CHAP. XXXII Proclamation of the Crown Prince of Sweden to the French People.-Dutch Political Constitution.-Duke D'Angouleme invited to Bourdeaux.-Unsuccessful Attack at Bergen-op-Zoom.-Declaration of the Allied Powers on the Breaking-off of the Negotiations at Chatillon-Discourse of the Prince Sovereign of the Netherlands on taking the Oath of the Constitution.Official Document of what happened at Paris, from the 28th of March to the 3d of April.-Declaration of the Emperor of Russia.-Extraordinary Convocation of the Senate; Prince Benevento, President.-The Emperor Alexander's Address to the Senate.—Address to the French Armies. The Crown Prince of Sweden to the French People. * "Frenchmen ! AT T the command of my king I have taken up arms for the purpose of defending the rights of the Swedish people. After having revenged the insults which they had suffered, and assisted in effecting the liberation of Germany, I have passed the Rhine. "At the moment when I again see this river, on the borders of which I have so often and so successfully fought for you, I feel the necessity of again apprising you of my sentiments. "The government under which you live has continually had in view to treat you with contempt, in order that it might debase you; it is high time that this state of things undergo an alteration. "All enlightened people express their wishes for the welfare of France; but they, at the same time, wish that she may no longer be the scourge of the earth. "The allied monarchs have not united themselves to make war upon the people, but to force your government to acknowledge the independence of other states; this is their sole motive and aim, and I will pledge myself for the integrity of their sentiments. Adopted son of Charles the 13th, and placed by the choice of a free people at the foot of the throne of the Gustavuses, I can henceforward be animated with no other ambition than that of securing the happiness of the Scandinavian peninsula; and, at the same time, my principal happiness will consist (after having fulfilled this sacred duty towards my adopted country), in securing the future happiness of my former countrymen. "Given at my head-quarters, Heulen, February 12, 1814. (Signed) "CHARLES JEAN." DUTCH POLITICAL CONSTITUTION. ઃઃ Hague, March 3, 1814. “We, William, by the grace of God, prince of Orange Nassau, sovereign prince of the United Netherlands, &c. To all to whom these presents come, greeting. Invited to the sovereignty of these states by your confidence and your attachment, we, from the first, declared, that we would undertake the same, only under the guarantee of a wise constitution, which might secure your freedom against all possible abuses; and we have ever since continued to feel the necessity thereof. We regard it, therefore, as one of the first and most sacred of our duties, to summon together some men of consideration, and to charge them with the weighty task of establishing a fundamental code, built upon your manners, your habits, and corresponding to the wants of the present time. They cheerfully took upon themselves this office, performed it with zeal, and have submit.. ted to us the fruits of their uninterrupted labours. After a careful examination of this work, we have. given it our approbation. But this does not satisfy our heart. It respects the concerns of the whole Netherlands. The whole Dutch people must be recognized in this important work. That people must receive the strongest possible assurance, that their dearest interests are sufficiently attended to therein; that religion, as the fountain of all good, is, thereby, honoured and maintained, and religious freedom disturbed by nothing of temporal concerns, but secured in the most ample manner that the education of youth, and the spread of scientific knowledge, shall be attended to by the government, and freed from all those vexatious regulations which oppress the genius and subdue the spirit: that personal freedom shall no longer be an empty name, and dependent on the caprices of a suspicious and crafty police; that an impartial administration of justice, guided by fixed principles, secure to every man his property; that commerce, agriculture, and manufactures, be no longer obstructed, but have free course, like rich springs of public and private prosperity; that, therefore, no restraint be imposed on the domestic economy of the higher and lower classes of the state, but that they be conformable to the general laws and the general government; that the movements of the general government be not palsied by too great a zeal for local interests, but ra ther receive from it an additional impulse; that the general laws, by means of an harmonious co-operation of the two principal branches of the government, be founded on the true interests of the state; that the finances, and the arming of the people, the main pillars of the body politic, be placed in that central point, upon which the greatest and most invaluable privilege of every free people-their inde pendence may be firmly fixed. Which of you can doubt of this truth, after the terrible experience you have had of a foreign tyranny, which acknowledged no right when it wanted means for its own maintenance by violence; after having sighed of late years, under the most oppressive yoke that ever was imposed since the Spanish times? Now, at least, you know the true value of those precious rights for which our fathers sacrificed their property and blood; of that happiness which they bequeathed to their descendants, and which we saw lost through. the adversity of the times! Following, therefore, and deriving encouragement from their example, it becomes my duty, in imitation of those whose name I bear, and whose memory I honour, to restore that which is lost it is your duty to support me therein with all your efforts, that, under the blessing of Divine Providence, who summons us to this task, we may leave our beloved country completely re-conquered and re-established to our children. In order to be enabled to judge whether the constitutional code thus framed, as before stated, be a means of obtaining the above great object, we have thought it right that the said code be submitted, for maturer consideration, to a numerous assembly of persons the most considerable and best qualified among you. We have, for that purpose, appointed a special commission, who are to choose, out of a numerous list given in to us, six hundred persons, in due proportion to the population of each of the now existing departments. Honoured with your confidence, they shall, on the 28th of this month, assemble in the metropolis of Amsterdam, to come to a determination upon this weighty business. They shall, in like manner, with the letter of convocation, receive the plan of the constitution, that they may be able to prepare their decision thereon with maturity and calmness of deliberation; and, for the more effectual attainment of this object, a copy of the same shall be sent to each member previously. And as it is of the first importance that these members be pos sessed of the general confidence, we order that a list of the persons chosen for each department be made public, and that to all the inhabitants of the same, being housekeepers, an opportunity shall be afforded, by signing his name, without any other addition, in a register, which shall lie open in each canton for eight days, to disapprove of any such person or persons as he may deem unqualified. No inhabitant is deprived of this right, with the exception of domestic servants, valets, bankrupts, persons in a state of non-age, or under accusation. When it shall appear to us, from the summing up of the registers, that the majority are satisfied with the persons thus submitted to their election, we shall consider them as the representatives of the whole Dutch people, call them together, appear in the midst of them, and salute them as constituting the great assembly representing the United Netherlands. They shall then commence their labours in freedom, and give us an account of their progress, by a committee ap pointed to that effect; and as soon as the adoption of the constitutional code is the result of their deliberations, we shall make the necessary arrangements for taking the oath prescribed to us by the constitu tion, with all due solemnity in the midst of the assembly, and after that be installed in state. In the adoption of these measures, worthy countrymen, you must feel convinced, that the welfare of our beloved country is my first and only object; that your interests and mine are the same; and how can they be more manifestly promoted than by the introduction of constitutional rules, in which you will find the guarantee of your dearest rights? They will furnish me with the advantage of conducting, on fixed principles, the charge and responsibility of |