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of the Country which has been prorogued by us, if it will again Constitutionally assemble upon our summons, to exercise and enjoy unrestrictedly, in their fullest extent, all the Rights and Privileges conceded to them by that Constitutional Act, and will apply with the former disposition whatever means may be calculated to lead to the establishment of mutual confidence.

Given at Ludwigsburg, the 5th August, 1815. COUNT DE REISCHACH,

FREDERICK.

Minister of the Interior, Minister of State and of Conference.

INSTRUCTIONS from the British Government to the Governor of Newfoundland, relative to the Privilege enjoyed by Citizens of The United States, to Fish within British Jurisdiction.-London, 17th June, 1815.

SIR,

Downing Street, 17th June, 1815. As the Treaty of Peace lately concluded with The United States, contains no provisions with respect to the Fisheries, which the Subjects of The United States enjoyed under the IIIrd Article of the Peace of 1783*, His Majesty's Government consider it not unnecessary, that you should be informed as to the extent to which those privileges are affected, by the omission of any stipulation in the present Treaty, and of the line of conduct which it is in consequence advisable for you to adopt.

You cannot but be aware, that the IIIrd Article of the Treaty of Peace of 1783, contained 2 distinct stipulations; the one recognizing the Rights which The United States had to take Fish upon the high seas, and the other granting to The United States the privilege of

* Definitive Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Great Britain and The United States.-Paris, 3d September, 1783. (Article III.) It is agreed, That the People of The United States shall continue to enjoy unmolested the right to take Fish of every kind on the Grand Bank, and on all the other Banks of Newfoundland; also in the Gulph of St. Lawrence, and at all other Places in the Sea, where the Inhabitants of both Countries used at any time heretofore to fish. And also that the Inhabitants of The United States shall have liberty to take Fish of every kind, on such part of the Coast of Newfoundland, as British Fishermen shall use, (but not to dry or cure the same on that Island ;) and also on the Coasts, Bays, and Creeks of all other of His Britannic Majesty's Dominions in America; and that the American Fishermen shall have liberty to dry and cure Fish in any of the unsettled Bays, Harbours, and Creeks of Nova Scotia, Magdalen Islands, and Labrador, so long as the same shall remain unsettled; but so soon as the same, or either of them, shall be settled, it shall not be lawful for the said Fishermen to dry or cure Fish at such Settlement, without a previous agreement for that purpose with the Inhabitants, Proprietors, or Possessors, of the Ground.

Fishing within the British Jurisdiction, and of using, under certain conditions, the shores and Territory of His Majesty for purposes connected with the Fishery of these, the former being considered permanent, cannot be altered or affected by any change of the relative situation of the 2 Countries, but the other being a privilege derived from the Treaty of 1783 alone, was, as to its duration, necessarily limited to the duration of the Treaty itself. On the declaration of War, by the American Government, and the consequent abrogation of the then existing Treaties, The United States forfeited, with respect to the Fisheries, those privileges which are purely Conventional, and (as they have not been renewed by stipulation in the present Treaty,) the subjects of The United States can have no pretence to any Right to fish within the British Jurisdiction, or to use the British Territory for purposes connected with the Fishery.

Such being the view taken of the question of the Fisheries, as far as relates to The United States, I am commanded by His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, to instruct you to abstain most carefully from any interference with the Fishery, in which the subjects of The United States may be engaged, either on the Grand Bank of Newfoundland, in the Gulf of St.-Lawrence, or other Places in the Sea. At the same time you will prevent them, except under the circumstances hereinafter mentioned, from using the British Territory for purposes connected with the Fishery, and will exclude their Fishing Vessels from the Bays, Harbours, Rivers, Creeks, and Inlets of all His Majesty's Possessions. In case, however, it should have happened that the Fishermen of The United States, through ignorance of the circumstances which affect this question, should, previous to your arrival, have already commenced a Fishery, similar to that carried on by them previous to the late War, and should have occupied the British Harbours, and formed Establishments on the British Territory, which could not be suddenly abandoned without very considerable loss; His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, willing to give every indulgence to the Citizens of The United States, which is compatible with His Majesty's Rights, has commanded me to instruct you to abstain from molesting such Fishermen, or impeding the progress of their Fishing during the present year, unless they should, by attempts to carry on a contraband trade, render themselves unworthy of protection or indulgence: you will, however, not fail to communicate to them the tenor of the Instructions which you have received, and the view which His Majesty's Government take of the question of the Fishery, and you will, above all, be careful to explain to them that they are not in any future Season to expect a continuance of the same indulgence.

Vice-Admiral Sir Richard G. Keats,

I have, &c.

BATHURST.

CORRESPONDENCE between the Emperor of Russia and the British Plenipotentiary, relative to Poland.-Vienna, October, November, 1814.

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No. 1.-Viscount Castlereagh to the Emperor of Russia. (Extracts.)

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Vienna, 12th October, 1814.

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I SHOULD wish to offer ny sentiments to Your Imperial Majesty, upon the present occasion, as little as possible in an Official character. I should desire to be allowed to speak to Your Imperial Majesty as an Individual, whom circumstances had associated in an humble sphere to the great Work, which Your Imperial Majesty has now prominently conducted to the eve of its completion. Having attended Your Imperial Majesty's Head Quarters, and followed your footsteps throughout many of the difficulties and uncertainties of the Contest. I must be permitted to feel more than an ordinary share of personal solicitude, that the close may correspond with the character of the undertaking, and that Your Imperial Majesty may, by your influence and by your example, inspire the Councils of Europe at the present conjuncture, with that spirit of forbearance, moderation, and generosity, which can alone secure to Europe the repose for which Your Imperial Majesty has contended, and to Your Majesty's name the glory that should surround it.

I cannot, however, so far abstract myself from the Public Situation in which I am placed, that it should not occur to Your Imperial Majesty, that it is The Prince Regent's Minister that addresses you.

In this view permit me, Sire, to recall to your attention, that, except so far as British Interests may be affected through the interests of Europe, Great Britain is the last Power, whose separate in[1814-15.] 4 G

terests could be endangered by any determination of Your Imperial Majesty on the side of Poland; and that if I feel and argue strongly upon this Question, I may be mistaken in the judgment I form, but upon no European Question can I venture to claim, as the organ of the British Government, to be considered as a more impartial authority by Your Imperial Majesty than upon the present.

I must also entreat, Sire, if you find me opposed, in a certain extent, to Your Imperial Majesty's pretensions on the Duchy of Warsaw, that you will not, therefore, consider me indisposed to witness, even with satisfaction, that Your Imperial Majesty should receive a liberal and important aggrandizement on your Polish Frontier. to the degree and the mode to which I alone object. Your Imperial Majesty may receive an ample pledge of European gratitude, without imposing upon your Allies and Neighbours, an Arrangement inconsistent with the relations of Independent States to each other.

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Your Imperial Majesty cannot doubt, how deeply the future fate and interests of Europe are likely to be influenced by the issue of the present Congress. How entirely the character of the great Transactions in which the States of Europe have been engaged, and the fame of the principal Actors in them, will depend upon the mode and temper in which it shall at last be wound up. How secondary in Your Imperial Majesty's enlightened mind, and in the scale of such an Empire as that over which Providence has called Your Imperial Majesty to reign, can a Million of Population, more or less, be compared to the glory and to the service rendered to your own People, as well as to Mankind, by setting to Europe an example of generosity and moderation, in the regulation of what immediately concerns your own Dominions.

I do not hesitate to declare, Sire, my solemn conviction, that it depends exclusively upon the temper in which Your Imperial Majesty shall meet the Questions which more immediately concern your own Empire, whether the present Congress shall prove a blessing to Mankind, or only exhibit a scene of discordant intrigue, and a lawless scramble for power.

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I should press these considerations with the more reluctance, if I did not feel persuaded that there is a course open to Your Imperial Majesty to pursue, which will combine your beneficent intentions towards your Polish Subjects, with what your Allies and Europe, Sire, claim at your hands. They desire not to see the Poles humiliated, or deprived of a mild, conciliatory, and congenial system of aaministration. They desire not that Your Imperial Majesty should enter into any Engagements restrictive of your Sovereign Authority over your own Provinces. They only wish you, Sire, for the sake of peace,

to ameliorate gradually the frame of your Polish Administration, and to avoid, if you are not prepared for the complete re-union and independence of Poland, that species of measure, which, under a title of higher import, may create alarm both in Russia and the neighbouring States, and which, however it may gratify the ambition of a few Individuals of great family in Poland, may, in fact, bring less of real liberty and happiness to the People, than a more measured and unostentatious change in the system of their administration.

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I humbly request to be permitted to subscribe myself, &c.

CASTLEREAGH.

His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias.

(Extracts.)

(Annex.)-British Memorandum.

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Vienna, 4th October, 1814.

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THE Conditions of this Treaty (of the 27th of June, 1813,) were as follows:

The 1st.-La dissolution du Duché de Varsovie, et de partager les Provinces qui le forment entre l'Autriche, la Prusse, et la Russie, d'après les Arrangemens à prendre par ces 3 Puissances, sans aucune intervention du Gouvernement Français.

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In furtherance of this Treaty, the Courts of Austria and Prussia entered into a Separate Treaty of Alliance, for the protection of their mutual interests, on the 9th of September 1813.

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Such being the engagements with respect to the Duchy of Warsaw, under solemn Treaties; it is nevertheless understood:-that His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia considers himself entitled to dispose of the whole Duchy of Warsaw, with all its Fortresses, on the ground that his Troops first occupied the Duchy ;-that, however, as matter of grace and favour, he means to assign to Prussia the City and Territory of Dantzig, and a District necessary for connecting ancient Prussia with the other Prussian Territories.

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His Imperial Majesty should also weigh how far it can be reconcileable with moral duty, precipitately to embark in an experiment, which is likely to excite alarm and discontent amongst the neighbouring States, and political fermentation within his own Dominions. If moral duty requires that the situation of the Poles should be ame liorated, by so decisive a change as the revival of their Monarchy; let it be undertaken upon the broad and liberal principle of rendering them again really independent as a Nation, instead of making two

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