Star.
London, England, 1812-07-16 00:00:00

FRANCE.
OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS(Cotaned.)
COPY OF A NOTE FROM ?II EE KUKAKIN TO THE
MINISTER CF FOREION AFFAIRS.
• " Pads, 18 (80) April, 1812•
46 MY Loon DUKE—Since the interview which I
had on Tuesday last with your Excellency, and in
the course of which you gave me reason to suppose
that the verbal communications which I had the ho-
nour of making, according to the tenor of my latest
instructions, should be admitted as the grounds of
the arrangements on which we.are about to enter ;
since that time I have not been able to find you at
home, and enter into a second conference, in order
to the diseitssion of this object, and the settling the
project of this convention.
44 It is impossible for me, my Lord, to defer any
longer transmitting to the Emperor, my master, an
account of the execution of the orders he has given
me. I acquitted myself verbally-towards his Majesty
tbit Emperor end King, in die private audience
I whith he granted me on Monday.' I also acquitted
myself in the same manner towards your Excellency,
in my interview with you on Friday, Monday,. and
I Tuesday. I flattered myself, that the agreement to a
project of convention) founded upon a basis which. I
had the honour to propose, and which I had hoped
would be agreeable to his Majesty the Emperor and
King, would put it in my power to prove immedi-
. ately to his Majesty the Emperor, my master, that
I had fulfilled his intentions, and had the good for-
tune to have done so successfully. Deprived for
two days of the power of seeing your Excellency, of
following up and concluding, in conjunction wth
you, a work so important and so urgent, in conse-
quence of the circumstances that are to be submitted
to us, that not a single day should be lost ; and see-
ing the certainty overthrown with which I had flat-
tered myself that this work would be finished without
delay, and which might lead to the conclusion that
it ought to have, namely, that of preventing the fatal
consequences of the close approach which has been
made by the army of his Majesty the Emperor and
King to that of the Emperor, my master, it now re-
mains for me to provide for my responsibility to-
wards my Court, by officially acquitting myt-elf, in
the communication. which I have received orders to
make to your Excellency, and which hitherto have
been only made verbally.
66 I am ordered to declare to your Excerieccy,
that the preservation of Prussia, and her inckpend-
' ence from every political engagement directed '
against Russia, is indispensable to the interests of his
Imperial Majesty. In order to 'arrive at a real state
of peace with France, it is necessary that there
should be between her and Russia a neutral country,
which shall not be occupied by the troops of either
of the two Powers ; that as the entire policy of his
Majesty the Emperor, by master, is calculated to
preserve solid and stable principles of amity with
France, which cannot subsist so long as foreign
armies continue to be quartered so near the Russian
frontiers, the first basis of negotiation can be no
other than a formal engagement or a complete eva-
cuation of the Prussian States, and of all the strong
places of Prussia, whatsoever may have been the
perird an the pretext of their occuptiop by' the
French or Allied Troops; of a diminution of the
garrison of Dantzie ; the evacuation of Swedish Po-
merania, and an arrangement with the King of Swe-
den, calculated to give mutual satisfaction to the
Crowns of France and Sweden.

" I must declare, that when the measures above
mentioned shall be acquiesced in on the part of
France, as the basis 'of the arrangement to be con-
cluded, I shall be permitted to promise, that such
arrangements may include, on the part of his Ma-
jesty the Emperor, my master, the following en-
gagements :
• .44 Without deviating from the principles adopted
.by the Emperor of all the Russias for the commerce
of his States, and for the admission of neutrals into
Idle ports of his dominions—principles which his Ma-
jesty can never redounce—he binds himself, as a
proof of Ns adherence to the alliance formed at Til-
sit, not' to adopt any change of the prohibitive mea-
sures established in Russia, and severely observed to
the present time, against direct trade with England.
His Majtisty is also ready to agree with his Majesty
(lie Emperor of the French and King of Italy, with
respect to a system of Licences to be introduced into
Russia, in the same manner as in France ; it being
always understood, that it cannot 136 admitted rill it
has been ascertained that it is ndt calculated to aug-
ment the deterioration already experienced by the
vide of Russia.
" His Majesty the Emperor rf all the Rnssias
will engage also by this Convention, to treat, by a
particular arrangement, for certain modifications,
such as may be desired by France for the advantage
of her trade in the Custo,.., duties imposed by Russia
in 1610.
46 Finally, 11:s Majesty will also consent to bind
himself -to conclude a treaty cf exchange, of the
Itluchy of Oldenburg for a suitable equivalent, which
ihall be proposed by his Majesty the Emperor and
King, and in which his Imperial Majesty will de-
clare the protest withdrawn which he was about to
publish, to support the rights of his family to the
f)tichy of OlCienburc;. •
" Such are, my Lord Duke, the grounds which I
have been ordered to point out, and the admission
of which, in what relates to the evacuation of the j
Prussian States and Swediih Pomerania ;—the re-
duction of the garrison of Dantzic to its establisliot
meat, previpits, to the first of January, 1811 ; and
the promise of a negotiator with Sweden can alone
render possible an . amicable arrangement between
oar Courts.
" •It is with much regret, notwithstanding the
time which his elapsed since I communicated them
verbally to your Excellency, that I still find myself

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altogether uncertain with respect to the effects of oar 'I
proceedings.
" Notwithstanding the favourable inferences which.
,I was happy to draw from the interview which his j.
Imperial and Royal Majesty was pleased to granC
me on Monday, as well as the assurances I received
from your Excellency, I cannot forbear to inf. rint
your Excellency anew of that which I represen-ed
his Majesty the Emperor, as well as tot merly to you, •
:the. that if to my great regret the intelligence dtould
reach me that Count Lauriston had quitted Peters.
burgh, I would conceive it,me duty to apply imme-
diately for passports, and quit Paris.
(Signed) " PRINCE AIM. RURAKIN."
COPT OF A.XOTE FROM PRINCE kURAIIIN TO
STER FOR FOREIGN RELATIONS. .!..5..3L-41
" Fart% 45il April (7th of May),
" Mr Lotto DlKE—Near fifteen days hate•elape-
sed since I have made the communications err' ineee
by my last instructions, brought by Berm Sarthhin, •
and which I hastened to submit to you two hours
sifter I had received them.
66 I had the honour personally to inf ,rm hit Imre
rial and Royal' Majesty, lathe course of the audience
granted on Monday.. the 27th of the sante mon:b, of :
those propositions of the Emperor, my alsgUst.nlas-.
ter, which constituted the' immediate object theteof. -
The hopes which I had reazon to entertain, firm all
that his Majesty was pleased, in the course ef.the
audience, with respect to • his anxious desire to /He.
vent, by conciliatory steps,' a rupture, which threat..
ens Europe with a new war,. induced the agreeable
expectation that my proceedings would succeed to •
the satisfaction of the Emperor, my master, who**
wishes have never been other than for the Reserve.e;
Lion of peace, and his alliance with Fiance, and to
have the essentially equitable and moderate m0de,....
through me, become the basis of an amicable ;stet
rangement.
" It was the more reasonable for me to indulge
such hopes, because you yourself, my Lord Duke,
had constantly, in the course of the first interviews,
wh.ch followed my communications, encouraged tt ent
by the justice which you did to the spirit in which
those communications were conceived, at once conch-'
liatory, and pacific, and chiefly directed to satisfy his
Majesty the Empetor Napoleon, with respect to all
the requisitions he has hitherto made to Russia. •
66 His Majesty the Empetor and King, in the
course of the audience granted me, on the 427th of .
April, having desired that I .should immediately
discuss with your Excellency the propositions which
I was directed to make, had induced me to cont•m—
plate the possibility of giving an account to the Em-
petor, my.master, atter the lapse of a very 'little
time, of the reception his offers had met with. Never
*did circumstances of a more urgent nature justify a'
desire, and entreaties consequent thereon, to receive:
a speedy answer, nevertheless, my LOrdDlike, I have-
not yet received one.
66

• and reiterated applications, My
fairs- ttr your Excellency, have been attended
with no other result but your refusal to enter into an
explanation with respect to the propositions in ques-
tion, grounded on a want of orders to that effect
from his Imperial and Royal Majesty.
" It is impossible, my Lord Duke, to deceive ones- .
self as to the fatal effects which such delays as these
must inevitably produce. The daily increasing proxi-
mity of the armies of his Imperial and Royal Ma-
jesty and his Allies to the Reseian Empire, may, in
a moment, bring about events after which all hopes
of the preservation of peace must vanish ; and wh5....,
indeed, at this very time have destroyed the probabi-
lity of preserving it. The only method by winds •
Europe may be saved from the evils which menace
her, is the acceptance of the conciliatory offers which
the Emperor, my master, has ordered me to In is.e.
Yet not only no answer from your Excellency has
informed me that they were accepted, but you have
also hitherto refused to enter into the explanation /
have solicited, and still solicit, with respect to the
manner in which those offers are viewed, or to what,
in the aggregate of our propositions, may Lot have
proved agreeable to the Emperor.
" Amidst the critical circumstances in which the
two Empires are placed, the prolongation of such
delays to explanations calculated to produce reconci-
liation, admits of no other interpretation than a pre-
conceived resolution not to enter into any explanation
of the kind, and consequently an election of wit. I
must not conceal from your Excellency that as this
is the point of view •in which I must consider any
new delays which may prevent. my receiving a ca-
tegorical answer to the communications which I have
mask, pursuant to the order (.1 the Emperor, my
master ; 1 must therefore assure you, my Lord Duke,
that if, itt the course of the interview which you have '
tired for to-morrow, I should be still,so unfortunate
as to find you unprovided with instructions horn the
Empercr to give me an answer'to my prepositions,
and that any an,wer assuring me that they are
'accepted without any modification whatsoever (for
ye,ur Excellency is fully aware that I am anthorised
Lot to admit of nny), I shall in that case find myself
in consequence of the departure of his Majesty, the
Emperor and King, which is announced for to.mor.
row, and which wilt preclude all hope of the expected
answer, placed under the necessity oeconsidering the
withholding of such answer as am indication of an
election being made of war, and my further stay at
Parts as altogether superfluous ; and deeply regret-
ting that I have not been able to contribute to the
preservation of that peace and alliance, in tl:e estab-
lishment of which it has been the 'greatest happiness'
of my life to have participated for the last five years,
I shall be obliged to demand passports from your
Excellency;, to enable me to quit France, and I ear-
nestly request that in such case you will obtain orders
from his. Imperial and Royal Majesty to grant them
without delay.
" Receive, my Lord Dqke, assurances of my
consideration. (Signed) u Prince KvitAtrus?'
(1 lan ever.
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