Treaty of Peace between the French republic and the Infant Duke of Parma, Placentia, and Guaftalla. THE French republic and his royal highness the infant duke of Parma, Placentia, and Guaftalla, defiring to re-establish the ties of amity which formerly fubfifted between the two ftates, and to put an end, as much as in their power, to the calamities of war, have accepted, with eagerness, the mediation of his Catholic majefty, and have named for the plenipotentiaries, that is to fay, the executive directory, in the name of the French republic, the citizen Charles Delacroix, minifter of foreign affairs, and his royal highness the infant duke of Parma, Meffieurs the count Pierre Politi and Don Louis Boll; who, after having exchanged their refpective powers, have determined upon and concluded definitively the following articles, under the mediation of his Catholic majefty, exercifed by the marquis del Campo, his ambaffador to the French republic, who has also presented his full powers:

ART. 1. There fhall be peace and amity between the French republic and his royal highnefs the infant duke of Parma; the two powers fhall carefully abftáin from every thing that may alter the good harmony and union eftablished between them by the present treaty.

2. Every act, engagement, or anterior convention, on the part of one or other of the two contracting powers, which might be contrary to the present treaty, fhall be confidered as null and void. In confequence, during the courfe of the prefent war, neither of the two powers fhall furnish to the enemies

any

of the other arms, warlike ammunition, provifions, or money, under whatever title and denomination it may be.

fuccours in troops,

3. The infant duke of Parma engages not to permit the emigrants, or banished persons of the French republic, to stop or fojourn in his ftate.

4. The French republic and his royal highness the infant duke of Parma engage to remove the fequeftration from all the effects, revenues, or goods, which may have been feized, confifcated, detained, or fold, from the citizens or fubjects of the other power, relative to the prefent war, and to admit them to the legal exercise of the actions or rights belonging to them.

5. The contributions ftipulated in the convention of armistice, figned at Placentia on the 20th of laft Floreal, between general Buonaparte in the name of the French republic, and the marquifes Pelle◄ viene and Phillippo delle Rofa in the name of the infant duke of Parma, fhall be fully discharged. There fhall neither be levied nor exacted any other; if there have been levied any contributions in money, or required any fupplies in provifions, beyond what is settled by the faid convention, the contributions in money thall be reimbursed, and the provifions paid for at the current price at the time of delivery. There fhall be named on each part, if neceffary, commiffaries to execute the prefent article.

6. From the fignature of the prefent treaty the ftates of his royal highness the infant duke of Parma fhall be treated as those of friendly and neutral powers; if there shall be fupplied any neceffaries to the

troops

troops of the republic, by his royal highnefs or his fubjects, they fhall be paid for at a price agreed upon. 7. The troops of the republic fhall enjoy a free paffage through the ftates of the infant duke of Parma.

8. One of the contracting powers fhall not grant a free paffage to the troops of the enemy of the other.

9. The French republic and his royal highnefs the infant duke of Parma defiring to eftablish and augment by ftipulations, reciprocally advantageous, the commercial. relations that exifted between their citizens and respective subjects, determined as follows:

10. Silks, grain, rice, olive oil, cattle, cheefe, wines, and other articles, the produce of the clates of his royal highness, fhall be exported to the territories of the republic without any reftrictions beyond thofe which the exigencies of the country may render neceflary. The faid reftrictions fhall never attach folely and especially upon the French citizen. There fhall even be granted every degree of preference for the purchafe of the objects (mentioned or alluded to in the prefent article) of which circumftances may suspend or restrain the exportation.

11. All articles being the produce of the republic, its colonies or fitheries, fhall be imported, free of duty, into the ftates of his royal highnefs, and exported from France, fubje&t only to fuch reftrictions as Focal circumftances may render neceffary.

12. All articles of French manufacture thall likewife be imported to the ftates of his royal highnels, unless he may deem it expedient, for the profperity of his own ma

nufactures, to impose certain reftri&tions or prohibitions; but thefe reftrictions shall in no case operate against French manufactures exclufively, to which his royal highness even undertakes to give all the preference he can confiftently with the profperity of the manufactures of his own ftates.

The above articles fhall be executed with the moft fcrupulous reciprocity for the introduction of the manufactures of his royal highnefs's ftates into France..

13. The mutual duties on exports and imports fhall be regulated by a feparate convention: in cafe that fuch convention should not be ratified by the republic, it is exprefsly agreed that the faid duties fhall be reciprocally ascertained and collected in the mode obferved with the countries the most favoured by the republic.

14. The produce of the lands of the republic, her colonies and fisheries, fhall be conveyed freely through the ftates of his royal high nefs, or lodged in warehoufes on their way to the other ftates of Italy, without the payment of customs, and liable only to a certain toll on their paffage, for the fupport of the highways; which thall be regulat ed with all poffible difpatch, and founded on a moderate footing between the contracting parties, at fo much per quintal per league. The toll fhall be payable at the firft office for entering the goods.

The above article thall alfo be in force in all parts of the republic; and all goods and merchandise the produce of the ftates of his royal highnefs the infant duke of Parma fhall be fubject to the fame regulations as above. And,

As the right of toll above men

tioned has been retained only with a view to contribute to the fupport of the bridges and highways, it is exprefsly ftipulated that the goods and merchandife conveyed by the rivers and navigable canals fhall be reciprocally exempt from duties of every defcription.

The contracting parties refpectively thall adopt the neceffary meafures for the due execution of the prefent and preceding articles.

15. In conformity to the fixth article of the treaty concluded at the Hague, the 22d Floreal, 3d year, the peace concluded by the prefent treaty is declared common with the Batavian republic.

16. The present treaty fhall be ratified, and the ratifications exchanged in one month at most from the prefent day, exclufively.

Done at Paris, in the 5th year of the French republic, one and

SEPARATE ARTICLE.

His royal highnefs ftipulates to grant a remiflion of one-fourth of the rights of importation on the goods and merchandife, being the produce of the republic, her colonies, fisheries, and manufactures, deftined for the home confumption of the fates, and alfo the right of exportation on the goods and merchandife, the produce of the ftates, and deftined for the foreign poffeffions of the republic; provided the French republic agree to a reciprocal diminution of duties.

I. On the goods and merchandife arifing from the ftates of his royal highness, at their entry on the territory of the republic.

CITIZENS,

AFTER fo many forms and critical emergencies, infeparable concomitants of a revolution, France enjoys at laft a conftitution worthy of a people who know how to value liberty.

Already under a truly republican government, the French people begin to reft from their long and arduous toil, and to enjoy the happy effects of the liberty which they have attained.

Firmly refolved to caufe the conftitution to be executed, the Exccutive Directory is conftantly employed in fearching out means to have it eftablished in all parts of the Republic.

The fixth article of the conftitution fiates, That the French colonies are infeparable parts of the Republic, and fubjected to the fame conftitutional law.

It is particularly for the execution of that article, that we have received from the government the honourable miffion intrufted to us; and, at the fame time, to let you

know

know all the means you ought to employ to preferve liberty and equality, which are the fundamental laws of the conftitution.

Citizens rally at the voice of the delegates of the republic, fince it is in her name, and for her dearest interefts, that they are going to address you.

The ancient government of the colonies had diftinguished three different claffes-the whites, the coloured people, and the flaves. To thofe different claffes, now united and honoured with the name of French citizens, we are going to fpeak alternately. We fhall firft addrefs that portion of the people of the colony, which has moft fuffered under the tyrannic order which has been abolished, and we fhall fay to them: By the republican conftitution, which the French nation has just adopted, you have recovered your primitive rights; but you must know the proper means to preferve them without trouble, and to tranfmit them without interruption, to your remoteft pofterity. Those fhips, the warriors whom they bring to you; all those formidable preparations are defigned against the English, who are the moft cruel enemies of your liberty! They dare to indulge the hope of framing new chains for you. See thefe blood-thirfty tygers bending fill your brethren under their homicidal whips. We cannot suffer any longer fo difmal an object; join the forces which France fends to you, expel from the territory of the French republic thofe tyrants of mankind, purfue them even to their haunts, and deftroy the laft of them! What! is it not incumbent on you to revenge your bre

thren, whom they keep fettered in the furrounding iflands? Yes, citizens, every thing ought to imprefs you with an implacable hatred for thofe tyrants, whofe most lucrative trade is, reducing you to flavery, mifery, and death. What can withhold your vengeance? Rush on this impious race; make it dif appear from that facred spot, which too long has been the theatre of its crimes and depredations.

Labour and inftruction, citizens, are neceffary to the preservation of the people, and the constitution impofes them as a duty upon all citizens. The 15th article of the fecond title contains these words. Young men cannot be infcribed in the civic regifter, if they do not prove that they can read, write, and follow a mechanical branch of bufinefs. That claufe, citizens, 'can and ought to take place only agreeably to the conftitution, after the first day of the 12th year of the republic.

The manual operations of agriculture belong to the mechanic arts.

Yes, labour and agriculture particularly, is abfolutely neceffary to him who wishes to preferve his rights, and enjoy his liberty. Through labour we procure the neceffary things to our existence and enjoyment; through labour only we can preferve our liberty.

Had your ancestors, the inhabitants of Africa, devoted themfelves to the culture of their fruitful lands, they moft affuredly would not have debased themselves by reciprocal bloody wars, of which greedy Europeans have availed themselves to reduce them to the most intolerable and degrad

ing flavery.

What remains for you to do, in order to avoid all the misfortunes which are infeparable concomitants of idlenefs? Nothing, but to devote your felves to the culture of the rich productions of the colony you inhabit! Many of you have been to France; they will tell you, that the people are there conftantly occupied at useful labours, and agriculture in particular. Imitate that active people, who adopts you as brethren, and you will eftablith by that means, a trade of exchange with them, which will cement and ftrengthen your brotherly relations.

Inftruction is as ufeful to you as labour; by it you will tranfmit your rights to your children; by it you w.ll learn how to fulfil the duty of good citizens: finally, by inftruction you will attain that degree of morality, which diftinguishes the civilized from the favage man, the honeft from the perverfe citizen.

The government will omit no thing to attain an object fo interefting, and fo worthy of its folicitude. Public fchools will be eftablished throughout all the colonies; your children fhall there receive instruction; imbibe a tafte for labour and morals, which are to accomplish their full generation. The republic will extend farther her cares for your children, for the wishes that a certain number of those who shall have produced greater difpofition and zeal for inftruction be fent to France, with the consent of their parents, there to ftudy in a more perfect degree thefe fciences or arts, to which they may have fhewn a more decided inclination.

a

The fame resources are likewife offered to the children of the whites, and of the coloured people; for the primary fchools, which will be established, will be open to all individuals, born in the colonies, of whatever colour they may be. ALL MEN ARE EQUAL IN

RIGHTS.

To you, Citizens, whom a barbarous custom had made formerly proprietors of flaves, we fhall obferve, that in confequence only of the most strange fubverfion of what is known under the name of justice and humanity, the moft facred rights of man had been forfaken in the former order of things, which allowed them to be reduced to the most insufferable and abje&t flavery; we fhall tell you that a ftate fo contrary to nature, though apparently favourable to your interefts, was of too violent a nature to laft long. How could the mafter fhake off the thought of the dangers with which he was inceffantly threatened? Does not the experience of ages and nations, tranfmitted by hiftory, inform us, that tyranny has always fallen a victim to its own crimes? Undoubtedly, fix hundred thoufand flaves, unjustly and cruely tortured, in almoft every inftant of their lives, could not afford a great degree of fecurity to the fmall number of their mafters. They were moft affuredly difturbed by the most cruel enormities.

Inftead of the violent ftate in which lingered the late proprietors of flaves, liberty and equality, which flow from the conftitution, offer to them nothing but true enjoyments, and perfect fecurity to their lives and fortunes.

In addrefling those formerly dif tinguished