[Cracow.] 21st April, the 1815 (No. 13), as well as the Additional Treaty between Austria, Prussia, and Russia of the same date (No. 14). 2. In consequence of this resolution, the City of Cracow and its Territory shall be restored to the Court of Austria for the purpose of being re-united to the Austrian Monarchy, and of being possessed by His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty in the same manner as he possessed them before the year 1809. Cracow, 6th November, 1846. [Cracow.] No. 202.-AUSTRIAN DECLARATION relative to the Annexation of Cracow to Austria. Signed at Vienna, 11th November, 1846. (Translation as laid before Parliament.*) WE, Ferdinand I, by the Grace of God, Emperor of Austria, &c. The City of Cracow and the adjacent Territory having been separated from our Empire and incorporated in the Duchy of Warsaw by the Peace concluded at Vienna, the 14th October, 1809,† having subsequently, in consequence of the events of the War of 1812, been conquered by the Imperial troops of Russia, our predecessor, the late Francis I, of glorious memory, and the two Allied Courts of Prussia and Russia, covenanted by common consent, in the Treaty of the 21st April, 1815 (No. 13), that Cracow, together with the Territory assigned to it, should for the future form a Free and Independent City under the Protection of the 3 Powers. This arrangement was, however, only adopted upon the express condition, and upon the necessary supposition of the strict Neutrality of the said Free City, and was likewise coupled with the obligation not to give asylum nor domicile to any Refugees subjects of the 3 Protecting Powers, but to surrender them immediately to the competent authorities. 3rd May The sad experience of 16 years has, however, proved that Cracow has not fulfilled the conditions of its independent existence; that, on the contrary, since 1830 that State has served unceasingly as a centre for hostile intrigues directed against the 3 Protecting Powers, until, finally, in the month of February of the present year, it became the theatre of more violent and more dangerous events than ever. The Government and the legitimate Constitution of Cracow were overthrown; the fate of the City was delivered into the hands of a certain number of conspirators, who styled themselves the Revolutionary Government of Poland, and who called upon the inhabitants of all parts of ancient Poland to take arms and to revolt against the existing Governments; finally, an armed band dared to make an irruption from the territory of Cracow into our own States. *For French version see "State Papers," vol. xxxiii, p. 1042. + See Appendix. [Cracow.] It became necessary once more to occupy Cracow by the troops of the Protecting Powers, and to subject that State to a Provisional Government subordinate to our Military Authorities. Seeing ourselves deprived by these events of the possibility of re-establishing the bases of liberty and Independence of Cracow, which had been destroyed by the enemies of tranquillity and order in Europe, and deeply conscious of the duty to protect, not only our own faithful subjects of Gallicia, but likewise the respectable and peaceable portion of the population of Cracow itself, against the aggressions and machinations of this same destructive party, we have, in concert with His Majesty the King of Prussia, and with His Majesty the Emperor of Russia, taken into serious consideration the future fate of Cracow; and with this view we have caused Conferences to be held with the Plenipotentiaries of the Courts of Berlin and of St. Petersburgh. It is in consequence of these deliberations that the 3 Protecting Powers of the City of Cracow have concluded, under date of the 6th of November of the present year (No. 201), an arrangement, by virtue of which they revoke and annul the Treaties concluded on the 3rd of May 1815 (Nos. 12, 13, 14), with respect to the said City, and by which that City with its Territory, returns afresh under our domination, in the same manner as our august predecessor of glorious memory possessed it before the Peace of Vienna of the 14th of October, 1809.* We accordingly, by these presents, take possession of the City of Cracow and of its Territory, such as it has existed up to the present time, unite it to our Crown, and declare it to form an integral portion of our Empire, in which we incorporate it henceforth.. We name, as our Commissioner to carry into effect this taking possession, the Count Maurice de Deym, our Chamberlain, Councillor of Government, and Captain of our City of Prague; and we call earnestly upon all the inhabitants of the City of Cracow and of its Territory, in their own interest, to obey without resistance our Imperial Commissioner, as well as the authorities already acknowledged by us as established, or who shall be so at a later period, and to conform exactly to any regulations made or to be made on our part. We promise them, in return, to maintain and to protect our holy religion; to administer justice impartially; to apportion, See Appendix. [Cracow.] according to the laws of equity, the public burdens; finally, to watch strictly over the maintenance of general security. All those who, by a prompt submission to the present measure, which has for its object their own well-being only, and by their fidelity and attachment to our House, shall render themselves worthy of our favour, shall always find in us a paternal Sovereign and a clement Emperor; and we shall exert ourselves to the utmost to cause them to participate in the benefits which the annexation to a great and powerful Monarchy can procure for the inhabitants of Cracow. Done at our Imperial residence of Vienna, the 11th of November, in the year of Grace, 1846, and of our reign the twelfth. FERDINANDTM. [See British and French Protests against this Annexation, dated 23rd November and 3rd December, 1846.] [Cracow.] No. 203. BRITISH PROTEST against the Incorporation of the Free City of Cracow, in the Dominions of the Emperor of Austria. London, 23rd November, 1846. Viscount Palmerston to Viscount Ponsonby.* My Lord, Foreign Office, 23rd November, 1846. COUNT DIETRICHSTEIN, the Chevalier Bunsen, and Baron Brunnow, have communicated to me identic despatches from their respective Governments, with a Memorandum inclosed in each, announcing to Her Majesty's Government the intention of the Governments of Austria, Russia, and Prussia, to put an end to the independent existence of the Free State of Cracow, and to incorporate the City and its Territory in the Dominions of the Emperor of Austria. The grounds upon which this intention is rested, are the allegation that the Free State of Cracow was created and constituted in May, 1815, by the Triple Treaty (No. 14) between Austria, Russia, and Prussia; that those 3 Powers alone, having been its creators, they are competent, by their own authority, to put an end to its existence; that they now feel themselves justified in doing so, because the Free State has for a long course of years failed in its duty towards the Protecting Powers; that during the Polish Insurrection in 1830, Cracow gave aid to the insurrectionary forces in the Kingdom of Poland, and harboured a great number of refugees from thence when the Insurrection was put down; that from that time to the present it has been the centre of political intrigues, tending to disturb the tranquillity of the 3 adjoining States; that . recently its population actually invaded the Province of Gallicia and plundered the treasury of the Salt Mines of Wieliczka, and that its Government, having been dissolved by internal dissensions, the question now for the 3 Protecting Powers to decide, * Instructions of the same tenor were addressed by Viscount Palmerston on the same day to Her Majesty's Ministers at Berlin and St. Petersburgh. The following passage also occurred in the Queen's Speech to Parliament on the 19th January, 1847: "The Extinction of the Free State of Cracow has appeared to me to be so manifest a violation of the Treaty of Vienna, that I have commanded that a Protest against that act should be delivered to the Courts of Vienna, Prussia, and Russia, which were parties to it." |