Art. 11. The length of service in the three departments, either in the merchants' service or on board ships of war, shall be computed agreeably to article 205 of the imperial decree of the 4th of July, 1811, as if it had taken place on board French ships, and give the same right to half-pay and pensions upon the invalid marine chest.

Art. 12. The widows and children of sailors shall have the same claims to all assistance and succours, as those of military men who died in the service.

Art. 13. All captains, &c. navigating the rivers, or on the coasts of the 32nd military division, will from hence to the 1st of November next, provide themselves with a role d'equipage, at the maritime office of inscription.

Art. 14. Every captain, &c. who, after the first of November, sails upon the rivers, coasts, &c. of the 32nd military division, and has not conformed to the dispositions of the present decree, shall be punished with eight days' imprisonment, without prejudice to still greater penalties, should there be occasion to inflict them.

Given at the palace at Hamburgh, Sept. 17.

(Signed) The Marshal Prince of ECKMUHL.

Spanish Constitution.

The Cortes having appointed a Committee of their Body to form

the plan of a Constitution, the following are said to be the prelimi nary and fundamental principles of the plan which the Committee have proposed :

Spain belongs to the Spanish people, and is not the patrimony of any family.

The nation can only make fun. damental laws.

The Roman Catholic and apostolic religion, unmixed with any other, is the only religion which the nation professes or will profess.

The Government of Spain is an hereditary Monarchy.

The Cortes shall make the laws, and the King shall execute them.

SPANISH CITIZENS.

The Children of Spaniards, and of Foreigners married to Spanish women, or who bring a capital in order to naturalize themselves to the soil, or establish themselves in trade, or who teach any useful art, are Citizens of Spain.

None but Citizens can fill municipal offices.

The rights of Citizenship may be lost by long absence from the country, or by condemnation to corporal or infamous punishments.

THE KING.

The person of the King is inviolable and sacred.

He shall sanction the Laws enacted by the Cortes.

He may declare war, and make peace.

He shall appoint to Civil and Military Employments on the proposal of the Council of State.

by the intendant of police, both in this capital and in the provinces; the said intendant being charged with the execution of the same, as well as all the civil and military authorities in their several depart

ments.

Signed by the Four Lords Governors of the Kingdom. Palace of Government, Oct. 10, 1811.

Washington City, Tuesday, Nov. 5.

The President of the United States this day communicated, by Mr. Edward Coles, his private seeretary, the following message to Congress :

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives,

In calling you together sooner than a separation from your homes would otherwise have been required, I yielded to considerations drawn from the posture of our foreign affairs; and in fixing the present for the time of your meet. ing, regard was had to the proba bility of further developments of the belligerent powers towards this country, which might the more unite the national councils in the measures to be pursued.

At the close of the last session of Congress, it was hoped that the successive confirmations of the extinction of the French decrees, so far as they violated our neutral commerce, would have induced the government of Great Britain to repeal its orders in council; and thereby authorise a removal of the existing obstructions to her commerce with the United States.

Instead of this reasonable step towards satisfaction and friendship between the two nations, the orders were, at a moment when least to have been expected, put into more rigorous execution; and it was communicated, through the British Envoy just arrived, that, whilst the revocation of the edicts of France, as officially made known to the British government, was denied to have taken place, it was an indispensable condition of the repeal of the British orders, that commerce should be restored to a footing, that would admit the productions and manufactures of Great Britain, when owned by neutrals, into markets shut against them by her enemy; the United States being given to understand, that, in the mean time, a continuance of their non-importation act would lead to measures of retaliation.

At a later date, it has, indeed, appeared, that a communication to the British government, of fresh evidence of the repeal of the French decrees against our neutral trade, was followed by an intimation, that it had been transmitted to the British Plenipotentiary here, in order that it might receive full consideration in the depending discussions. This communication appears not to have been received: but the transmission of it hither, instead of founding on it actual repeal of the orders, or assurances that the repeal would ensue, will not permit us to rely on any effective change in the British cabinet. To be ready to meet with cordiality satisfactory proofs of such a change, and to proceed, in the mean time, in adapting our measures to the views which have

been disclosed through that Minister, will best consult our whole duty.

In the unfriendly spirit of those disclosures, indemnity and redress for other wrongs have continued to be withheld; and our coasts, and the mouths of our harbours have again witnessed scenes, not less derogatory to the dearest of our national rights than vexatious to the regular course of our trade.

Among the occurrences produced by the conduct of British ships of war hovering on our coasts, was an encounter between one of them and the American frigate commanded by Captain Rodgers, rendered unavoidable on the part of the latter, by a fire commenced without cause by the former; whose commander is, therefore, alone chargeable with the blood unfortunately shed in maintaining the honour of the American flag. The proceedings of a court of inquiry, requested by Capt. Rodgers, are communicated; together with the correspondence relating to the occurrence between the Secretary of State and his Britannic Majesty's Envoy. To these are added, the several correspondences which have passed on the subject of the British orders in council; and to both, the correspondence relating to the Floridas, in which Congress will be made acquainted with the interposition which the government of Great Britain has thought proper to make against the proceedings of the United States.

The justice and fairness which have been evinced on the part of the United States towards France, both before and since the revocation of her decrees, authorised an

expectation that her government would have followed up that measure by all such others as were due to our reasonable claims, as well as dictated by its amicable professions. No proof, however, is yet given of an intention to repair the other wrongs done to the United States; and, particularly, to restore the great amount of American property seized and condemned under edicts, which, though not affecting our neutral relations, and therefore, not entering into questions between the United States and other belligerents, were nevertheless founded in such unjust principles, that the reparation ought to have been prompt and ample.

t

In addition to this and other demands of strict right on that nation, the United States have much reason to be dissatisfied with the rigorous and unexpected restric tions to which their trade with the French dominions has been subjected; and which, if not discon tinued, will require at least corresponding restrictions on importations from France into United States.

the

On all those subjects our Minister Plenipotentiary, lately sent to Paris, has carried with him the necessary instructions; the result of which will be communicated to you; and by ascertaining the ulterior policy of the French government towards the United States, will enable you to adapt to it that of the United States towards France.

Our other foreign relations remain without unfavourable changes. With Russia, they are on the best footing of friendship. The ports of Sweden have afforded

Instead of this reasonable step towards satisfaction and friendship between the two nations, the orders were, at a moment when least to have been expected, put into more rigorous execution; and it was communicated, through the British Envoy just arrived, that, whilst the revocation of the edicts of France, as officially made known to the British government, was denied to have taken place, it was an indispensable condition

The President of the United States this day communicated, by Mr. Edward Coles, his private seeretary, the following message to Congress :

Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives,

In calling you together sooner than a separation from your homes would otherwise have been required, I yielded to considerations drawn from the posture of our foreign affairs; and in fixing the present for the time of your meeting, regard was had to the proba bility of further developments of the belligerent powers towards this country, which might the more unite the national councils in the measures to be pursued.

At the close of the last session of Congress, it was hoped that the successive confirmations of the extinction of the French decrees, so far as they violated our neutral commerce, would have induced the government of Great Britain to repeal its orders in council; and thereby authorise a removal of the existing obstructions to her commerce with the United States.

that commerce should be restored to a footing, that would admit the productions and manufactures of Great Britain, when owned by neutrals, into markets shut against them by her enemy; the United States being given to understand, that, in the mean time, a continuance of their non-importation act would lead to measures of retali ation.

At a later date, it has, indeed, appeared, that a communication to the British government, of fresh evidence of the repeal of the French decrees against our neutral trade, was followed by an intimation, that it had been transmitted to the British Plenipotentiary here, in order that it might receive full consideration in the depending discussions. This communication appears not to have been received: but the transmission of it hither, instead of founding on it actual repeal of the orders, or assurances that the repeal would ensue, will not permit us to rely on any effective change in the British cabinet. To be ready to meet with cordiality satisfactory proofs of such a change, and to proceed, in the mean time, in adapting our measures to the views which have