Copy of the third Note addressed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs to M. Knobelsdorf. The undersigned minister of foreign relations has expressed to his excellency M. Knobelsdorff, in the note which he had the honour to write to him on the 13th of Sept. the confiding dispositions with which bis majesty the emperor received the assurances given by M. Knobelsdorff, that the military movements of the court of Berlin were not the result of any hostile concert against France, but simply the effect of a misunderstanding; and that they would cease the moment when the first communication of his excellency should have arrived at Berlin. Nevertheless, the news received every day bears so much all the character of an impending war, that his imperial majesty must feel some regret at the engagement he made, not yet to call out his reserve, and to defer the constitutional notification, after which all the forces of the nation would be placed at his disposal. He will fulfil that engagement; but he shall think it contrary to prudence and to the interest of his people, not to order, in the interim, all the measures, and all the movements of the troops, which can take place without previous notifi. cation. His majesty has, at the same time, charged the undersigned to express again to M. Knobelsdorff, that he cannot yet conceive, by what forgetfulness of her interests, Prussia should be willing to renounce her ties of amity with France. War between the two countries appears to him a real political monstrosity; and from the moment that the cabinet of Berlin shall return to her pacific dispositions, and shall cease to menace the armies of Germany, his majesty engages to countermand all the measures which prudence commanded him to take. He will cease with pleasure, as he does not cease to do in all circumstances, the occasion of testifying to his majesty the king of Prussia the price he at taches to his friendship; to a union founded on a wise policy, and on reciprocal interests; and to prove to him that his sentiments are always the same, and that no provocation has been able to alter them. The undersigned is happy in being able to give to his excellency M. de Knobelsdorff so formal an assurance of the dispositions of his majesty, which are so foreign to all ideas of war with Prussia, that be has already committed a very grave military fault, in retarding his mili tary preparations for one month, and in consenting to let fifteen days more pass over, without calling out his reserves and his national guards. This confidence, which his majesty loves to preserve, proves what a value he sets upon what was stated to him by M. Knobelsdorff, that Prussia had entered into no concert with the enemics of France, and that the assurances that he had received, in putting a term to the misunder. standing which has just ar sen, would cause the cessation of trose arma. ments which were the consequences of it. ordinary and minister plenipotentiary of his majesty the king of Prussia, received yesterday the note addressed to him by his excellency the prince of Benevento, minister for foreign affairs. If, in this communication, the undersigned has found again, with extreme satisfaction, the assurance formerly given, in the note of the 13th of September, that his majesty the emperor and king would fulfil the engage. ment which he had made to wait the result of the explanations given to M. de Lucchesini and the general Knobelsdorff, before taking any measures respecting the constitutional notification, which would put all the forces of the French nation at the disposal of government, he has learned, with infinite pain, that his majesty should have had any regret at that engagement; and that in fulfilling it, he thinks it necesary to order all the measures and all the movements of troops, which can be taken without previous notification. The undersigned hastens to reiterate to his excellency M. the prince of Benevento, the assurance that his majesty the king of Prussia, far from ever having had an idea of renouncing his relations of amity with France, participates in that respect all the sentiments of his imperial and royal majesty, expressed in the communication to which this note is an answer; that, far from having entered into a concert with the enemies of France, his Prussian majesty has always sought to calm all resentments for facilitating the re-establishment of a general peace; in fine, that far from menacing the French armies in Germany by his armaments, these only took place in consequence of the advice received at Berlin, and which was so alarm ing, that it was not possible to neglect measures of precaution, demanded by prudence for the welfare of the state. The undersigned is pleased, in renewing to his excellency the prince of Benevento the assurance, that in taking these measures his majesty the king of Prussia has not renounced, for a single instant, the assurance of seeing the clouds dispersed that have been raised between him and France; and general Knobelsdorff is pursuaded, that such will be the result of the explanations that have taken place. In begging M. the prince of Benevento to make known to his majesty the emperor and king this answer to his communication, the undersigned has the honour to renew to his excellency the assurance of his high cousideration. When in the report that a few days back I had the honour to ad. dress your majesty, I established, that if Prussia had any personal reasons which led her to make war, it could only be from a desire to enslave Saxony, and the Hanseatic Towns, I was far from perceiving, that she would ever dare avow such a motive. It is, nevertheless, an avowal which she has not feared to make, and to express in a note that M. de Knobelsdorff has sent me from Metz, and which I have the honour honour to address to your majesty. be made, on the part of France, to Of the three demands which that note contains, the first and the third are only made to disguise, if it be possible, that no real importance may be attached to the second. the formation of the northern league, which shall embrace, with out any exception, all the states not named in the fundamental act of the confederation of the Rhine. Thus, to satisfy the most unjust ambition, Prussia consents to break the bonds that united her to France, to call down new calamities Prussia, after having seen with a tranquil eye the French armies in Germany during a year, could not be alarmed at their presence when their numbers were diminished-upon the continent, of which your when they were dispersed in small bodies in distant cantonmentswhen, above all, your majesty had solemnly announced, that they should return to France, as soon as the affair of Cattaro, the cause of the prolongation of their stay in Germany, should be settled by an agreement with Austria, and that already the order for their return was given. Prussia, who speaks of a negotiation to fix all the interests in question, knows well that there is no point of interest whatever, in question between the two states; the amicable discussion which should definitively fix tho fate of the Abbies of Essen and Werden, has not been deferred by any delay of the French cabinet. The French troops have evacuated those territories which the grand duke of Berg had caused to be occupied, in the perfect persuasion that numerous documents had given him, that they made part of the duchy of Cleves, and that they were comprehended in the cession of that duchy. Thus the demands of Prussia, on these different points, and others of the same nature, and the pretended grievances which she seems to indicate, do not offer the real mind of the cabinet of Berlin. It does not reveal it. It lets its secret escape only, when it demands that no farther obstacle whatever shall majesty would wish to cicatrice the wounds, and to assure the tranquil. lity, to provoke a faithful ally, to put him under the cruel necessity of repelling force by force, and once more to snatch his army from the repose which he aspires to make it enjoy, after so many fatigues and triumphs. I say it with grief, I lose the hope of the ability to preserve peace, from the moment it is made to depend upon conditions that equity and honour equally oppose-preposed, as they are, in a tone, and in forms, that the French people endured in no time, and from no power, and which it can less than ever endure under your majesty's reign. (Signed) C. M. Talleyrand, &c. Mayence, Oct. 6, 1806. Note. The undersigned minister of his Prussian majesty, by the same cou rier who brought the letter to his imperial majesty, which he has had the honour to transmit to-day to his excellency the prince of Benevento, has received orders to make the following communications.Their object is to have the relations of the two courts no longer in suspense. Each of them is so imminently interested in remaining no longer in doubt upon the sentiments of the other, that the king flatters himself that his majesty the emperor will applaud his frankness. His Prussian majesty has expressed, in the letter mentioned above, his entire thoughts, and the whole view of the subject of the complaint, which, from a faithful and honest ally, have made him become a neighbour, alarmed for his existence, and necessarily aroused for the defence of his dearest interests. The perusal of it will recal to his majesty the emperor and king, what Prussia was for a long time to France. Will not the remembrance of the past be for her the pledge of the future? And what judge would be blind enough to believe that the king could have been for nine years towards France so consistent, and perhaps so partial, in order to place himself voluntarily with her in a dif. ferent relation-he who more than once might, perhaps, have ruined her, and who knows now only too well the progress of her power. But if France has in her recollections, and in the nature of things, the pledge of the sentiments of Prussia, it is not so with this last power. Her recollections are made to alarm her: she has been careless, neutral, friendly, and even in alliance. The destruction that surrounds her, the gigantic increase of a power essentially military and conquering, which has injured her successively in her greatest in terests, and menaces her in them all, leaves her now without a guaranty. This state of things cannot last. The king sees almost nothing around him but French troops, or vassals of France, ready to march with her. All the declarations of his imperial majesty announce, that this attitude will not change. Far VOL. XLVIII. from that, new troops issue from the interior of France.--Already the journals of his capital indulge themselves in a language against Prussia, of which a sovereign, such as the king, can despise the infamy, but which does not expose the intentions and the error of the government that suffers it. The dan ger grows every day. It is neces sary to be heard at once, or be heard no more. Two powers who esteem each other, and who fear each other no more than they are able, without ceasing to esteem themselves, have no need to go about to explain themselves. France will not be less strong for being just, and Prussia has no other ambition than her independence and the security of her allies. In the actual position of af fairs, both one and the other would risk every thing in protracting this uncertainty. The undersigned has received orders, in consequence, to' declare that the king expects with justice from his imperial majesty, 1. That the whole of the French troops, which are called by no fair pretence into Germany, should immediately repass the Rhine without exception, beginning their march on the very day that the king expects the answer of the emperor, and continue it without halting; for this immediate and complete retreat is the only pledge of security that the king can receive at the point to which affairs have been brought. 2. That no obstacle shall be raised on the part of France to the formation of the league of the north, which shall include, without any exception, all the states not named in the fundamental act of the confederation of the Rhine. 3 G 3. That 3. That a negotiation shall be immediately opened, to decide, in a permanent manner, on all the points in dispute, and that for Prussia its preliminary basis shall be, the separation of Wesel from the French empire, and the re-occupation of the three Abbies by the Prussian troops. The instant that his majesty is assured that this basis is accepted, he will resume that attitude which he has quitted with regret, and will become to France that frank and peaceable neighbour, who for so many years has seen without jea lousy, the glory of a brave people, for whose prosperity he has been anxious. But the instant intelligence of the march of the French troops compels his majesty to ascertain immediately what he is to do. The undersigned is charged to insist on an immediate answer, which at all events must reach his majesty's head-quarters by the 8th of October; his majesty still hoping that it will arrive there time enough, that the unexpected and rapid progress of events, and the presence of the troops, should not pat either party under the necessity of providing for his safety. The undersigned is particularly instructed to declare, in the most solemn manner, that peace is the sincere wish of his majesty, and that he only requires that which can contribute to make it permanent. The causes of his apprehensions, the claims which he had for another connection, from France, are unfolded in the letter of his majesty to the emperor, and are calculated to obtain from that monarch the last permanent pledge of a new order of things. The undersigned embraces this opportunity to renew to the prince 2 of Benevento, the assurances of his high consideration. (Signed) Knobelsdorff. Parks, Oct. 1, 1806. The senate referred the communication to a special commission. Act of Confederation of the Rhenish League, done at Paris, July 12, 1806. Whereas his majesty the emperor of the French, and their majesties the kings of Bavaria and Wirtemberg; their electoral highnesses the arch-chancellor and the elector of Baden; his imperial highness the duke of Berg; and their royal highnesses the Landgrave of HesseDarmstadt, the princes of NassauWeilburg, and Nassau-Usingen, of Hohenzollern-Hechingen, and Hohenzollern-Siegmaringen, SalmSalm, and Salm Kyrburg, Isenburg, Birstein, and Lichtenstein; the duke of Ahremberg, and the count of Leyen; being desirous to secure, through proper stipulations, the internal and external peace of southern Germany, which, as experience for a long period and recently has shewn, can derive no kind of guarantee from the existing German constitution; have appointed to be their plenipotentiaries to this effect, namely, his majesty the emperor of the French, Charles Maurice Talleyrand, duke of Benevento, minister of his foreign affairs; his majesty the king of Bavaria, his minister plenipotentiary, A. Von Cetto; his majesty the king of Wirtemberg, his state-minister the count of Wintzingerode; the elector arch-chancellor, his ambassader extraordinary, the count of Boust; the elector of Baden, |