your different governments ask advice of me, and not follow it, and sometimes abuse my name, according to their interests and their passions. But I neither can nor ought to remain insensible to the misery of which you are the victims. I recall my determination-I will be the mediator of your differences, but my mediation shall be efficacious, such as befits the great people in whose name I speak.-Five days after the notification of the present proclamation, the senate shall assemble at Berne. - Every magistracy that shall have been formed at Berne since the capitulation shall be dissolved, and shall cease meeting and exercising any authority. The prefects shall repair to their posts. All the authorities which may have been formed shall cease meeting. -Armed assemblages shall disperse.-The 1st and 2d Helvetic demibrigades shall compose the garrison of Berne. The troops who have been on service for upwards of six months, shall alone remain in corps of troops. - Finally, all individuals disbanded from the belligerent armies, and who are now in arms, shall deposit their arms at the municipality of the commune where they were born.-The senate shall send three deputies to Paris; each canton may also send deputies. -All citizens who, for the last three years, have been landamman, senators, and have successively occupied places in the central authority, may repair to Paris, to make known the means of restoring union and tranquillity, and conciliating all parties. On my part, I have a right to expect that no city, no commune, no corps, will do any thing contrary to the dispositions which I make known to you. -In habitants of Helvetia, awake to hope!!! - Your country is on the brink of a precipice; it shall be immediately drawn from it; all men of good intentions will second this generous plan. But if, which I cannot believe, there be among you a great number of individuals who should have so little virtue as not to sacrifice their passions and their prejudices to the love of their coun try; people of Helvetia, you will have indeed degenerated from your forefathers! -There is no sensible man who does not see that the me diation which I take upon myself is a benefit to Helvetia, from that Providence which, in the midst of so many shocks, has always watched over the existence and inde pendence of your nation, and that this mediation is the only means of saving both. For indeed it is time you should see, that if the patriotism and union of your ancesters founded your republic, the bad spirit of your factions, if it continue, will infallibly destroy it; painful would it be to think, that at a pe riod when several new republics have arisen, destiny had marked out the termination and fall of one of the most ancient. (Signed) Bonaparte. the 30th of September, could have reached you sooner; it contains a faithful exposition of the present state of Switzerland. Permit us to send you enclosed a duplicate of it, and to entreat you to receive it favourably. It will prove to you that the movements which have taken place in Switzerland are not the result of a spirit of party, and that the Swiss nation has no other object in view than to make use of the right which she claims of giving herself a central and cantonal constitution, founded on her position and her wants a sacred and precious right, which you deigned yourself to ensure her by the treaty of Luneville. Switzerland would long since have been tranquil, if the members of the Helvetic go vernment, those obscure metaphysicians, had consulted the real state of affairs, instead of obstinately attaching themselves to theoretic attempts as erroneous as they are expensive. The violence with which they have tried to impose their system upon the democratic cantons, the civil war they have organized to attain their end, directed at first against those cantons, then against all Switzerland: the unexampled severity with which they have done it, have produced a discontent equally general and just, and a determined and avowed will to shake off this unsupportable yoke. It is not then, general first consul, an affair of party-it is the sacred cause of humanity, it is the general wish of a whole nation, which has given us our power and our instructions, of a nation which you yourself wished to free, and which has been ill-treated and irritated, contrary to your intentions. Yet VOL. XLIV. that nation, we render ourselves guarantees, will never abuse the liberty it claims. The Swiss have nothing more at heart than to attain a state of repose, in which, under the shield of a mild and just government, each inhabitant may enjoy his property and existence. We are convinced that we shall arrive at that essential object of all social order, from the moment our will and our efforts shall be no longer fettered. - General first consul, all Europe admires in you the supreme head of an immense power and empire, which, without doubt, according to your own views, will be directed to the good of humanity; your magnanimity assures us, that you will not make use of it against a people who only desire what. you have made them hope, and who only wish what they bebelieve themselves authorized to do by yourself. Penetrated with eternal gratitude, the Swiss nation will do its endeavour to deserve the good will of the French government; and will fulfil all the duties which are imposed upon it by the desire of cultivating good neighbourhood. It is with the most distinguished respect that we remain, general first consul, The deputies of the Schwitz, Oct. 8, 1802. Art. I. Switzerland forms one federal republic, under the denomination of the Helvetic confederation. II. It is divided into cantons. III. Each canton to govern itself according to its own will, and to exercise in its own territory all the rights of sovereignty which it exercised under the ancient regime. IV. The towns shall not enjoy any prerogative over the country, both one and the other, to participate in the administration of justice, of the police, and in the internal government of the canton. V. The government of one canton cannot publish ordinances prejudicial to another canton: those who break through this regulation to be denounced to the diet. VI. The government of each canton to name a deputy to the Helvetic diet. The deputies remain in office until their constituents think proper to recal them. They are indemnified by the canton. VII. The diet is permanent; it deliberates on war and peace, and on the conclusion of such treaties of alliance and commerce as the general interest of the confederation may call for. It is authorized to repeal and annul the ordonnances of the cantonal governments, which are prejudicial to the Helvetic confederation, or to any of its can tons. VIII. Every deputy, member of the diet, is obliged to conduct himself, upon the discussion of an important object, particularly of treaties, peace, commerce and alliance, according to the instructions of his constituents. IX. The diet chooses, from amongst its members, a president and a secretary, who continue in X. The president of the diet re- be signed by every member. XII. In case of a war, or threat XIII. All the Swiss are soldiers. None can exercise the rights of citizenship, nor be received into the corporations of artists and tradesmen, nor exercise a profession, nor marry, unless he has a musket, a sword, and a pouch. The government supplies the poor with arms. In extraordinary cases the cantonal government may order the disarming of the citizens. The expenses of war are charged upon all the cantons in proportion to their respective means. the French government, the sentiments of deep regret which have been excited in his majesty's mind by the address of the first consul to the Helvetic people, which was published by authority in the Moniteur of the 1st instant, and by the representations which have been made to his majesty on this subject, on behalf of the nation whose interests are so immediately affected by it. His majesty most sincerely laments the convulsions to which the Swiss cantons have for some time past been exposed; but he can consider their late exertions in no other light than as the lawful efforts of a brave and generous people to recover their ancient laws French government, he is yet unwilling to believe that they will further attempt to controul that independent nation in the exercise of their undoubted rights. His majesty thinks himself called upon by his regard for the general interests of Europe, and by his peculiar solicitude for the happiness and welfare of the Swiss nation, to express these his sentiments with a frankness and sincerity which he feels to be due to his character, and to the good understanding which he is desirous of preserving with the government of France. Downing-street, Oct. 10, 1803. To Mr. Otto, &c. &c. Mr. Moore. Downing-street, Oct. 10, 1802. Sir, and government, and to procure Dispatch from Lord Hawkesbury to the reestablishment of a system which experience has demonstrated, not only to be favourable to the maintenance of their domestic happiness, but to be perfectly consistent with the tranquillity and security of other powers. The cantons of Switzerland unquestionably possess, in the same degree as every other independent state, the right of regulating their own internal concerns, and this right has, moreover, in the present instance, been formally and explicitly guarantied to the Swiss nation by the French government in the treaty of Luneville, conjointly with the other powers who were parties to that engagement. His majesty has no other desire than that the people of Switzerland, who now appear to be so generally united, should be left at liberty to settle their own internal government, without the interposition of any foreign powers; and with whatever regret his majesty may have perused the late proclamation of the His majesty having deemed it expedient, that a confidential person should be sent at the present moment to Switzerland, in consequence of the communication which lie has received from the Swiss confederacy, through their representative at Paris, I am commanded to inform you that he has made, choice of you for that purpose. It is of the utmost consequence, considering the nature of the business with which you are entrusted, that you should lose no time in taking your departure from hence, and that you should make every practicable exertion to arrive on the frontiers of Switzerland with as little delay as possible. You will inform yourself there what is the actual residence of the government of the Swiss confederation, to which you will immediately repair. Having taken the proper means to obX x 2 tain tain a confidential interview with the persons who may be entrusted with the principal direction of affairs, you will communicate to them a copy of the note verbale which I delivered to M. Otto, and which is herewith enclosed; and you will take every opportunity of impressing upon their minds the deep interest which his majesty takes in the success of their exertions. You will state to them, that his majesty entertains hopes, that his representation to the French government may have the effect of inducing the first consul to abandon his intention of compelling the Swiss nation by force to renounce that system of government under which they had so long prospered, and to which they appear to be almost unanimously anxious to return. In this event his majesty will feel himself bound to abstain from all interference on his part; it being his earnest desire that the Swiss nation should be left at liberty to regulate their own internal concerns, without the interposition of any foreign power. If, however, contrary to his majesty's expectations, the French government should persist in the system of coercion, announced in the proclamation of the first consul, inserted in the Moniteur of the 1st instant, you will, in that case, inform yourself, by every means in your power, of the disposition of the people at large of the Swiss confederacy, and particularly of those who have the direction of their affairs, and of those who possess the greatest share of influence amongst them, to persevere in the defence of their rights, and in the maintainance of the system they have adopted. You will likewise inquire into the means of defence of which they may be possessed, and of the pro bability of their being exerted with success. You will on no account encourage them to persevere in active measures of resistance which they are not themselves desirous to adopt, or which they may believe are unlikely to be ultimately effec tual. If, however, you should find that the people of the Swiss confederacy are generally determined to persevere in the maintainance of their independence, and of their right to return to their ancient system of government; and if you should be of opinion that from the union that subsists amongst the people, and from their zeal and enthusiasm in the cause in which they are engaged, they are finally resolved at all hazards to resist the threatened attempt of the French government to interpose by force of arms in the settlement of their in ternal concerns; you will then immediately communicate, in confdence, to the Swiss government, that either in the event of a French army having entered the country, or in the event of your having reason to be convinced that a French army is actually advancing for that purpose, his majesty has authorized you to accede to their application for pecuniary succours. I have furnished you with a cypher and decypher, that you may have it in your power to correspond with his majesty's ministers at Vienna and Munich, if you should think it advisable; and as it is highly probably that the armies of the Swiss confederacy may be inadequately supplied with arms, ammunition or provisions, and may be desirous of procuring supplies thereof from the neighbouring countries, you will use your utmost en deavours |