The Express.
London, England, 1846-11-25 00:00:00

INCORPORATION OF CRACOW.

The following decree has been published at Cracow:
We, Ferdinand d'Este, by the grace of God Emperor of
Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia, &c. After that the
peace of Vienna of the 14th October, 1809, had separated
from our empire the city and territory of Cracow, adjoin-
ing it to the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, but as owing to the
events of the war of 1812, it was recognised by the Russian
troops, our father, the late Emperor Francis 1., concluded
with the allied courts of 1i111,4111 and Prussia, on the 21st
April and 3rd May, 1815, a treaty to the following effect:
" Cracow and its territory is to form in future a free and inde-
pendent city, u der the protection of the three powers." How-
evcr,the express condition necessarily supposed by this arrange-
ment was the strict neutrality of the independent city, which
was not to give shelter to, or harbour, refugees, subjects of
the protective powers; hut, on the contrary, to give them up
to the competent authorities. An unhappy experience of 16
years has proved that Cracow has broken the conditions of
its independent existence, and that, since 1830, it has been
the hot-bed of intrigues hostile to the three powers. This
continued tiil the month of February of the present year,
when it became the theatre of scenes more violent and
dangerous than ever. After the abolishment of the govern-
ment and the constitution, and the fate of the town was in
the hand of a ley of conspirators, who assumed the
title of revolutionary government of Poland, and
i excited to armed revolt against the government all the
ancient provinces of Poland, an armed band from Cracow
made an inroad into our states. It was then requisite to
place Cracow anew under a provisi•mal government, subject
to oar military authorities, and to occupy it by the troops of
the protective powers. Those e.,ents having made it impos-
sible for us to re-: stablish the 1-,asis of the liberty and inde-
prndence of Cracow destroy..d by the enemies of the order,
peace, and tranquillity of T;;lrrope, and feeling it our duty to

—_—=------.
place our faithful subjects of Galicia and the peace of the
tranquil inhabitance of the city of Cracow in safety from thd
e
attacks of the revolutionary patty, we have, in Accor
with his Mojesty the King of Prussia and his Majesty
the Empercr of Aussie,submitted to serious con-
sideration the future few of Cracow. To this end deli-
berations were held with special plenipotentiaries of the
Courts of Berlin and St. Petersburg ; these deliberations had
for result a convention agreed on the 6th November of the
present year, at Vienna, according to which the three pro-
tective powers of the city of Cracow revoke and suppress the
treaties of May 3, 1815, and, in consequence, that town and
its territory return to our sceptre such es was the case before
the peace of Vienna, of Oct. 14, 18011. Wherefore, we take
possession of the said city and territory of Cracow. We ad-
join them for ever to our crown, and declare that it forms
an inseparable part of our empire to which we in-
corporate it. We appoint Count Maurice de Deyme
our chamberlain, councillor of the regency and governor of
Prague, our aulic commissary for this act of taking paws-
sion, and we seriously call upon the inhabitants of the town
of Cracow and its former territory, in their own interest, to
obey that aulic commissary. sent by us, as also the authori-
ties maintained and confirmed by us. We call upon them
likewise to obey punctually orders present or to come.
On the other hand, we promise them the maintenance
and protection of our holy religion, impartial justice,
and equal taxation, with full guarantee of favour
and protection to all who prove themselves worthy
of such by submitting imuiediately to the present measure,
taken in their interest; and by showing fidelity and devotion
to our house, we shall always prove ourselves a mild prince
and gracious sovereign, and will use every effort to insure
them those blessings which their union to a great and power-
ful monarchy is of nature to guarantee fo the inhabitants of
Cracow.—Given in our imperial palace at Vienna, this 11th
of November, 1846, in the twelfth year of our reign.
FERDINAND (L. S.)
(Signed) HIGH-CHANCELLOR FRANCOIS
BARON DE PILLERSDORYF."

Lieut. Field-Marshal Count Castiglione, appointed head
of the provisional government of Cracow by the three pro-
tective powers makes known in their name that on the 6th
roar. they agreed and signed the following conventions :
"Whereas the conspiracy,which, in the month of February,
1846, led to the events well known in the Duchy of Posen,
in Galicia, and in Cracow, was a matured project, and aided
by numerous accomplices in the country: Whereas that
criminal faction rose in arms at the appointed hour, com-
menced hostilities, mid issued proclamations exciting the
people to a general revolt: Whereas Cracow became the
seat of a central directory which assumed the name of revo-
lutionary government, and that government took measures
to direct the movements of the insurrection.
Whereas all those circumstances placed the city of Cracow
in a miserable state of warfare, which would have authorised
the three courts of Austria, Prussia, and Russia to adopt all
the measures sanctioned by war. Whereas, from that sole
reason, it was in the power of the three courts to dispose of a
territory which had taken up arms against them ; but where-
as, it is not the intention of the three powers to subject the
city of Cracow to the right of the strongest —as, where
strength is so unequally balanced, such a right could not be
applicable : whereas, further, it is not question of an act of
chastisement on the city ; but that the high protective powers
wish to re-establish order and pence in the territory
of Cracow ; and have no other intentions than to
preserve their people from events which so greatly disturbed
their tranquillity ; whereas, by a treaty concluded between
them the 21st April (3rd May), 1815, the city and territory of
Cracow was declared a free and independent city, strictly
neuter, under the protection of the three high contracting
parties, and that the three courts hare wished to enforce by
that convention the clauses concerning Cracow in their
respective treaties of 21st April (3rd May), 1815, one of which
was concluded with H.M. the Emperor of Austria and
lI.M. the Emperor of Russia, and another of the
same date between the Emperor of Russia and the
King of Prussia. But whereas the existence of the free
city of Cracow, far from answering their expectations, has
been a source of trouble and disorder, which for twenty years
have not only threatened the peace and prosperity of that
free city and of the neighbounng countries, but moreover
aimed at the overthrow of the order of things as esta•
blished by the treaties of 1815.
Whereas numerous facts of this nature, too well known to
be repeated here, have essentially changed the system of
existence in the city of Cracow, and that by steps contrary
to treaties, Cracow at various intervals broke through the
duties imposed by a strict neutrality ' • that those steps called
for the armed intervention of the three powers, and that all
the changes made in its constitution were unavailing
in hindering a renewal of those deplorable events.
Whereas, the patience manifested by the mild decrees
of the three powers only served to give new strength
to the determined enemies of order, and that the free city of
Cracow became the hot-bed of a new and vast conspiracy,
extending its ramifications to all the pros inces of Poland.
Whereas, to that culpable and disloyal enterprise was added
an armed attack on the part of Cracow which formed the
nucleus of the revolt. Whereas, accordingly Cracow as a
political body was evidently too weak to resist the continual
machinations of the Polish emigrants, who keep the said
town in a state of moral subjection, so as to offer to the
powers no guarantee against a renewal of those reiterated
attempts at revolution.
And whereas attempts of such nature are an open violation
of the treaty of 21st April (3rd May) 1815, as also of Art. 11.
of the constitutional statutes of the free city of Cracow of the
30th May, 1833. Whereas the conventions above named
concerning Craeow between the three powers were repeated
in Arts. VI., VII., VIII., IX., and X., of the general-act of
the Congress of Vienna on the 9th June, 1815, so that said
act might embrace the different results of the arrangement
concluded in the private negotiations between the cabinets ;
whereas in consequence, if the three courts change to-day,
as regards Cracow, an order of things to which they volun-
tarily agreed in 1815, they only put into execution an incon-
testable right.
In consideration of the above, and having taken into seri-
ous consideration the security of their states so often en-
dangered by the free city of Cracow, the three courts of
Austria, l'russia, and Russia have come to the following
resolutions

1. The said three courts of Austria, Prussia, and Russia
revoke the articles of the treaties concerning the city of
Cracow, concluded between H. M. the Emperor of Russia
and H. M. the Emperor of Austria on the one hand, and
the Emperor of Russia and King of Prussia on the other,
signed 21st April (3rd May), 1815. In like manner the
additional treaty between Austria, Prussia, and Russia of
the same date, is revoked and annulled.
2. In consequence, the town of Cracow and its territory
are restituted to Austria, and reunited to the Austrian
monarchy, to be possessed by his Imperial, Royal, and
Apostolic Majesty as previous to 1889.•
(Signed) CASTIGLIONE."
Cracow, 16th Nov., 1848.