Though the evils of war have been felt among you longer than we had hoped, I am at least conscious that I have neglected nothing to alleviate the burden. The peace, which has given repose to Europe, is going to confirm the happiness of the people of Belgium and Holland: already connected by the natural bonds of a common descent, of common industry and virtues, you will find the pledge of your durable prosperity in the strict conformity of your administration. Belgium, under the government of the Serene House of Orange, under a system the most favourable to its commerce, and with the preservation of its religion and manners, will soon be restored to its ancient lustre. Your fine cities, Ghent, Bruges, Ostend, Antwerp, &c. the monuments of your national industry, which languished in the late unhappy times, will again rival in industry and prosperity the first commercial nations. People of Belgium! the general interest of Europe destines you an enviable fate; an indissoluble union shall ensure its duration, under the most venerable guarantee that human power can give. Permit me, after having in these difficult times struggled with you against adversity, to indulge a hope that you will sometimes remember me in the days of your prosperity. Baron de VINCENT. Brussels, July 31st. At the same time the following was published in Dutch and French: William, by the Grace of God, Prince of Orange Nassau, Sove Europe owes its deliverance to the magnanimity of the allied sovereigns; soon it will owe to their wisdom a political system, which will ensure to agitated nations long years of prosperity and repose. The new destination of your beautiful provinces is a necessary part of this system; and the negociations which are going to be opened at Vienna will have for their object to have it recognized, and consolidate the extension of Belgium on a basis conformable to your interests, to that of your neighbours, and of all Europe. Called to the government of your country for the short interval which still separates us from the future so long desired, I come among you with the wish of being useful to you-with all the sentiments of a friend, of a father. I desire to be assisted by the most enlightened, the most respected among you, in the honourable task assigned me by the confidence of the allied monarchs, and of which I basten to acquit myself in person. To put an end to the evils which still bear heavy upon Belgium, notwithstanding the firm, wise, and liberal conduct of Baron de Vincent in the difficult times in which he has exercised the office of governor-general; to honour and protect your religion; to give the nobility the splendour due to its merit; to encourage agriculture, commerce, and all branches of industry; these will be my most delightful duties, the objects of iny most incessant care. Happy Happy if, in multiplying my claims to your esteem, I shall succeed in preparing and facilitating the union which is to fix your destiny, and which will permit my love to make no difference between you and that people, whom nature herself seems to have destined to form with Belgium one powerful and prosperous state. Given at Brussels, 1st August. By his Royal Highness, (Signed) A. R. FALCK. Proclamation of the King of Swe den to the Norwegians. At the moment when our wellbeloved Son, the Prince Royal of Sweden, is about to put himself at the head of our forces, by sea and land, in order to take possession of the kingdom of Norway; we cannot refuse to our paternal heart the satisfaction of once more opening the path of peace and conciliation to our misled subjects, before the calamities inevitable from the entrance of an armed force confound the innocent with the guilty. Inhabitants of Norway! Your political existence has been irrevocably decided by the great results of the war, and sanctioned by the most solemn treaties. A few factious persons, who would deceive your truth and good faith, no longer have it in their power to oppose obstacles to the establishment in the North of a new order of things, which has been unanimously gua'ranteed by all the preponderating powers of Europe. The incontestable rights of Sweden to the union of Norway have been too dearly purchased by the blood and patriotic efforts of our subjects, that we should hesitate a single instant to render them effectual, and to support them by all the means which Providence has placed at our disposal. For all the sacrifices by which we have contributed to the general deliverance of Europe, we have desired no other reward but the future peace and tranquillity of the Scandinavian Peninsula. It was to facilitate the happy union of Norway to Sweden, and to cement it by all the principles of honour and good faith, that we consented to restore to the King of Denmark the most valuable of his continental possessions, conquered and then occupied by our victorious troops and those of our allies. It was in consideration of this object, so much desired, that we hastened at once to put a stop to the payment of all the contributions which had already been imposed on the Danish provinces; that we solemnly renounced all the old claims which we were entitled to make on the court of Copenhagen in favour of our subjects, and that we added to these disinterested conditions of peace offers still more considerable, and sacrifices very painful to our heart, as an ulterior indemnity for the peaceable cession of Norway. Unfortunately a single individual has hitherto disregarded all our efforts, and those of our august allies. That individual is the late governor of his Danish Majesty, who takes upon him to abuse your confidence, in order to make you act criminally towards the powers who have sanctioned the union of the Scandinavian states, and who have all all recognized the justice of our cause, and the moderation of our conduct. In vain would Prince Christian rest upon the independence of your existing position; an independence equally contrary to your own interests, and to the invariable principles of sound policy; for if the King of Denmark absolved you from your oath of fidelity to him, he imposed upon you at the same time the indispensable duty of contracting with us and the crown of Sweden, the same obligations which previously attached you to the Danish, monarchy; and it was only in consequence of the assurances given us, that on our part concessions so important were yielded. People of Norway! It is to the frankness of your national character that we again address these words of peace and confidence, before enforcing the justice of our cause by arms. In vain did we often summon Prince Christian to obey the voice of honour and of duty. In vain did we address to you proclamations which should have enlightened you as to our beneficent intentions, and dispersed all the illusions by which some intriguing and factious men hoped to conceal from you your true position in regard to the other powers of Europe. Influenced, however, by the feelings of our paternal heart, to consider the Norwegians in no other light but as the ancient brothers of our Swedish subjects, we long flattered ourselves with being able to avoid every rigorous measure, that sooner or later the nation would loudly declare against the criminal audacity of a foreign prince, publicly disavowed by his own sovereign. It was, therefore, to make trial of every measure of mildness towards our new subjects, that we have hitherto delayed establishing our legitimate right by force of arms. In this interval the governor of Norway took upon himself to constitute there a representation of the people conformable to his private views, but in no respect consistent with the ancient usages of Norway. Foreign agents, connected with this prince by mutual interests, have taken part in the deliberations of this assembly, where an armed force had more influence than the voice of patriotism and the freedom of opinion; and the results of this assembly have answered the intentious of its chief, rather than the true interests of the nation. In such a state of affairs, a too great indulgence on our part could have no other effect but to encourage crime and the dark schemes of these enemies of public repose, who will never cease to labour against the happiness and independence of the Scandinavian peninsula. A prince equally a stranger to Sweden and to Norway, and solely attached to the interests of Denmark, has already authorized the most violent measures in order to constitute you rebels against your legitimate sovereign, and to place you in a state of open hostility with England, Russia, Prussia, and Austria. A crisis like this ought not to last, and cannot last much longer, without becoming essentially dangerous to all the neighbouring states, which are uniting their efforts to suppress in its origin that spirit of faction and discord which already threatens to shut up from the North of Europe the beneficial effects of the general peace. Invoking, therefore, the assist ance of the Almighty in favour of the justice of our cause, we have ordered our well-beloved son, the Prince Royal, to advance with all our forces, supported by those of our allies, upon the frontiers of Norway, to take possession of that kingdom, and there to convoke in our name, and under our royal authority, an assembly of the states of the Norwegian people, who after having been freely elected, will be entitled to deliberate on a new constitution, calculated to establish the future happiness of the nation, and which shall then be submitted to our royal approbation. We repeat, on this occasion, with pleasure, that far from desiring ever to infringe on any right or privileges which our Norwegian subjects have enjoyed to the present hour, we continue them anew, and in the most solemn manner; persuaded that the happiness and the future tranquillity of the Scandinavian peninsula will require nothing of the two nations but the indissoluble union of their reciprocal interests. We therefore, by these presents, declare the diet convoked by Prince Christian criminal and in contempt of our rights as well as those of all lawful sovereigns, and even of those of the Norwegian nation. We farther declare all the acts of authorities constituted by that diet null, and of no value nor obligation; and we expressly forbid all our Norwegian subjects to pay obedience to them, or to conform themselves to them, in any manner whatsoever. We alike order by these presents, all strangers who are now in Norway to depart from the kingdom forthwith, or to take the oath of submission and fidelity before our constituted authorities, under pain of being punished as rebels or spies. And to manifest yet more our paternal sentiments for our new subjects, we promise, in the most solemn manner, favour and pardon to all our native subjects of Noway, who may have been considered until now, as seduced by foreigners, if they hasten to return to their duty as subjects, and to obey with zeal and submission all the laws and ordinances which we have caused to be published to that effect. CHARLES. Proclamation of the Prince Royal of Sweden to the Norwegians. Norwegians, Destined by nature to an union with the Swedish nation, your faie was decided when the King of Denmark ceded to Sweden, by the peace of Kiel, his rights over Norway. The advantages which your old sovereign derived from that peace are known to you. He obtained, immediately after its signature, the evacuation of the duchies of Schlesvig and Holstein, the restoration of the fortresses of Gluckstadt and Fredericsort, an acknowledgment of the Sound duties, the giving up of more than twelve millions of contributions imposed on the duchies, the renunciation of an equal sum for captures made during peace; a considerable sum in money, of which part has been paid and finally, the promise of the cession of of Pomerania, upon the surrender and occupation of the fortress of Kongswinger, Frederickshall, Frederickstadt, and Aggerhuus. These great sacrifices were made to Denmark, only because she promised that you would peaceably, and without opposition, acknowledge the authority of the king of Sweden; and you will appreciate them, on reading the treaties which unitedSweden, Russia, England, Prussia, and Austria, against the common enemy. Norwegians! If in this age these treaties could be eluded by civilized nations, good faith would no longer exist upon earth. At the period when your government furnished to France some thousands of seamen to man ships of war, Sweden perceived the indispensable necessity of rendering herself independent of the continent; she refused to bow before the idol of the day, and confidently relying on herself, and on her constitutional laws, she dared to invoke them in favour of her children, and rejected the demand of an equal number of seamen: she did more, she unites herself at a period the most critical recorded in our annals, with a monarch whose destruction Napoleon had sworn. She feels proud, however, in having anticipated the resolution of so many other nations. Norwegians! Small states are always moved by the more powerful: you cannot form an insulated government; and the plan of the man who misleads you is to unite one day the crown of Norway to that of Denmark; but nature, in accordance with sound policy, wills that the Norwegians and the Swedes should be friends and brothers. It is also as brothers that the Swedes wish to live with you. Sweden and Norway united, and lending each other mutual support, will present on every side an impregnable front. Insulated and disunited, they will have every thing to fear both from themselves and from others. Look at England,— that island, so famous, founded her prosperity on a similar union. That of Norway to Sweden is guaranteed by the first powers of the world. An experience of many centuries proves that the divisions of the North always led to its ruin. This idea had struck the great Gustavus. After having laid the foundation of the peace of Europe, and consolidated the Protestant faith, his plan was to effect your union with Sweden: death put an end to his design. Its consequences have been pernicious to you. Norwegians! After the memorable battle of Leipsic, your interests must have told you, that your union with Sweden could alone constitute your happiness and establish your security. The great powers wish this union. All of them have recognized that it was time to put an end to the dissensions which must result from the separation of the two nations. Will you alone oppose the general will? Will you alone combat the Swedes and the sovereigns who have guaranteed your union with us? Their glory, their interests, the sanctity of treaties, in fine, demand its accomplishment. I come in the midst of you, with the hope that you will treat as brothers that brave army which I lead back from a campaign as glorious as astonishing. Neither this army, nor that which has been for a year stationed on your frontiers, desire laurels which must be tinged with your blood. The Swedes are |