1810. The interest of the debt for 1808 and 1809, not yet paid, shall be reduced to one-third, and charged on the budget of 1810.

9. The custom-houses on the frontier, other than those of France, shall be organized under the superintendance of our director-general of the custom-houses. The Dutch custom-houses shall be incorporated therewith. The line of customhouses now on the French frontier, shall be kept up till the 1st of January, 1811, when it shall be re

with the execution of the present decrees.

(Signed)

By the Emperor NAPOLEON.
(Signed)

The Minister Secretary of State, H. B. Duke of Bassano. Holland, in consequence of the above, has since been annexed to France!

3. HANSE TOWNS.

10. The colonial produce, actually in Holland, shall remain in the hands of the owners, upon paying a duty of fifty per cent. ad valorem. A declaration of the amount shall be made before the 1st of September, at farthest. The said merchandize, upon payment of the duties, may be imported into France, and circulated through the whole of the empire.

TITLE IV.-11. There shall be at Amsterdam a special administration, presided over by one of our counsellors of state, which shall have the superintendance of, and the necessary funds to provide for, the repairs of the dikes, polders, and other public works.

TITLE V.—12. In the course of the present month, there shall be nominated, by the legislative body of Holland, a commission of fifteen members, to proceed to Paris, in order to constitute a council, whose business shall be to regulate definitively all that relates to the public and local debts, and to conciliate the principles of the union with the localities and interests of the country.

13. Our ministers are charged

sultum.

ART. 1. Holland, the. Hanse Towns, Lauenburg, and the territories which lie between the North Sea, and a line which shall extend from the place where the Lippe enters the Rhine, to its sources; from these sources to the Upper Ems; from the Ems to the entrance of the Werra into the Weser; and from Stolzenau on the Weser to the Elbe, above the junction of the Sleekniss, shall form an integral part of the French empire.

2. The said territories shall form ten departments, namely:-The department of the Zuyder Zee, of the mouths of the Maese, of the Upper Yssel, the mouths of the Yssel, East Friesland, the West Ems, the East Ems, the Upper Ems, the mouths of the Weser, and the mouths of the Elbe.

3. The number of deputies from these departments to the legislative body shall be as follow:For the department of the Zuyder Zee

-Mouths of the Maese. 4
Upper Yssel.. 3
Mouths of the Yssel..-2

For

4. These deputies shall be appointed in the year 1811, and shall be renewed in the year to which the series belongs, in which the department to which they belong shall be placed.

5. These departments shall be placed in the following series of the legislative body, namely:-First series, Mouths of the Maese and West Ems; second series, Friesland and the Upper Ems; third series, the Zuyder Zee and East Ems; fourth series, Mouths of the Yssel, and Mouths of the Elbe; fifth series, Upper Yssel, and Mouths of the Weser.

6. For the departments of the Zuyder Zee, Mouths of the Maese, Upper Yssel, Mouths of the Yssel, Friesland, and West Ems, there shall be an imperial court of justice, whose seat shall be at the Hague.

7. For the departments of East Enis, Upper Ems, the Weser, and the Mouths of the Elbe, there shall be an imperial court of justice, whose seat shall be at Hamburgh.

8. In the departments which belong to the jurisdiction of the imperial court of justice of the Hague, there shall be a council of senators; and another shall be erected in the departments which belong to the jurisdiction of the imperial court of justice at Hamburgh.

9. The cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Hamburgh, Bremen, and Lubeck, are placed among the number of good cities; their mayors

III. Report concerning the Marri age of Buonaparte.

In the year 1809, and on the 15th day of December, at nine o'clock in the evening, we, Jean Jaques Regis Cambaceres, Prince Arch-Chancellor of the Empire, Duke of Parma, exercising the functions prescribed to us by title the second of the fourteenth article of the statute of the imperial fa mily, and in consequence of orders addressed to us by his majesty the emperor and king, in his private letter, dated that day, of the fol lowing tenor :--

Paris, Dec. 15, 1809.

"My cousin,---Our desire is, that you repair this day, at uine o'clock in the evening, to our grand cabinet of the palace of the Thuilleries, attended by the civil secretary of state of our imperial family, to receive from us and the empress, our dear consort, a communication of great importance. For this purpose, we have ordered this present private letter should be sent to you. We pray God to have you, my cousin, in his holy and blessed keeping."

On the back is written:-" To our cousin the Prince Arch-Chancellor, Duke of Parma,"

We accordingly proceeded to the hall of the throne of the palace of

the

the Thuilleries, attended by Michel Louis Etienne Regnault (de St. Jean d'Angely) Count of the Empire, Minister of State, and Secretary of State to the imperial family. A quarter of an hour afterwards, we were introduced to the grand cabinet of the emperor; where we found his majesty the emperor and king, with her majesty the empress, attended by their majesties the Kings of Holland, Westphalia, Naples, his Imperial Highness the Prince Viceroy, the Queens of Holland, Westphalia, Naples, and Spain, madame, and her Imperial Highness the Princess Paulina. His majesty the emperor and king condescended to address us in these terms :--

་་

My Cousin, Prince Arch-Chancellor,---I dispatched to you a private letter, dated this day, to direct you to repair to my cabinet, for the purpose of communicating to you the resolution which I and the empress, my dearest cousort have taken. It gives me pleasure that the kings, queens, and princesses, my brothers and sisters, my brothers and sisters-in-law, my daughin-law, and my son-in-law, become my adopted son, as well as my nother, should witness what I am going to communicate to you.

"The policy of my monarchy, the interest and the wants of my people, which have constantly guided all my actions, require, that after me, I should leave to children, inheritors of my love for my people, that throne on which Providence has placed me; notwithstanding, for several years past, I have lost the hope of having children by my marriage with my well-beloved consort, the Empress Josephine. This it is which induces me to sacrifice

the sweetest affections of my heart, to attend to nothing but the good of the state, and to wish the dissolution of my marriage.

"Arrived at the age of forty years, I may indulge the hope of living long enough to educate in my views and sentiments the children which it may please Providence to give me. God knows how much such a resolution has cost my heart; but there is no sacrifice beyond my courage, when it is proved to me to be necessary for the welfare of France. I should add, that far from having reason to conplain, on the contrary, I have had reason only to be satisfied with the attachment and the affection of my wellbeloved consort: she has adorned fifteen years of my life, the remembrance of which will ever remain engraven on my heart: she was crowned by my hand. I wish she should preserve the rank and title of empress, but above all, that she should never doubt my sentiments, and that she should ever regard me as her best and dearest friend."

His majesty the emperor and king having ended, her majesty the empress and queen spoke as follows:--

By the permission of our dear and august consort, I ought to declare, that not preserving any hope of having children, which may fulfil the wauts of his policy and the interest of France, I am pleased to give him the greatest proof of attachment and devotion, which has ever been given on earth. I possess all from his bounty: it was his hand which crowned me; and, from the height of the throne, I have received nothing but proofs of affection and love from the French people. I think I prove

myself

myself grateful, in consenting to the dissolution of a marriage, which heretofore was an obstacle to the welfare of France; which deprived it of the happiness of being one day governed by the descendants of a great man, evidently raised up by Providence, to efface the evils of a terrible revolution, and to re-establish the altar, the throne, and social order. But the dissolution of my marriage will in no degree change the sentiments of my heart. The emperor will ever have in me his best friend. I know how much this act, demanded by policy and by interests so great, has chilled his heart; but both of us exult in the sacrifice which we make for the good of the country."

After which, their imperial majesties having demanded an act of their respective declarations, as well as of the mutual consent contained in them, and which their majesties gave to the dissolution of their marriage, as also of the power which their majesties conferred on us, to follow up, as need shall require, the effect of their will-We, Prince Arch-Chancellor of the empire, in obedience to the orders and requisitions of their majesties, have given the aforesaid acts, and have in consequence executed the present proces verbal, to serve and avail according to law; to which proces verbal their majesties have affixed their signatures, and which, after having been signed by the kings, queens, princes, and princesses, present, has been signed by us, and countersigned by the secretary of state of the imperial family, who wrote it with his own hand.

Done at the palace of the Thuilleries, the day, hour, and the year aforesaid. (Signed, &c.)

Having seen the projet of the senatus consultum, drawn up in the form prescribed by the fifty-seventh article of the act of the constitu tion, of the 4th of August, 1802After having heard the motives of the said projet, the orators of the council of state, and the report of the special committee appointed on the sitting of this day---the adop tion having been discussed by the number of members prescribed by the fifty-sixth article of the act of the constitution, of the 4th of August, 1802, the senate decrees that :--

1. The marriage contracted be tween the Emperor Napoleon aud the Empress Josephine, is dissolved,

II. The Empress Josephine shall preserve the title and rank of empress queen crowned.

III. Her dowry is fixed at an anuual income of two millions of francs, on the revenue of the state.

IV. All the assignments which may be made by the emperor, in favour of the Empress Josephine, on the funds of the civil list, shall be obligatory on his successors.

V. The present senatus consultum shall be transmitted by a mess sage to his imperial and royal mas jesty.

IV. Exposé of the state of France.

Report of the minister for foreign affairs to his majesty the empe ror and king.

SIR, Your majesty has exalted France to the highest point of greatness. The victories obtained over five successive coalitions, all promoted by England, have produced these consequences; and it may be said, that we are indebted to Eng

laud

land for the glory and power of the great empire.

At every opportunity, your majesty made offers of peace, and without considering whether it would be more advantageous than war: you looked, sir, only to the happiness of the present generation, and you always shewed yourself ready to sacrifice to it the most flattering prospects of the future.

It was in this spirit that the peace of Compo Formio, of Luneville, and of Amiens, and subsequently of Presburg, of Tilsit, and of Vienna, were concluded; it was in this spirit that your majesty has five times sacrificed to peace the greater part of your conquests. More arxious to adorn your reign by the public happiness, than to extend the frontiers of your empire, your majesty sets bounds to your greatness; while England, keeping the torch of war continually alive, seemed to conspire against her allies as well as herself, to create the greatest empire that has existed for twenty centuries.

At the peace of 1783, the power of France was strong in the family compact, which closely bound Spain and Naples with her political system. At the peace of Amiens, the respective strength of the three great powers was increased by the addition of twelve millions of Polish juhabitants. The houses of France and Spain were essentially hostile to each other, and the people of the two countries were removed farther than ever from each other, by the difference of their manners. One of the great continental powers had her strength less diminished by the junction of Belgium with France, than it was increased by the acquisition of Venice; the secu

larizations also of the Germanic body added more to the power ofour rivals,

Thus, at the conclusion of the treaty of Amiens,, the relative force of France was less than at the peace of 1783, and much inferior to that to which the victories obtained during the wars of the two first coalitions gave her a right to expect. This treaty, however, was scarcely concluded, when the jealousy of England displayed itself strongly. She took the alarm at the increasing prosperity and riches of the interior of France; and she hoped that a third coalition would wrest Belgium, the provinces of the Rhine, and Italy, from your crown. The peace of Amiens was broken; a third coalition was formed, three months after, it was dissolved by the treaty of Presburg.

England saw all her hopes blasted; Venice, Dalmatia, Istria, the whole of the Adriatic coast, and that of the kingdom of Naples, fell into the power of France. The Germanic body, established upon principles contrary to those upon which the French empire was founded, dropped to pieces; and the system of the Confederation of the Rhine transformed in close and necessary allies the same nations, who in the first coalitions marched against France, and united them indissolubly to herself by their common interests.

The peace of Amiens then be came in England the object of every statesman. The new acquisitions by France, which there were no hopes of wresting from her at any future time, rendered the fault that was committed more evident, and shewed the full extent of it.

An enlightened man, who during the short interval of the peace of

Amiens,