which is permitted them to tread, from which they neither will nor dare to depart one ftep, they will not only not be prevented from maintaining the fituation of the electoral ftate committed to them as it was in the lifetime of his late electoral highness, but that in the further deliberations upon those circumftances which may yet come in queftion, in confequence of the arrangement of the peace of Lunevilie, they fhall receive back its whole exiftence, conformably to the conftitution, and to the relations which immediately rofe out of the latter.

The chapter of the bifhopric and archbishopric of Cologne flatter themfelves, and after this declaration and proteftation, which has been extorted from them by their duties to the church and to the itate, according to the principles here announced with German opennefs; neither his majefty the king of Pruffia, nor the moft high ftates of the empire, will give any further confequence to the propofition, on the delay of an election of an elector of Cologne, which muft be difadvantageous to the maintenance of this electoral ftate; and fo much the more, as this propofition, by prolonging the work of peace, may produce the effect, that the greater part of the German church will remain without a head, not without the utmost prejudice fr the catholic religion, and thence mult arise a most distracted state, as the prefent fituation of affairs gives. reason to expect.

It cannot, certainly, efcape the enlightened judgment of the excellent embally of the elector of Brandenburgh, on a nearer exami

nation, that the Praegudez, from the year 1761, to the year 1763, intro

duced in the further counter-reler vation propofed on the 14th of the, prefent month, as a protocol of the princes of the empire, can have, by no means, any influence on the prefent cale, as at that time the before-mentioned bifhoprics were altogether under the power of the enemy, in which cafe, under fuch impretion, and amid the din of arms, all laws, and the execution of them, muft neceffarily be filent; but at prefent, on the contrary, the ftate of peace, fo much wifhed for by all Germany, has been already long enjoyed; and has even, when the unhappy enfigns of war waved in its fouthern provinces, the bishopric of Muniter enjoyed, at a dif tance from all the troubles of war, the valuable fruits of a state of peace and neutrality, under the wife protection of his Pruflian majefty himself, who moft magnanimoully fecured it against all the events of war and hoftility; at the fame time it is known to every one, who is acquainted with the circumftances of that time, that in the before-cited cafe the right of the conftitution was in the fulleft manner preferved against all force by the fupreme court decree of his imperial majefty, of the 8th of May 1761.

commiffion of the 26th of June of this year, have thought that the arrangement of the different objects which yet remain to be reguJated, for the completion of the peace in the general affembly of the empire, would be unavoidably expofed to great and numerous difficulties on account of the ufual manner of treating affairs in it. In confequence it has been decreed,

1. That the right of co-operation on the part of the ftates of the empire in the work of peace, fhall be execifed by means of an extraordinary deputation.

2 That in order to avoid, in this fo difficult affair, all delay, as well as a now complication, the faid deputation fhall be reftricted to eight members, obferving the equality of rights relative to religion.

3. That to this effect, there fhall be elected in the college of electors, Mentz, Saxony, Bohemia, and Brandenburgh; and in that of the princes, Bavaria, Wirtemberg, the grand mafter of the Teutonic Order, and Heffe-Caffel.

4. That there fhall be referved, nevertheless, in an exprefs manner to the prelates and courts of the empire, as well as to the college of imperial cities, the right which they have of participating in the deputation of the empire.

5. That there fhall be conferred on the part of the empire, upon the deputies elected, full and unlimited powers to examine, treat, and regulate, in concert with the French government, the objects which, by the 5th and 7th articles of the treaty of Luneville, have been referved for a particular arrangement.

6. That there hall, however, be given to this deputation, exprefs directions, in order that, at the fix ing of the indemnities by fecularizations, they may have continually before their eyes, and obferve exactly as a direct rule for their operations, the reftrictive claufe by which the deputation of the empire at the congrefs of Raftadt gave in their note of the 4th of April, 1798, their adherence to thefe indennities, and that, conformably to this clause, they proceed in this affair with all the meafures, precautions, and referves, which the maintenance of the Germanic conftitution in all its relations requires, together with the re-establishment and affirming the well-being of the ftates, the immediate nobility and other members of the empire, which reft upon this conftitution.

7. Finally, that the faid deputation fhall prefent for his imperial majefty's and the empire's ratification, the refult of their operations, and the refolution they hall have taken in confequence.

The prefent refolution fhall be addreffed to his imperial majesty (as is done by this prefent), to receive the fanction of the fupreme chief of the empire, in the room of the conclufum which he had demanded, and as a modified propofition, for the important motives above mentioned, for the exercise of the right of co-operation of the ftates of the empire in the completion of peace. There fhall be given at the fame time to his imperial majefty moft humble thanks for the paternal folicitude of which he has given on this occafion fresh proofs for the maintenance of the Germa nic conftitution and the rights of the empire.

Ratisbon, Nov. 19, 1801. Scarcely had the treaty of peace, concluded at Luneville by his imperial majefty with the French republic, been communicated to the diet by an imperial decree, of the 21ft of February, in order that it might be fpeedily ratified in a conclufum, when his imperial majefty invited that affembly by a fecond imperial decree, of the 3d of March, to lay before him, as foon as poffible, a refolution upon the mode by which the states of the empire were to co-operate in the particular arrangement which ftill remained to be made, fo much had his imperial majefly at heart in his paternal folicitude that the affairs of the peace of the empire fhould be entirely terminated with all poffible fpeed; but the mode of the co-operation of the ftates of the empire in that work, which his majefty afterwards acceded to, and in confequence of which the affair in queftion was to be treated in the ufual forms, the deliberations of the diet foon experienced fuch powerful and multiplied obftacles, that even the diet refolved afterwards to adopt another mode for the exercife of the right of co-operation of the ftates of the empire, and to fubmit to the im

perial fanction that new mode, in ftead of the complete refolution which his majesty had demanded by the decree of the 26th June laft.This decifion has been, as is known, carried into execution by means of the conclufum of the diet of the 2d of laft month, the principal tenor of which imports, that the co-operation of the ftates of the empire, in the objects which ftill remained to be regulated by a particular arrangement to terminate the work of peace, fhould take place by means of an extraordinary deputation of the empire; and that, with the formal refervation of the right of concurrence belonging to the prelates and counts of the empire, as well as to the imperial cities, this deputation fhould be confined to eight members of the college of electors and college of princes, having regard to the equality of religion; that there fhould be given to the deputies chofen, unlimited powers to conclude with the French government, falva ratificatione Cafaris et Imperii, the arrangement that remains to be made, enjoining them, however, formally to obferve fcrupuloufly the reftrictive claufes that have already been refpectively recogniled with the bafes of indemnities agreed upon in the negotiations of Raftadt by the two parties. His majefty is convinced, with the diet (as has been feen by the al ready mentioned decree of imperial commillion of the 26th June), that the mode of co-operation of the empire by means of an extraordinary deputa tion is more proper to acclerate the affair that remains to be terminated than the concurrence of the empire, in the ufual form of the deliberations of the diet. Guided by the paternal intention of enfuring the

internal

to give a proof that in this refpect he has been guided by no perfonal intereft.

Lewis Cobentzel.

Note of Count Hangwitz to Count Stadion.

Berlin, October 26, 1801. The undersigned ftate and cabinet minifter, has informed the king of the communication which count Stadion, minifter extraordinary and plenipotentiary of his imperial and royal majefty, was charged to make to him within these few days. It was intended to make known to his majefty, the election of his royal highnefs the archduke Anthony, as bishop and elector of Cologne, and was accompanied with the declaration, that this election, as well as that of Munfter, was to be confidered as indifferent, and unconnected with every perfonal or farther view, and that it could not in the leaft alter either the natural courfe of the fecularizations, nor the appropriation of the fame to the indemnifications. That, as on the one fide the emperor, partly from attachment to the conftitution of the empire, partly from internal conviction, could not forbear perfifting in the maintenance of the three ecclefiaftical electorates, the election which had fallen on the archduke Anthony could by no means, or in any manner, have an influence on the conduct of his imperial majefty: that in order to give a proof of this, his majefty has declined the propopofition of the cathedral chapter of Munfter, inviting the archduke to repair to that bishopric, and to take poffeffion of it; and that he had, at the fame time, given the faid chap

ter to understand, that they should undertake the government themfelves in the mean time, in the faine manner as if the fee were vacant.

If the elections of Munfter and Ahrenberg are to be contidered as mere formalities, the king was obliged on his part to purfue thofe formalities which the then present circumftance pointed out, to preferve the general rights; and with this view his majefty caused the wellknown proteftation against the Munfter election, to be delivered to the ftates of the empire, which, by anticipation, alfo concerned the elec tion of Ahrensberg, in cafe fuch fhould take place.

His majefty does not the lefs approve the wife refolution of his imperial majefty to poftpone the farther fteps which one or both of the chapters might wish to adopt with refpect to the introduction of the archduke Anthony; and if the bufinefs on both fides is thus to remain in uncertainty, the king will, in like manner, abide by the preliminary meafures which he has hitherto taken.

But even if his majefty were agreed on the laft point with the court of Vienna, yet he could not grant his approbation to the principle of the maintenance of the three ecclefiaftical electorates. This principle is in direct contradiction to thofe which his majesty has at all times expreffed in perfect agreement with the French government as one of the contracting powers, and which are founded on the contracts which are now to be put into execution.

In thefe is to be found the exprefs and effential determination, that the loffes of the parties are to be made up by means of feculariza