STATE PAPERS. BRITISH. Extract from Lord William Bentinck's Official Note to the Duke de Gallo, the Neapolitan Minister. I Bologna, April 1. Ncase of the Neapolitan Government exacting a written confirmation of the sentiments which Lord Castlereagh has verbally declared, a confirmation which has not been called for, not thinking it necessary, the undersigned is authorised to declare officially, that the English Government entirely approves of the Treaty concluded between the Austrian and Neapolitan Governments; that it consents to the addition of the territory there specified, under the same conditions made by Austria, of an active and immediate co-operation of the Neapolitan army; and that if the English Government refuses to sign a definitive Treaty, it is caused by sentiments of honour and delicacy, which make it unwilling that the hereditary estate of an ancient ally should be given up without an indemnity; and the undersigned has in consequence orders to invite the Neapolitan Government to make the greatest efforts in order to obtain the same object." ADMIRALTY OFFICIAL PAPER. σε Admiralty Office, April 30, 1814. "The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty cannot announce to the Fleet the termination of hostilities with France, without expressing to the petty officers, the seamen, and royal marines of his Majesty's ships, the high sense which their Lordships entertain of their gallant and glorious services during the late war. "The patience, perseverance, and discipline; the skill, courage, and devotion, with which the seamen and marines have upheld their best interests, and achieved the noblest triumphs of the country, entitle them to the gratitude not only of their native land, which they have preserved inviolate, but of the other nations of Europe, of whose ultimate deliverance their successes maintained the hope, and accelerated the accomplishment." "Their Lordships regret that the unjust and unprovoked aggressions of the American Government, ment, in declaring war upon this country, after all the causes of its original complaint had been removed, does not permit them to reduce the fleet at once to a peace establishment; but as the question now at issue in this war is the maintenance of those maritime rights which are the sure foundations of our naval glory, their Lordships look with confidence to that part of the fleet which it may be still necessary to keep in commission, for a continuance of that spirit of discipline and gallantry which has raised the British Navy to its present pre-eminence. "In reducing the fleet to the establishment necessary for the American war, the seamen and marines will find their Lordships attentive to the claims of their respective services. "The reduction will be first made in the crews of those ships which it may be found expedient to pay off, and from them the petty officers and seamen will be successively discharged, according to the Jength of their services; beginning in the first instance with all those who were in his Majesty's service previous to the 7th of March, 1803, and have since continued in it. "When the reduction shall have been thus made, as to the ships paid off, their Lordships will direct their attention to those which it may be found necessary to keep in commission, and, as soon as the circumstances of the war will admit, will bring home and discharge all persons having the same standing and periods of service, as those before discharged from the ships paid off; so that in a few months, the situation of individuals will be equalized; all men of a certain pe riod of service will be at liberty to return home to their families; and the number which it may be still necessary to retain will be composed of those who have been the shortest time in the service. "An arrangement in itself so just, cannot, in their Lordships opinion, fail to give universal satisfaction; and they are induced to make this communication to the fleet, because they think that the exemplary good conduct of ail the petty officers, seamen, and marines, entitle them to every confidence, and to this full and candid explanation of their Lordships' intentions. "Their Lordships cannot conclude without expressing their hope, that the valour of his Majesty's fleets and armies will speedily bring the American contest to a conclusion honourable to the British name, safe for British interests, and conducive to the lasting repose of the civilized world. By command of their Lordships, : ral of the Kingdom of France; and whereas, for the putting an end to the calamities of war, as soon, and as far as may be possible, it hath been agreed between his Majesty and his Most Christian Majesty as follows: that is to say, that as soon as the Convention shall be signed and ratified, friendship should be established between his Majesty and the kingdom of France by sea and land, in all parts of the world and in order to prevent all causes of complaint and dispute which might arise with respect to prizes that might be made at sea after the signature of the said Convention, it has also been reciprocally agreed, that the vessels and effects which might be taken in the English Channel and in the North Seas, after the space of 12 days, to be reckoned from the exchange of the ratifications of the said Convention, should be restored on both sides; that the term should be one month within the British Channel and North Seas to the Canary Islands, and to the Equator; and five months in every other part of the world, without any exception, or other particular distinction of time or place. And whereas the ratifications of the said Convention were exchanged by the respective Plenipotentiaries abovementioned, on the 3d day of this inst. May, from which day the several terms abovementioned, of 12 days, of one month, and five months, are to be computed: Now, in order that the several epochs fixed as aforesaid between his Majesty and His Most Christian Majesty should be generally known and observed, we have thought fit, in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, and by and with the advice of his Majesty's Privy Council, to notify the same to his Majesty's loving subjects; and we do hereby, in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, strictly charge and command all his Majesty's Officers both at sea and land, and all other his Majesty's subjects whatsoever, that they forbear all acts of hostility, either by sea or land, against the kingdom of France, her Allies, her vassals, or subjects, under the penalty of incurring his Majesty's highest displeasure. Given at the Court at Carlton House, the sixth day of May, in the 54th year of His Majesty's reign, and in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fourteen. God save the King. ADDRESS OF THE LORDS ON THE SLAVE TRADE. "To His Royal Highness the Prince Regent.-The Humble Address of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, in Parliament assembled. "May it Please your Royal Highness; "Relying with perfect confidence on the solemn assurances received by parliament in 1806 and 1810, that his Majesty's government would employ every proper means to obtain a convention of the Powers of Europe, for the immediate and universal Abolition of the African Slave Trade-we most humbly and earnestly represent to your Royal Highness, that the happy and glorious events which promise the general pacification of Christendom, the present union and and assembly of its greatest sovereigns, and the great and generous principles which they proclaim as the rule of their conduct, afford a most auspicious opportunity for interposing the good offices of Great Britain to accomplish the above noble purpose, with the weight which belongs to her rank among nations, to the services which she has rendered to European independence, and to the unanimous and zealous concurrence of her parliament and people. "We feel ourselves authorized by our own abolition of this trade, of the guilty profit of which we enjoyed the largest share, by the fellowship of civilization, of religion, and even of common humanity, to implore the other members of the commonwealth of Europe to signalize the restoration of its order and security, by the prohibition of this detestable commerce, the common stain of the Christian name; a system of crimes by which the civilized professors of a beneficent religion spread desolation, and perpetual barbarism, among helpless savages, whom they are bound by the most sacred obligations of duty to protect, to instruct, and to reclaim. "We humbly represent to your Royal Highness, that the high rank which this kingdom holds among maritime and colonial states, imposes a very serious duty upon the British government at this important juncture. Unless we interpose with effect to procure a general abolition, the practical result of the restoration of peace will be to revive a traffic which we have prohibited as a crime, to open the sea to swarms of piratical adven turers, who will renew and extend on the shores of Africa the scenes of carnage and rapine in a great measure suspended by maritime hostilities: and the peace of Christendom will kindle a thousand ferocious wars among wretched tribes ignorant of our quarrels and of our very name. "The nations who have owed the security of their navigation to our friendship, and whom we have been happy enough to aid in expelling their oppressors, and maintaining their independence, cannot listen without respect to our voice raised in the cause of justice and humanity. Among the great states, till of late our enemies, maritime hostility has in fact abolished the trade for 20 years. No interest is engaged in it; and the legal permission to carry it on would practically be a new establishment of it, after the complete development of its horrors. "We humbly trust, that in the moral order by which Divine Providence administers the government of the world, this great act of atonement to Africa may contribute to consolidate the safety, and prolong the tranquillity of Europe; that the nations may be taught a higher respect for justice and humanity by the example of their sovereigns; and that a treaty sanctified by such a disinterested and sacred stipulation may be more profoundly reverenced, and more religiously observed, than even the most equitable compacts for the regulation of power, or the distribution of territory." The Address was agreed to nem. dis. and ordered to be presented by the lords with white staves. ROYAL |