brave Saxons, in the annals of Prussian glory.

(Signed) FREDERICK WILLIAM.

Vienna, May 22, 1815.

To the Inhabitants of the Ceded Parts of the Kingdom of Saxony.

By the Treaty of Peace concluded on the 18th of this month, and ratified on the 21st, between me and the courts of Austria, Russia, and Prussia, I have consented to the cession of that part of my Hereditary States, of which the Congress at Vienna had disposed, which had at the same time added the clause, that the rest of my hereditary States would not be restored till I had consented to the cessions demanded.

During my long government I have been guided in all my operations solely by my solicitude for the good of the subjects who were intrusted to me. The issue of all human enterprises is in the hand of God. All my efforts to avert so painful a sacrifice have been in vain. I must part from you, and the bonds which your fidelity and your attachment to my person rendered so dear to me, the bouds which have formed for ages the happiness of my House, and of your ancestors, must be broken. Conformably to the promise made to the Allied Powers, I release you, subjects and soldiers, of the provinces separated from my kingdom, from your oath to me and my House, and I recommend you to be faithful and obedient to your new Sovereign.

My gratitude for your fidelity, my love and my ardent wishes for your welfare, will always attend

you.

FREDERICK AUGUSTUS. Saxenburg, May 22, 1815.

Prussian Decree respecting the Representation of the People.

We, Frederick William, by the Grace of God, King of Prussia, &c.

By our decree of the 30th of last month, we have ordained a regular administration for our monarchy, taking into consideration at the same time the former relations of the provinces.

The history of the Prussian States shows, indeed, that the happy state of civil liberty, and the duration of a just administration founded upon order, has hitherto found in the character of the Sovereigns, and in their union with their people, all that security which the imperfection and uncertainty of all human institutions would allow.

In order, however, that these advantages may be built on a still firmer basis, and that we may give to the Prussian nation a pledge of our confidence, and to posterity an authentic document of the principles upon which our ancestors and ourself have conducted the government of our kingdom with constant regard to the happiness of our subjects; and that those principles may be durably recorded by a written document, as the Constitution of the Prussian Monarchy, we have resolved as follows;

1815.

(b) Where there are at present no. Provincial Assemblies they are to be introduced.

3rd. From the Provincial Assemblies, the Assembly of the Representatives of the Kingdom is to be chosen which will sit at Berlin.

4. The functions of the National Representatives extend to the deliberation upon all the objects of legislation which concern the personal rights of the citizens and their property, including taxation.

5. A Committee is to be formed at Berlin without delay, which is to consist of experienced Officers of State, and inhabitants of the provinces.

6. This committee shall employ

itself.

(a). On the organization of the Provincial Assemblies.

(6). The organization of the National Representation.

(c). On the framing of a Constitution according to the principles laid down.

7. It shall meet on the 1st of September this year.

8. Our Chancellor is charged with the execution of this decree, and is to lay before us the labours of the Committee.

He names the members of it, and presides at its meetings, but is authorized, in case of need, to name a Deputy in his room.

Given under our hand and Royal

(Signed) FREDERICK WILLIAM. (Countersigned)

C. F. V. HARDENBERG.

Protest of the Spanish Ambassador against the Decisions of the Congress of Vienna.

The undersigned, Ambassador of his Majesty the King of Spain, has remarked, that no mention appears in the Protocol, of that conference which took place yesterday evening. He presumes, that, instead of a conference, it was rather an act of courtesy which Messrs. the Plenipotentia ries of Austria, Great Britain, France, Russia, and Prussia shewed towards him, in order to communicate to him the act with which they have resolved to terminate their labours, and in which they, as he is told, have irrevocably agreed among themselves alone respecting the rights of his Majesty the King of Spain, and his Majesty the King of Etruria, in Italy, as well as respecting the singular recommendation made to his Catholic Majesty, in an article of the treaty, respecting the cession of Olivenza to Portugal, an affair with which the Plenipotentiaries of the above powers must surely have interfered by mistake, since it has at no time become the Congress, and much less of any of its parts, to interfere in that business. as it is of the greatest importance, that either in the Protocols, or in the diplomatic archives, some record should remain of

And

what the undersigned yesterday declared verbally, therefore, he has the honour now to repeat it in writing. He then declared, that all that he could do, out of respect to the Powers whose Plenipotentiaries were assembled yesterday evening, was, that he must leave to his own Court the decision in relation to the communicated treaty, and till then, cannot subscribe it.

1. Because his instructions for bid him to subscribe any agreement contrary to the immediate and complete restoration of the three Duchies of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla, as he had the honour to make known to Prince Metternich in a note of the 3rd of April, which has remained unanswered, and which has not been imparted to Congress, contrary to the express wishes therein set forth.

2. Because, while Spain has desired of Austria, in its own name, the restoration of Tuscany, and subsidiarily of Parma, and while besides his Catholic Majesty takes an immediate interest in the fate of his Majesty the King of France, even had the undersigned not been summoned, like the Plenipotentiaries of other powers who signed the treaty of Paris, and admitted to the Congress of Vienna, in no way could the Plenipotentiaries of Austria, Britain, &c. legitimately decide respecting the fate of Tuscany and Parma, without this concert. And certainly it will be impossible to persuade any man that that can be called entering into negotiation between two powers, when the. Plenipotentiary of the one is

merely invited to adopt that which the mediating powers have irrevocably fixed with the other, and which is then made the forma article of a treaty.

3. Because, among the grea". number of articles of which the treaty consists, there is only a small number, respecting which information was given in the conferences to the Plenipotentiaries of the eight powers who signed the peace of Paris, and as all these Plenipotentiaries are reciprocally equal, and the Powers whom they represent equally independent, it cannot be admitted that a part of them have the right of deciding and concluding, and the rest of them only that of subscribing, or refusing subscription, without an open contempt of the most essential forms, without the most manifest subversion of all principles, and without the introduction of a new law of nations, to which the Powers of Europe cannot submit without ipso facto renouncing their independence, and which, however general it may become, shall never be so on the other side of the Pyrennees.

The undersigned requests his Highness Prince Metternich, in his capacity of President of the Congress, to lay this note before the other Plenipotentiaries, and to permit its insertion in the Protocol of conferences.

He embraces this opportunity. of renewing to his Highness the assurance of his high consideration.

(Signed)

P. M. GOMEZ LABRADOR. Vienna, June 5, 1815.

German Act of Confederation.

Art. I.-The Sovereign Princes and free cities of Germany, including their Majesties the Emperor of Austria and the Kings of Prussia, Denmark, and the Netherlands, namely, the Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia, for those of their possessions which formerly belonged to the German Empire, the King of Den⚫ mark for Holstein, the King of the Netherlands for the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, unite themselves into a perpetual league, which shall be called the German Confederation.

II. The object thereof is the maintenance of the internal and external security of Germany, and of the independence and inviolability of the different German

states.

III.-The Members of the Confederation have, as such, equal rights; they bind themselves, all equally to maintain the act of confederation.

IV. The affairs of the confede. ration shall be managed by a general assembly, in which all the Members of the Confederation shall be represented by their plenipotentiaries, who shall each have one vote either severally, or as representing more than one member, as follows:

Austria 1 vote, Prussia 1, Bavaria 1, Saxony 1, Hanover 1, Wurtemburg 1, Baden 1, Electorate of Hesse, 1, Grand Duchy of Hesse 1, Denmark for Holstein 1, the Netherlands for Luxemburg 1, the Grand-Ducal and Ducal Saxon Houses 1. Brunswick and Nassau 1, Mecklenburg

Schwerin, and Mecklenburg Stre litz, 1, Holstein Oldenburg, Anhalt, and Schwartzburg 1, Hohenzollern, Lichtenstein, Reuss, Schamberg Lippe, Lippe and Waldeck 1, the free cities of Lubeck, Frankfort, Bremen, and Hamburgh 1; total 17 votes.

V.-Austria has the presidency in the Diet of the Confederation; every member of the league is empowered to make propositions and bring them under discussion; and the presiding member is bound to submit such propositions for deliberation within a fixed period.

VI. When these propositions relate to the abolition or alteration of the fundamental laws of the Confederation, or to regulations relating to the Act of Confederation itself, then the Diet forms itself into a full committee, when the different component members shall have the following votes proportioned to the extent of their territories :

Austria, Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, Hanover, and Wurtemburg, four votes each; Baden, Electorate of Hesse, Grand Duchy of Hesse, Holstein, and Luxemburg, three votes each; Brunswick, Mecklenburgh-Schwerin, and Nassau, two votes each; Saxe Weimar, and a great number of minor German Princes, with the free towns, one vote each; total 69 votes.

VII. Questions in the Diet shall be decided by a simple majority of votes, on ordinary occasions, the President to have the casting vote; but when in full committee, the question must be decided by a majority of at least three fourths.

VIII. -The Diet of the Confe

deration has its sitting at Frankfort on the Main; its opening is fixed for the 1st of September 1815. IX.-The first business of the Diet, after its opening, will be the formation of the organic regulations of the confederation, in regard to its external, military, and internal relations.

X.-Every Member of the Confederation engages to assist in protecting not only all Germany, but every separate State of the league against any attack, and reciprocally to guarantee to each other the whole of their possessions included within the Confederation.

After war has been once declared by the Confederation, no member can enter into separate negotiations with the enemy, nor conclude a separate armistice or peace.

Although the members 'possess the right of alliance of every kind, yet they bind themselves to enter into no treaties hostile to the security of the Confederation, or to that of any confederate State.

The Members of the League also bind themselves not to make war on each other under any pretext, nor to decide their differences by force, but to bring them under the consideration and decision of the Diet.

Besides the preceding articles, there are a variety of others relating to the internal regulations of Germany, of which the following are the most interesting:

XIII. In all the States of the Confederation a constitutional assembly of the States-General shall be established.

XVI-Diversity of Christian religious faith in the States of the German Confederation, can occasion no difference in respect to the enjoyment of civil and political rights.

The Diet will take into consideration in what way the civil amelioration of the professors of the Jewish religion may best be effected, and in particular, how the enjoyment of all civil rights in return for the performance of all civil duties may be most effectually secured to them in the States of the Confederation; in the mean time the professors of this faith shall continue to enjoy the rights already extended to them.

XVIII. The confederate Princes and free cities agree to secure to the subjects of their Confederate States the following rights:

a. The possession of landed property out of the State in which they reside, without being subjected to greater taxes or charges than those of the native subjects of such State.

b. The right of free emigration from one German Confederate State to another, which shall consent to receive them for subjects; and also the right of entering into the civil or military service of any such Confederate State; both rights, however, to be enjoyed only in so far as no previous obligation to military service in their native country shall stand in the way.

c. The Diet on its first meeting shall occupy itself with the formation of some uniform regulations relative to the freedom of the press, and the securing of the rights of authors and publishers against oppression,