sisco de Zea Bermudez, and his Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, Count Nicholas de Romanzoff; who having exchanged their full powers, ascertained to be in good and due form, have agreed as follows: Art. 1. There shall be between his Majesty the King of Spain and the Indies, and his Majesty the of which, we, the undersigned, have signed the present treaty, and have affixed to it the seals of our arms. Done at Weliki Louky, July 8, (20) 1812. FRANCISCO DE ZEA BERMUDEZ. ander. Emperor of all the Russias, their Proclamation of the Emperor Alex heirs and successors, and between their Monarchies, not only friendship, but also sincere union and alliance. Art. 2. The two high contracting parties, in consequence of this Resolution, will come to an understanding without delay on the stipulations of this alliance, and agree on every thing which may have connection with their respective interests, and with the firm intention to prosecute a vigorous war against the Emperor of the French, their common enemy; and engage, from this time, to concur sincerely in every thing which may be advantageous to the one or the other party. Art. 3. His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias acknowledges for legitimate the General and Extraordinary Cortes assembled in Cadiz, as also the Constitution which they have decreed and sanctioned. Art. 4. The commercial relations shall be re-established from this time, and reciprocally favoured. The two high contracting parties will provide the means of giving them still greater extension. Art. 5, The present treaty shall be ratified, and the ratifications exchanged within three months, reckoning from the day of their signature, or sooner if possible: in faith [Published in General Orders, by the Commander-in-chief, Gene ral Bennigsen j Russians! The enemy has quitted the Dwina, and has pro claimed his intention of offering battle. He accuses you of timidity, because he mistakes, or affects to mistake, the policy of your system, Can he, then, have forgotten the chastisement which your valour inflicted at Dunaberg and Mihr; wherever, in short, it has been deemed proper to oppose bim? Desperate counsels are alone compatible with the enterprise he has undertaken and the dangers of his situation; but shail we, therefore, be imprudent, and forego the advantages of our own? He would march to Moscow,-let him. But can he, by the temporary possession of that city, conquer the empire of Russia, and subjugate a population of thirty millions? Distant from his resources near 800 miles, he would, even if victorious, not escape the fate of the warrior Charles XII. When, pressed on every side by hostile armies, with a peasantry sworn to his destruction, rendered furious by his excesses, and irre concileable by difference of religion, of customs, of language, how would he retreat? Russians! Russians!-Rely on your emperor and the commanders whom he has appointed. He knows the ardent and indignant valour which burns in the bosoms of his soldiers at the boasts of the enemy. He knows that they are eager for battle; that they grieve at its being deferred, and at the thought of retiring. This cruel necessity will not exist long. Even now the period of its duration lessens. Already are our allies preparing to menace the rear of the invader; while he, inveigled too far to retreat with impunity, shall soon have to combat with the seasons, with famine, and with innumerable armies of Russians. Soldiers, when the period for offering battle arrives, your emperor will give the signal, will be an eye-witness of your exploits, and reward your valour. Beloved subjects!-In pursuance of the policy advised by our military council, the armies will, for the present, quit their positions, and retire further into the interior, in order the more readily to unite. The enemy may possibly avail himself of this opportunity to advance; he has announced this intention. Doubtless, in spite of his boast, he begins to feel all the difficulties of his menaced attempt to subjugate us, and is anxious therefore to engage; he is desperate, and would therefore put every thing upon the issue of a battle. The honour of our crown, the interests of our subjects, prescribe, however, a different policy: it is necessary that he should be made sensible of the madness of his attempt. If, urged by the desire of obtaining provisions and forage, or goaded by an insatiable cupidity for plunder, - he should be blind to the danger of further committing himself at such an immense distance from his ter ritories, it would become the duty of every loyal Russian-every true friend to his country, to cooperate cheerfully with us in im. peding equally his progress or his retreat, by destroying his supplies, his means of conveyance; in short, every thing which can be serviceable to him. We, therefore, order that such of our subjects in the provinces of Vitepsk and Pskoy, as may have articles of subsistener, either for man or beast, beyond their immediate want, te deliver them to officers authorised to receive them, and for which they shall be paid the full value out of the Imperial treasury. The owners of growing crops within the distance of the line of the enemy's march, are commanded to destroy them, and they shall be reimbursed their loss. The proprietors of magazines, either of provisions or clothing, are required to deliver them to the commissaries for the use of the army, and they will be liberally remunerated. In general, the spirit of this order is to be carried into execution in regard to all articles, whether of subsistence, of clothing, or of conveyance, which may be considered useful to the invaders; and the magistrates are made responsible for the due fulfilment of these our commands. ALEXANDES. SICILY. Articles established in the examination and controul of Parliament, and presented to the Art. 1. The religion shall be the Catholic, Apostolical, Roman, alone, to the entire exclusion of every other; the King shall profess the same, and whenever he shall profess any other, he shall be ipso facto deposed from the throne. Placet Regis Majestati Art 2. The Legislative power shall reside exclusively in the Par liament. The laws to be in force after being sanctioned by his Majesty. All taxes, &c. imposed, of whatever nature, to be fixed by the Parliament alone; and also to be sanctioned by his Majesty. The form to be velo or placet, the King having it in his power to admit or reject them without qualification. Placet Regi Majestati. Art. 3. The Executive Power shall reside in the person of the King-Placet Regis Majestati. Art. 4. The Judiciary Power shall be distinct, and independent of the Executive and legisJative Powers, and to be administered by a body of Judges and Magistrates. These to be tried, punished, and deprived of their situations, by sentence of the House of Peers, after having gone through the House of Commons, as set forth by the Constitution of Great Britain, and which shall be ex. plained at length in the article of MagistracyPlacet Regis Majes tati. Art. 5. The person of the King shall be always sacred and invioJable Placet Regis Majestati. Art. 6. The King's Ministers, and other persons in the employ of Government, shall be subject to VOL. LIV. the Parliament; and to be by the same accused, tried, and condemed, should they be found to have offended against the Constitution, and the observance of the laws, or to be guilty of any other high crimes, in the exercise of their functions.-Placet Regis Ma jestati. Art 7. The Parliament shall be composed of two Houses, the one to be called the Commons, or Representative of the People, as well freeholders as vassals, on the conditions and forms to be hereafter established by Parliament, in its subsequent acts upon this article ; the other to be called the Peers; the same to be composed of all those ecclesiastics and their suc cessors, and of all those barong and their successors, and the present possessors of estates, who now have the right to sit and vote in the ecclesiastical and military branches, as well as of others who may be hereafter elected by his Majesty, agreeably to the conditions and limitations to be fixed by Parliament in the article of detail upon this point. Placet Regis Majestati. Art. 8. The Barons shall have, as Peers, individually one vote only, relinquishing the multiplicity of votes relative to the number of their population. The Chancellor of the kingdom to present an a¤count of the actual Barons and Ecclesiastics, to be inserted in the Acts of Parliament. - Placet Regis Majestati. Art. 9. The King shall enjoy the prerogative of convoking, proroguing, or dissolving the Parlia ment, agreeably to the forms and institutions which may be here 2 F after after established. His Majesty, how ever, to be bound to convoke it every year. Placet Regis Majestati. Art. 10. The nation, having to fix the subsidies necessary to the State, will consider it as a positive duty to fix, for the Civil List, such sums as are necessary to the splendour, independence, and maintenance of its august Sovereign and Royal Family, to the most generous extent that the actual state of the finances of the kingdom will permit-in consequence of which arrangement, the nation shall take upon itself the management and administration of the notional funds, including all those which have hitherto been considered as fiscal duties, and land revenues, which shall be paid over to the Minister of Finances, for the purposes established by Parliament. As to the persons, system, and means, by which such funds are to be collected and disposed of, they remain to be fixed in the detail of this article.-Vetat Regia Majestas. Art. 11. No Sicilian subject shall be arrested, banished, or other wise punished, or disturbed in the enjoyment of his rights or property, unless in conformity to the new Code of Laws, to be hereafter established by this Parliament. The Peers to enjoy the same judicial forms which they enjoy in England, as will be subsequently detailed.-Placet Regis M jestati. Art. 12. With that disinterestness which the military branch bas always shewn, it has voted and concluded, and the Parliament has established, that the Feudal System shall be abolished, and all the lands shall be possessed in Sicily, as allodial or free estates; pre serving, however, the order of succession in the respective families, which is actually enjoyed. The jurisdiction of the Barons shall likewise cease, and therefore the Barons shall be exempted from all the burdens to which they have hitherto been subjected by such feudal rights. There shall also be abolished, the Investitures, Reliefs (rilevi) Fines to the Crown (devoluxioni al Fisco), and every other burden whatever inherent in the feudal system; every family, however, preserving its titles and honours.-Placet Regis Majestati. Art. 13. It likewise agrees to establish that the rights called Angarici (being privileges and exemptions from assessment), shall be abolished as soon as the com. munity in general, or the individual, subject to them, shall indemnify the actual proprietors; calculating the capital either at twenty years purchase of the produce of the tax existing at the period of liquidation; or in default of that estimating the same by the books of the respective Segrezia; it being understood, however, that the possessors of lands of whatever nature, shall retain the same power and the same rights as before, so far as regards the exacting of debts or rents, and this in the same manner and form as they have hitherto enjoyed them.-(His Majesty reserves to himself to give his Royal sanction to the above article, when he shall have received the necessary information respecting it.) Art. 14. The Military Branch agrees, also, to the suggestion of the Commons, that every proposal relative to subsidies shall proceed exclusively from, and be concluded in, the House of Commons, and from from thence pass to that of the Peers, where it shall only be either assented to or rejected without the least alteration. It is further determined, that all proposals respecting articles of legislation, or any other subject whatsoever, may be moved in either House indifferently, leaving to the other the power of rejection.-Placet Regis Majes tati. Art. 15. As to the other principles and arrangements of the afore said British Constitution, the Parliament will hereafter declare those that are to be admitted, those to be rejected, and those to be modified, according to the difference of the circumstances of the two nations. It therefore declares, that it will willingly receive any projects which its members may make for the convenient application of the British constitution to the kingdom of Sicily, in order to select what may he judged most suitable to the glory of his Majesty, and to the happiness of the Sicilian people. (His Majesty, whenever such articles shall be presented, will determine on those which may merit his Royal sanction.) TREATY between RUSSIA and TURKEY.-The following are the principal of the Sixteen Articles of the Treaty of Peace, concluded between Russia and the Sublime Porte. Art. 1. There shall be peace and friendship between the two powers, and both the contracting parties shall use every effort to avoid every thing that may occasion hostilities between their subjects. Art. 2. Full and perfect amnesty shall be granted to the subjects of both parties who have taken part in the operations of the war against the interest of their mutual sovereigns. Art 3. All former treaties shall remain in force,' with the exception of such articles which, by this present treaty, have undergone some alteration. Art. 4. According to the first article of the preliminaries, it is agreed that the river Pruth, from its entrance into Moldavia until its junction with the Danube, and the left bank of the Danube from such junction to the mouth of the Kili, and from thence to the sea, shall form the bour.daries of the two empires; the mouth of the said river being for the common use of both. The small islands which, previous to the war, were unin habited, lying near to the left bank of the Danube, shall remain uninhabited; nor shall any forti fications be erected on the said islands. On the other hand, the Ottoman Porte relinquishes to Russia all provinces, fortresses, towns, &c. lying on the left bank of the Pruth, and the mid-channel of the said river shall be the boundary between the two empires. The merchant vessels of both nations may navigate the whole course of the Danube; but the Russian ships of war must come no further than the entrance of the Pruth. Art. 5. His Imperial Russia. Majesty, on the other hand, re stores to the Ottoman Porte the territory of Moldavia, on the right bank of the Pruth, as likewise the Greater and Lesser Wallachia. The inhabitants of these provinces' shall be freed from all contribu 2 F2 tions |