PUBLIC PAPERS. MESSAGE OF HIS IMPERIAL AND ROYAL MAJESTY. NENATORS, I have ordered means for preserving the indepen dence of Holland was to retract her orders in council of 1806 and 1807, or to return at last to pacific Sny minister for foreign afairs sentiments. to communicate to you the several circumstances which occasion the junction of Holland with the empire. The orders published by the British council in 1806 and 1807 have rent in pieces the public law of Europe. A new order of things governs the universe. New securities becoming necessary to me, the junction of the mouths of the Scheldt, of the Meuse, the Rhine, the Ems, the Weser, and the Elbe, with the empire, the establishment of an inland navigation with the Baltic, have appeared to me to be the first and most important. I have ordered the plan of a canal to be prepared, which will be executed in the course of five years, and will connect the Seine with the Baltic. Those princes will be indemnified who may find themselves circumscribed by this great measure, which is become absolutely necessary, and which will rest the right of my frontiers upon the Baltic. Before I came to this determination, I apprised England of it. She was acquainted that the only But this power was deaf to the voice of her interests, as well as to the cries of Europe. I was in hopes of being able to es tablish a cartel for the exchange of prisoners of war between France and England, and to avail myself, in consequence of the residence of two commissioners at Paris and London, to bring about an approximation between the two countries. I have been disappointed in my expectations. I could find nothing in the mode in which the English government negotiated but craft and deceit.-The junction of the Valais is an effect long intended of the immense works which I have had performed in the Alps within the last ten years. At the time of my act of mediation, I separated theValais from the Helvetic League, foreseeing then a measure of such advantage to France and Italy.So long as the war continues with England, the French people must not lay down their arms.-My finances are in a most flourishing state. I can meet all the expenses which this immense empire re quires, quires, without calling upon my people for fresh sacrifices. (Signed) NAPOLEON. Palace of the Thuilleries, Dec. 10, 1810. By order of the emperor, After the message was read, his excellency the duke of Cadore, minister for foreign affairs, laid the following report before the sitting: REPORT OF THE MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS ΤΟ HIS MAJESTY THE EMPEROR AND KING. Sir, Your majesty has exalted France to the highest point of greatness. The victories obtained over five successive coalitions, all promoted by England, have produced these consequences; and it may be said, that we are indebted to England for the glory and power of the great empire. At every opportunity your majesty made offers of peace, and without considering whether it would be more advantageous than war: you looked, sir, only to the happiness of the present generation, and you always showed yourself ready to sacrifice to it the most flattering prospects of the future. It was in this spirit that the peace of Campo Formio, of Luneville, and of Amiens, and subsequently of Presburg, of Tilsit, and of Vienna, were concluded; it was in this spirit that your majesty has five times sacrificed to peace the greater part of your conquests. More anxious to adorn your reign by the public happiness than to extend the frontiers of your empire, your majesty set bounds to your greatness; while England, keeping the torch of war contiually alive, seemed to conspire against her al lies as well as herself to create the greatest empire that has existed for twenty centuries.--At the peace of 1783, the power of France was strong in the family compact, which closely bound Spain and Naples with her political system. At that of Amiens, the respective strength of the three great powers was increased by the addition of twelve millions of Polish inhabitants. The houses of France and Spain were essentially hostile to each other, and the people of the two countries were removed further than ever from each other by the difference of their manners. One of the great continental powers had her strength less diminished by the junction of Belgium with France, than it was increased by the acquisition of Venice; the secularizations also of the Germanic body added more to the power of our rivals. Thus, at the conclusion of the treaty of Amiens, the rela tive force of France was less than at the peace of 1783, and much inferior to that to which the victories obtained during the wars of the two first coalitions gave her a right to expect. This treaty, however, was scarcely concluded, when the jealousy of England displayed itself strongly. She took the alarm at the continually increasing prosperity and riches of the interior of France; and she hoped that a third coalition would wrest Belgium, the provinces of the Rhine, and Italy, from your crown. The peace of Amiens was broken; a third coalition was formed; three months after it was dissolved by the treaty of Presburg. England saw all her hopes blasted: Venice, Dalmatia, Istria, the whole of the Adriatic coast, and that of the kingdom of Naples, fell into the power of France. The Germanic Germanic body, established upon principles contrary to those upon which the French empire was founded, dropped to pieces; and the system of the confederation of the Rhine transformed into close and necessary allies the same nations who in the first coalitions marched against France, and united them indissolubly to herself by their common interests. The peace of Amiens then became in England the object of the regret of every statesman. The new acquisitions by France, which there were no hopes of wresting from her at any future time, rendered the fault that was committed more evident, and showed the full extent of it. An enlightened man, who during the short interval of the peace of Amiens visited Paris, and had learned to know France and your majesty, was put at the head of affairs in England. This man of genius comprehended the situations of the two countries. He perceived that it was not in the power of any state to compel France to retrograde; and that the true policy consisted in arresting her progress. He perceived, that by the success obtained over the third coalition the question was changed; and that it must no longer be thought of contesting with France the possessions that she acquired by victory; but that it was necessary, by a speedy peace, to prevent those new acquisitions which the continuation of the war would render inevitable. This minister did not conceal any of the advantages which France derived from the erroneous policy of England; but he had in view those which she might still acquire. He thought that England would gain much, if none of the continental powers lost more. He directed his policy to disarm France, and to have the confederation of the North of Germany recognised in opposition to the confederation of the Rhine. He perceived that Prussia could only be preserved by peace; and that on the fate of that power depended the system of Saxony, of Hessia, of Hanover, the fate of the mouths of the Ems, of the Jade, of the Weser, of the Elbe, of the Oder, and of the Vistula, ports necessary for the commerce of England. Like a great man, Fox did not deliver himself up to useless sorrow for the rupture of the treaty of Amiens, and losses henceforth irreparable; he wished to prevent greater, and he sent lord Lauderdale to Paris. The negotiations began, and every thing led to hope that they would have ended happily; wha Fox died. From that time they languished. The ministers were neither sufficiently enlightened nor temperate to perceive the necessity of peace. Prussia, excited by that spirit which England infused into all Europe, put her troops to march. The imperial guard received orders to set out; lord Lauderdale appeared terrified at the consequences of the new events that were preparing. It was proposed to sign the treaty; that Prussia should be included in it, and that the confederation of the North of Germany should be recognised. Your majesty, with that spirit of moderation of which you have given such frequent examples to Europe, consented. The departure of the imperial guard was delayed for some days: but lord Lauderdale hesitated; thought it necessary to send a mes senger to his court, and that, messenger brought him an order to return. In a few days after, Prussia no longer existed as a preponde he rating power. Posterity will consider that period as one of the most decisive in the histories of England and France. The treaty of Tilsit put an end to the fourth coalition. -Two great sovereigns, lately enemies, united in offering peace to England; but that power, who, notwithstanding all the forewarnings she had received, could not bring herself to subscribe to conditions which would leave France in a more advantageous situation than she was after the treaty of Amiens, would not enter into a negotiation, the unavoidable consequence of which would have been to place France in a situation' still more to her advantage.-We refused, it was said in England, a treaty which maintained the North of Germany, Prussia, Saxony, Hessia, and Hanover, independent of France, and which secured all the outlets of our trade: how, then, can we agree at this time to conclude with the emperor of the French, when he has extended the confederation of the Rhine to the North of Germany, and to found on the banks of the Elbe a French throne, a peace which, by the course of things, whatever the stipulations might be, would leave under his influence Hanover, and all the ports of the north, those principal arteries of our commerce? [The exposé dwells at some length upon the coalitions-declares that a proposition was made to our government to recal the orders in council, upon condition that the independence of Holland should be respected by the French; which was rejected-recommends the annexation of the Hans Towns to the empire: the repairing the canal between Hamburgh and Lubeck, and the construction of a new canal which would unite the Judging it expedient to pursue their inquiries into the several subjects which engaged their attention during the former session, for the purpose of laying before the house such further information as has been received upon each to the close of the present session, they proceed to submit the result in the order of their several reports. Upon the subject which forms the first part of the fifth, it appears, that the original bond given by the hon. George Villiers was discovered in June 1810, by one of the clerks of the admiralty, employed to arrange the whole of the marine papers, in the midst of one of the bunds of marine monthly returns. Mr. Bicknell, solicitor to the admiralty, produced to your committee the proceedings for recovering the debt due to his majesty on Mr. G. Villiers's accounts, as paymaster and inspector of his maje ty's marine forces, which are printed in the appendix. Upon the recommendation from your committee, that the office of paymaster of marines should be abolished, and the duties transferred to the navy pay-office, re ference ference was made from the commissioners of the treasury to the treasurer of the navy, which gave rise to correspondence and discussions which will be found in the appendix. After perusing and considering these papers, your committee see no reason to alter the opinion given in their fifth report, p. 6, with regard to the abolition of that office. An account of the proceedings adopted for the recovery of the "debt," (which amounts to 264,507) is published in this report. By this statement it appears that 56,492/. 10s, resulting from the sale of estates, &c. has already been received; and it adds, under the head "to be expected," the sum of 79,749. 17s.-These two sums, that is, including the large one which is to be "expected" to be received, make together 136,212/. 15s. PROTEST By all the royal dukes against the proposition, submitted to the prince of Wales, for limiting and restraining his royal highness in the exercise of the prerogative, while called upon to discharge as regent the royal authority. Sir, The prince of Wales having assembled the whole of the male branches of the royal family, and having communicated to us the plan intended to be proposed by his majesty's confidential servants, to the lords and commons, for the establishment of a restricted regency, should the continuance of his majesty's ever-to-be-deplored illness render it necessary; we feel it a duty we owe to his majesty, to our country, and to ourselves, to enter our solemn protest against measures we consider as perfectly Mr. Perceval has the honour of acknowledging the receipt of a solemn protest, in the name of all the male branches of the royal family, against the measures which his majesty's confidential servants have thought it to be their duty to communicate to his royal highness the prince of Wales, as intended to be proposed to the two houses of parliament, for the establish ment of a restricted regency during the continuance of his majesty's ever-to-be-lamented indisposition; and stating that their royal highnesses consider these measures as perfectly unconstitutional, as con trary to and subversive of the prin ciples which seated his majesty's royal family upon the throne of |