Proclamation of General Berthier to the People of the Cifalpine Republic, 18th March.

ATREATY of alliance with the French republic can alone fecure your liberty, and therefore it will be the death-blow to tyranny.

A great plot has been formed against your happiness-an attempt was made to destroy the discipline of the French army, and to excite disturbances in your departments. Journalists have been paid to mislead you, and to infult the French nation and you: fhe is not infulted with impunity. Thefe counter-revolutionists wished to affaffinate Frenchmen and Cifalpins.

A deputy of the council of elders (but I fay it with pleasure, not a native of the Cifalpine territory) formed a plot to deliver up Mantua to the enemies of the Cifalpine republic-Traitors, paid by the princes who furround you, are perhaps concealed in fome of the most refpectable polts in your government: other men, whose intentions ought to be pure, ferve your enemies without intention, either by a falfe enthufiafm, or through ignorance. Cifalpine people! can you forget that you owe your liberty to the blood of Frenchmen, which has moistened your country, and to the facrifices of that great country which is the admiration of the universe?

Yes, the French are your friends; they always will be fo, and will complete the work they have begun.

In the orders which I have given for the punifhment of fome impudent and counter-revolutionary journalists, in the accufation which I have demanded against a reprefentative of the people who is a traitor to his country and the French army, I have refpected the principles of liberty which we have given you when I might have employed military force. Cifalpine people! be calm and tranquil; let thofe alone create difturbances who wish to plunge the country in the horrors of anarchy, and to deftroy your liberty. May the most intimate friendship fubfift between the French republic and you!

As for me, I have never ceafed to give the strongest proofs of my attachment to your country. I would lay down my life to fecure your happiness and liberty; but I declare, that I will ufe with firmness and courage the authority which is entrusted to me, in order to fecure refpect for the French republic, your liberty and happiness, and to preferve your places from treafon and the attacks of your enemies.

Form of the Oath ordered to be taken by the Swifs refident in Ruffia. A. B. do declare by the prefent oath, before the Almighty • God, and upon his holy gofpel, that I have never acceded, in will or in deed, to the wicked and revolutionary principles which

prevail

prevail in France, and which at prefent are propagated through other countries, particularly through Switzerland; that I hold the government there eftablished to be illegal; that I am convinced in my confcience of the fanity of the Chriftian religion as profelfed by my ancestors, and of the duty I am bounden under to be faithful and obedient to the ancient form of government.

I accordingly do promise and bind myfelf, under the gracious protection of his Majefty the Emperor, &c. of all the Ruffias, to comport myself in his dominions agreeably to the principles of the Chriftian religion, in which I was born; to pay the most punctual and rigorous obedience to the laws and adminiftration eftablished by his Majefty; and, in fhort, to break off all correfpondence with them, until, after the re-establishment of legal order in Switzerland, I fhall have obtained that permiffion from his Majefty.

In cafe of prevarication, I refign' myself to all the rigour of the laws of this fublunary life, as alfo to God's last judgment; and, as a confummiation and feal of the prefent oath, I kifs the words and the crofs of our Saviour Jefus Chrift. SO BE IT.

The Minifler of the War and Marine Department of the Ligurian Republic to the Minifler for Foreign Affairs and of Justice, June 21.

THE

HE minifter of war and marine, in anfwer to the note of this day from the minifter of foreign affairs, by which he charged him, in the name of the Directory, to write the proper circular letters, to the end that the law, ordained the 11th of September 1796, of the former government, which prefcribes that the ports of the republic fhould remain fhut against all British veffels, fhould be fully carried into effect, has the honour to inform him, that ports are not to be thut up by letters, but fecured by bombs and red-hot bullets; that to effect this, there must be well pofted batteries, cannon and mortars properly appointed;" brave and fpirited foldiers to ferve them as circumstances may require; that batteries, ammunition-carts, and every article neceffary for this purpofe, are not to be procured by mere words, but by money; that courage and difcipline are not promoted nor attained by a diforganization of the armed force, fuch as is dictated by the unconftitutional law of the 18th and 19th current, which carries into effect that of the 16th of May, and the fubfequent decree of the Executive Directory of the 19th, which prefcribes to me its being carried into execution; neither in obftructing every road to preferment to the perfon who has gained it by his blood, at a moment too when the moft vile betrayers of their country are feen to be declared innocent. The minifter of war informs you that, in order to its being defenfive and offenfive,

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he must have men and money. Every one is acquainted with the ftate of our arfenal and for.ifications. Health and fraternity.

(Signed)

FREDERICI.

Citizen Minifter,

ANSWER.

I HOPE, that with an honeft fatisfaction you will perufe a republican reply to your letter, read over by me on the evening of the 21ft inft. In good truth I do not comprehend, that because the refolutions of the Executive Directory have been communicated to you through the channel of the minifter of external relations, you fhould apply to him as a more ready and immediate communication with the Directory. Every honest citizen is of opinion with you, that fea-ports are fecured by batterics well placed, with cannon and mortars properly appointed, with bombs, red-hot balls, &c. and that money is neceffary to carry this into effect. But you will agree with the honeft citizens, that the national cheft is oppreffed by the expenfes occafioned by the war juft terminated; that its refources are exhaufted, and the finances, particularly in this district, diforganized. The honest citizens agree with you, that circumftances imperiously demand the most efficacious meafures of defence; but, with them, you, who are an honeft man, will allow that it was neceffary to fecure the Ligurian territory from an hoftile attack, previouíly to the embarking in an offenfive war. You will agree, that it was neceffary to examine whether the Ligurian territory could fupply the means of obtaining it, and whether our republicans were fufficiently inftructed in the ufe of arms, and in military evolutions, to face battalions long fince difciplined, and accuftomed to military operations. You will allow, that, under thefe circumftances, the law which fufpends the further affemblage of troops, was a juft measure of necellary economy. You will allow, that the law of the 19th current was a prudent and neceffary precaution, which is framed with a view of organizing a provifional guard to the legiflative body, in order to protect them from certain threats and murmurings of the fpurious children of the country, who fometimes have been heard in circles about the place of affembly, endeavouring to wreft from it laws in counterpoife for the public welfare. You will agree, that a law fufpending military promotion does not ftop up the road, but is only a thort delay in it, fuggefted by neceffary precaution, in order to examine who has justly deferved it. The military commiffion now elected will, point out the traitors of the country. You will allow, that a momentary ebullition has dictated the tenour of your letter; but no honeft citizen can be induced to believe that you will give your affent, upon reflection, to its appearing in print. It might

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be the part of a news-writer, or other private fcribbler, but furely not of a public functionary, to publifh fentiments calculated to create in the public mind a want of esteem and respect for the legislative body. You will allow, that difunion among the governing powers induces a fpirit of party, and paves the way to total ruin. You will finally agree, that the obfervations of your fellow-citizen are juft-are upright. He fincerely, in the fulness of his heart, withes you health, fraternity, and confideration. MASSONE.

(Signed)

Subftance of the Report of the Secretary of State to the Prefident of the United States, of the Proceedings of the Officers of his Catholie Majefly, in relation to the Pofis occupied by his Troops within the Limits of the United States.

UPON a view of the whole correfpondence now and before fubmitted to the Prefident, it appears, that the governors of his Catholic Majefly on the Miffifippi have, on various pretences, poftponed the running the boundary line, and the withdrawing of his troops from the pofts they occupied within the territory of the United States that after repeated overtures, promifes, and appearances of commencing the execution of the treaty between the two nations, in both thefe refpects their conduct demonftrates, that for an indefinite period they mean to avoid doing either: that there is but too much reafon to believe Mr.Ellicott's fupicions well founded, that an undue influence has been exercifed over the Indians by the officers of his Catholic Majefty, to prepare them for a rupture with the United States: thefe fufpicions correspond with other intelligence recently received by the fecretary at war, and by me-mine is by a private letter from Colonel Sargent, the fecretary of the territory north-weft of the river Ohio, of which an extract is annexed.

Whether this plan of exciting the Indians to direct hoftilities against the United States has been contemplated and promoted by any of our own citizens, it may be difficult to fay; but that one or more of thofe citizens have propofed and taken measures to detach the fouthern Indians from the interefts of the United States, and to destroy the influence of the public agents over thofe nations, and thus to defeat the great objects of their appointments, the chief of which is to preferve peace, is certain. The evidence of this important fact will be laid before you by the fecretary at war. That evidence having a reference to the British minifter, and his government, I took the liberty of addreffing to him a letter, dated the 1ft inft, to which I received the answer. As clofely connected with this bufinefs, I lay before you the copy of my letter, dated the 27th of April laft, to Charles Jack

fon, Efq. the district attorney for Georgia, reciting a paffage in a letter from the Spanish minifter, dated the 21st of April, declaring his pofitive knowledge, that the English had made propofitions to General Clarke of Georgia, to obtain his influence in that state, in conjunction with fome perfons who might make a diverfion or ferious attack against Florida. By Mr. Jack fon's anfwer, from which an extract is herewith prefented, it appears that, after diligent inquiry, he could not find any person that knew any thing of the bufinefs, or that entertained a belief of the kind; and that, from General Clarke's known violent antipathy to the English, and other circumstances, he doubted the truth altogether.

On the 30th ult. I received a letter from General Pinckney, dated the 9th of May, which contains the late intelligence from him, and seems proper to accompany the other papers now laid before you. His letter, therein referred to, has not yet come to hand.

Letter to Timothy Pickering, Efq. Secretary of State, from the Chevalier de Trujo, Minifier Plenipotentiary of his Catholic Majesty, &c.

Sir,

YOUR additional report to the Prefident of the United States of the proceedings of the officers of the King of Spain, in relation to the pofts and the running of the boundary line, which I find published in all the newspapers, obliges me to trouble you with this letter. If your difcuffion of facts has been as correct and impartial as there was reafon to expect, I fhould not have been under the neceffity of undertaking this tafk; but the conftruction you are pleased to put upon every act of the Spanish officers in general, and efpecially upon thofe in which I am perfonally concerned, compels me to obferve upon feveral expreffions which I have noticed in your faid report.

You begin, Sir, with faying, " that although I had declared I had just reafons for fufpecting an expedition from Canada was preparing by the British against the upper parts of Louisiana, yet I never had mentioned a fingle fact or reafon on which my fufpicion was founded." In my letter of the 2d of March I pointed out to you the probable route which the expedition would take; and in our conference of the 27th of February I gave you information that a corps of three hundred and fifty men had been raised at Montreal, and marched towards the lakes, where, after the evacuation of the American forts, there was no oftenfible ob ject for them. I alfo told you, that I knew that the British agents had treated with fome of the Indian nations in that country, concerning the intended expedition; and I added, that I had received VOL. VII.

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