to fee the friendship and attention to his majefty concur with those of his ferene highnefs the duke of Brunswick, for their hereditary ftadtholder.

Let me add, Sir, that their high mightineffes can affure your excellency, that the king your mafter could not have chofen any perfon for this extraordinary embaffy, who could have been more agreeable to them, as they have had the fatisfaction for fo many years of feeing you refide with them on the part of his majefty with fuch 'diftinguished approbation.

They will continue to give you proofs of their efteem and regard upon all occafions.

Declaration of the most Christian king, delivered to the diet of the empire by his minifter the baron de

Mackau.

TH

HE king, my mafter, having been required, at the beginning of this war, by feveral princes of the empire, to take upon himself, in conjunction with the king of Sweden, the execution of the guaranty of the treaties of Weftphalia, notified to the ftates affembled at Ratisbon, in the month of April 1757, what were his motives, and what conduct he propofed to hold when he took that charge upon him, of the weight of which he was very fenfible.

The prefervation of the three religions established in Germany, the fupport of the Germanic laws and conftitution, and the reftoring peace on a folid and equitable footing, were the objects to obtain which his majefty was willing to make the greatest efforts and very confiderable facrifices.

His majefly, in concert with his

Swedish majefty, hath fince employed every method to attain to this falutary end; but he deplored the calamities under which Germany groaned; and if he was under a neceffity of taking up arms for its defence, he thinks it no lefs proper to lay them down when he has performed all that could be required in juftice from a zeal fo difinterested.

It was with this falutary view that his majefty, jointly with the king of Sweden and the other powers his allies, propofed to the courts of London and Berlin to pave the way, by common confent, to a peace, by opening a congress, for which the city of Augfburg was thought most convenient: and as their Britannic and Pruffian majesties agree to a propofal fo conformable to humanity and his majefty's pacific views, he thinks himself obliged to notify it to the ftates of the German empire, agreeably to what was done when he found himself under a neceffity of executing the guaranty.

He at the fame time declares, that during the course of the negotiation he will not lofe fight of the motives which determined him to take part in the war. The princes and ftates of the empire may depend on the formal affurances which his majefty hath already given, and which he now repeats; and he defires that the emperor and the empire would concur with him in reftoring the public tranquillity.

Ratisbon, June 22, 1761.

Since this declaration was delivered, the Germanic body confider themfelves as invited to the congrefs; which they afcribe to the court of Versailles. The fame day a declaration of the very fame import was delivered to the diet by the Swedish minifter.

Decla

rations of the army, or whoever fhall by any other means give fuch intelligence to the enemy, fhall be immediately hanged; or whoever is found to affault or ill-treat any perfon in the French army, fhall Tuffer the fame punishment: and that every village where the bell is rung to apprife the enemy of uur approach, or wherever the French troops fhall be attacked, without one hour's previous notice given to their commander, fhall be totally burnt; and the chief officer from the regency of fuch village or district fhall be fevercly punished, befides a fufficient fum which fhall be levied upon the estates of Hanover and Brunswic, to indemnify the troops of his moft Chriftian majefty for their damage therein.

VI. The officers of the regency fhall caufe thefe orders to be affixed and published in the moft public places of the country, and be diligent in caufing all perfons under their directions to provide the neceffary contributions, forage, and carriages, repair the roads, and in general to be obedient to the demands of his moft Chriftian majefty's officers, in default of which to have their houses pillaged and levelled to the ground.

For the due execution of thefe orders, the officers of the regency may be affifted with his moft Chrif tian majefty's troops, and by a perfect compliance therewith, they may depend on our protection.

Done at the head quarters, Sept. 8, 1761. Signed, Le Marechal Duc de Broglio.

HEADS of the family convention of the boufe of Bourbon. Erfailles, December 24. The treaty of friendship and union, which the king concluded with the

king of Spain on the 15th of Aug. 1761, under the denomination of a family convention, the ratifications of which were exchanged on the 8th of September following, is to be printed agreeable to the intention of their majefies: mean while it hath been thought proper to publish the following faithful abftract of it.

The preamble fets forth the motives for concluding the treaty, and the objects of it. The motives are, the ties of blood between the two kings, and the fentiments they entertain for each other. The object of it is to give ftability and permanency to thofe duties, which naturally flow from affinity and friendfhip, and to eftablish a folemn and lafting monument of that reciprocal intereft, which ought to be the basis of the defires of the two monarchs, and of the profperity of their royal families.

The treaty eight articles.

itfelf contains twenty

1. Both kings will, for the future, look upon every power as their enemy, that becomes the enemy of either.

2. Their majefties reciprocally guaranty all their dominions in whatever part of the world they be fituated; but they exprefsly ftipulate that this guaranty fhall extend only to thofe dominions, refpectively, of which the two crowns fhall be in poffeffion, the moment they are at peace with all the world.

3. The two kings extend their guaranty to the king of the Two Sicilies and the infant duke of Parma, on condition that these two princes guaranty the dominions of their most Christian and Catholic majefties.

4. Though this mutual inviolable guaranty is to be fupported with all the forces of the two kings, their

majefties

5. 6. 7. Thefe articles determine the quality and quantity of thefe first fuccours, which the power required engages to furnish the power requiring. Thefe faccours confift of fhips and frigates of war, and of land forces both horfe and foot. Their number is determined, and the posts and stations to which they are to repair.

8. The war in which France fhall be involved in confequence of her engagements by the treaty of Weftphalia, or other alliances with the princes and states of Germany and the north, are excepted from the cafes in which Spain is bound to furnifh fuccours to France, unless fome maritime take power in those part wars, or France be attacked by land in her own country.

9. The potentate requiring may fend one or more commiffaries, to fee whether the potentate required hath affembled the ftipulated fuccours within the limited time.

10. 11. The potentate required fhall be at liberty to make only one reprefentation on the ufe to be made of the fuccours furnished to the potentate requiring: this, however, is to be understood only of cafes where an enterprize is to be carried into immediate execution; and not of ordinary cafes, where the power that is to furnish the fuccours is obliged only to hold them in readiness in that part of his dominions which the power requiring fhall appoint.

12. 13. The demand of fuccours fhall be held a fufficient proof, on one hand, of the neceffity of receiving them; and on the other, of the cbligation to give them.

The furnishing of them fhall not, therefore, be evaded under any pretext; and without entering into any difcuffion, the ftipulated number of hips and land forces fhall, three months after requifition, be confidered as belonging to the po tentate requiring.

14. 15. The charges of the faid fhips and troops fhall be defrayed by the power to which they are fent: and the power who fends them, fhall hold ready other fhips to replace thofe which may be loft by accidents of the feas or of war; and alfo the neceffary recruits and preparations for the land forces.

16. The fuccours above ftipulated fhall be confidered as the leaft that either of the two monarchs shall be at liberty to furnish to the other: but as it is their intention that a war declared against either, fhall be regarded as perfonal by the other; they agree, that when they happen to be both engaged in war againft the fame enemy or enemies, they will wage it jointly with their whole forces; and that in fuch cafes they will enter into a particular convention, fuited to circumflances, and fettle as well the refpective and reciprocal efforts to be made, as their political and military plans of operations, which fhall be executed by common consent and with perfect agreement.

17. 18. The two powers reciprocally and formally engage, not to liften to, nor to make, any propo. fals of peace to their common enemies, but by mutual confent; and, in time of peace, as well as in time of war, to confider the interests of the allied crown as their own; to compenfate their respective loffes and advantages, and to act as if the

two monarchies formed only one and the fame power.

19. 20. The king of Spain contracts for the king of the Two Sicilies, the engagements of this treaty, and promifes to caufe it to be ratified by that prince; provided that the proportion of the fuccours to be furnished by his Sicilian majefty, fhall be fettled in proportion to his power. The three monarchs engage to fupport, on all occafions, the dignity and rights of their houfe, and thofe of all the princes defcended from it.

21. 22. No other power but thofe of the august house of Bourbon fhall be inferted or admitted to accede, to the prefent treaty. Their respective fubjects and dominions fhall participate in the connection and advantages fettled between the fovereigns, and fhall not do or undertake any thing contrary to the good understanding fubfifting between them.

23. The Droit d'Aubaine fhall be abolished in favour of the fubjects of their Catholic and Sicilian majefties, who fhall enjoy in France the fame privileges as the natives. The French fhall likewife be treated in Spain and the Two Sicilies, as the natural born subjects of these two monarchies.

24. The fubjects of the three fovereigns fhall enjoy, in their refpective dominions in Europe, the fame privileges and exemptions as the natives.

25. Notice fhall be given to the powers, with whom the three contracting monarchs have already concluded, or fhall hereafter conclude, treaties of commerce, that the treatment of the French in Spain and the Two Sicilies, of the Spaniards in

France and the Two Sicilies, and of the Sicilians in France and Spain, fhall not be cited nor ferve as a precedent; it being the intention of their moft Chriftian, Catholic, and Sicilian majefties, that no other nation fhall participate in the advantages of their respective subjects.

26. The contracting parties fhall reciprocally difclose to each other their alliances and negotiations, efpecially when they have reference to their common interests; and their minifters at all the courts of Europe fhall live in the greatest har mony and mutual confidence.

27. This article contains only a ftipulation concerning the ceremonial to be obferved between the minifters of France and Spain, with regard to precedency at foreign courts.

28. This contains a promise to ratify the treaty.

Such is in fubftance, the treaty in queftion. No feparate or fecret article is added to it. The ftipulations of it cannot prejudice any other power. The object of the reciprocal guaranty is only thofe dominions of which the contracting powers fhall be in poffeffion at the epoch of a general peace. In fhort, all the conditions and claufes of this treaty, in which England is neither named, nor even defigned, have not the least connection with the origin, the object, or the events of the prefent war.

The king of Spain, to give a public teftimony of the fatisfaction he received from the conclufion of this family convention, has created the duke de Choifeul, who laboured with fo much zeal to accomplish this great work, a grandee of Spain, and a knight of the golden fleece.

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