of the utmost consequence to the freedom of this nation, and to that great bulwark of its rights, the liberty of the press. 3dly, And because we conceive that the bill sent from the Commons is well calculated to convey a parliamentary declaration and enactment of the said important right of the people; and because we conceive that every delay of such declaration and enactment to be in the highest degree dangerous to the safety of the subject. 4thly, And because we conceive that we cannot with propriety refuse our immediate assent to propositions which no person in the debate did deny to be salutary; and because we conceive that this delay tends to give countenance to doubts that we apprehend to be utterly ill-founded, and to encourage a contest of jurisdiction that can only be injurious to the regu lar and partial administration of justice in this kingdom. STANHOPE, His Majesty's most gracious Speech to both Houses of Parliament, June 10. My Lords, and Gentlemen, In closing the present session of parliament, I cannot omit expressing my satisfaction in that zeal for the public interests with which you have applied yourselves to the consideration of the different objects which I recommended to your attention. The measures which have been adopted for defraying the extraordinary expences of the last year, in such a manner as not to make any permanent addition to the public burthens, and the provisions which have been made for the good government and prosperity of my subjects in Canada, call for my particular acknowledgments. Gentlemen of the House of I return you my thanks for the readiness with which you have granted the supplies necessary for the public service, and for the proof of your affectionate attachment, in enabling me to provide for for a part of the charges of the younger branches of my family, out of the consolidated fund. My Lords, and Gentlemen, I am not yet enabled to inform you of the result of the steps which I have taken with a view to the reestablishment of peace between Russia and the Porte. It is my earnest wish that this important object may be effectuated in such a manner as may contribute to the preservation and maintenance of the general tranquillity of Europe. I feel, with the greatest satisfaction, the confidence which you have reposed in me, and my constant endeavours will be directed to the pursuit of such measures as may appear to me best calculated to promote the interests and happiness of my people, which are inseparable from my own. Speech of the Earl of Westmoreland, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to both Houses of Parliament, January 20. My Lords and Gentlemen, I have some pleasure in acquainting you, by the king's command, that the differences which had arisen between his majesty and the court of Spain have happily been brought to an amicable termination. Copies of the declarations exchanged between his majesty's ambassador and the minister of the Catholic king, and of the convention which has been since concluded, will be laid before you. Had the honour of his majesty's crown, and the protection of the rights and interest of the empire, involved this kingdom in the calamities of war, the zeal manifested by all his subjects, and by none more than his loyal people of Ireland, had left him no doubt of the most vigorous and effectual support. It is a source of peculiar satisfaction to his majesty, that those objects have been accomplished without any actual interruption of the blessings of peace. Gentlemen of the House of I have ordered the proper officers to lay the national accounts before you, fully relying upon your accustomed zeal to provide for the exigencies of the state, and the honourable support of his majesty's government. I have also ordered an account of the extraordinary expences of government, which have been incurred during the negotiation with Spain, to be laid before you; and I trust you will find that the confidence you reposed in me has not been misplaced. My Lords and Gentlemen, Your disposition to facilitate the business of commerce, and to consult the ease of the merchants, will induce you to consider, and if possible to accomplish, during this session, such regulations as may tend to simplify the collection of the various articles of the public revenue. The Speech of the Earl of Westmoreland, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to both Houses of Parliament, May 5, 1791. My Lords and Gentlemen, His majesty having directed an augmentation to be made of his naval forces, in order to add weight to his representations for the reestablishment of peace between Russia and the Porte, has commanded me to communicate this circumstance to his parliament of Ireland, on whose zealous and affectionate attachment to the interests of his majesty's crown his majesty places the firmest reliance. The unremitted application you have given to your parliamentary duties enables me now to close the session, and to relieve you from any further attendance. And I have the king's direction to express his perfect satisfaction in the zeal and dispatch with which you have brought the public business to a conclusion. Gentlemen of the House of His majesty directs me to thank you for the supplies which you have granted for the maintenance of the establishments, and the honourable support of his government. They shall be faithfully applied to the purposes for which they were granted. My Lords and Gentlemen, I have observed, with peculiar satisfaction, the attention you have shown to the interests of your country, by facilitating the business of the merchants in the payment of duties, by providing accommodations for the shipping and trade of the metropolis, and by extending the operation of national credit. The salutary provisions you have made to check the immoderate use of spirituous liquors, afford the strongest proof of your regard for the public welfare. Success in this desirable measure can alone be expected from your continued and well-directed efforts. I therefore trust, that in your respective counties, you will particularly apply yourselves to give efficacy to the regulations you have adopted upon this subject. On my part, no endeavours shall be wanted to enforce the execution of laws so judiciously calculated to preserve the healths, and amend the morals, of the people, and to advance the industry and prosperity of Ireland. To these objects my exertions are directed by his majesty's commands, and by every impulse of inclination and duty. Letter from the Emperor of Germany to the King of the French. Leopold II. Emperor and king of the Romans, &c. Pursuant to our constitutional laws, we have communicated to the electors, princes, and states of the empire, on the one part, the complaints of the vassals of our empire, which, agreeably to the wishes of our electoral college, we transmitted amicably to you, on the 14th Dec. last, and on the other, the answer returned by your majesty.-The more we have considered this affair, the more we must regret that your majesty's answer was not conformable to our just expectation. Besides its not being drawn up in an idiom usual in discussing business between the empire and your kingdom, we remarked, that it called in question the competence of the vassals of the empire to implore our intervention at the diet, * Memorial or Circular Letter from the Emperor of Germany to all the great powers of Europe. (For this see History of Europe, p. 72.) diet, in order to assure them the same protection of the emperor and the empire, which protected their interests on occasion of public pacifications. To judge from the tenour of your answer, your majesty, no doubt, supposed, that all the possessions of our vassals in dispute were subject to the supremacy of your crown, so as to make it free to dispose of them as the public utility seems to require, provided a just indemnification were given; but if your majesty will take the trouble of examining more attentively the public pacifications in question, as well as all the other treaties between the empire and France, since 1648, it will not surely escape your perspicacity, that such a supposition cannot be well founded. You will then see most clearly, on the one part, what are the lands that have been hitherto transferred to the supremacy of your crown by the consent of the emperors and the orders of the empire; and on the other, that the possessions of our vassals in Alsace, Lorraine, and elsewhere, which have not been transferred to your crown by a similar consent, must remain in their ancient relation to the empire, and cannot consequently be subjected to the laws of your kingdom. But with respect even to the districts, the cession of which is most expressly stipulated in the treaties, France cannot be ignorant that these very treaties have given to the exercise of your supremacy, in regard to the vassals of the empire, different restrictions both spiritual and civil, which cannot in any shape be arbitrarily overturned by new decrees of your nation. We have therefore reason to complain of the derogations which, since the month of August, 1789, have been made to the terms of the said treaties, and infractions which have followed in consequence, to the prejudice of our rights, of those of the empire, and of our vassals; and we are convinced that we are bound not only to interpose in their favour the most solemn protestation, both in our name and the name of the empire, but also to give to the injured all the aid which the dignity of the imperial court and the maintenance of the present constitution require. Such is the resolution on which we have determined, and we should already have taken measures to signify it in the most efficacious manner, if your majesty's well known sentiments of justice and equity had not left us the hope of obtaining, by an amicable negotiation, in favour of the vassals of our empire, a reintegration full and conformable to the disposition of those treaties. Your majesty's prudence will easily perceive the injury which a violation of the promises equally binding on both parties reciprocally made to the empire by your crown, and even guaranteed by the latter, would do to the title by which the different countries of Alsace and Lorraine have been successively transferred to you. It will easily discover the consequences not to be calculated which may be produced both in Europe and the other parts of the world, where nations exist that have at any time entered into treaties with your's, by so manifest aproof, that France, without regard to the sanctity of public promises, thinks herself at liberty to violate them whenever her own interest makes it appear convenient. Your desire to cause justice between nations to be observed, and to maintain the friendship that subsists between your kingdom and our empire, will certainly induce you to disregard this pretended convenience, which cannot be obtained but with the detriment of treaties, and does not allow us to doubt, that the instances which we now renew to you, both in our name and the name of the empire, will effect a cessation of all the innovations made since the beginning of August, 1789, as far as they affect the states and vassals of our empire; that they will operate the re-establishment of the latter in the enjoyment of all the revenues of which they have been deprived; and, finally, that the re-establishment of all things, on the foot determined by the treaties, will be the consequence. We entreat your majesty to make known to us if this be your full intention. The more prompt your answer, and the more conformable to received custom, the less doubt we shall entertain of the sincerity of your desire, and that of your nation, to cultivate peace and friendship with the empire. We wish your majesty every thing that can contribute to your happiness. Given at Vienna, Dec. 3, 1791. Memoir, or Proclamation, left by the French King, and presented to the National Assembly of France on Tuesday, June 21, 1791. While the king had any hope of seeing order and happiness restored, by the means employed by the National Assembly and by his residence near the assembly, no sacrifice would have appeared to him too great, which might conduce to such an event; he would not even have mentioned his own personal deprivation of liberty, from the month of October, 1789. But at present, when the result of every transaction is only the destruction of royalty, the violation of property, and the endangering of persons; when there is an entire anarchy through every part of the empire, without the least appearance of any authority sufficient to control it; the king, after protesting against all the acts performed by him during his captivity, thinks it his duty to submit to the French nation the following account of his conduct. In the month of July 1789, the king, he declares it upon his conscience, had no fear on coming amongst the Parisians. In the month of October of the same year, being advised of the conduct of some factious persons, he apprehended that his departure might afford them a pretence for fomenting a civil war. All the world is informed of the impunity with which crimes were then committed. The king, yielding to the wish of the army of the Parisians, came with his family, and established his residence at the Thuilleries. No preparations had been made for his reception, and the king was so far from finding the accommodations to which he had been accustomed, that he was even without the comforts common to persons of any condition. Notwithstanding every constraint, he thought it his duty, on the |
