sentiments, to see only the fulfil ment of our most important duties, under present circumstances, only a new proof of our devotion to your sacred person, only the sincere wish that your Majesty may reign over these fine provinces in constant peace, by a perfectly paternal government, and by a powerful and durable union between the Clergy and the Royal Authority,

We are, with the profoundest veneration, your Majesty's most humble, obedient, and faithful

servant s

(Signed

Prince MAURICE of Broglio, Bishop of Ghent. J.A. BARRETT, Vicar-General Capitulary of Liege. J. FORGEUR, Vicar-General of the Archbishoprick of Malines. CHARLES FRANCIS JOSEPH PISANI, Bishop of Namur. FRANCIS JOSEPH, Bishop of Tournay. July 28, 1815.

Speech of the King of the Netherlands on opening the assembly of the States General of the United Netherlands.

Hague, August 8.

High and Mighty Lords,-A few months ago I announced to the States General the union of all the Netherlands under the Royal Sceptre; but that this union may be permanent and beneficial, it is not enough that all the inhabitants be united under one Sovereign; they must, besides, be most intimately bound together by the same laws and

the same institutions; the partywalls raised under other circumstances must be removed, and they must mutually regard each other as inhabitants of one house, and children of one family.

Your High Mightinesses know that such are also the views of the united Powers of Europe in establishing the new Monarchy.Faithful to the principle of every where maintaining and preserving the already established relations, they have especially required that our Constitution shall be maintained, and only altered in so far as the change of circumstances should, upon common deliberation, appear to demand. My own wishes coincide with this determination. I have chosen for the revision of the Constitution those measures which appeared to me most adapted to the end proposed. Men assembled from all the provinces of the kingdom, without any other end in view than the welfare and glory of their countrymen, have fulfilled the important task, and in their dispassionate, concordant, and confidential deliberations, I have seen, with joy, a new and flattering presage of the fraternal union of all my subjects.

These deliberations still continued, when the tumult of war, unexpected, and with unusual rage (but, God be thanked, for a short time only), surprised our territory. The danger, though short, was urgent; but the courage of our warriors was superior to the danger. No consideration, no examples of a neighbouring country even, could make one doubt a moment of the security of engagements voluntarily taken

by the Netherlanders; and now, that in a period of danger, united under the banners of independence, and by the side of our generous allies, they have confirmed their vows by deed; I flatter my self that the nation and all Europe partake my conviction and my confidence. History shall one day shew in the battles of Quatre Bras and Waterloo two illustrious pillars of the new State of the Netherlands, and happy the Fathers are on whose sons the lot has fallen to raise these pillars with their arms, and to dye them with their blood.

The plan which is to be considered in this assembly should not be offered you by me, since in the review of the fundamental law, scarcely one article was laid aside by which the dearest rights of our nation was secured. But every care has been taken to extend these rights as much as possible, and to define them more clearly; that the new political union may have the stamp of an enlightened eye, and of the national character. The inviolability of the judicial authority remains irrevocable,and liberty of conscience is guaranteed to the fullest extent. No property can be declared confiscated, no opinion or thought checked in its course. The meanest citizen is at liberty to make his voice heard even at the Throne.

The people retain their representation; the Provincial Assemblies a suitable degree of power. The burdens of the state are freely voted, and equally borne. The revenues to be accounted for, according to fixed rules, can be employed in the hands of the King to no other ends than to the payment

of services useful to the State, to the public institutions, to the defence of the country; and, in general, the royal power is great enough to secure the welfare of the community, but insufficient to oppress or injure a single subject.

If these observations are just, we may, under the direction of the new constitution, with increased ability, and with confidence in the future, continue and complete what, under the Divine blessing, is already begun, designed, or prepared for the honour and the welfare of the Netherlands. To your High Mightinesses is confided the solution of this question. Each of you knows the high importance of his mission, and each of you will strive to acquit himself of it with that zeal which we at all times, but especially in times like these, owe to our dear country.

Convention between the British

and Dutch Governments. In the name of the most Holy and Undivided Trinity.

His Majesty the King of the Netherlands, and his Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, being both highly desirous of promoting and confirming the harmony and good understanding which so happily subsist between their states, by bringing into actual operation that part of the stipulations of the first of the additional articles of the Convention of Aug. 13, 1814, which imports, "that the sub"jects of his Majesty the King of "the Netherlands, being landed proprietors in the colonies of

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"Demerara, Essequibo, and Ber“bice, shall have freedom to trade "between the forenamed esta"blishments and the territory of "his said Majesty in Europe, un"der certain conditions:"

Have named as their Plenipotentiaries, viz. his Majesty the King of the Netherlands, H.Baron Fagel, Ambassador extraordinary at the British Court; and his Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Henry Earl Bathurst, one of his principal Secretaries of State; who having communicated their respective full powers, and found them in good and due form, have agreed upon the following Articles :

Article I. The foresaid trade shall, for the period of five years, beginning with the 1st of January, 1816, he carried on with ships being the property of subjects of his Majesty the King of the Netherlands, wherever built, and without any stipulation or restriction as to the seamen that navigate them; but on the expiration of the said five years, or sooner, if his Majesty the King of the Netherlands think fit, the said trade shall be confined exclusively to ships of Dutch built, and three-fourths of the crew of which are subjects of the King of the Netherlands.

II. The King of the Netherlands retains to himself the right of imposing such duties on the import of the produce of the said colonies into his European States, and vice versa on the export, as his Majesty shall think fit to appoint; but the duties which are levied in the colonies, shall apply equally to Dutch as to English

trade.

III. Subjects of his Majesty the King of the Netherlands, being proprietors of land in the said colonies, shall enjoy full liberty to proceed to and return from the said colonies, without being subjected to any delay or difficulty in this respect; they may also appoint persons in their name to carry on their business in this trade, or to hold the oversight of their property there; the said persons, however, during their residence in the foresaid colonies, being always subject to the laws and ordinances there in force.They shall also enjoy full liberty to dispose of their property in such way as they shall judge proper; with this understanding, that, in regard to the Negroes, they are subject to the same regulations as British subjects.

IV. In order to protect the owners of plantations in the aforesaid colonies from the destructive consequences which might follow an immediate execution of the mortgages, for which they may be indebted to subjects of his Majesty the King of the Netherlands, the High Contracting parties further agree, that in every case where the owner of a plantation shall present to a holder of a mortgage on that plantation, earlier than the 1st of January, 1814, (such mortgage-holder being a subject of the King of the Netherlands), the hereafter mentioned security, that mortgage-holder shall not be at liberty to proceed to the immediate execution of the said mortgage; it being, however, well understood, that in all cases where such security shall not be offered by the owner, the mortgage-holde shall enjoy all the rights to pro

ceed to execution, to which he is entitled.

The required security must stipulate that the mortgage holder shall receive, at the expence of the owner of the plantation, a new mortgage for the whole amount of the debt then due to the former, therein including both that part of the original debt, which is not discharged, and the interest due on the same, to the 31st December, 1814. That this security shall reserve to the mortgage holder the right of preference before other mortgage-holders and creditors, to which he was entitled under his original mortgage; that it shall be subject to a yearly interest, beginning with the 1st of January, 1815, of the same amount, and payable in the same way, as prescribed in the original mortgage; and that the whole amount of the new debt shall be payable at eight yearly periods, the first of which shall take place on the 1st of January, 1820. This new security shall guarantee to the mortgage-holder all such means of legal redress, in case of non payment of interest, or being behindhand in the discharge of the principal whenever it shall be due; and all such other preferable rights and advantages as he is entitled to under his already existing mortgage; and shall place him, in relation to the debt, for which the new security has been given, in the very same situation in which he was with respect to his original claim on the plantation, with the exception alone of what relates to the time when the payment may be enforced-in such way, however, that no later creditor shall derive

from this arrangement any the smallest competency, to the injury of the rights of the original creditor; and that no farther postponement of the payment beyond what is here fixed, shall take place without the special consent of the creditor.

It is further appointed that, in order that the mortgage-holder may be entitled to the security described in this article, he shall be bound, as soon as the said deed shall have been registered in the colony, and placed in the hands of the mortgage-holder, or his agent in the colony (the expences of which registration must be borne by the owner of the plantation), to give up, in order to be cancelled, the deed of mortgage first placed in his hands, or to give legal proof that this deed of mortgage or security for debt, has been duly cancelled, and is of no farther validity or effect.

It being farther expressly determined, that with the exception of the provisions specified in this article, the rights of mortgage holders or creditors shall remain in their full force.

V. All Dutch proprietors, who are recognised as such by this Convention, shall be competent to supply, from the Netherlands, their plantations with the usual necessaries, and, in return, may export to the Netherlands the produce of the aforesaid plantations; but all other import of goods from the Netherlands into the colonies, or export of produce from the colonies to the Netherlands, are strictly prohibited; and it is farther determined, that no export of any article that is prohibited to be exported thither from the British

States shall be sent thither from the Netherlands.

VI. By Dutch proprietors must be understood, 1st, all subjects of his Majesty the King of the Netherlands, residing in his European States, and now being landed proprietors in the afore said colonies.

2nd. All subjects of his said Majesty who, in course of time, may come into possession of plantations in them, now belonging to Dutch proprietors.

3rd. All such landed proprietors as now residing in the said colonies, were born in the Netherlands, and who, in conformity to Art. VIII. of this Convention, may declare, that they wish to be considered as Dutch proprietors in future; and

4th. All subjects of his said Majesty who may be holders of mortgages on plantations in the said colonies before the date of the ratification of this convention; and who, in consequence of their deed of mortgage, possess the right of exporting the produce of the said plantations to the Netherlands, under the restriction stated in Art. IX.

VII. In all cases where the right of supplying the wants of mortgaged plantations, and the right of exporting the produce of the same to the Netherlands is not actually secured to the mortgageholder, the latter shall be permitted to export from the colonies only such quantity of produce as, estimated by the price current of the colony, shall be sufficient to pay the amount of interest or capital yearly due to him, and on the other hand to introduce into the colony articles of necessity in the same proportion.

VIII. All proprietors, being subjects of his Majesty the King of the Netherlands, now resident in these colonies, shall be bound, in order to be entitled to the benefits of this Convention, within three months after its publication in the said colonies, to declare whether they are satisfied to be considered as such in future.

IX. In all cases where both Dutch and British subjects shall have a mortgage on the same plantation, in the said colonies, the amount of the produce to be consigned to the different mortgageholders, shall be in proportion to the amount of the debt due to each respectively.

X. In order that the dispositions of the present Convention may be the more readily brought into and kept in operation, it is determined that, every year, by order of the King of the Netherlands, correct and specific lists shall be made out, containing the names and places of residence of proprietors resident in the Netherlands, together with the names and descriptions of the plantations to them respectively belonging, with the addition of whether the last-mentioned be sugar or other kind of plantations, and whether the first-mentioned are owners in whole or only in part of the plan tations. Similar lists shall also be made out of the mortgages vested on the plantation, in so far as these mortgages are in the possession of Dutch subjects, specifying the amount of the debt or mortgage, as they at present exist, or as they are to be paid in virtue of Art. IV.

These lists shall be given to the British Government, and sent to the aforesaid colonies, in order