The Statesman.
London, England, 1815-12-06 00:00:00

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IDE-LIVIRCD IN DV VISCOUNT CASTLIREA,GII TO Tar.
ALLIED MIsINTLItg, AMU ErON 1111.11 t
Tr.OftiCoL.—t•Auti, Sn'TCM,IIEIt lITU, 1815.

Ilepresentatioims haring been laid helot e the Minis.
ters of the Allird Powers from time Pope, time Gland
Duke of Tuscany, the King of the sod
slyer Sovereigns, claiming through time interseoti.or
Af tie high Allisd Powers, time restoration or the sta• '
rues, pimuiPai, and other works of nit, whim.' their-

re-p►clise States hive beets suctesiiely Hml N) S.
tematically stripped 6, the lute rebto.otiomer) (;evero-
,
input of France, coot clay to eser) ptiacipie of jus-
tice, slid to the usages of modern starfd:e, and the
rime having been referred for the cotsbiaoration of
Coort, the entlers.voNl trceired the cote-
moods of Itw fl.gtoot to .uhtnil, for the eon.
intention of his Milks, the following remarks upfin

this interesting subj Pct :
It is' now the second tie.e, illat the Powers of Eu-
rope have been compelled, in vindication of their o•tt
liberties, and for the settlement of the world, to in-
vade France, and twice their armies hare posseped
themselves of the capital of the Slate, its which these,
the spoil of the greater part of Europe, are accumu-
lated.

The legitimate Sovereign of France has, as often,
under the protection of those armies, been enabled
to resume his throne, and to mediate for his people a
,peace with the Allies, to the marked indulgencies of
of which neither their conduct to their own monarch,
nor towards other States, had given them just pre-
tensions to aspire.
That the purest sentiments of regard for Louis
XVIII. deference for his ancient and illustrious
House, and respect for his misfortunes, have guided
invariably the Allied Councils, has been proved be-
ywnd a question, by their having last year framed the
Treaty of Paris, expressly on the basis of preserving
to France its complete integrity, and still more,
after their late disappointment, by the endeavours
they are again making, ultimately to combine the
substantial integrity of France, %sills such an ade-
quate system of temporary precaution as may sa-
tisfy what they owe to the security of their own
subjects.
But it would be the height of weakness as well as
of injustice, and in its effects much more likely to
mislead than to bring back the people of France to
moral and peaceful habits, if the Allied Sovereigns,
to whom the world is anxiously looking up for pro-
tection and repose, were to deny that in inciple of in-
tegrity in its just and liberal Replication to other
nations, their Allies (more especially to the feeble
and to the helpless), which they are about, for she
second time, to concede to a nation against %horn
they hare had occasion so long to contend in war.
Upon what principle can France, at the close of
such a war, expect to sit down with the same extent
Of possessions which she held before the Revolution,
and desire, at the same time, to retain the orna-
mented spoils of all other countries ? Is it that
there can exist a doubt of the issue of the contest,
or of the power of the Allies to effectuate what jus-
tice and policy require ? If not, upon what prin-
ciple deprive France of her late territorial acqui-
sitions, and preserve to her the spoliation, apper-
taining to those territories, which all modern con-
querors have invariably respected, as inseparable from
the country to which they belonged?
Thu Allied Sosereisss have, perhaps, something
to atone for to Europe, in consequence of the course
pursued by them when at Paris daring the last year.
It is true, they never did so far make themselves
parties in the criminality of this mass of plunder, as
to ,auction it by any stipulation in their Treaties ;
such a recognition has been on their part uniformly
refused; but they certainly did use their influence to
repress, at that moment, any agitation of their
claims, in the hope, that France, not less subdued
by their generosity than by their arms, might be dis-
posed to reserve inviolate a peace which had been
studiously framed to serve as a bond of reconcilia. '
Lion, between the Nation and the King. They had
also reason to expect that his Majesty would be ad-'
vised voluntarily to restore a considerable proportion
at least of these spoils, to their lawful owners.
But the question is • very different one now, and
to pursue the same coarse under circumstances so es-
sentially altered, would he, in the judgment of the
Prince Regent, equally unwise towards France, and
unjust towards our Allies, who have a direct interest
in this question.
His Royal Highness, io stating this opinion, feels
it necessary to guard against the possibility of misre-
presentation.
Whilst he deems it to be the duty of the Allied
Sovereigns not out, not to obstruct, but to facilitate,
upon the present occasions, the return of these ob-
jects to the places from whence they were torn, it
seems not less consistent nith their delicacy, 'rot to
suffer the position of their armies in France, or the
removal of these works from the Louvre, to become
the means, either directly or indirectly, of bringing
wi:lsin :heir own dominions a single article which did
not of sight, at the period of their conquest, be-
long either to their respective family collections, or
to the countries over which they now actually reiga.
Whatever value the Prince Regent might attach to
such sequisite specimens of the tine arts, if other a ise
acquired, he has en mists to become possessed of them
at the c xpence of France, or rather of the countries to
which they of right belong, more especially by follow-
ing up a principle in war which be considers as a
reproach to the nation by which it has been adopted,
and so far from wishing to take advantage of the
uCcaion to purchase from the rightful owners any
articles they nsielst, from pecuniary consistent' ,
be disposed to part with, his Royal Highness would,
en the contrary, be disposed rather to afford the
means of rPpiacing them in those very temples and
galleries of which they were so long the ornaments.
Were it possible that his Royal Highness's senti-
mesas towards the person and cause of Louis X VIII.
could be brought into doubt, or that the position of
his Most Christian Majesty would be injured in the
eyes of his own people, the Prince Regent would
not come to this conclusion without the most painful
reluctance; but, on the contrary, his Royal High-
ness really believes that his Majesty will rise in the
levee aud respect of his own subjects, in proportion
as he separates himielf from these vernensbranccs of'
revolutionary warfare. These spoils, which impede