Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

"My Governor, who was born among you, will also reside with you. He will inform me of your wishes and your wants, and you, of the intentions of my Government. Your fellow citizen, my high President, will organize the Grand Duchy according to my instructions, and till the organization is complete, govern in every department. He will on this occasion employ the men of business, found among you, according as they are qualified by their knowledge and your confidence. When the organization is finished, the different branches of administration will be introduced.

"It is my firm resolve that the past be consigned to perfect oblivion. My care belongs exclusively to the future, in which I hope to find the means to bring back the country, which has been tried beyond its strength, and is quite exhausted, to the road of prosperity.

"Since experience has matured you, I hope that I may depend on your acknowledgments.-Given at Vienna, the 15th of May, 1815..

(Signed)

"FREDERICK WILLIAM."

To the Inhabitants of the City and Territory of Dantzic, the Circle of Culm and Michelan, the Town of Thorn, aad its Territory.

"By my letters patent of today, I have restored you to your ancient connections; I have given you back to the country to which you originally belonged, and to which you are indebted for your former prosperity. In this reunion, you will participate in the Constitution which I intend for all my faithful subjects in the Provincial Government of the Province of West Prussia.

"This reunion affords you protection and security for your property, the certainty that you will again enjoy yourselves the fruits of your industry, and the prospect of future tranquillity. With paternal care I will exert myself to assist in replacing on a firm foundation your welfare, which has suffered so severely. Exclusively occupied with the future, it is my will that every past error be forgotten.

[ocr errors]

The circumstances of the moment prevent me from receiving in person the renewed oath of your allegiance, and I have, therefore, appointed my high President of East Prussia, Von Auerswald, to receive the homage from you, in my name, in the city of Dantzic, and to take the necessary measures to this effect.

"Given at Vienna, May 15, 1815.

(Signed)

FREDERICK WILLIAM."

Treaty of Peace between Saxony and Prussia concluded at Vienna on the 18th of May.

Article 2. The cessions of Saxony prescribed by the Congress are confirmed and settled anew, so that from the Elbe to the Bi

shopric

shopric of Merseburg, the Bailiwicks of Torgau, Eilenburg, and Prussian Delitsch, are cut off, with the exception of some reciprocally enclosed districts. The enclavés in the principality of Reuss, which with the circle of Neustadt become Prussian, are, Gefall, Blintendorf, Sparenberg, and Blankenberg.

4. The King of Prussia assumes, on account of his new provinces, the title of Duke of Saxony, Landgrave of Thuringia, Margrave of both Lusatias, and Count of Henneberg.

5. Within a fortnight after the ratification, Prussia evacuates those parts of Saxony which she does not continue to hold.

6. Both divisions reciprocally renounce all feudal connections or dependence.

7. The deeds, &c. in the Archives with regard to the ceded provinces generally, shall be delivered up within three months: in regard to the divided provinces, the originals shall belong to the larger portions, and authentic copies shall be given to the others.

8. As to the Saxon army, the officers and foreign soldiers of every rank shall have their choice whether they will enter the Prussian, or remain in the Saxon service: subalterns and privates whose birth-place falls to Prussia enter the Prussian service.

9. The debts of the undivided provinces become a charge on that government to which they are assigned; those of the divided provinces are taken by each proportionally.

10. The engagements entered into by the Central Tax-Committee, on account of the kingdom VOL. LVII.

of Saxony, shall be performed by both governments.

11. The Treasury Bills shall also be provided for as a common debt.

13. The King of Prussia promises to settle on the most liberal footing, all that relates to the property and interests of the subjects on both sides, especially to the commerce of Leipsic.

14 and 15. A committee, common to both parties, and sitting at Dresden, shall equalize all claims under Austrian mediation.

17. The principles adopted by the Congress of Vienna, with regard to free navigation, shall especially apply to the Elbe, the Elster, and to canals.

19. Prussia furnishes yearly to Saxony, free of export duty, 150,000, or if required, 250,000 quintals of salt, at a price, which without raising the present retail price to Saxon subjects, may secure to the King of Saxony the enjoyment of a salt tax, approaching as near as possible to that which he had before the last

[blocks in formation]

Proclamation of the King of Prussia to the Inhabitants of Prussian Saxony.

By the patent which I have this day signed, I have united you, Inhabitants of Saxony, with my subjects, your neighbours and German countrymen. The general agreement of the powers here assembled at the Congress has assigned to me your country, subjected by the fate of war, by way of indemnity, for the loss which has on one side diminished the circuit of the states guaranteed to me. Now separated, by the course of events, from a house of Princes with whom you have been faithfully connected for centuries, you pass over to another, which is allied to you by the friendly ties of neighbourhood, language, manners, and religion. When you beheld with pain your old connections dissolved, I respected that grief as furnishing an earnest of the German character, and a pledge that you and your children will obey me and my House with equal fidelity. You must be convinced of the necessity of your separation. My old subjects have made great and severe sacrifices. They have gained before the world and posterity a claim that the dangers of the days of Gros Beeren and Dennewitz should ever be far from them in future. They have given proof, that by their valour and fidelity to their King, Germany also has been delivered from the disgrace of scrvitude. But that they may maintain their own independence and the freedom of Germany, that the fruits of severe toils and bloody victories may not be lost, the duty

of looking to their own independent existence, and that of care for the common weal of Germany, equally require that your provinces should be united to my States, and yourselves with my people. Germany has only won what Prussia has earned. This you must be convinced of; and I place confidence in your German and honest minds, that the oath of your fidelity will proceed equally from the feelings of the heart, as when I take you for my people. Through your union with my States rich resources are opened to your industry. The wounds of war will be healed, when the present danger and the necessity for new efforts in defence of our independence are over. My cares for your welfare shall anxiously meet your own exertions. A beneficent constitution equally divid ing the burthens of the State, a moderate government, well weighed laws, a correct and punctual distribution of justice, shall promote your domestic prosperity. Your military youth will faithfully join their brethren in arms. The minsters of religion will in future be the venerable instructors in the religion of your ancestors. Upon your literary esta! lishments, for many years the nurseries of German science and learning, I will bestow especial attention; and when the Prussian throne, after the lapse of a century, has been firmly founded on the virtues of peace and war, and the freedom of our native Germany guarded, then you will participate in the distinguished ra k which the Prussian name will hold, and history will also write your names,

brave

brave Saxons, in the annals of my love and my ardent wishes for your welfare, will always attend

Prussian glory.

(Signed)

FREDERICK WILLIAM.

Vienna, May 22, 1815.

To the Inhabitants of the Ceded Parts of the Kingdom of Saxony. By the Treaty of Peace concluded on the 18th of this month, and ratified on the 21st, between me and the courts of Austria, Russia, and Prussia, I have consented to the cession of that part of my Hereditary States of which the Congress at Vienna had disposed, which had at the same time added the clause, that the rest of my hereditary States would not be restored till I had consented to the cessions demanded.

During my long government I have been guided in all my operations solely by my solicitude for the good of the subjects who were entrusted to me. The issue of all human enterprises is in the hand of God. All my efforts to avert so painful a sacrifice have been in vain. I must part from you, and the bonds which your fidelity and your attachment to my person rendered so dear to me, the bonds which have formed for ages the happiness of my House, and of your ancestors, must be broken. Conformably to the promise made to the Allied Powers, I release you, subjects and soldiers, of the provinces separated from my kingdom, from your oath to me and my House, and I recommend you to be faithful and obedient to your new Sovereign.

My gratitude for your fidelity,

you.

FREDERICK AUGUSTUS.

Saxenburg, May 22, 1815.

Prussian Decree respecting the Representation of the People.

We, Frederick William, by the Grace of God, King of Prussia,

&c.

By our decree of the 30th of last month, we have ordained a regular administration for our monarchy, taking into consideration at the same time the former relations of the provinces.

The history of the Prussian State shews, indeed, that the happy state of civil liberty, and the duration of a just administration founded upon order, has hitherto found in the character of the Sovereigns, and in their union with their people, all that security which the imperfection and uncertainty of all human institutions would allow.

In order, however, that these advantages may be built on a still firmer basis, and that we may give to the Prussian nation a pledge of our confidence, and to posterity an authentic document of the principles upon which our ancestors and ourself have conducted the government of our kingdom with constant regard to the happiness of our subjects : and that those principles may be durably recorded by a written document, as the Constitution of the Prussian Monarchy, we have resolved as follows:

[ocr errors][merged small]

1st, A Representation of the people shall be formed.

2d. For this end,

(a) The Provincial Assemblies, where they still exist with more or less influence, are to be reestablished and modelled according to the exigencies of the times.

(b) Where there are at present no Provincial Assemblies they are to be introduced.

3d. From the Provincial Assemblies, the Assembly of the Representatives of the Kingdom is to be chosen which will sit at Berlin.

4. The functions of the National Representatives extend to the deliberation upon all the objects of legislation which concern the personal rights of the citizens and their property, including taxation.

5. A Committee is to be formed at Berlin without delay, which is to consist of experienced Officers of State, and inhabitants of the provinces.

6. This committee shall employ itself,

(a). On the organization of the Provincial Assemblies.

(b). The organization of the National Representation.

(c). On the framing of a Constitution according to the principles laid down.

7. It shall meet on the 1st of September this year.

8. Our Chancellor is charged with the execution of this decree, and is to lay before us the labours of the Committee.

He names the members of it, and presides at its meetings, but is authorised, in case of need, to name a Deputy in his room.

Given under our hand and Royal

[blocks in formation]

Protest of the Spanish Ambassador against the Decisions of the Congress of Vienna.

The undersigned, Ambassador of his Majesty the King of Spain, has remarked, that no mention appears in the Protocol, of that conference which took place yesterday evening. He presumes, that, instead of a conference, it was rather an act of courtesy which Messrs. the Plenipotentiaries of Austria, Great Britain, France, Russia, and Prussia shewed towards him, in order to communicate to him the act with which they have resolved to terminate their labours, and in which they, as he is told, have irrevocably agreed among themselves alone respecting the rights of his Majesty the King of Spain, and his Majesty the King of Etruria, in Italy, as well as respecting the singular recommendation made to his Catholic Majesty, in an article of the treaty, respecting the cession of Olivenza to Portugal, an affair with which the Plenipotentiaries of the above powers must surely have interfered by mistake, since it has at no time become the Congress, and much less of any of its parts, to interfere in that business. as it is of the greatest importance, that either in the Protocols, or in the diplomatic archives, some record should remain of

And

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »