to a memorable siege, in which he has displayed talents and striking bravery, appears to us to merit the highest distinction. We have also wished to consecrate an epoch so honourable for our arms; and by the letters patent which we have instructed our cousin the archchancellor to communicate to you, we have created our cousin, marshal and senator Lefebvre, duke of Dantzic. May this, borne by his descendants, recall to them the virtues of their ancestor, and may they for ever acknowledge themselves as unworthy of it if ever they prefer a cowardly repose and the idleness of a great city, to the perils of the noble dust of camps; if ever their strongest wish ceases to be for us and their country! Let not one of them end his days with out having shed his blood for the honour and glory of our noble France; and let him see in the name which he bears, not a privilege, but his duty towards the people and ourselves. Upon these conditions, they may be always as sured of our protection and that of

ject of the conscription of 1808, and ordering the priests to beg of God to put a stop to the persecutions which the catholic church suffers in Ireland. Pierre Vincent Dombidaude Croseillhes, by the grace of God, and authority of the holy see, bishop of Quimper, member of the legion of honour, to the clergy and faithful of his diocese, health and benediction.

[The first part relates to the conscription. The following is all that is interesting to an English reader:]

Yes, you shall see, my beloved brethren, that immortal deliverer, who has freed you from the horrors of anarchy, and of civil discord,→ that instrument of Providence who has reopened our temples, and restored our altars. We shall hear the acclamations of your gratitude and of your love. They will prove to the eternal enemy of the glory and prosperity of France, that all its perfidious efforts and intrigues will never be able to alienate from him your religious and faithful hearts. For a moment it had se duced you, at that unhappy epoch when anarchy ravaged this desolated land, and when its impious furies overturned your temples, and profaned your altars. It only affected concern for the re-establishment of our holy religion, in order to rend and ravage our country.

See the sufferings it [England] inflicts on that nation, catholic like you, which is subject to its dominion. The three last ages present only the afflicting picture of a people robbed of all its religious and civil rights. In vain the most enlightened men of the nation have protested against the tyrannical oppression. A new persecution has ravished from them even the hope

of

of seeing an end to their calamities; an inflamed and misled people dares applaud such injustice. It insults with sectarian fanaticism the catholic religion, and its venerable chief; and it is that government which knows not how to be just towards its own subjects, that dares to calumniate this, which has given us security and honour.

Whilst the Irish catholics groan beneath laws so oppressive, our august emperor does not confine himself to the protection and establishment of that religion in his own states; he demanded, in his treaty with Saxony, that it should there enjoy the same liberty as other modes of worship.

But the happiness, so dear to your hearts, my brethren, of being able to enjoy, with security, all the consolations of the religion of your fathers, will only render you more sensible of the miseries of that portion of the catholic church: spread through all countries, it is always united by bonds of the same faith with the different churches; it takes of their tribulations and is interested in their prosperity. Faithful to these sentiments and principles, let us address the God of all vows and prayers to turn aside from the Irish catholic church this new storm with which it is menaced.

par

Impelled by these causes, we ordain as follows :

Art. I. Our present ordonnance shall be read at the time of the sermon, in the public service, on Sunday the 7th of June, in the cathedral, and in all the other churches on the Sunday after it is received.

Art. II. There shall be said, every day, in divine service, in order to pray God to put a stop to the persecution which the catholic church of Ireland suffers, the prayer "2

gainst persecutors of the church," the "secret," and the "post communion," as long as that persecution shall continue.

Given at Quimper, June 1, 1807. PIERRE VINCENT, bishop of Quimper.

By order of the bishop,
LE CLANCHE, priest, secretary.

JUNE 26.

The house met this day at three o'clock, and the commons were

summoned to attend to hear his ma

jesty's speech read by commission. On the speaker appearing at the bar, the lord chancellor read the following Speech:

My lords, and gentlemen,

We have it in command from his majesty to state to you that, having deemed it expedient to recur to the sense of his people, his majesty, in conformity to his declared intention, has lost no time in causing the present parliament to be assembled.

His majesty has great satisfaction in acquainting you that, since the events which led to the dissolution of parliament, his majesty has received, in numerous addresses from his subjects, the warmest assurances of their affectionate attachment to his person and government, and of their firm resolution to support him in maintaining the just rights of his crown and the true principles of the constitution; and he commands us to express his entire confidence that he shall experience in all your deliberations a determination to afford him an equally loyal, zealous, and affectionate support, under all the arduous circumstances of the present time.

We are commanded by his majesty to inform you, that his ma

jesty's

jesty's endeavours have been most anxiously employed for the purpose of drawing closer the ties by which his majesty is connected with the powers of the continent; of assisting the efforts of those powers against the ambition and oppression of France; of forming such engage. ments as may ensure their continued cooperation; and of establishing that mutual confidence and concert so essential under any course of events to the restoration of a solid and permanent peace in Europe.

It would have afforded his majesty the greatest pleasure to have been enabled to inform you that the mediation undertaken by his majesty for the purpose of preserving peace between his majesty's ally, the emperor of Russia, and the Sublime Porte, had proved effectual for that important object: his majesty deeply regrets the failure of that mediation, accompanied as it was by the disappointment of the efforts of his majesty's squadron in the sea of Marmora, and followed as it has since been by the losses which have been sustained by his gallant troops in Ægypt.

His majesty could not but lament the extension of hostilities in any quarter, which should create a diversion in the war so favourable to the views of France; but lamenting it especially in the instance of a power with which his majesty has been so closely connected, and which has been so recently indebted for its protection against the encroachments of France to the signal and successful interposition of his majesty's arms.

His majesty has directed us to acquaint you that he has thought it right to adopt such measures as might best enable him, in concert with the emperor of Russia, to take advantage of any favourable oppor

tunity for bringing the hostilities in which they are engaged against the Sublime Porte to a conclusion, consistent with his majesty's honour and the interests of his ally.

Gentlemen of the house of commons,

His majesty has ordered the estimates of the current year to be laid before you, and he relies on the zeal of his faithful commons to make such provisions for the public service, as well as for the further application of the sums which were granted in the last parliament, as may appear to be necessary.

And his majesty, bearing constantly in mind the necessity of a careful and economical administration of the pecuniary resources of the country, has directed us to express his hopes that you will proceed without delay in the pursuit of those inquiries connected with the public economy, which engaged the attention of the last parliament.

My lords, and gentlemen,

His majesty commands us to state to you, that he is deeply impressed with the peculiar importance, at the present moment, of cherishing a spirit of union and harmony a mongst his people: such a spirit will most effectually promote the prosperity of the country at home, give vigour and efficacy to its councils and its arms abroad; and can alone enable his majesty, under the blessing of Providence, to carry on successfully the great contest in which he is engaged, or finally to conduct it to that termination which his majesty's moderation and justice have ever led him to seek, a peace, in which the honour and interests of his kingdom can be secure, and in which Europe and the world may hope for independence and repose.

By

of the United States;

A PROCLAMATION,

During the wars which for some time have unhappily prevailed among the powers of Europe, the United States of America, firm in their principles of peace, have endeavoured by justice, by a regular discharge of all their national and social duties, and by every friendly office their situation has admitted, to maintain, with all the bellige rents, their accustomed relations of friendship, hospitality, and commercial intercourse.

Taking no part in the questions which animate these powers against each other, nor permitting themselves to entertain a wish but for the general restoration of peace, they have observed with good faith the neutrality they assumed; and they believe that no instance of a departure from its duties can be justly imputed to them by any nation. A free use of their harbours and waters, the means of refitting and refreshment, of succour to their sick and suffering, have, at all times, and on equal principles, been extended to all; and this, too, amidst a constant recurrence of acts of insubordination to the laws, of violence to the persons, and of trespasses on the property of our citizens, committed by officers of one of the belligerent parties received among us. In truth, these abuses of the laws of hospitality have, with few exceptions, become habitual to the commanders of the British armed vessels hovering on our coasts, and frequenting our harbours. They have been the subject of repeated representations to their government. Assurances have been given that proper orders should restrain them within the limit of their rights and

tion; but those orders and assu. rances have been without effect; and no instance of punishment for past wrongs has taken place.

At length, a deed, transcending all we have hitherto seen or suf. fered, brings the public sensibility to a serious crisis, and our forbearance to a necessary pause. A fri. gate of the United States, trusting to a state of peace, and leaving her harbour on a distant service, has been surprised and attacked by a British vessel of superior force, one of a squadron then lying in our wa ters, and covering the transaction, and has been disabled from service, with the loss of a number of men killed and wounded.

This enormity was not only with out provocation or justifiable cause, but was committed with the avowed purpose of taking by force, from a ship of war of the United States, a part of her crew; and, that no circumstance might be wanting to mark its character, it had been previously ascertained that the seamen demanded were native citizens of the United States. Having effected his purpose, he returned to anchor with his squadron within our juris diction. Hospitality under such circumstances ceases to be a duty; and a continuance of it, with such uncontroled abuses, would tend only, by multiplying injuries and irritations, to bring on a rupture between the two nations. This extreme resort is equally opposed to the interests of both, as it is to as surances of the most friendly dispositions on the part of the British government, in the midst of which this outrage has been committed. In this light the subject cannot but present itself to that government, and strengthen the motives to an honourable reparation of the wrong

which has been done, and to that effectual control of its naval commanders, which alone can justify the government of the United States in the exercise of those hospitalities it is now constrained to discontinue.

In consideration of these circumstances, and of the right of every nation to regulate its own police, to provide for its peace, and for the safety of its citizens, and consequently to refuse the admission of armed vessels into its harbours or waters, either in such numbers or of such description as are inconsist ent with these, or with the maintenance of the authority of the laws; I have thought proper, in pursuance of the authorities specially given by law, to issue this my proclamation, hereby requiring all armed vessels bearing commissions under the government of Great Britain,

now within the harbours or waters of the United States, immediately and without any delay to depart from the same; and interdicting the entrance of all the said harbours and waters to the said armed vessels, and to all others bearing commissions under the authority of the British government.

And if the said vessels, or any of them, shall fail to depart as aforesaid; or if they, or any others, so interdicted, shall hereafter enter the harbours or waters aforesaid, I do in that case forbid all intercourse with them, or any of them, their officers, or crews, and do prohibit all supplies and aid from being furnished to them, or any of them.

And I do declare, and make known, that if any person from or within the jurisdictional limits of the United States shall afford any aid to any such vessel, contrary to the prohibition contained in this proclamation, either in repairing any such vessel, or in furnishing

her, her officers, or crew, with supe plies of any kind, or in any manner whatsoever; or if any pilot shall assist in navigating any of the said armed vessels, unless it be for the purpose of carrying them, in the first instance, beyond the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, or unless it be in the case of a vessel forced by distress, or charged with public dispatches, as hereinafter provided for, such person or persons shall, on conviction, suffer all the pains and penalties by the laws provided for such offences.

And I do hereby enjoin and require all persons bearing offices, civil or military, within or under the authority of the United States, and all others, citizens or inhabitants thereof, with vigilance and promptitude to exert their respective authorities, and to be aiding and assisting to the carrying this proclamation, and every part thereof, into full effect.

Provided nevertheless, that if any such vessels shall be forced into the harbours or waters of the United States, by distress, by the dangers of the sea, or the pursuit of an enemy, or shall enter them with dispatches or business from their government, or shall be a public packet for the conveyance of letters and dispatches, the commanding officer immediately reporting his vessel to the collector of the district, stating the object or causes of entering the said harbours or waters, and conforming himself to the regulations in that case prescribed under the authority of the laws, shall be allowed the benefit of such regulations respecting repairs, sup ply, stay, intercourse, and departure, as shall be permitted under the same authority.

In testimony whereof, I have caused the seal of the United States

to