Treaty of Peace, concluded between the King of Sardinia and the French Republic. THE French republic and his majesty the king of Sardinia, equally animated by the desire of making a happy peace succeed to the war which divides them, have appoint. ed, viz. the executive directory, in the name of the French republic, citizen Charles Delacroix, minister of foreign affairs, and his majesty the king of Sardinia, M. M. the Chevaliers de Revel and de Tonzo, to negotiate the clauses and con. ditions proper for re-establishing and consolidating good Farmony between the two states, who, after having exchanged their full and respective powers, have agreed to the following articles : I. There shall be peace and good neighbourhood between the French republic and the king of Sardinia. All hostilities shall cease between the two powers, reckoning from the time of signing the present treaty. II. The king of Sardinia revokes all adhesion, consent, or accession, public or secret, given by him to the armed coalition against the French republic; and all the treaties of alliance, cffensive and defensive, which he may have concluded against the said republic with any power whatsoever. He shall not furnish any contingent in men or money to any powers armed against France, upon any pretence, or under any authority whatsoever. 1 III. The king of Sardinia fairly and entirely renounces for ever, for himself or his successors, in favour of the French republic, all the rights which he can pretend to have to Savoy, and the counties of Nice, Tenda, and Breuil. IV. The limits between the states of the king of Sardinia and the des partments of the French republic shall be marked by a line through the most advanced points of the frontier of Piedmont, the summits, plateaux (flat tops of hills) mountains, and other places hereafter described, as well as the intermedi. ate summits and plateaux, viz. from the point where the frontiers of ci devart Francigny, Duchy of Aoste and Valais, unite to the extremity of the Glaciers, or MontsMaudits, 1st, The summits or plateaux of the Alps at the rising of the Colmayor. 2d, Little Saint Bernard, and the hospital situated there. 3d, The summits or plateaux of Mont-Alban, of the Col-de-Cre sance, and of Mont-Iseran. 4th, Turning a little toward the south, the summits or plateaux of Cerat and of Gros-Ceval. 5th, Great Mont. Cenis, and the hospital which stands to the southeast of the lake of that mountain. 6th, Little Mont-Cenis. 7th, The summits or plateaux which separate the valley of Bardonach from the Val-des-Pres. 8th, Mont-Genevre. gth, The summits or plateaux which separate the valley of Quires from that of Vaudois. 10th, Mont-de-Vaudois. 12th, Mont de-l'Argenterie. 13th, The source of the Abayette and the Sture. 14th, The mountains between the valles of Sture and Gesso, on one part; and those of Saint Etienne or. Tinea, of Saint Martin, or Vezubia, of Tenda, or of Roya, on the other. 15th, Leroche-Barbon, on the confines of the state of Genoa. It some communes, habitations or portions of territories of the said communes, actually in friendship with the French republic, fall without the line of frontiers above described, they shall continue to make part of the republic, notwithstand. ing any inference that may be made to the contrary from this article. . V. The king of Sardinia engages not to permit emigrants or persons transported from the French repub. lic to stop or reside in his domini ons. He may, however, retain in his service the emigrants of the de. partments of Mont Blanc, and of the Maritime Alps, so long as they give no cause of complaint by enterprises or manœuvres tending to oppose the internal safety of the republic. VI. The king of Sardinia renounces all demand of recovery, or personal claim which he might pretend to exercise against the French republic for causes anterior to the present treaty. VII. There shall be immediate. ly concluded between the two powers, a treaty of commerce on equitable basis, and such as may secure to the French nation advantages, at least equal to those enjoyed in the dominions of the king of sardi. nia by the most favoured nations. In the mean time, all communications and commercial relations shall be re-established. VIII. The king of Sardinia obliges himself to grant a full and en. tire amnesty to all his subjects who have been prosecuted for political opinions. Every process which may have been raised on this subject, as well as the judgments which have intervened, are abolished. All their property, moveable and immoveable, or the value thereof if it has been sold, shan be restored without delay It shall be lawful for them to dispose of it, to return. and reside in the dominions of the king of Sardinia, or to retire therefrom. IX. The French republic and his majesty the king of Sardinia engage to supersede the sequestration of all effects, revenues, or property, seized, confiscated, detained, or soid, belonging to the citizens of subjects of either power, relative to the actual war, and to admit. them respectively to the legal exer cise of the actions or rights which may belong to them. X. All the prisoners, respective. ly made, shall be restored in one month, reckoning from the exchange of the ratifications of the present treaty, on paying the debts which they may have contracted during their captivity. The sick and wounded shall con tinue to be taken care of in the respective hospitals. They shall be restored when cured.. XI. Neither of the contrasting powers shall grant a passage through its territory to the troops of any enemy of the other. XII. Besides the fortresses of Coni, Ceya, and Tortona, as well as the territory which the troops of the republic occupy, or ought to occupy, they shall occupy the fortresses of Exiles, Assiette, Suza, Brunette, Chateau, Dauphin, and Alexandria; for which last place Valence shall be substituted, if the general in chief of the French republic prefer it.... XIII. The fortresses and territo ries above described shall be restor ed to the king of Sardinia upon the conclusion S4 conclusion of the treaty of commerce between the republic and his majesty, of general peace, and the establishment of the line of frontiers. XIV. The country occupied by the troops of the republic, and which should be definitively restor. ed, shall remain under the civil government of his Sardinian majesty, but shall be liable to levies of military contributions, and furnishing provision on forage which have been, or may be enacted for the supply of the French army. XV. The fortifications of Bru. nette and Suza, as well as the intrenchments formed above that town, shall be demolished, and de. stroyed, at the expence of his Sar. dinian majesty, at the direction of commissioners appointed by the executive directory. The king of Sardinia shall 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 stipulated by the present treaty, shali be employed for the service of the republic, but shall be restored with the other fortresses at the same epoch to his Sardinian majes. ty. The stores and provisions which may be there shall be con. sumed, without recovery, for the service of the republican army. XVII. The French troops shall have tree passage through the states of the k ng 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 terminat. ing the differences which have long subsisted between his majesty and the republic of Genoa, and for deciding on their respective claims. XIX. Conformable to the sixth article of the treaty concluded at the Hague, on the 27 Fiereal, 3d year, the Batavian republic is included in the present treaty. There shall be peace and friendship between that republic and the king of Sardinia. Every thing shall be established between them on the same footing as before the present war. XX. The king of Sardinia shall disavow, by his minister to the French republic, the proceedings emploved towards the last ambas sador of France. XXI. The present treaty shall be ratified, and the ratifications exchanged in less than one month, reckoning from the signing of the present treaty. Done and concluded at Paris, the 25th Floreal, 4th year of the French republic, one and indivisible, answering to the 15th of May, 1796. (Signed) CHARLES DELACROIX. LE CHEVALIER DE REVEL, LE CHEVALIER DE TONZO, The executive directory decree and sign the present treaty of peace with the king of Sardinia, negotiat ed in the name of the French republic by the minister of foreign affairs, appointed by the executive directory, by a decree of the 22d Floreal, and charged with instructions to that effect. At Paris, the 28th Floreal, 4th year of the French republic, one and indivisible. (Signed) LETOURNEUR, REWBELL, CARNOT, P. BARRAS, K. M. REVEILLERE LEPEAUX. Message Message of the Executive Direct ry to the Council of Five Hundred, in Jan. 1796. Citizens Legislators, THE executive directory can no longer defer to call the most serious attention of the legislative body to the emigrants in the colonies. The national convention thought proper to adjourn this discussion of the greatest urgency and import ance; on the 25th Messidor, third year, when the committee of public safety proposed, in a report concerning the state of St. Domingo, to enforce the execution of the laws respecting emigran's in the colonies, as well as in the mother country. The moment is arrived when the legislators of the republic, sensible of the mischief of too much indulgence, ought to crush with their anathema the most irreconcileable enemies of liberty and equality. It is necessary that the emigrants, in whatever place they reside, or whatever disguise they assume, should no longer be able to elude the sentence of the law pronounced against them.. Any distinction between the emigrants of France and those of the colonies would be extremely unjust and impolitic. It would occasion the loss of our colonies, whom liberty alone can attach to us, and along with the loss of our colonies, would destroy every hope of re-establishing our commerce, and of procuring to the republic an inexhaustible source of real opu. lence and prosperity. The national convention was for a long time led into an error in consequence of the prevalence of a factious and unfounded opinion. They retained an idea, that it was possible to dispense with nature and justice with respect to the freedom. of the blacks, and to save our colonies; by committing a criminal outrage against the rights of man, Some legislators, deceived by the artifices of the colonial aristocracy, were ignorant of the real causes of those calamities which desolated our colonies; but the report of the commission appointed to investigate the truth, which so much intrigue had been employed to con ceal, could not fail to open their eyes. Will the protectors, the defenders of the emigrant colonists, who have successively been dema. gogues, royalists, and moderés according to the different periods of the revolution, still be able to interest your compassion, by representing to you the loss of their fortune, and destitute situation in which they are placed. But have not the clergy and no. bility of France, and all the emigrants in Europe, cause to regret the loss of the privileges on which they founded the slavery of the people? And have they not been the authors of their own wretchedness and disgrace? They also appeal to the compassion of the French people-they also style themselves the victims of a revolution, which has compelled them to abandon their homes, and yet the constitution for ever interdicts all of them from return. ing to the country. Will these emigrant colonists say that they only retired to the United States to avoid the horrors of war, and that they have remained in a neutral country? But But did not a great number of those very emigrants from France, who occasioned so many mischiefs to the country, resort to a neutral Country? Why did not the e coJonists, always rebels to the laws, take up arms to defend them, as well as the magistrates, who were their organs? It can now be no longer doubted, from letters that have been intercepted, and the oficial reports of the agents of the republic, that Philadelphia was the seat of an English committee, which without doubt, eluded the vigilance of the American govern. ment, and of which the colonists were the agents in the same manner as the Austrians at Pasle were the more ostensible agents of an Austrian committee." Even supposing that the emigrant colonists were only so cow. ardly as to withdraw themselves from the evils of the war, which they provoked by their resistance to the laws respecting the emancipation of the blacks, and that they only sought an aslyum in the United States, ought they not to have taken the first safe and ho. nourable opportunity which presented, in order to return to the French territories? Yet in vain did the ministers of the republic, in America, invite them by official intimations, by journals and by placards, to return to France, of fering them a free passage aboard the ships of the repubiic. They still refused, hoping that the triumphs of England and of Spain would speedily facilitate their return to their native soil again, polluted by slavery, and would enable them to carry along with them the pride of dominion, inso lence, and death. Men who call themselves refugees, and vichas of persecution, to when the republic stretches out her arms when she has the right to be severe, and who rather chuse to keep at a dis. tance during that revolution, wh h calls for the united efforts of all, are not such in reality emigrant? After this statement, is it posab", without criminality to make a y distinction between the emigren's of France, and those of th nies? Undoubtedly, citizens itgislators, you never can be of that opinion, and your justice will never be disarmed by the arts of per. fidious men, who now basely and hypocritically cringe before the triumphs of the republic. Their property, justly forfeited to the republic, will amount to two milliards of crowns, when it shall have been restored to its pro. per value by wise and discreet management. You wil thus, by enforcing the just severity of the laws, find a new tund for the expence of several campaigns, which the wisdom and moderation of the people may not be able to avoid, or, in case of peace, a particular resource, which will raise to the highest pitch the prosperity of the republic. The executive directory, im pressed with the importance of the object which they have now suggested, propose to the legislative body to take their message into the most serious consideration, and to declare, that the laws respecting emigrants shall be sent and exe cuted in all the colonies, as well as in France. |