III. In cafe either of the two republics fhall judge it proper to impofe a duty upon any production or merchandise of the growth or the manufacture of its ally, fuch duty fhall not exceed fix per cent. ad valorem.

IV. Until a general peace, all duties fhall be reduced one half, when productions or merchandife of the growth or manufacture of both republics fhall be tranfported in the waggons or fhips of either-thefe commodities, if in waggons, are to be conducted by citizens of one or other of the faid republics; or if in veffels, by a crew, three-fourths of which fhall be citizens of the one or the other republic.

V. At the period of a general peace, the advantage stipulated by the preceding article fhall ceafe, with regard to productions or merchandise imported in veffels; but the productions or merchandise of the growth or manufacture of France, fhall not be imported into the ports of the Cifalpine republic, but in French or Cifalpine veffels, wholly to the exclufion of the veffels of every other nation, under pain of confifcation of fhip and cargo, and 3000 livres of fine, to be levied upon the proprietors, configners, and agents of the vessel or cargo, or upon the captain or mate.

VI. The valuation which fhall ferve as the basis for regulating the duties on importation fhall be proved by the invoices or written declarations which may accompany the goods. In cafe the comptrollers of the cuftoms fhall fufpect the invoices or declarations to be forged, it shall be lawful for them to detain the merchandise, paying for it at the rate of the invoice or declaration, with an addition of 25 per cent.

VII. Each veffel or waggon fhall be furnished with a declaration made before the conful, or, if there be no conful, before the municipal officer of the place where it fhall have been loaded. This declaration fhall mention the country in which the faid merchandife was produced or manufactured.

VIII. Both republics fhall employ all their good offices and influence, in order to obtain from intermediate ftates the defirable facilities for the tranfit of their refpective commerce, either by an exemption of the duties it may be liable to in pailing through thefe ftates, or by the reftitution at leaving them of what was paid upon the entry.

IX. There fhall be established relays of post-horses and offices for letters on the road from Milan to Paris: this road fhall be directed through the Valois and the Pays de Vaud, and fhall alfo pafs through Laufanne, proceeding by the road ufed by the peace of 1748. The French and Cifalpine republics fhall be at the expenfe of these establishments on their refpective territories. They fhall alfo unite in demanding from

the

the Helvetic republic the formation of fimilar establishments on its territory.

X. The Executive Directory of the French republic fhall employ its good offices with the powers of Barbary, in order that the Cifalpine flag may be treated with the fame refpect by their corfairs as the French.

Proclama

Proclamations, Manifeftoes,
Correspondence, &c.

Extract from the Regifler of the Deliberations of the Commiffion delegated by the French Government to the Leeward Islands.

THE commiffion, confidering that the ports of the Windward Iflands, as well as Port-au-Prince, St. Marc, L'Arcahaye, the Mole, and Jeremie, given up to the English, occupied and defended by the emigrants, are in a state of permanent fiege, and ought not to enjoy the fame advantages as the ports of the different English colonies, poffeffed by that power before the war, and from other titles;

Confidering that is against all principle to treat a horde of rebels, without country, without government, and without a flag, with the fame refpect which polifhed nations obferve to one another during war;

That it is notorious that the different places of the colony given. up to the English no more belong to them than La Vendée, in which the English minifter had in like manner ftipendiary troops, regiments in his pay, wearing the fame uniform as the troops of the king of England;

The revolted cities of La Vendée were, as well as thofe of the colony, garrifoned by emigrants; its coafts equally protected by English veffels, and that nevertheless it never entered into the head of a reasonable man to think that it ought to be allowed to merchants of neutral nations, to fupply thefe brigands with food, who were only occupied in rending the bofom of their country;

Confidering that in virtue of the 11th article of the treaty of alliance, concluded at Paris on the 6th of February 1778, between the United States and France, this firft power engaged itself to defend the poffeffions of France in America in cafe of war, and that the government and commerce of the United States have ftrangely abufed the tolerance of the French republic, in turning to her detriment the favours which were granted to her, of entering and trading in all the ports of the colony;

That in permitting any longer to neutral veffels to carry warlike and other provifions to men evidently in a state of rebellion, is to VOL. VII.

B

with

with to prolong civil war, and the evils and crimes that are the effects of it:

The commiffion has decreed, and do decree, as follow:

ARTICLE Ift. The captains of velfels of war and French privateers are authorized to capture and to conduct into the ports of the republic,.all neutral veffels destined for the ports of the Windward and Leeward Iflands of America given up to the English, occupied and defended by emigrants.

2d. The faid veffels are declared good prize, and shall be fold for the benefit of the captors.

3d. The arret of the 7th Frimaire, taken conformably to the refolution of the Executive Directory of 14th Mellidor, fhall be put in force until it fhall be otherwife ordered.

Done at the Cape, 6th Nivofe (26th Dec.), 5th year of the
French republic, one and indivisible.

SANTHONAX, President.

Declaration of General La Fayette, previous to his Release from Imprisonment.

Olmutz, July 26, 1797. THE commiffion with which the Marquis de Chasteller is entrufted, appears to relate to three points:

1. His Imperial Majefty wishes to afcertain the true state of our fituation at Olmutz.-I am not difpofed to prefer any complaint upon the fubject; the detailed circumstances refpecting it may be found in the letters received or fent back, which were tranfmitted by my wife to the Auftrian government; and if his Imperial Majefty is not fatisfied by reading over the orders fent in his name from Vienna, I am willing to give the Marquis de Chasteller any information he may defire.

2. His Majesty the Emperor and King wifhes to be affured that, upon my releafe, I fhall immediately fet out for America, I have frequently fignified this to have been my intention. But, as an answer, under the prefent circumstances, might feem to admit the right of exacting fuch a condition, I do not judge it proper to comply with this demand.

3. His Majefty the Emperor and King does me the honour to fignify to me that the principles which I profefs, being incompatible with the fecurity of the Auftrian government, it is his pleasure that I fhould not re-enter his dominions without his fpecial permiffion.I have duties from which I am not at liberty to withdraw myself, I am under obligations of duty to the United States

above all, I am under obligations of duty to France; and I can contract no engagements inconfiftent with thofe rights which my country holds over me. With thefe exceptions, 1 can affure the General Marquis de Chafteller, that it is my invariable refolution never to set foot on any territory subject to his Majesty the King of Bohemia and Hungary; confequently I, the undersigned, engage myself to his Majefty the Emperor and King, never at any time to enter into any of his hereditary dominions, without having first obtained his fpecial permiffion, provided this engagement is not understood to contravene the right my country holds over me. LA FAYETTE.

(Signed)

Declaration of the fecond State Prifoner, General Latour Maubourg, previously to his Releafe.

GENERAL de Chafteller has informed me of the inclination of his Imperial Majefty to fet me at liberty, and added to this intimation, that he was charged to demand a written anfwer of me to the following points:

ift. Whether it was true that my captivity has been rendered worfe by ill treatment, or whether I had only to complain of the inconveniences peculiar to ftate prifoners?

2d. Where I intended to go after my release?

3d. My affurance not to enter the dominions of his Imperial Majefty without his exprefs leave.

Without giving to the Auftrian government any right over my perfon, and without fubmitting to the right which it has arrogated to itself over unarmed Frenchmen, who had nothing to do with the provinces fubject to the Emperor's domination, I deem it incumbent on me to declare, and do declare,

That I have not been ill-treated, either by words or actions, by the perfons who were charged to guard me, nor would I have fuffered them to do it with impunity. Meanwhile I must add, that excepting the captain, who now has the infpection over the ftate prifons, most of the officers who were his predeceffors in that fervice, performed it with peculiar rudeness and neglect, of which it was the natural confequence, that the prifoners were in want of every thing. Thofe officers, fince General Spleny paid very little attention, totally difregarded our wants (perhaps they followed in this refpect the orders which they had); whence it happened, that from October 1794, the epoch of the arrival of General D'Arco, till the month of January 1797, when that service was transferred to Count Machelicot, I was left utterly destitute of all I wanted, and in general in fuch a condition as apparently furprifed that officer on his arrival, and which he has ameliorated as much as his inftructions would permit. B 2

Unac