and of being fined ten thousand livres.

III. His majesty forbids, upon the fame pains, the importation of all polished steel wares (except tools and inftruments fit for arts and fciences), and alfo of all kinds of foreign crystal and glass.

IV. However, his majefty allows thofe of his fubjects, which carry on no trade, to caufe to be fent them from England, or any other foreign country, but only for their own ufe or perfonal confumption, thofe objects, the importation whereof into the kingdom is forbid, by afking a permit, which will be given them by the comptroller general of the finances, upon their declaring the quality and quantity of the goods, and of the office through which they are to be introduced, upon condition of paying to the chief of the general farm thirty per cent. of their value, with 10d. per pound, according to the rule of eftimation of the faid goods, which fhall be fent by his majefty's order, to all the offices through which the introduction of the faid goods will be permitted; and the faid goods fhall be forwarded with a lead flamp from the first office, to the place they are intended for.

V. His majesty intends that neither exemption nor moderation of the faid duties fhall be granted to any body what foever, or of what ever rank of quality they may be, nor upon any account whatfoever.

VI. His majesty forbids again, as by the decree of the 6th of September 1701, all traders and merchants, either wholefale or retail dealers, in the cities, and all other places of the kingdom, and alfo all other perfons, to offer to fale, retail, or fell in any manner whatfoever, any of the faid prohibited goods, upon pain of their being

confifcated, and of being fined three thousand livres, without it being pollible to remit or diminish the faid fine.

VII. His majesty likewife forbids expreffedly all merchants, either in the cities or other places of the kingdom, to have on their fhop doors the name of Warehouse for English goods, or goods of any other country, on the fame pain of being fined three thousand livres, and of lofing their quality and privilege of merchants; and his majel vorders, on the fame pains, all thofe who fhould have fuch infcription on their fhops, to caufe it to be erafed out and destroyed, in a week's time from the day this decree is publifhed, without any farther delay; or ders the guards, fyndics, and adjoints of the corporations of arts and trades, in Paris and in the provinces, to take care that this arti cle be executed, and to inform the judges of the police of the contraventions thereto.

VIII. The prohibited goods which people (contrary to this decree) fhould attempt to import, fell, or circulate, in the kingdom, fhall be feized by the excife officers, and the confifcation thereof, as well as the fine profecuted before the lieunant of police, and before the intendants and commiffaries, charged with the execution of the king's orders in the provinces of the kingdom; the king giving to each of them the cognizance of all contraventions to this decree, fave the appeal to his council, and forbidding all other courts and judges to meddle with them.

IX. The goods, the confifcation whereof fhall have been pronounced, fhall be immediately after fent with a lead stamp, and with a warrant cocket to the general office of prohibited goods at Paris, where

they

they fhall be valued by two appraifers chofen for that purpofc, and then half of the price thus valued, granted and paid in ready money to the officers who fhall have feized, without any part thereof being kept from them; and then the faid goods fhall be exported, and for that purpofe fent back, viz. thofe going by the name of white goods, merchandizes, blanches, to the port of l'Orient, and the others in fome of the free ports of the kingdom, where they fhall be fold in the month of January every year, by public fale, nor fhall they be reimported into the kingdom upon any account; the profit of which fales fhall be difpofed of, according to orders of his najcy, after taking off, however, the half given to the feizing officers, and the expences which fhall be taken out of the other half.

T. A. P.

Done in the King's Council, his Majefty being prefent, held at Vertailles, July the 17th, 1785.

(Signed)

BARON DE BRETEUIL.

Declaration of the King of Prufia, August 23, 1785, delivered by the Count de Luft to the Marquis of

Carmarthen.

The king believed he had every reason to expect, that the court of Vienna had given up all thoughts of an exchange of Bavaria, or an acquifition thereof in any other manner, after fuch an acquifition had been proved to the faid court to be inadmiffible, in the conferences held at Braunau, in the month of September 1778; after the faid court had renounced all its pretenfions on Bavaria by the peace of

Tefchen, and had become itself, together with the other contracting and mediating powers of that peace, guarantee of the covenants of the houfe Palatine, whereby that house is not allowed any alienation, or, as it is expreffed, "any exchange of its poffeffions." His majesty, however, having been apprized in the month of January of the prefent year, by the duke of Deux Ponts, that the court of Vienna had, notwithstanding thefe important confiderations, propofed to that prince an exchange of the whole of Bavaria, together with the Upper County Palatine and the duchies of Neuburg and Sulzbach, for a part of the Auftrian Netherlands; his majetty was anxious to communicate his uneafinefs on that account to the empress of Ruffia, as guarantee of the peace of Tefchen. The anfwer which her imperial majefty gave to the king, through her minifter prince Dolgoroucki, "that after the refufal of the duke of Deux Ponts, there was no more thought about fuch an exchange," might have been a fufficient affurance to the king, if his majefty could have been equally fecure with refpect to

the intentions of the court of ViBut that court has too evi enna.

dently fhewn, by the fleps taken in the courfe of the prefent year, as well as by the fyftem it has at all times purfued, that it cannot bring itfelf to an entire renunciation of the project of making, fooner or later, an acquifition of Bavaria.

The faid court, after having in its first circular declaration difimilated the exiftence of this project, affures indeed in the latter an intimation of the declaration of the court of Rufia, that it never entertained, nor ever should entertain, the leaft thought of a violent or forced exchange of Bavaria. But

this diftinction between forced or voluntary fhews evidently that the court of Vienna ftill entertains an idea of the pollibility of a barter of Bavaria. This conjecture, already ftrong enough in itfelf, is too well confirmed by the affertion of the court of Vienna, that "by virtue of the peace of Baden the house Palatine has full liberty to exchange its poffeflions." It is true the 18th article of the peace of Baden fays, that, in cafe the house of Bavaria finds it convenient to make fome exchange of its poffeflions in return for others, his moft Chriftian majeity promites not to oppofe the fanie." It follows clearly, however, from this very article, that the contracting parties did not mean thereby to allow to the house of Bavaria any thing farther than a partial exchange of fome diftrict or piece of country fuitable to its intereit; but it certainly was not, nor could it be understood at that time, to allow a total exchange of a large electorate and fief of the empire (which, being under the difpofition of the Golden Bull, was not at all liable to an alteration of this nature), which would have too nearly affected and overturned the effential conftitution of the electoral college, and even the integrity of the whole confederate fyftem of the empire. Admitting even that, by the peace of Baden, the houfe of Bavaria was allowed to make a partial exchange, fuitable to its intereft, of fome part of its poffeffions, this power has fince been abrogated by the eighth article of the peace of Tefchen, and by the feparate act concluded at the fame time between the elector Palatine and the duke of Deux Ponts; becaufe the covenants of the house l'alatine of the years 1766, 1771, and 1774, are therein r newed, whereby all the

poffeffions of the houfe of Bavaria Palatine are charged with a perpe tualand inalienable fideicomis. The ancient pragmatic fanction of that houfe, concluded at Pavia in the year 1329, is likewife referred to therein, whereby that whole illuf-` trious houfe has bound itself never to exchange nor otherwife alienate the leaft part of its poffeffions. Now as the peace of Tefchen, together with all its feparate acts, is under the guarantee of the king and the elector of Saxony, as principal contracting parties of that peace, likewife under the guarantee of the two mediating powers, the courts of Ruthia and France, and the whole empire; it follows, therefore, that no exchange of Bavaria whatever can any more take place without the content and concurrence of the powers just mentioned; and especially not without the intervention of the king and all his co-cftates of the empire, whofe effential intereft it is that this great and important duchy of Bavaria fhould remain with the houfe Palatine; because it must be triking to every body, that, independent of the geographical and political difproportion between the Auftrian Netherlands and the whole of Bavaria, the transferring of fo large and fine a country to the houfe of Audria, and thereby rounding as it were the Auftrian monarchy (which already preponderates too much), would take away all balance of power in Germany; and the fecurity, as well as the liberty, of all the states of the empire, would only depend upon the difcretion of the houfe of Auftria. It seems that this great and powerful house ought to be contented with its vast monarchy, and not to think any more of an acquifition fo alarming, not only to Germany, but likewife to all Europe.

"It fhould likewife remember, that, in the barrier treaty of 1715, it has promised to the maritime powers never to alienate any part of the Netherlands to any prince but of its own houfe; a ftipulation which cannot be fet afide without the content of the contracting parties. The king cannot therefore but be perfuaded by all that has been advanced, that the court of Vienna will not very foon, or perhaps never, give up the project of making, fooner or later, an acquifition of Bavaria, by fome means or other, and that, according to the principles manifefted ftill in its latter circular declaration, it referves to itfelf yet the poffibility and power thercof. His majesty thought he could not in this cafe do lefs for his own fecurity, as well as for that of the whole empire, than to propofe to his co-efiates, to enter into an affociation conformable to all the fundamental conftitutions of the empire, namely, the peace of Weftphalia, and to the capitulations of the emperors, and founded upon the example of all centuries, tending only to preferve the prefent and legal conftitution of the empire, to maintain every member thereof in the free and tranquil enjoyment of his rights, ftates, and poffeffions, and to oppofe every arbitrary and illegal enterprize, contrary to the fyftem of the empire. His majetty, having met with the fame fentiments in the most ferene electors of Saxony and of Brunfwick Lunebourg, has just now concluded and figned a treaty of union with them; which treaty is not offenfive against any perfon, nor any way derogatory to the dignity, rights, and prerogatives, of his majesty the emperor of the Romans, and which has abfolutely nothing for its object, but to maintain the conftitutional fyftem 1785.

of the empire, and the objects just mentioned; and which therefore cannot give the leaft uneasiness to the court of Vienna, if that court has the fame views and intention for the prefervation of the faid syftem, as there is reafon to expect, and as is indeed expected, from the greatnefs of foul, and loyalty of the head of the empire. It cannot be doubted that the king, as an elector and prince of the empire, and as one of the contracting parties, and guarantee of the peace of Weftpha lia and Tefchen, has an incontestable right to conclude with his coeftates of the empire fuch a consti tutional and inoffenfive treaty.

The king having engaged in a war to prevent the exchange and all farther difmemberment of Bavaria (which war was put an end to by the peace of Tefchen), his majefty has hereby acquired a right and a particular and permanent interest to oppofe any exchange of Bavaria, prefent and future; and in doing this by fuch meafures as are conformable to the laws of nations, and to thofe of the German empire, his majefly only fulfils his obligations and rights, without provoking the diffatisfaction or reproach of the court of Vienna, and without giv ing any juft caufe to attribute to him any offenlive views or steps againft that court. The king could not, therefore, but be in fome meafure affected and furprifed, when. informed that the court of Vienna exclaimed again this union in its, declarations, publicly addreffed to all the courts of Europe, and of the. empire, endeavouring even to give to the faid treaty an odious colour.;

His majefty believes not to have. given the leat cause for such a proceeding; but rather to have merited more justice for his open, patriotic, and difinterefted conduct, as

(N)

well

well before as after the peace of Tefchen, in what regards Bavaria and the houfe Palatine. His majesty will not imitate the manner adopted in the faid declaration: he will take special care not to recriminate. He will fatisfy himself with appealing to the tellimony of the electors and princes of the empire, who will atteft, that, without any fuggeftion or accufation whatever, he has confined himfel to evince to them the inadmiflibility and danger of any exchange of Bavaria, and to propofe to them to enter into fuch a conftitutional treaty, as may be laid before the whole world. To remove every doubt about the purity of the intentions of the king, and the justice of the steps he has taken, his majesty thinks it his duty to make the conclufion of this treaty, and the motives which occafioned it, known to the principal powers of Europe, who are any way concerned about the welfare of the German empire, and the prefervation of its fyftem. The king has done this by the prefent declaration, which he would not fail to communicate likewife to his Britannic majefty, as a mark of his confidence and attention, and of his defire to fecure himfelf the fuf. frage of his Britannic majefty; though he, as elector of Brunswick Lunenburg, has himself already concurred in the conclufion of the treaty; and has thereby given in dubitable proof how much his fentiments coincide with thofe of the king about the neceffity of the faid treaty, and the objects which gave occafion to it.

The king is particularly happy to have added thefe new ties to the friendship and intimacy which has already for fo long a time fubfifted between the two royal houfes, and

The king has received with pleafure the communication which count Lufi has made, by order of his Pruffian majesty, to lord Carmarthen, of the fentiments of his faid majelly refpecting the treaty figned at Berlin the 23d of July, in the concluding of which the king himfelf, in his electoral capacity, was pleafed to concur.

The lively intereft which his Pruffian majelly never ceases to take for the maintenance of the Germanic confiitution, and the prefervation of the rights of every member of the empire, cannot but deferve the greatest praise from thofe powers who are true friends to the profpe rity and well-being of that refpect. able confederation; and, at the fame time that the court of London is eager to render this juftice to the patriotic views of his Pruffian majetty, it flatters itfelf that the meafures of precaution, which the three electoral courts have thought proper to take, may never become neceffary, by any attack, either direct or indirect, upon the acknowledged rights of the Germanic body; but that, for the future, the most solid harmony may be re-eliablifhed, and the most fincere confidence for ever fubfift, between the august chief and

the