Star.
London, England, 1815-05-29 00:00:00

CONGRESS OF VIENNA.

EXTRACT FROM MINUTES OF CONFERENCES OF
THE POWERS WHO SIGNED THE 'TREATY
OF PARIS. , •
CONFERENCE OF MAY 12TH, 1815.
The Committee appointed on the 9th instant, and
charged to examine, whether, after the events which
have.passed since the return of Napoleon Bonaparte
to I ranee, and in consequence of the documents pub-
lished at Paris on the Declaration which the Powers
issued against him on the 13th of March last, it would
be necessary to proceed to a new Declaration, pre-
sented at the sitting of this day the following Report:
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE.
The Declaration published on the 13th of Match
last against Napoleon Bonaparte and his adherents,
by the Powers who signed the Treaty of Paris, hav-
ing, since his return to Paris, been discussed in various
shapes by those whom he has employed for that pur-
pose ; these discussions having acquired great publi-
city, and a letter addressed by him to all the Sove-
reigns, as well as a note addressed by the Duke of
Vicenza to the heads of the Cabinets of Europe,
having been also published by him with the manifest
intention of influencing and misleading public opinion,
the Committee appointed in the sitting of the 9th in-
stant was charged .to present a report on these topics;
and Considering that in the above-mentioned publi-
cations, it has been'attempted to invalidate the De-
claration of tie' 13th of March, by laying it down,
1. That that Declaration, directed against Bona-
parte, at the period of his landing on the coast of
France, was without application now that he had
laid hold of the reins of government without open
resistance, and that this fact 'sufficiently proving the
'wishes of the nation, he had not only re-entered into
possession of his old rights in regard to France, but
that the question even of the legitimacy of his Go-
vernment had ceased.to be within the jurisdiction of
the Powers : •
2. That by offering to ratify the Treaty of Paris,
L removed every ground of war against him :
The Committee has been specially charged to take
into consideration—
!. Whether the position of Bonaparte in regard to
the Powers of Europe has changed by the fact of his
arrival at Paris, and by the circumstances that ac-
companied the first success of his attempt on the
throne of France ?
2. Whether the offer to sanction the Treaty of
Paris, of the 31st of May, 1814., can determine the
rowers to adopt a system different from that which'
they Announced in the Declaration of the 13th of
March ?
3. Whether it be necessary or proper to publish a
new Declaration to confirm or modify that of the
13th of March ?
The Committee having maturely examined these
iinestions, submits to the Assembly of Plenipoten-
tiaries the following account of the result of its deli-
berations;

VAST QUESTION.
It the pcskjen of Bonaparte in regard to the Power: of
Aurope altered by the fiat success of leis enterprise, or 4
the events which have passed since his arrival in Paris P
Thu rowers, informed of 'the landing of Bona.'
pane in France, could see in him only a man who,
by adrnacing on the French territory, with force and
aims, and with the avowed project of overturning
the established Government, by exciting the people
and the army to revolt against their lawful Sovereign,
and by usurping the title of Emperor of the French,
( I ) fwd incurred the penalties which 411 legislations
pronunace against such outages,—a man who, by
ahnsitig the good faith of the Sovereigns, had broken
a solemn Treaty,-4 man, in line, ieho, by .recalling
upon France, happy and tranquil, all the scourges
of internal and external war, and upon Europe, at
si moment when the blessings of peace must have
consoled her for her lung sufferings, the sad neces.
city nt a new general armament, was justly regarded
as the implacable enctny of public welfare. Such
was the origin, such were the grounds of the Decla-
ration of the 13th of March ;—a Declaration, of
which the justice and necessity have been universally
acknowledged, and %Inch general opinion has sang-
tifined.
The events which conducted Bonaparte W Paris,'
and restored to him for the moment tke exercise of
so pi eme powers have, doubtless, in fact, altered the
position in which be was at the period of his entering
France; but these events, brought on by criminal
collusion, by military conspiracies, by revolting trea-
sons, can create iso right; they are absolutely null in
a legal point of view ; and in order to the position of
Bonaparte being essentially and legitimately altered,
it would be neceislry that the steps which he has
taken to establish himself on the ruins of the govern.
vent overturned by him, shoul4 have been confirmed
14 some legal title.
Bonapatte lays it down in his publications, that
she wishes of the French nation in favour of his re-
(1) The first Artleleof the Convention of the I ids of April,
at 4; is s, aullows i--14 1 he Finperor Napoleon .renoonees, for
. biti;ell, his successors, and descendants, as well as for all the
nr,mbip or hi, iamily, all rights of sovereignty and of power,
not trees the French Empire apd the Kingdom of haly, bus
214 aver every other eimmuy." Notwithstanding this format re•
1.: ation, Isotope:se, In his dfferent Proelamaioni from tbd
low., from Gap, urenoble, and Lyons, entiticd idamelf,
G' rte pace ia coo and the constitutions of the Empire, Zea
pew tAe o.c. Stoor-Ste Afsmiker of Match 21, 1215.