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 iunumerable 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.

Proclamation of the Emperor Alexander on the Russian Army breaking up from Drissa.

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

a

subjects, prescribe, however, 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 territories, it would become the duty of every loyal Russian-every true friend to his country,-to cooperate cheerfully with us in impeding 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 subsistence, either for man or beast, beyond their immeditate want, to 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.

ALEXANDER.

SICILY.-Articles established in Parliament, and presented to the Sovereign for his Royal Sanction.

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 Parliament. 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 veto or placet, the King having it in his power to admit or reject them without qualification. Placet Regis 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 legislative 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 explained at length in the article of Magistracy.-Placet Regis Majes

tati.

Art. 5. The person of the King shall be always sacred and inviolable.-Placet Regis Majestati.

Art. 6. The King's Ministers, and other persons in the employ of Government, shall be subject to VOL. LIV.

the examination and control of the Parliament; and to be by the same accused, tried, and condemned, 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 Majestati.

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 successors, and of all those barons 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 account 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 Parliament, 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 eveFy 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 splendor, 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 national 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.-Vetut Regia Majestas.

Art. 11. No Sicilian subject shall be arrested, banished, or otherwise 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 Majestati.

Art. 12. With that disinterestedness which the military brauch has 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 sue cession 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 (devo¬ luzioni al Fisco), and every other burden whatever inherent in the feudal system; every family, how ever, 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 community 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 man, ner and form as they have hitherto enjoyed them. (His Majesty re serves to himself to give his Royal sanction to the above article, when he shall have received the neces sary 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 Majestati.

Art. 15. As to the other principles and arrangements of the aforesaid 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 be 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.)

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 boundaries 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 uninhabited, lying near to the left bank of the Danube, shall remain uninhabited; nor shall any fortifications 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. 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.

The

Art. 7. The Mahometan inbabitants in the provinces ceded to Russia, as likewise the natives of other parts, who, in consequence of the war, are now in Russia, may return with their property out of Russia, within the space of eighteen inonths, to Turkey. In like manner, the Christians belonging to the countries now ceded to Russia, and who are at present in Turkey, may, without any molestation, return to Russia.

Art. 8. The Ottoman Porte grants a pardon and general amnesty to the Servians, who shall in no wise or means be molested for their last actions. The fortresses lately erected in their country shall be demolished as being unnecessary, and the Sublime Porte will put garrisons into the ancient fortified places. But that such garrisons shall not infringe any of the rights belonging to the Servian people, the Sublime Porte will for such purpose adopt, in concert with the Servian nation, such measures as may be necessary for their security. The Porte grants to the Servian nation the same advantages as are enjoyed by her subjects of the islands in the Archipelago, and of the other districts; and causes it to partake of the effects of her magnanimity, by permitting it to have the sole management of its internal concerns, by fixing the mass of contributions which it will receive from its own hands; and,

finally, will regulate all these matters conjointly and in concurrence w. h the Servian nation.

Art. 9. All prisoners of war, whether of the male or female sex, shall be liberated on both sides without reserve.

Art. 10. All affairs and demands of the subjects of both parties, which have been put off on account of the war, shall not be thrown up; but, on the contrary shall, after conclusion of the peace, be again examined and decided according to law.

Art. 11. The Russian troops shall quit the provinces, fortresses, and towns restored, within three months from the day of the ratification of the treaty; and, until the expiration of that term, shall, as hitherto, be supplied with every thing necessary.

Art. 12. Both the high contending powers promise to keep the commercial treaties in force.

Art. 13. The Ottoman Porte promises her mediation with the Persian power for restoration of peace with Russia.

Art. 14. Any acts of hostility which may have happened, after exchanging the ratification, shall be considered as not having taken place.

New York Convention.

At a Convention of Delegates from the several counties of the State of New York, hereinafter designated, held at the capitol in the city of Albany, on the 17th and 18th days of September, 1812.

[Here follow the names of Delegates from 34 cities and counties.] Resolved, That the doctrine, of late