of power in Europe, to insure the repose and independence of the different powers, and to prevent the arbitrary violations of the rights and territories of other States, by which the world has suffered for so many years together, the contracting powers have agreed to fix the duration of the present treaty for 20 years, reserving it to themselves, if circumstances should require it, to proceed to the prolongation of it three years before its expiration. Art. XVII. The present treaty shall be ratified, and the ratifications exchanged within two months, or sooner if possible. In testimony whereof, the respective plenipotentiaries have signed these presents, and affixed their seals. Done at Chaumont, March 1, (Feb. 17, 1814. (Signed) Prince de METTERNICH. [The treaties signed the same day with the King of Great Britain, and the King of Prussia, are word for word the same as the above. The first is signed by Lord Castlereagh, his Britannic Majesty's Minister of State for Foreign affairs; the second by Baron Hardenberg, Chancellor to his-Prussian Majesty.] 1 DUTCH POLITICAL CONSTITU TION. The Hague, March 3, 1814. We, William, by the grace of God Prince of Orange Nassau, Sovereign Prince of the United Netherlands, &c. To all whom these presents 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 possible abuses; and we have ever since continued to feel the necessity thereof. We regarded it, therefore, as one of the first and most sacred of our duties, to summon together some men of consideration, and to charge them with the weighty task of establishing a fundamental 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 fruits 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 recognised in this important work. That people must receive the strongest possible assurance, that their dearest interests are sufficiently attended to therein; that religion, as the fountain of all good, is thereby honoured and maintained, and religious freedom disturbed by nothing 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 freedom shall no longer be an an empty name, and dependent on the caprices of a suspicious and crafty police; that an impartial administration of justice, guided by fixed principles, secure to every man his property; that commerce, agriculture, and manufactures be no longer obstructed, but have free course, like rich springs of public and private prosperity; that, therefore, no restraint be imposed on the domestic economy of the higher and lower classes of the state, but that they be conformable to the general laws and the general gouernment; that the movements of the general Government be not palsied by too great a zeal for local interests, but rather receive from it an additional impulse; that the general laws, by means of an harmonious co-operation of the two principal branches of the Government, be founded on the true interests 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 independence, may be firmly fixed. Which of you can doubt of this truth, after the terrible experience you have had of a foreign tyranny, which acknowledged no right when it wanted means for its own maintenance by violence; after having sighed, of late years, under the most oppressive yoke that ever was imposed since the Spanish times? Now at least you know the true value of those precious rights for which our fathers sacrificed their property and blood; of that happiness which they bequeathed to their descendants; and which we saw lost through the adversity of the times! Following, therefore, and deriving encouragement from their example, it becomes my duty, in imitation of those whose name I bear, and whose memory I honour, to restore that which is lost: it is your duty to support me therein with all your efforts, that under the blessing of Divine Providence, who summons us to this task, we may leave our beloved country completely re-conquered and reestablished to our children. 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 numerous assembly of persons the most considerable and best qualified among you. We have for that purpose appointed a special commission, who are to choose, out of a numerous list given in to us, six hundred persons, in due proportion to the population of each of the now existing departments. Honoured with your confidence, they shall, on the 28th of this month, assemble in the metropolis of Amsterdam, to come to a determination upon this weighty business. They shall in like manner, with the letter of convocation, receive the plan of the constitution, that they may be able to prepare their decision thereon with maturity and calmness of deliberation; and for the more effectual attainment of this object, a copy of the same shall be sent to each member previously. And And as it is of the first importance that these Members be possessed of the general confidence, we order that a list of the persons chosen 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 or persons as he may deem unqualified. No inhabitant is deprived of this right, with the exception of domestic servants, valets, bankrupts, persons in a state of non-age, or under accusation. When it shall appear to us, from the summing up of the registers, that the majority are satisfied with the persons thus submitted to their election, we shall consider them as the representatives of the whole Dutch people, call them together, appear in the midst of them, and salute them as constituting the great assembly, representing the United Nether lands. 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 constitutional 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, assisted by the best and most intelligent of the citizens; and will secure to me the continuance of that affection, the expressions of which rejoice my heart, animate my courage, lighten my burthen, and bind me and my house for ever to our regenerated country. Given at the Hague this 2d of March, 1814, and of our reign the 1st. protection granted to us by the Almighty, every thing, in short, must encourage us to persevere without relaxation in our efforts for the welfare of the country. Precisely four months have expired this day since my return to the Netherlands; and during that short period, the progress which we have made in the important work of the restoration of the State, has greatly exceeded all that we might have dared to expect. Foreign powers have not confined themselves to applauding the recovery of our independent existence they have also manifested by deeds which must inspire us with boundless gratitude, their satisfaction at witnessing the sovereignty conferred upon my house. The most important of our foreign relations,-those which subsist between us and the generous British nation, will soon acquire, by the marriage of my eldest son, a new degree of intimacy and of reciprocal regard. -- But what gives me the chief hope for the future, is the experience which I have acquired of the sentiments and of the good disposition of the nation itself. Its devotion to the good cause has enabled me, notwithstanding the exhaustion of this country, and its dilapidated resources, to raise, in the space of a few weeks, more than 25,coo troops; the greater part of whom, well armed and equipped, will soon be collected on our frontiers, under the command of my two sons. Its unanimity in all that concerns the great interests of the country has been displayed in the most marked manner by the prompt organization of the militia, the levy in mass, and the national guards, and as now also by the acceptance of the Constitution. I am persuaded, Gentlemen, that I shall only anticipate the wishes of you all, by immediately applying myself to the enforcement of that Constitution, as well as by adopting all the measures, and establishing all the arrangements, without which its effects would remain long incomplete and imperfect. That important task, therefore, shall be henceforward the main object of my attention: and in discharging it, I shall be guided by the same impartiality, and the same solicitude for the public welfare, which I have endeavoured hitherto to display in all the acts of my government. As long as no inroad shall be made on the spirit or the letter of the constitution, the country will be sheltered from all dissentions, from all contests about authority, and all rivalry between the provinces. It allots to reasonable citizens all the liberty, to the Sovereign all that extent of power, which they can respectively desire: at the same time that the people and the Prince, the governors and the governed, find in its equitable and liberal arrangements, what is calculated to establish and secure their mutual agreement and co-operation. In these sentiments, the fruits of a long and deliberate examination, and which are still farther fortified and exalted by the solemnity of this memorable moment, I declare myself ready, in presence of this assembly, as representing the United Netherlands, to take the oath which the Constitution has prescribed to the Sovereign Prince. SWEDISH SWEDISH DECLARATION. His Majesty the King of Sweden having declared to the people of Norway, by the Proclamation addressed to them, that he reserved to them all the essential rights which constitute public liberty, and having engaged himself expressly to leave to the nation the faculty of establishing a constitution analogous to the wants of the country, and founded chiefly upon the two bases of national represention and the right of taxing themselves; these promises are now renewed in the most formal manner. The King will by no means interfere directly in the new Constitutional Act of Norway, which must, however, be submitted for his acceptance. He wishes only to trace the first lines of its foundation, leaving to the people the right of erecting the rest of the building. His Majesty is also invariably determined not to amalgamate the financial systems of the two countries. In consequence of this principle, the debts of the two crowns shall always remain separate from each other, and no tax shall be collected in Norway for the purpose of paying the debts of Sweden, and vice versa. The intention of his Majesty is not to suffer the revenue of Norway to be sent out of the country. The expense of administration being deducted, the rest shall be employed in objects of general utility, and in a sinking fund for the extermination of the national debt. Circular Letter from the King of Denmark, addressed to the Magistrates, and the inhabitants in general, of the kingdom of Nor. way: The situation in which Denmark and Norway were at the end of last year, made it our duty as Sovereign to give up one of the sister kingdoms to prevent the ruin of both. The Treaty of Peace concluded at Kiel on the 14th of January, this year, was the consequence.— By this we gave the solemn promise, which never has been, nor shall be broken on our side, to renounce all our claims to Norway, and to appoint Commissioners to deliver the fortresses, the public money, domains, &c. to the Plenipotentiaries named by the King of Sweden. We commanded his Highness Prince Christian, then Governor of Norway, to execute in our name what we had promised. We gave him the most positive instructions, and on the 19th of January gave him our Royal full powers for the persons whom he should appoint to execute the treaty. Then we released all the inhabitants of Norway from their allegiance, and impressed on them the duties which for the future they owed to the King of Sweden, We have learnt with heartfelt grief, that our nearest and most beloved relation, to whom we gave the government of Norway with unlimited confidence, instead of executing our commands, has ventured to neglect them, and even to declare Norway an to declare Norway an independent kingdom, and bimself the Regent of it; to refuse to give up what the King of Sweden had a right, according to the treaty, to demand; and finally, that he has even seized upon our ships of war |