[Conferences of Troppau.]

and consistent with the true interests of the peoples, have had any part in the Resolutions of the Powers. They only wish to maintain Peace, and to deliver Europe from the curse of Revolution, and to remove or abridge, as much as in them lies, the evils which result from the violation of all principles of order and morality.

To such conditions, the Allied Monarchs think they may hope, as a reward for their efforts and their care, for the unanimous approval of the world.

[Nellenburg.]

No. 106.—CONVENTION between the Grand Duke of Baden and the Swiss Confederation, concerning the Principality of Nellenburg. Carlsruhe, 24th December, 1820.

Preamble. Reference to Treaty of Presburg of 1805; and to Treaty of 2nd October, 1810.

1. Division of Estates, Tolls, and ready money Capital between Switzerland and Baden.

2. Renunciation by Switzerland of Revenues up to 1821.

3. Estates, Tolls, and ready money Capital of Zurich, Schaffhausen, and

Thurgau.

4. Appointment of Commissioners to examine Records and Accounts.

5. Division of Debts and Burthens.

6. Delivery of Records, &c., to Baden.

7. Deduction of Sums raised by former Swiss Proprietors.

8. Sale of Domain of Klingenzell to Canton of Thurgau. 9. Ratifications.

(Translation.)

Preamble. Reference to Treaty of Presburg of 1805; and to Treaty of 2nd October, 1810.

In order to give a mark of his friendly sentiments towards Switzerland, and in entire conformity with those displayed on this and several other occasions by his Predecessors, and taking into particular consideration the warm intercession of the Courts of Russia and Prussia, the Grand Duke of Baden has resolved, after previous deliberation with his Minister of State, and some preliminary negociations with the special and extraordinary Embassy of the Swiss Confederation, to enter into an amicable arrangement concerning the Estates, Tolls, and ready money Capital, which, with the acquisition of the Principality of Nellenburg, have become the property of His Royal Highness, and which, having formerly belonged to several secular and spiritual Foundations, Parish Churches, Communities, Corporations, and Monasteries, especially in the Cantons of Zurich, Schaffhausen, and Thurgau, had been claimed as escheated to the Imperial House of Austria; under which circumstances they had devolved, by the Treaty of Presburg of 1805,* upon the Crown of Wirtemberg; and finally, by the Convention of Paris, of 2nd October, 1810,† upon the Grand Duchy of Baden.

To this end were appointed as Plenipotentiaries, on the part of His Royal Highness the Grand Duke, M. Albert Friedrich, His + See Appendix.

* Annulled.

[Nellenburg.]

Royal Highness's Envoy to the Confederate States of Switzerland, Privy Councillor and Commander of the Order of the Lion of Zahringer; and on the part of the Swiss Confederation, M. Jean Jacques Hirzel, Councillor of the Canton of Zurich, sent for that purpose to the Court of Baden as Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary; who, having recognized each other's Full Powers, have concluded the following Convention, subject to the Ratification of their respective Governments.

Division of Estates, Tolls, and ready money Capital between

Switzerland and Baden.

ART. I. Three-fourths of the value of all the Estates, Tolls, and ready money Capital, formerly belonging to the several Cantons, or to secular and spiritual Foundations, Parishes, Communities, Corporations, and Monasteries, in the Principality of Nellenburg, and included in the claims of escheat brought forward by the Imperial House of Austria; such as they were in the year 1810, transmitted to His Royal Highness the Grand Duke, shall be restored to their former possessors; and the remaining two-fifths shall form an incontrovertible portion of the Grand Ducal Domains.

ARTS. II. to VII. (See Table.)

Sale of Domain of Klingenzell to Canton of Thurgau.

ART. VIII. His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Baden, as a compromise for his Claims on the Domain of Klingenzell, in the Canton of Thurgau, will accept the sum of 6,000 florins (standard, 24 florins the marc of fine silver), which shall be paid by the Canton of Thurgau within the space of 6 weeks from the day of the Ratification of the present Convention; for which sum the above-mentioned Domain of Klingenzell, in its present state and condition, is recognized as the incontrovertible property of the Canton of Thurgau; the Records and Accounts relating to the Domain of Klingenzell being subject to the provisions contained in Article VI.

Ratifications.

ART. IX. The present Convention shall be ratified within 6 weeks from the date of its signature; after which the Ratifications shall be mutually exchanged.

To authenticate the present Convention, it has been drawn up in Duplicate, and signed and sealed by the two Plenipotentiaries. Carlsruhe, the 24th of December, 1820.

(L.S.) J. J. HIRZEL.

(L.S.) AL. FRIEDRICH.

[Conferences of Laybach.]

No. 107.-CIRCULAR Despatch to British Missions at Foreign Courts. London, 19th January, 1821.

SIR,

Foreign Office, 19th January, 1821.

I should not have felt it necessary to have made any communication to you, in the present state of the discussions begun at Troppau (No. 105) and transferred to Laybach, had it not been for a Circular Communication, which has been addressed by the Courts of Austria, Prussia, and Russia to their several Missions, and which His Majesty's Government conceive, if not adverted to, might (however unintentionally) convey, upon the subject therein alluded to, very erroneous impressions of the past, as well as of the present, sentiments of the British Government.

It has become therefore necessary to inform you, that The King has felt Himself obliged to decline becoming a Party to the measures in question.

These measures embrace two distinct objects:-1st, The establishment of certain General Principles for the regulation of the future political conduct of the Allies in the cases therein described:-2ndly, The proposed mode of dealing, under these principles, with the existing affairs of Naples.

The system of measures proposed under the former head, if to be reciprocally acted upon, would be in direct repugnance to the fundamental Laws of this Country.-But even if this decisive objection did not exist, the British Government would nevertheless regard the principles on which these measures rest, to be such as could not be safely admitted as a system of International Law. They are of opinion that their adoption would inevitably sanction, and, in the hands of less beneficent Monarchs, might hereafter lead to, a much more frequent and extensive interference in the internal transactions of States, than they are persuaded is intended by the August Parties from whom they proceed, or can be reconcileable either with the general interest, or with the efficient authority and dignity, of independent Sovereigns. They do not regard the Alliance as entitled, under existing Treaties, to assume, in their character as Allies, any such general powers, nor do they conceive that such extraordinary powers could be assumed, in virtue of any fresh Diplomatic Transaction amongst the Allied Courts, without their either attributing to themselves a supremacy incompatible with the rights of other States, or, if to be acquired through the special accession of such States, without introducing

[Conferences of Laybach.]

a federative system in Europe, not only unwieldy and ineffectual to its object, but leading to many most serious inconveniences.

With respect to the particular case of Naples, the British Government, at the very earliest moment, did not hesitate to express their strong disapprobation of the mode and circumstances, under which that Revolution was understood to have been effected; but they, at the same time, expressly declared to the several Allied Courts, that they should not consider themselves as either called upon, or justified, to advise an interference on the part of this Country: They fully admitted, however, that other European States, and especially Austria and the Italian Powers, might feel themselves differently circumstanced; and they professed that it was not their purpose to prejudge the question as it might affect them, or to interfere with the course which such States might think fit to adopt, with a view to their own security, provided only that they were ready to give every reasonable assurance that their views were not directed to purposes of aggrandisement subversive of the Territorial System of Europe, as established by the late Treaties.

Upon these principles the conduct of His Majesty's Government with regard to the Neapolitan Question has been, from the first moment, uniformly regulated, and copies of the successive instructions sent to the British Authorities at Naples for their guidance have been from time to time transmitted for the information of the Allied Governments.

With regard to the expectation which is expressed in the Circular above alluded to, of the assent of the Courts of London and Paris to the more general measures proposed for their adoption founded, as it is alleged, upon existing Treaties; in justification of its own consistency and good faith, the British Government, in withholding such assent, must protest against any such interpretation being put upon the Treaties in question, as is therein assumed.

They have never understood these Treaties to impose any such obligations; and they have, on various occasions, both in Parliament and in their intercourse with the Allied Governments, distinctly maintained the negative of such a proposition: That they have acted with all possible explicitness upon this subject. would at once appear from reference to the deliberations at Paris in 1815 (No. 40), previous to the conclusion of the Treaty of Alliance (No. 44)-at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818 (Nos. 87 & 88); -and subsequently in certain discussions which took place in the course of the last year (Nos. 95 & 104).