " Those who negotiated for the French Goee'"' ment judged that the victorious armies hail s right to take the works of art from the Museum, awl th y therefore endeavoured to save them, by i u treducial an article into the Military Convention. This At• tide was rejected, and the claim of the Allies greatly advanced by the negotiation on their shle, and this was the reason that the Ar idle was rejected. Not only then was the possession of them not gustaateed by the Military Convention, but the; boor-mentioani negotiation thus tended the more to weaken the right of the French Government to the possess : onc which was foonded on the silence of the Treaty of Paris, of May, 1814. " The Allies having now legal possession of the pieces in the Museum, could do no otherwise than restore them to those from whom they had been taken away, contrary to the usages of civilized wv• fare, during the dreadful period of the French goo. lotion and the tyranny of Bonaparte. " TIT conduct of the Allies with respect to ft' Museum, at the time of the Treaty of Paris, most be a , cribed to their desire to gratify the French erre', and to confirm the reconciiivtion with Furey I° which the army seemed at that time to be disposed' . " But the circumstances are stow entirely I' l ' Brent--the army disappointed the just expectat:".' of the world ; and embraced the first ppertunity 1 " rise against its Sovereign, sod to Serve the g e "“ t . , JiiL , **