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ceffors in co-operation with the other branch of the legislature. The important objects which remain to be accomplished, will, I am perfuaded, be conducted upon principles equally comprehenfive, and equally well calculated for the advancement of the general weal.

The time limited for receiving fubfcriptions to the loans propofed by the act making provifion for the debt of the United States having expired, statements from the proper department will, as foon as poffible, apprife you of the exact refult. Enough, however, is already known, to afford an af furance that the views of that act have been fubftantially fulfilled. The fubfcription in the domeftic debt of the United States has embraced by far the greatest proportion of that debt; affording, at the fame time, proof of the general fatisfaction of the public creditors with the fyftem which has been propofed to their acceptance, and of the fpirit of accommodation to the convenience of the government with which they are actuated. The fubfcriptions in the debts of the refpective ftates, as far as the provifions of the law have permitted, may be faid to be yet more general. The part of the debt of the United States which remains unfubfcribed, will naturally engage your further deliberations.

It is particularly pleafing to me to be able to announce to you, that the revenues which have been established promife to be adequate to their objects, and may be permitted, if no unforeseen exigency occurs, to fuperfede, for the prefent, the neceffity of any new burdens upon our constituents.

An object which will claim your early attention, is a provifion for the current fervice of the enfuing year, together with fuch afcertained demands upon the Treasury as require to be immediately discharged, and fuch cafualties as may have arifen in the execution of the public business, for which no fpecific appropriation may have been made; of all of which, a proper etimate will be laid before you.

Gentlemen of the Senate and of the
Houfe of Reprefentatives,

I fhall content myfelf with a general reference to former communications for feveral objects, upon which the urgency of other affairs has hitherto poftponed any definitive refolution their importance will recal them to your attention; and I truft that the progrefs already made in the most arduous arrangements of the government will afford you leifure to refume them with advantage.

There are, however, fome of them of which I cannot forbear a more particular mention, Thefe are the Militia-the Poft

Office and Poft Roads the Mint-Weights and Measures-a Provifion for the Sale of the Vacant Lands of the United States.

The first is certainly an object of primary importance, whether viewed in reference to the national fecurity, to the fatisfaction of the community, or to the prefervation of order. In connection with this, the establish ment of competent magazines and arfenals, and the fortification of fuch places as are peculiarly important and vulnerable, naturally prefent themfelves to confideration. The fafety of the United States, under divine protection, ought to reft on the basis of syftematic and folid arrangement, expofed as little as poffible to the hazards of fortuitous circumftances.

The importance of the Poft Office and Poft Roads, on a plant fufficiently liberal and comprehenfive, as they respect the expedi tion, fafety, and facility of communication, is increafed by the inftrumentality in diffufing a knowledge of the laws and proceedings of the government, which, while it contributes to the fecurity of the people, ferves alfo to guard them against the effects of mifreprefentation and mifconception. The establishment of additional cross-pofts, especially to fome of the important points in the Weftern and Northern points of the Union, cannot fail to be of material utility,

The diforders in the exifting currency, and especially the fcarcity of small change, a fcarcity fo peculiarly diftreffing to the poorer claffes, ftrongly recommend the carrying into immediate effect the refolution already entered into concerning the establifhment of a mint. Meafures have been taken pursuant to that refolution for procuring fome of the most neceffary articles, together with the requifite apparatus,

An uniformity in the weights and meafures of the country is among the important objects fubmitted to you by the Conftitution; and if it can be derived from a ftandard at once invariable and univerfal, must be no lefs honourable to the public Councils than conducive to the public convenience.

A provifion for the fale of the vacant lands of the United States is particularly urged, among other reafons, by the important confiderationsthat they are pledged as a fund for reimburfing the public debtthat, if timely and judiciously applied, they may fave the neceflity of burdening our citizens with new taxes for the extinguish. ment of the principal-and that, being free to difcharge the principal but in a limited proportion, no opportunity ought to be loft for availing the public of its right.

G. WASHINGTON. United States, Oct. 25, 1791.

Серу

Copy of the Declaration of the Court of Vienna to the Powers of Europe.

His Imperial Majefty makes known to all the Courts, to whom he fent the first circular letter, dated Padua the 6th July, (now adding to the number, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, and Portugal,) that the fituation of the King of the French, which occafioned the faid circular letter, being changed, he thinks it his duty to manifeft to the faid powers his prefent manner of thinking.

His Imperial Majefty thinks that the King of the French should be confidered as FREE; and, in confequence, his acceptation, and all the fubfequent acts, as valid. He hopes, that the effects of the faid acceptation will reftore good order in France, and that the moderate party may prevail according to the views of his Moft Chriftian Majefty. But as the hopes of the King may, contrary to all appearance, be abortive, and as all the diforders of riot, and excefs of violence, in regard to the King, may be renewed, his Imperial Majefty thinks, that all the powers to whom this is addreffed, ought not yet to defift from the measure concerted between

them, but continue vigilant; and that they ought to declare, by their refpective Minifters at Paris, that their coalition fubfifts, and that they are ready to fupport, on every occafion, the rights of the King, and of the French Monarchy.

Vienna, Nov. 19,1791.

The Letter, of which the following is a tranflation, we find inferted, as authentic, in one of the most refpectable French Papers.

•Letter from her Majefty the Empress of all the Raffias, to the Marfball de Broglio;

Marfball de Broglio,

"I addrefs myself to you, to make known to the French Nobility, banifhed and perfecuted, but ftill unfhaken in their fidelity and attachment to their Sovereign, how fenfibly have felt the fentiments which they profeffed to me in their letter of 20th September. The moft illuftrious of your Kings gloried in calling themfelves the firft Gentlemen of their kingdom. Henry IV. was particularly defirous of bearing this title. It was not an empty compliment that he paid to your ancestors; but he thus taught them, that without Nobility there could be no monarchy; and that their intereft to defend and maintain it was infeparable from his. They underfood the leffon, and lavished their blood and their efforts to re-establish the rights of their mafters and their own. Do you, their worthy defcendants, to whom the unhappy circumflances of your country

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open the fame career, continue to tread in their steps, and let the fpirit which animated them, and which you appear to inherit, be difplayed in your actions.

"Elizabeth fuccoured Henry IV. who triumphed over the League at the head of your anceflors.-The example of that Queen is worthy of being imitated by pofterity; and I fhall deferve to be compared to her by my perfeverance in my fentiments for the efcendant of the fame hero, to whom I have as yet only fhewn my wifhes and my good intentions. In efpouling the common caufe of Kings in that of your Monarch, I do no more than the duty of the rank which hold on earth: I liften only to the pure dictates of a fincere and difinterefted friendfhip for your Princes, the King's brothers, and the defire of affording a conftant fupport to every faithful fervant of your Sovereign.

"Such are the difpofitions of which I have charged Count Romanzow to affure thofe Princes. As no caufe was ever more grand, more juft, more noble, or more deferving to excite the zeal and the courage of all who have devoted themfelves to defend it and to fight for it, I cannot but augur fuccefs the most fortunate and analogous to the withes I have formed; and I pray God to have you, and all the French Nobility who participate your fentiments, and adhere to your principles, in his most holy keeping.

(Signed) CATHARINE."

St. Petersburgh, Oct. 29, 1791.

WARSAW, Nov. 25.

Prince Abam Czartorinfki and Count Mortowfki fet off yesterday for Drefden to have a conference with the Electoral Cabinet, relative to the obitacles which have hitherto retarded the Elector's acceptance of the hereditary throne of Poland.

The principal of these obstacles are the following:

1. That no act of the Diet fhall have the force of a law, until it fhall have received the Royal fanction.

2. That the marriage of the Princefs Infanta fhall folely be at the difpofal of her Auguft Parents.

(By the conftitution this marriage is to be approved at leaft by the nation,

3. That the King's authority over the army fhall be fupreme, and uncontrouled.

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at foreign Courts with regard to the Emi-
grants, decreed in the following terms:

“The National Affembly decrees that a
deputation of twenty-four of its members
fhall wait upon the King, to communicate
to him, in the name of the Affembly, its
folicitude on the dangers that threaten the
country, by the perfidious combination of
Frenchmen, armed and embodied without
the kingdom, and of those who devife plots
within it, or excite the citizens to revolt
against the law; and to declare to the King
that the nation will fee with fatisfaction all
wife measures that the King can take for
the purpose of requiring the Electors of
Treves and Mayence, and the Bishop of
Spire, conformably to the Rights of Nations,
to disperse the affemblages of French Emi-
grants; that with the fame confidence in
the wifdom of fuch measures, the nation
will fee the neceffary troops affembled to
compel thofe Princes to refpect the law of
nations by force of arms, if these affem-
blages fhould continue; and, finally, that the
National Affembly has thought it its duty
to make this folemn declaration, to the end
that the King may prove in the official com-
munications of thefe impreffive meafures, to
the Diet of Ratifbon, and all the Courts of
Europe, that his intentions, and those of the
French nation, are the fame."

The fame deputation will reprefent to the King, that the Affembly confiders as one of the most efficacious measures to this effect, the fpeedy termination of the negociations for the indemnities due to the Princes who poffeffed feudal rights in Alface.

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Conftitution, makes it neceffary for me to recapitulate its principles with regard to the point in quefton.

"The Constitution determining, in the moft precife manner, the different relations of the King with the Legislative Body, has attached to the Royal Prerogative the right of propofing laws upon, certain fubjects, and of inviting the Legislative. Body to take others into confideration. The act by which the King judges it proper to exercife either of thefe rights, being always an act purely Royal, of the fame nature as the Royal fanction, requires, like that, the counter-fignature of the Minifter, only to attest the signature of the King, and imports not any kind of refponfibility; whereas the requifition of funds for the ordinary and extraordinary expences of Government, being evidently acts purely executive, ought always to proceed directly from the Ministers of the King, in order to have the guarantee of their responsibility.

"Such is the fpirit and the general fyftem of the Constitution, the bafis of which is laid in the following difpofition :

The King can only invite the Legislative Body to take a fubject into confideration." Chap. 3. Sect. 1. Art. 3.

"I fhall make ufe of this power, whenever the glory, the happiness, and the interest of the nation require it.

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Paragraph the 8th of the fame article, delegates to the Legislative Body the right of determining annually, after the propofition of the King, the number of men and fhips that fhall compofe the armies by land and by fea, as well as the pay and the number of individuals of each rank." "I fhall conform to this article in the geTHE KING'S LETTER TO THE NATIONAL neral statements, which I fhall addrefs to the

November 24.

ASSEMBLY.

"I am informed, Mr Prefident, that the National Affembly, after having heard the report of their Diplomatic Committee, on the propofition contained in the letter from the Minifter of Marine, dated the 31st of Oct. concerning the demands of the Dey of Algiers, and the fums to be voted for the armament ordered at Toulon, have decreed that there was no room for deliberation on the propofition, it not coming to them in a conftitutional form.

"I have already remarked, on occafion of the funds defined for the armaments for San Domingo, that the Conflitution did not prefcribe any form different from that followed by the Minister of Marine, when he made, by my order, a demand of thofe funds, under his own refponfibility; but fince the fame difficulty is now again renewed, on occafion of the armament folicited to protect the commerce of Marfeilles; the obligation I have contracted to employ all the power entrusted to me in maintaining the

Legislative Body at the commencement of each year, and in the particular propofitions of the fame nature, as the extraordinary circumstances may require in the course of the year.

"War cannot be decided upon, except "by a decree of the Legislative Body, "made after the King's formal and nécef"fary propofition, and fanctioned by him.” (Chap. 3. Sec. 1. Art. 2.)

"I hope that I may not ever be in the fituation to addrefs a propofition of this nature to the Affembly. Peace is too neceffary to the happiness of France, that I fhall not ufe every means confiftent with the honour of the nation to maintain it.

"The following difpofition of the fame article imports, "That, in cafe of hoftilities "threatened, or already begun, or of an

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ally to be fupported, or of a right to be "enforced by arms, the King fhall give notice of it without any delay to the Le"giflative Body, and hall acquaint it with his motives."

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4 I fhall

"I fhall always conform to this difpofition with that extreme circumspection the intereft of the State requires; it would be to depart from this laft in a dangerous manner to communicate fimple doubts of the isteation of a neighbouring power as a threatened hoftility; in fuch a cafe it would be fufficient to take precautionary measures; and it is to the King exclufively that the nation has delegated this important care, I am now occupied in this care, and I shall always be fo with the moft active diligence; and the extraordinary funds which the different armaments have required, and the movement of troops which I have judged neceffary, have all along been ordered on the fimple demand of the minifters of war and of Marine, made by my orders; because, according to the terms of the Constitution, the Legislative Body are to order the funds according to their view of the expences to be made in their respective departments. This article indeed mentions only the ordinary expences; but it is impoffible not to apply it to the extraordinary expences of the fame nature.

"The Conflitution, not having preferibed to me a different form relative to thefe expences, has neceffarily ranged them in the fame clafs, fubjecting them to the fame refponfibility, by the 5th article of the fame fection, which could not be if they were to proceed from the King immediately, instead of being made by his minifters, who are the agents which the Conftitution has given him for acts purely executive.

"The 5th article of the 4th fection, chapter the 3d, imports, "That all the acts "of the King's correspondence with the "Legiflative Body ought to be counterfigned by a minifter."

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"But it would be to give the Conftitution a tendency the most contrary to the principles which are its bafis, to conclude that all the acts which folely intereft the Executive Power, ought neceffarily to be the fubject of the perfonal correfpondence of the King, becaufe from this would refult an entire deficiency of refponfibility, and an abfolute inaction in the proceedings of Adminiftration, every time the King chofe to be filent.

"The Conftitution, without determining the cafes in which the perfonal correfpondence of the King would be neceffary, has only expreffed that all the acts of that correfpondence fould be counterfigned by a minifter.

"The Conftitution has expreffed nothing farther. It is my duty to be determined by it, heraufe it formally interdicts all the conftituted powers from the right of changing it, either wholly, or in its parts.

LOUIS."

(Signed) And underfigned, DEBERTRAND,

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"May I flatter myself, that, notwithftanding the importance of affairs in which you are engaged, you will deign to remember a profeffor, who, confined to Paris by his profeffion, ftill fubfifting, though ruined, retained there alfo by his age, which hinders him from joining the faithful fervants of the King, fends thither his only fon to fupply his place, and takes the liberty of recommending him to your protection.

"This fon was Comptroller General of the Farms: he has ferved under M. Neuilly, Farmer General, who has the honour of being known to you, and who will give a good character of my boy. He has, befides, the honour of being particularly known to Mr President Gilbert Devoifins. May the project which you have conceived for the deliverance of the nation, and the re-eftablifhment of order and tranquillity in the kingdom, be fpeedily and happily executed. (Signed) DELATRE."

In confequence of this letter, the writer was feized and brought to the bar of the Houfe, where he frankly avowed the letter, and was accordingly conducted to prifon.

A letter was read from the Procurator of fome difturbances at Montpellier, by Syndic of the department, giving an account which feveral perfons had loft their lives.

December 14.

At four in the afternoon the Affembly met, and the President read a note from the King, announcing his intention of coming down to the Alfembly at fix.

As the note contained no intimation of the bufinefs on which his Majefty meant to come down, the Prefident was authorised to return an immediate anfwer; and it was fetled, that the Affembly, after taking into confideration the propofitions which the King might make, fhould make known the refult by a ineflage.

The beating of drums announced the King's approach; the attendants of the Affembly placed two feats. ornamented with fleurs de lys in gold before the Prefident's chair; a deputation fent to receive the King, entered before him; the Uthers proclaimed his arrival; the Members all food up uncovered; the Profident announced that the Affembly was no longer a deliberative body, and that no perfon must fpeak; the King entered, furrounded by his Ministers, took

his place, and delivered the following fpeech:

"GENTLEMEN,

"I have taken your meffage of the 20th of laft month into deep confideration, In a cafe that involves the honour of the French. people, and the fafety of the empire, Ithought it my duty to be myfelf the bearer of my anfwer. The nation cannot but applaud thefe communications between its elected and its hereditary Reprefentatives.

"You have invited me to take decifive measures to effect a ceilation of those external affemblages which keep up a hateful difquiet and fermentation in the bofom of France, render neceffary an oppreffive augmentation of expence, and expofe liberty to greater danger than an open and declared war. You defire me to caufe declarations to be made to the neighbouring Princes, who, contrary to the rules of good neighbourhood, and the principles of the law of nations, protect these assemblages, that the nation can no longer fuffer this want of reSpect, and thofe fources of hoftility. Finally, you have given me to understand, that one general emotion is felt by the nation, and that the cry of all the French is for war, in preference to a ruinous and degrading patience.

"Gentlemen, I have long thought that our circumstances required great circumfpection in our measures; that having fcarce ly yet weathered the agitations and the ftorms of a Revolution, and in the firft effays of an infant Conftitution, no means ought to be neglected that could preferve France from the innumerable evils of war; these means I have always employed. On the one hand, I have done every thing to recall the French Emigrants to the bofom of their, country, and induce them to fubmit to the new laws which a great majority of the nation has adopted; on the other, I have employed amicable intimations, I have caufed formal and precife requifitions to be made, to the neighbouring Princes, from giving them a fupport calculated to flatter their hopes, and encourage them in their rafh defigns.

"The Emperor has done all that was to be expected from a faithful ally, by forbidding and difperfing all affemblages within his flates.

"My measures at the Courts of other Princes have not been equally fuccefsful. Unaccomodating anfwers have been given to my requifitions.

"These unjust refufals call for refolutions of another kind. The nation has manifefted its wishes. You have collected them, you have weighed the confequences, you have expreffed them to me by your meffage. Gentlemen, you have not anticipated me. As the reprefentative of the people, I felt

to

the people's injuries; and I am now to ill form you of the refolution I have taken purfue reparation.

"I have caufed a declaration to be made to the Elector of Treves, that if before the 15th of January he do not put a flop within his ftates to all collecting of troops, and all hoftile difpofitions on the part of the French, who have taken refuge in them, I fhall no longer confider him but as the enemy of France. [Shouts of applause and Vive le Roi. I fhall caufe fimilar declarations to be made to all who favour affemblages contrary to the tranquillity of the kingdom; and by fecuring to foreigners all the protection which they ought to expect from our laws, I fhali have a right to demand a speedy and complete reparation of all the injuries which Frenchmen may have received.

"I have written to the Emperor to engage him to continue his good offices, and, if neceffary, to exert his authority as head of the empire, to avert the evils which the obftinacy of certain members of the Germanic body, if longer perfifted in, cannot fail to occafion. Much may undoubtedly be expected from this interpofition; fupported by the powerful influence of his example; but I am at the fame time making the most proper military arrangements to render thefe declarations refpected.

"And if they fhall not be attended to, then, Gentlemen, it will only remain for me to propofe war; war, which a people who has folemnly renounced conqueft never makes without neceffity; but which a nation, happy and free, knows how to undertake when its own fafety-when honour commands.

"But in courageoufly abandoning ourfelves to this refolution, let us haften to employ the only means that can affure its fuccefs. Turn your attention, Gentlemen, to the state of the finances; confirm the national credit; watch over the public fortune. Let yout deliberations, always governed by conftitutional principles, take a grand, high fpirited, and authoritative courie, the only one that befits the legiflators of a great empire. Let the conftituted powers refpect themselves to be refpected; let them give mutual aid instead of mutual impediment; and finally, let it appear that they are diftinct, but not enemies. It is time to fhew to foreign nations, that the French people, their reprefentatives, and their King, are but one.

"It is to this union, and alfo let us never forget it, to the refpect we pay to the government of other states, that the fafety, the confideration, and the glory of the empire are attached.

"For me, Gentlemen, it would be in vain to endeavour to furround with disgusts the exercife of the authority which is con

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