Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

15th. Leroche-Barbon, on the confines of the ftate of Genoa,

If fome communes, habitations or portions of territories of the faid communes, actually in friendship with the French republic, fall without the line of frontiers above defcribed, they fhall continue to make part of the republic, notwithstanding any inference that may be made to the contrary from this article.

V. The king of Sardinia engages not to permit emigrants or perfons tranfported from the French republic to ftop or refide in his dominions. He may, however, retain in his fervice the emigrants of the departments of Mont Blanc, and of the Maritime Alps, fo long as they give no cause of complaint by enterprifes or manoeuvres tending to oppose the internal safety of the republic.

VI. The king of Sardinia renounces all demand of recovery, or perfonal claim which he might pretend to exercife against the French republic for caufes anterior to the prefent treaty.

VII. There fhall be immediately concluded between the two powers, a treaty of commerce on equitable bafis, and fuch as may fecure to the French nation advantages, at least equal to thofe enjoyed in the dominions of the king of Sardinia by the most favoured nations.

In the mean time, all communications and commercial relations thall be re-established.

VIII. The king of Sardinia obliges himself to grant a full and entire amnefty to all his fubjects who have been profecuted for political opinions. Every procefs which may have been raifed on this fubject, as well as the judgments which have intervened, are abolished.

[ocr errors]

All their property, moveable and immoveable, or the value thereof, if it has been fold, fhall be restored without delay. It fhall be lawful for them to difpofe of it, to return and refide in the dominions of the king of Sardinia, or to retire therėfrom.

[ocr errors]

IX. The French republic and his majesty the king of Sardinia engage to fuperfede the fequeftration of all effects, revenues, or property, feized, confifcated, detained, or fold, belonging to the citizens or fubjects of either power, relative to the actual war, and to admit them refpectively to the legal exercife of the actions or rights, which may belong to them.

X. All the prifoners, refpectively made, fhall be restored in one month, reckoning from the exchange of the ratifications of the prefent treaty, on paying the debts which they may have contracted during their captivity.

The fick and wounded fhall continue to be taken care of in the refpective hofpitals. They fhall be reftored when cured.

XI. Neither of the contracting powers fhall grant a paffage through its territory to the troops of any enemy of the other.

XII. Befides the fortreffes of Coni, Ceva, and Tortona, as well as the territory which the troops of the republic occupy, or ought to occupy, they fhall occupy the fortreffes of Exiles, Affiette, Suza, Brunette, Chateau Dauphin, and › Alexandria; for which laft place Valence fhall be substituted, if the I general in chief of the French republic prefer it.

[ocr errors]

XHI. The fortreffes and territo ries above defcribed fhall be reftored to the king of Sardinia upon the $4 conclufion

[ocr errors]

conclusion of the treaty of commerce between the republic and his majefty, of general peace, and the establishment of the line of frontiers.

XIV. The country occupied by the troops of the republic, and which fhould be definitively reftored, fhall remain under the civil government of his Sardinian majefty, but fhall be liable to levies of military contributions, and furnishing provifion on forage which have been, or may be enacted for the fupply of the French army.

XV. The fortifications of Brunette and Suza, as well as the intrenchments formed above that town, fhall be demolished, and deftroyed, at the expence of his Sardinian majefty, at the direction of commiffioners appointed by the ex. ecutive directory.

The king of Sardinia fhall not be permitted to establish or repair any fortification on this part of the frontier.

XVI. The artillery of occupied places, the demolition of which is not ftipulated by the present treaty, fhall be employed for the fervice of the republic, but fhall be restored! with the other fortreffes at the fame epoch to his Sardinian majef ty. The ftores and provifions which may be there fhall be confumed, without recovery, for the fervice of the republican army.

XVII. The French troops fhall have free paffage through the ftates of the king of Sardinia, in entering or returning from the interior of Italy.

XVIII. The king of Sardinia accepts the mediation of the French republic, for definitively terminating the differences which have long fubfifted between his majesty

and the republic of Genoa, and for deciding on their respective claims.

XIX. Conformable to the fixth article of the treaty concluded at the Hague, on the 27th Floreal, 3d year, the Batavian republic is included in the prefent treaty. There fhall be peace and friendship between that republic and the king of Sardinia. Every thing fhall be established between them on the fame footing as before the prefent war.

XX. The king of Sardinia fhall difavow, by his minifter to the French republic, the proceedings employed towards the last ambasfador of France.

XXI. The prefent treaty fhall be ratified, and the ratifications exchanged in less than one month, reckoning from the figning of the prefent treaty.

[ocr errors]

Done and concluded at Paris, the 25th Floreal, 4th year' of the French republic, one and indivifible, anfwering to the 15th of May, 1796. (Signed) CHARLES DELACROIX.

LE CHEVALIER DE REVEL.

LE CHEVALIER DE TONZO. The executive directory decree and fign the prefent treaty of peace with the king of Sardinia, negotiated in the name of the French republic by the minifter of foreign affairs, appointed by the executive directory, by a decree of the 22d Floreal, and charged with inftructions to that effect.

At Paris, the 28th Floreal, 4th year of the French republic, one and indivifible.

[blocks in formation]

Meffage of the Executive Directory to the Council of Five Hundred, in Jan. 1796.

Citizens Legiflators,

THE executive directory can no longer defer to call the moft ferious attention of the legislative body to the emigrants in the colonies.

The national convention thought proper to adjourn this difcuffion of the greatest urgency and importance; on the 25th Meffidor, third year, when the committee of public fafety proposed, in a report concerning the state of St. Domingo, to enforce the execution of the laws refpecting emigrants in the colonies, as well as in the mother country. The moment is arrived when the legiflators of the republic, fenfible of the mischief of too much indulgence, ought to crush with their anathema the most irreconcileable enemies of liberty and equality. It is neceffary that the emigrants, in whatever place they refide, or whatever difguife they affume, fhould no longer be able to elude the fentence of the law pronounced against them.

Any diftinction between the emigrants of France and thofe of the colonies would be extremely unjuft and impolitic. It would occafion the lofs of our colonies, whom liberty alone can attach to us, and along with the lofs of our colonies, would deftroy every hope of re-establishing our commerce, and of procuring to the republic an inexhaustible fource of real opu lence and profperity.

The national convention was for a long time led into an error in confequence of the prevalence of a factious and unfounded opinion.

They retained an idea, that it was poffible to difpenfe with nature and juftice with refpect to the freedom of the blacks, and to fave our colonies; by committing a criminal outrage against the rights of man.

Some legiflators, deceived by the artifices of the colonial ariftocracy, were ignorant of the real caufes of thofe calamities which defolated our colonies; but the report of the commiffion appointed to inveftigate the truth, which fo much intrigue had been employed to conceal, could not fail to open their eyes.

Will the protectors, the defenders of the emigrant colonists, who have fucceffively been demagogues, royalifts, and moderés, according to the different periods of the revolution, ftill be able to intereft your compaffion, by repre fenting to you the lofs of their fortune, and deftitute fituation in which they are placed?

But have not the clergy and no bility of France, and all the emigrants in Europe, caufe to regret the lofs of the privileges on which they founded the flavery of the people? And have they not beem the authors of their own wretchednefs and difgrace?

They alfo appeal to the com paffion of the French people-they alfo ftile themselves the victims of a revolution, which has compelled them to abandon their homes, and yet the conftitution for ever interdicts all of them from return. ing to the country.

Will thefe emigrant colonifts fay, that they only retired to the United States to avoid the horrors of war, and that they have remained in a neutral country?

But

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors][merged small]

But did not a great number of those very emigrants from France, who occafioned fo many mischiefs to the country, refort to a neutral country? Why did not thefe colonifts, always rebels to the laws, not take up arms to defend them, as well as the magiftrates, who were their organs? It can now be no longer doubted, from letters that have been intercepted, and the official reports of the agents of the republic, that Philadelphia was the feat of an English committee, which, without doubt, eluded the vigilance of the American government, and of which the colonifts were the agents in the fame manner as the Auftrian at Bafle were the more oftenfible agents of an Auftrian committee.

Even fuppofing that the emigrant colonists were only fo cowardly as to withdraw themselves from the evils of the war, which they provoked by their refiftance to the laws refpecting the emancipation of the blacks, and that they only fought an afylum in the United States, ought they not to have taken the firft fafe and honourable opportunity which prefented, in order to return to the French territories? Yet in vain did the minifters of the republic, in America, invite them by official intimations, by journals, and by placards, to return to France, of fering them a free paffage aboard the hips of the republic. They ftill refused, hoping that the triumphs of England and of Spain would fpeedily facilitate their return to their native foil again, polluted by flavery, and would enable them to carry along with them the pride of dominion, info- i

[ocr errors]

lence, and death. Men who call themfelves refugees, and victims of perfecution, to whom the republic ftretches out her arms when the has the right to be fevere, and who rather chufe to keep at a diftance during that revolution, which calls for the united efforts of all, are not fuch in reality emigrants? After this statement, is it poffible, 'without criminality, to make any diftinction between the emigrants of France, and thofe of the colonies? Undoubtedly, citizens legiflators, you never can be of that opinion, and your juftice will never be difarmed by the arts of perfidious men, who now bafely and hypocritically cringe before the triumphs of the republic.

Their property, juftly forfeited to the republic, will amount to two milliards of crowns, when it fhall have been restored to its proper value by wife and discreet management. You will thus, by enforcing the juft feverity of the laws, find a new fund for the expence of feveral campaigns, which the wifdom and moderation of the people. may not be able to avoid, or, in cafe of peace, a particular refource, which will raife to the highest pitch the profperity of the republic.

The executive directory, impreffed with the importance of the object which they have now fuggefted, propofe to the legiflative, body to take their meffage into the moft ferious confideration, and to declare, that the laws refpecting emigrants thall be fent and exe cuted in all the colonies, as well as in France.

(Signed)

REUBELL, Prefi.

·By the Executive Directory, LAGARDE, Sec. Meffage

Meffage from the Directory, addreffed to the Council of Ancients, dated the 5th Pluviofe (Jan. 25) and read in a Secret Committee.

and

CITIZENS LEGISLATORS, THE enemies of France have spoken of peace, but it was to relax our preparations, while they themfelves redoubled their efforts for continuing the war; they with to weaken the courage of our defenders, by lulling them with the hopes of approaching peace; which they themfelves do not ceafe to elude by the moft, evafive forms, and the moft frivolous prétexts. This per fidy on their part is not new, the reports they have affected to circulate on this fubject, fince the commencement of hoftilities, have always been seized and believed by the foreign faction which they maintain among us. But thefe manœuvres have never been countenanced by the executive directory, who in offering peace to the coalefced powers, on conditions as moderate as are confiftent with the national dignity, have neglected nothing for affuring new triumphs to the republican arms.

blifhed; the young citizens are de-
firous of rejoining their colours;
the general activity contributes to
fecond the falutary and decifive
measure of the forced loan; the
certainty, in fhort, of feeing all the
factious punithed, whether their
royalifin be open or concealed, or
whether they diffemble it under the
laft forms of anarchy: every thing,
in fhort, announces, that if we
are forced by our implacable ene-
mies to cover fill their bloody
plains with our foldiers, it will be
to gain foon new laurels, to enjoy
from henceforward the unalterable
repofe that is affured by the confti-
tution, fworn to by all Frenchmen,
and the return of morality and juf-
tice, the love of labour and
nomy. Citizens legiflators, you are
aware of what renders the fervice fo
painful in the prefent moment,
notwithstanding the prodigious
refources which are ftill to be found
in the Republic, is the absence of
reprefentative figns of exchange,
fwallowed up by that avarice which
renders it impoffible to provide the
neceffary fupplies for the armies.
We muft devife fome fubftitute,
and the directory can perceive no
other except that of raifing articles
in kind, at leaft thofe which are
at prefent moft neceffary and in-
difpenfable, fuch as horfes for car-
riages, and for the ufe of cavalry.

co

The French fhould know that they never can have peace with their enemies till, they fhall have rendered it impoffible for them to purfue their difastrous projects. This epoch is not far off; it must crown a vigorous campaign, and we have reafon to think that that which is about to be opened will yield in nothing to that of the third year. The government already acquires ftrength every day, and the hopes of the enemies of the interior of a difagreement between the legiflators, that if there is not taken, in tive body, and the directory dif, this refpect, a measure prompt and, appear every day; the circulation efficacious, we muft expect defeats. of provifions begins to be re-cita- The directory requests that you

The principle caufe of the little fuccefs of the laft campaign was the deficiency of the means of conveyance, and the fuperiority of our enemies' cavalry. The evil, increated every day, and we are, citizens legifla obliged to tell you,

will

« ZurückWeiter »