a moment lofe fight of the interefts of your republic; it perfectly recollects that it has given birth to your republic, and that it ought for a length of time to fhield it under its parental protection, but especially during this firft year. It would also have ardently withed that you had given to the Cifalpine people the great law, that is, to regenerate all the departments of your financial fyftem; it has enjoined Citizen Faypoult, its commiffary, to tranfmit to you the provifions of that law; but this citizen has feen with regret that, though he may be able to prepare the principal provifions of it, yet there are fome of them for which he will be obliged to refort to the affiftance of the members of your financial commiffion.

There is another law which exifting circumftances render neceffary, and which ought to meet with no delay or obftacle in its execution; you will find that it follows the other laws: this law is relative to clubs and journals.

The hero to whom the fair portion of Italy which you inhabit owes the recovery of its liberty, warned and inftructed by the calamities of his own country, had the fagacity to forefee that amid a well-natured and generous, but a warm and impaffioned people, political focieties would degenerate into feditious clubs, and the unlimited liberty of the prefs would be fo misused and corrupted, as to become an unbridled licentioufnefs, equally fatal to the honour of your fellow-citizens and to the public tranquillity. In order to rescue you from these calamities, that extraordinary man had given you two laws; one left it at the difcretion of the legislative body to fhut, as the times might require, the focieties known under the name of conftitutional circles: the other fubmitted to the immediate fuperintendance of government all writings that iffued publicly from the prefs.

As foon as Buonaparte quitted Italy, the legislative body repealed these two laws. This was the fignal of your inteftine diffenfions. To the facred love of liberty, which hitherto had animated your orators and periodical writers, fucceeded the war of private paffions, jealousy, hatred, revenge. The most upright citizens were blackened with calumnies-the pure fpirit of your real patriots was infulted and blown upon by every fpecies of outrage; and it is thus that liberty is made odious, even to thofe by whom it was at firft idolized.

Lay hold, Citizens Legiflators, of this memorable circumftance, in order to put an end to all thefe exceffes. One of the laws now held out to you furnishes you with the neceffary power lay hold of and imitate the example of the French republic; like you, it has groaned under the defpotifm of licentioufnefs; its beft citizens daily fell victims to the poifoned fhafts of calumny; though on the brink of deftruction, it fummoned up fufficient vigour to vindicate itfelf from that tyranny,

and

and fince the 18th Fructidor it enjoys the bleffings of a wife and well-tempered liberty, the inexhauftible fource of every fe licity.

Every man may utter, write, and publifh his thoughts-but no man has the horrid right to propagate falfehood with impunity, or morally to affaffinate his fellow-citizens, by disturbing their peace and embittering their happiness.

The French republic prefents you with a law which it has put to the teft of experience upon itself--that law puts clubs and periodical writings under the fuperintending eye of govern

ment.

Citizens Legislators, in order to place your republic in a more impofing attitude, and give it a more firm and rapid march towards the happiness of the people, it is not enough to have perfected your inftitutions; you muft alfo confide the reins of the ftate to hands more vigorous than thofe that have hitherto guided them. The work of regeneration would be incomplete, if, while it redreffed measures, it did not alfo extend to men:it is upon the wifdom and firmness of those who govern, that the ftability of public inftitutions, the power of a state, the refpect which it impreffes upon its neighbours, and the general happiness of the people, depend.

It was the opinion of the French government that the men the moft worthy among you of exercising the firft magistracy of the ftate, were Citizens Adelacio, Aleffandri, Lamberti, the prefent members of the Executive Directory; Sopranzi, ex-minifter of police; and Luoft, minister of justice.

This government, fupported by a more vigorous constitution, and guided by more precife laws, will doubtlefs move on in unifon with the Councils, and with a more quick and firm step towards the welfare of the republic.

It is by this laft act, Citizens Legiflators, that I fhall clofe the extraordinary miffion that has been entrusted to my care.

But I feel it my duty again to repeat, that I was charged with offering you the plan of this political regeneration merely in the form of an advice: I was at the fame time authorized to adopt, of my own accord, fuch meafures as I might judge neceffary for the good of your country, but which your fcruples would not have permitted you to enforce. Upon thefe fcruples you have acted you have hesitated refpecting the extent of your power from the dread of calumny; you feemed defirous that it should be the French republic only that was to give effect among you to thofe falutary reforms, and a due degree of perfection to the laws which you hold from its hands.

I have acquiefced in your wishes; accept, therefore, thofe laws, accept them as a new pledge of the friendship of the French

I

republic,

republic, and of the lively intereft which its government takes in your profperity.

By means of thefe laws the Cifalpine republic feels itfelf conftituted upon the moft folid foundations; the two fupreme powers are replaced within their natural limits; the rights of citizens are more forcibly afferted and fecured; the reprefentative fyftem is confirmed, because it is fimplified; the republican principles prevail and triumph over the fophifms and the calumnies of their detractors, because they will no longer involve cónfequences fatal to the tranquillity of the people; the enormous expenditure of the internal adminiftration is curtailed, the government is regenerated, and ufeful codes, republican inftitutions, beneficent laws, are folemnly promised to the nation by its legislators.

I annex to this letter a lift of the members that are to compofe the two councils; I likewife annex the new conftitution and the organizing laws that accompany it.

It is now my defire that you give your approbation to the choice of the members of the Executive Directory.

I alfo call upon you, Citizens Legislators, to caufe to be printed and published, as speedily as poffible, the new conftitution, the organic laws, and this letter which explains the motives of these changes.

(Signed)

TROUVE.

PROCEEDINGS of the CONGRESS at RASTADTt.

Decree refpecting the Congrefs.

Ratisbon, Nov. 7:

THE declaration determined upon by the general Diet of the Empire, in confequence of a deliberation in the three Colleges, upon the decree of Imperial commiffion of the 18th June of this year, has been very humbly tranfmitted to his Imperial Majefty.

His Majefty has feen with particular fatisfaction the patriotic fentiments manifested in that declaration, as well as the lively intereft which is evinced in it for the accelerating of the peace of the Empire. He has at the fame time deigned to confent to the expediting of the inftruction already determined upon and ratified, as well as the full powers neceflary for the deputation of the Empire, deftined for the grand work of pacification; the former, with the changes agreed upon by the ftates; and the latter comprising in them the immediate equeftrian order of the Empire, conformably to the fupreme intention manifefted in the decree of Imperial ratification of the 19th November 1693.

His Majefty expects with certainty from the deputies of the ftates, to whom the Diet has juft given fo diftinguifhed a mark of VOL. VII.

Rr

confi

confidence fand he exhorts them, in the moft preffing manner, inthe name of the dear country, in the name of the law, and in virtue of the Imperial authority), that, recollecting the importance of the duties of a deputy of the Empire, invariably faithful to the law, and to the preferving the principles of the integrity of the German Empire, they will effectually fuftain with a generous fenfe of their duties, and with all German firmness, the common intereft and good of the German country; and that, united with their fupreme chief, they will favour and accelerate, with all their might, the conclufion of a juft and fuitable peace, founded upon the bafis of the integrity of the Empire, and of its conftitution.

In this juft endeavour, his Imperial Majefty, fince the decree of commiffion of the 18th July of this year, has not difconti nued his efforts to haften the opening of a congrefs: and it is a great fatisfaction to him to be able at length to announce to the general Diet of the Empire, that the town of Raftadt, already for celebrated in the hiftory of this century, has been chofen for the holding of the approaching congrefs for peace.

To confirm ftill by deed his pacific wishes, and his fincere difpofitions for the speedy re-eftablishment of public tranquillity, fo generally defired, his Majefty, in virtue of the right which he has to execute the decifions of the Diet, determines that the states of the Empire shall fend, without the shortest delay, to the place before mentioned, their deputies (recommendable, as his Majefty is induced to expect, by their conftitutional mode of thinking, their rectitude and loyalty), in order that they may be able to proceed as foon as poffible upon the great work, and that the congrefs of peace, expected with fo much impatience, may be opened without the smallest delay: his Majefty, in his quality of supreme head of the Empire, has deigned to appoint, to affist at the congrefs, as Imperial minifter plenipotentiary, the Count de Metternich Vienebourg and Beilftein, his privy counfellor and chamberlain, knight of the golden fleece, and of the grand cross of the order of St. Stephen.

Finally, his Imperial Majefty, after the proofs fo multiplied and fo convincing of his paternal benevolence, gives to the Empire the most affectionate affurance of his moft energetic Imperial protection in the important affair of the pacification which is about to be treated for; a protection which the general Diet of the Empire demanded in fo preffing a manner from his Majesty on the 11th of Auguft of the present year.

But his Majefty thinks himself authorized on his fide, and he regards it even as his duty, to demand from the Empire "the unanimous fupport and affiftance, to which all and every one are obliged, by the tie of the Germanic union, by the intereft which all the ftates ought to take in the fate of the German country,"

and

and by their obligation, which ought to be the most dear to them, to watch over the preservation of the body politic of Germany, and her conftitution.

Copy of the general Powers for the Deputies of the Empire, appointed to carry on the Negotiations for Peace at Raftadt *.

WHEREAS the Electors, Princes, and States of the holy Roman Empire have thought proper to choose from amongft them, those who, on behalf of the Empire, are to aflift and to attend to its interefts at the negotiations fortunately agreed upon to conclude a juft, convenient, lafting, and general peace, between his Imperial Majefty, our moft gracious lord, and the German Empire, on the one part, and the French republic on the other; and whereas for this purpose they have been chofen and appointed from the Electoral College, Mentz, and Saxony; from that of the Princes on the part of the Roman Catholics, Auftria, Bavaria, Wurzburg; from that of the Proteftants, Bremen, Heffe Darinftadt, and Baaden; and from the college of the cities Aufburgh and Frankfort; therefore, by the confent and with the approba tion of his Imperial Majefty, as fupreme chief of the Empire, full powers are hereby granted them, forthwith to fend their fubftitutes to the appointed place of the congrefs for peace, there to appear with the moft illuftrious Imperial plenipotentiary, and to difcufs, tranfact, and refolve, and likewife to fign whatever may conduce to the restoration of a juft, convenient, lafting, and general peace of the Empire, and in general to the common welfare and tranquillity of the country.

Now, whatever fhall thus be tranfacted, refolved, and figned by the above deputies of the Empire, either jointly or in the cafe of illness, abfence, or non-appearance of fome by thofe who are prefent, together with the aforefaid Imperial embally, the fame Thall be ratified by the whole Empire, within the ftipulated time

The deputies of the Empire having declared to the French plenipotentiaries, that their inftructions prevented them from ceding the most inconfiderable village belonging to the German Empire, and directed them to treat on the bafis of the integrity of the Empire; the French plenipotentiaries replied, that this bafis could not be admitted, and that new powers and inftructions would confequently be neceffary.

The French plenipotentiaries having thus rejected the bafis of the integrity of the Germanic body, the deputies of the Empire requested the former to propofe fome other bafis of the treaty to be negotiated, and remonftrated with them on the neceffity of the concluded armistice not being violated during the interim that new powers and inftructions were drawn up. But the French plenipotentiaries returned in anfwer, that Mentz would be taken poffeffion of by the French troops; and that, until the deputies of the Empire had received full and unlimited powers to negotiate, no other bafis could be propofed on the part of the French plenipotentiaries.