The Sun.
London, England, 1814-03-10 00:00:00

DUTCH POLITICAL CONSTITUTION.

" THE HAGUE, M. 3, 1814.
" We, WILLIAM, by the Grace of God, Prince of
Oraitge Nassau, Sovereign Prince of the United
Netherlands, &c. To dll to whom these,pre-

sews come, greeting !
" Invited to.the Sovereignty of these States by
your confidence and your attachment, we from'the
first declared, that we would undertake the same
only under the guarantee of a wise constitution,
which might secure your freedom against all pos-
lihle abuses ; and we. lave ever since continued
to feel the necessity thereof.

" We regarded it, therefore, as one of the first
ePO most sacred of our duties, to summon together
some men 'of consideration, and to charge them
with the weighty task of establishing a funda-
menol code, built upon your manners, your
habits, and corresponding to the wants of the
present time.

" They cheerfully took upon themselves this
office, performed it with zeal, and have submitted
to us the fru:ts of their uninterrupted labours.

After a careful examination of'this work, we
have given it our approbation. But this does not
satisfy our heart.. it respects the concerns of the
whole Netherlands. The whole .Dutch people
must be rer_,ognised in this important work. That
people must receive the strongest possible assur-
ance, that their dearest interests are sufficiently
attended to therein ; that religion, as the foun-
tain of all good, 'is thereby honoured and main-
tained, and religious\ freedom disturbed by. no-
thing of temporal concerns, but secured in the
most ample manner ; that the education of youth,
and the spread of scientific knowledge, shall be
attended to by the Government, and freed from
all those vexatious regulations which oppress the
genius and subdue the spirit; that personal free-
dom shall no longer be an empty name, and de-
pendent on the caprices of a suspicious and crafty
police ; that an impartial administration of jus-
tice, guided by fixed principles, secure to every
man his property ; that commerce, agriculture,
and manufactures he no longer obstructed, but
"lave free course, like rich springs of public
and ?thaw pr'ospe'rity ; that, therefore, no
restraint be imposed' on the domestic econo-
my of the higher and lower classev, of the
state, but that they be conformable .to the ge-
neral laws and the general. Government : that
the movements of the general Government be
not palsied by top great a zeal for local inte-
rests, hut rather receive from it an additionaliim-.
pulse ; that the general laws, by means of an har-
moniouscd-operation of the two principal branches
of the Government be founded on the true inte-
rests of the State ; that the finances, and the
arming of the people, the main pillars of the body
politic, be placed in that central point, upon which
the greatest and most invaluable privilege of every
free people,—their independaiwe,—may be firmly
fixed. Which of yon can doubt of this truth, after
the terrible experience you have had,of d foreign
tyranny,
_which acknowledged no right when it
wanted aleans for its own maintenance by violence,

whei tiglte4; of Lit tihtlet the ttiott.
oppressive yoke that ever tras imposed slime the
Spanish tinter ?
" Now at least you the true value of
those preCious rights for which our fathers sa,.
crificed their property and blood ; of that happi-
ness which they bequeathed to their,descendants
ao,d which we saw lost through the adversity of
the dives

" Following, therefore, and deriving.enconl
ragement from their 'example, it becomes my
duty, in imitation of those whose name•l bear,
and whose Memory I honour, to restorz that
which .is lost : it is your duty to support me
therein With all your efforts, that under the bless-
ing of Divine Providence, who summons us to
this'
.task, we may leave our beloved country
completely recononered and re-established to our
childten.-

" In order to be enabled to judge whether the
constitutional code thus framed, as before stated,
be a means of attaining the above great object,
we have thought it right that the said code be
submitted fOr maturer consideration, to a mune-
rous assembly of persons, the Most considerable
and best qtyilifie4 among you.
" We have for that purpose appointed. a special
commission, who are to choose, .out of a nu-
merous list' given in to us, six hundred persons,
in due. proportion to the population of each of the
now existing departments. . .

"Bondured with/ your confidence, they shall,
on the 28th of this ►nonth; assemble in the metro-
polis of Amsterdam, to come to a determination
!upon this weighty business.
" They shall, in like manner, Nrith the letter of
convocation, receive the plan of the constitution,
that they may be able to prep4re their .decision
thereon with maturity an►! calmness o► delibera
'don ; and, for the more effectual "attainment of
this object, a copy of the same shall be sent to
each member previously.
"And as it is of the first importance that these
Members be possessed of the general :confiilence,
we order that a list of the persons chose► for
each department be made public,. and that to all
the inhabitants of the same, being housekeepers,
an opportunity shall be afforded, by signing his
name without any other addition, in a register
which shall lie open in each canton for eight
days, to disapprove of any such person br persons
as he may deem unqualified.
! "No inhabitant is deprived of this right, with
the exception of domestic servants, valets; bank-
rupts, persons in a state of non-age, or under
accusation.

When it shall appear to us, from the sum-
ming up of the registers, that the majority are sa-
tisfied with the persons thus submitted to their
election, we shall consider them as the represen
tativcs of the whole Dutch people, call them to-
gether, appear in the midst of them, and salute
them as constituting the great assembly, repre-
senting the United Netherlands.
They shall then commence their labours in
freedOm and give us an account of 'their progress
by a committee appointed to that effect ; and as
soon as the adoption of the constitutional code is
the result of their deliberations, weshall make the
necessary'arrangements .for taking the oath pre-
scribed.to us by the constitution with all due so-
lemnity, in the midst of the assembly, and after
that be installed instate.

In the adoption of these measures, worthy
countrymen, you must feel convinced, that the
welfare of our beloved country is my first and
only object ; that your interests and, mine are the
same ; and how can they be more manifestly
promoted, than by the introduction of constitu-
tional rules, in which you will find the guarantee
of your dearest rights? They will furnish me with
the advantage of conducting, on fixed principles,
the charge and responsibility of GoVernment, as-
sisted by the best and most intelligent of the citi-
zens; and will secure to me the continuance of
that affection, the expressions of which rejoice
my heart, animate my courage, lighten my bur-
then, and bind me
,and my house for ever to our
regenerated country.
Given at the Hague this 2d of I\larch, 1814,
and of our reign tie Ist'

(Signed) " WILLIAM.
"By command, A. IL FALCK, Secretary of State."

, ROTTERDAM, MAncn s.—From Goes we learn,
that on the 2d a heavy cannonade was beard there,
occasioned by the entrance into the Scheldt of
two ships of war of 50 guns, one English and the
other Russian, anti which were fired upon from
the batteries of Flushing, Both the ships went
,aground, but the' Russian soon floated : armed
boats had been sent to lighten the .P)glish vessel,
which was.still aground, though out of the reach
of the, cannon. '

We lean; from Breda, that o' the 3d, 1600

A Contemporary Journal has published the
Letter, which will be found in a subsequent column,
purporting to be from Count D'EscAes„ the at-.
tendant upon MONSIEUR, of the genuineness of
which we see no reason to douht, and never. did_
we experience greater satisfaction than in acknow-
ledging its authenticity, for it strikes the last prop
from under the tottering -fabric raised by the fac-
tious and Jacobin supporters of BUONAPARTB and
the new Dynasty.—Vok populi, • vox Dei, they
have told us,—the people of France, yea, the
whole people cleave to the Hero under whose
glorious, yet mild, under whose splendid, yet be-
neficent sway they have achieved. such mighty
triumphs abroad, and enjoyed such unheard of fe—
licity at home. There is not a voice raised tor
the BOURBONS : the present generation have no in-
terest in them: the youthful know them not, and -
the aged detest them. Base Sophisters ! Could
not Hiqtory teach them that the . loyalty ,of
an entire nation is not to be Whelmedin 'oblivion,
even by twenty years of slavery—that the patriot-
ism of a whole people is not to be subverted; even
by the grinding of the most diabolical despotism
throughout the term of one generation. In every..
French. town where the Brother of the murdered
Monarch has shown himself, he has been hailed
with transports of enthusiasm, as the harbinger
of better times. The return of the Dove bearing
theliving sign. of the cessation of, universal des6-,
lation, was not more joyful to those who
had so long been the 'victims of. the raging
elements, than has been the auspicious return
of their Sovereign's brother to the inhabitants
of France. They too, have felt the horrors
of the storm ; the tempest which has roll-
ed over Europe, had recoiled on their heads ;'
their's was the portion of apparently irremediable
sorrow and hopeless misery : When a deScendant
of Sr. LOUIS -appeared among them,- and like the'
• inspired prophet of an elder age, was received as
the Fore-runner of peace and happiness to come.
Of peace and. happiness
.the more dear because un-
expected ; of . restoration to the._ great la.mily of
civilized man ; • of emancipation from the bitterest
tyranny that ever oppressed a country, withered
its. strength and. slaughtered its population.; in
fine, of the revival of the social system, the over-
throw of crime and usurpation, and the re-estn-
lishment of- " THE GOOD OLD CAUSE." . Well
might the old, the women,, the children,
extasy about the Prince, and shed tears of ' gratis
tude and rejoicing, while they strove to kiss the,
very hem of his garments. NVell might they shout
`.` Long hive our King ! God save thellourbons !":
It is long since any real feeling of joy hag reached
their hearts—their hearts, which they truly say,

are all that the Monster his left them to 'Offer it
the shrine of loyalty.
around the districts where the Prince baa
been, the people have demonstrated their attach"
ment, and demanded arms to encounter the Bd-
rersaries of their lawful King. Every place de-
sires to surrender' to Loins XVIII.; and nOW at
last has. arrived the solution of that grand j)nlit►-
cal question, Which it has been our lot Most ear'
nestly anti
.devotedly to espouse on the side which
these events prove to hate been the best founded
fact, as it ever was the noblest, the most tat,0064.
the most honourable, and the mrist moral.,

It has been argued that the Allies had no riglit
to interfere in the domestic arrangements 14
France. i'Ve denied this proposition to the ex'
tent it was carried. In private lite, it our
resi-
deuce was placed next door to a i•eceptack 1° 1.
thieves, or to a Bagnio, whose midnight brawls
and disorderly practices .2ndang,ered the safety of
our property and 'lives, we - would cAll in tae
strong arm of the late to. abate the Ho:sauce, ;ilid
confine our worthless neighboarS with n limits coo'
sistent wit!) the weal of the better description 01
the community. So it is witti nations as with mill vh
das. The whole worlit is conet-rned in the re'.

pression
.of a combination of Pirates Or a (10"
vernment of Scoundrels, Neith whose uncontrottV •
cd proCeedings the security 9t other
,p0..‘0.5
cannot co-exist. It was, thus th,it the
ciples. of the French re%:olution were
'round of ‘var for all the other po.vcrs °t.
Ehrope ; and the interference in the internal rt.‘"*.

lations of other kingdoms is not only de:ensVe,
but it is the bounden and indispeuSible
very Nation On earth. 'By an internal regii'l--
tion America would rob Britain of a right v•Ca

necessary to our continuan:.e as a grear
and therefore alone are we at war, mid justly
war with America. In the same degree, it the:
avowed principle's 'of the Ruler France,'
and his erection of a military DeSpiaisin nP°l)--'
these principles, are hostile to 'the tratiguil7.
lit= and ' independance of England,— Itiv'si4!
Prusia, Austrif‘ ; then have England, ;idol"'
Prussia, and Austria an undoubted.right, fu
e On the surest and broadet of all laws, that "t
selflreseryation, to dictate, if the success ottbcit:
arms 'put it in their power, and. arrange the. 41°.‘
;
vernment of France, experience having
,
the rule utiderwhich that, country has ken 1114.
for the last twenty years, is ipcomPatible
welfare of their, respective peoples. /
Upon this subject it may not be t°'
mark, that it n-ever struck our Patriots, our IViltP

and friends ut popular .iuttioritv, tliktt the r'
_ .
Lion of 'the claims of tile r.)oUkik3Oli ~,

ter and hoist their Stan,iard in France,. wis
,
the part of the`Allies, an interference wi-t"
privileges or the People.-- The Bouy."BoNs
leatt, as good alight to say .ive will put otir
tunes to the•test by an appeal to the People, ace
our Subjects, without asking the leave Of 1111/
Sovereign living), as BIJOIsiAPARTF. kid to tISSer
the inviolability of his dominion over the peol)l4'
of France The refusal expe.rieneeil by the lick)'ch
,J.
Princes,.. by. which their appeal .•tvas, pr.ec!"ll'.
troth operating, was a direct measure of inletic,V
ence in the internal regulation. of France.
one, kowever; exclaimed. againit it, and we tr-
the BoURBONs will in the end have no cati3cto
regret the tardy justice %Odell they have .receive°'

The report of the defeat of J3noNAPARTE in °
letter from Deal of yesterday, has assumed c4)l`.
sistency under the improving pcns-of some o'
Contemporaries. There is hoWe.:cr no Oh'
foundation for -it than we yesterday counnanic`v
ted. Many other rumours. are also in eirchtlitin.
That PLATUFF had reached Ver,,:tiiles--t.°
,
Antwerp had surrendered—that Osiena fts
taken. and the whole coast open to commto"c"
lions from the Allies—and thk Dunkirk, -51:11'1'
&c. were :approached by the. bravo .'"),1
sacks, are among the number. Most happY 51)4
we be to find them all correct; but GovcriOes'i
• a:lc
have not yet received any such inteliigeocc,
thergfore we fear they are at present,prenuttLire',

From the Dutch Papers vie extract the
tion tei ttive to the New'Constitution.
important and satisfactory Docipnent.

it is, said that the Empress. of RvsstA 0
eve•Of visiting this country. We know Irt
what authority the runiour.rests, but private-let,
ters certainly aumiunce that such is her i!l!ljc 0
Majesty's intention, amd even go so flte
111°-
to name part of her suite. The. Noble and
Jo.
trio,s Renovator of Europe, ALEXANDBI'' 11.
%be'
also, it is Armed, be expected- Englaud •
warlike toils have been crowned
w_tif thee
just reward.

• • tvitil
Yesterday the' eub-net Ministers tlinecyi
'Viscount MimvILLE, .it his honSe thc
talky.

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