alarming crisis, will, under the auspices of Providence, become the consolidation of that peace which the enemies of the people attempted to destroy, and the stability of an order of things, which will secure to nations their repose and prosperity. Filled with these sentiments, the allied sovereigns, in terminating the conferences at Laybach, have wished to announce to the world the principles by which they have been animated. They are determined never to abandon them; and all the friends of order will constantly see and find in their union a sure safeguard against the enterprizes of anarchy. It is for this purpose that their Imperial and Royal Majesties have ordered their ministers plenipotentiary to sign and publish the present declara CIRCULAR FROM COUNT NESSELRODE. SIR,It is now precisely a year since we found ourselves under the necessity of making known the principles which the Emperor had resolved to follow, with respect to states which, to the calamity of experiencing a criminal and violent revolution, should add that of sanctioning its fatal consequences. Since that period, and from the date of the opening of the conferences at Troppau and Laybach, our successive communications must have demonstrated to all the ministers and agents of the Emperor at foreign courts, not only that the principles of his Imperial Majesty would not vary, but further, that our august master would be always ready to concur, by all the means in his power, in the success of the measures which he had agreed upon with his allies, in the general interest for the repose of Europe. By our Circular of the 27th of February, (11th March,) we informed you, that, in consequence of the determinations entered into upon this point by his Imperial Majesty, he had decided to prolong his stay near his Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty, notwithstanding the close of the Congress at Laybach. Our despatches of the 8th (20th) March very soon shewed to -you that the foresight of the Emperor had been but too completely justified, and that, faithful to his promises, Russia, at the request of Austria, and the legitimate sovereign of the kingdom of Sardinia, had marched an army of 100,000 men, in order to avert the calamities and too probable effects of the military revolt which had just broken out in Pied mont. Auspicious events have succeeded those which the artificers of trouble and of discord provoked. Everything authorizes us to hope that order will be effectually re-established in the states of his Sardinian Majesty. The royal government there has availed itself of the proximity of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom; and it is the temporary assistance of a corps of occupation, composed of Austrian troops, which it has required to restore to Piedmont the enjoyment of an internal, secure, and solid peace. All our wishes seek this great and salutary result; but as the measure of safety which it requires, and which the Sardinian government itself has solicited, is about to become the object of a direct arrangement between Sardinia and Austria, under the guarantee of the allied courts, and as the presence of our troops would be henceforth use less, the order to retrograde has been already despatched to them. On the other hand, the more the resolution to make them operative was energetic, the more salutary and useful has been the impression produced solely by the intelligence that they were in movement, and the more essential is it in the eyes of the Emperor, that all the cabinets of Europe should know and appreciate the serious considerations which induced his Imperial Majesty to have recourse to arms, and the noble and pure intentions which would always have directed the employment of them. The experience of all ages and countries warns nations of the calamities which form the inevitable train of crime and rebellion. But last year, these great and eternal lessons were contemned. Catastrophes succeeded each other with an appalling rapidity. Naples demonstrably evinced the dangers of pernicious example. Become herself the theatre of revolution, and the centre of the activity of sects, this state menaced Italy with a general conflagration; and Austria, seeing a portion of her provinces exposed to imminent peril, claimed in the first place the moral support of her allies. The sincere friend of his Imperial, Royal, and Apostolic Majesty, and convinced, like that august monarch, of the evils which would once more inundate the world, if the disregard of all duties should obtain the apology of a lasting triumph, the Emperor espoused with sincerity a cause which his conscience told him was that of Europe, of laws, and of treaties. He did more. As an intimate union has been established, by solemn acts, between the European powers, the Emperor offered to his allies the aid of his arms, in case new commotions should excite the dread of new dangers. We have already seen how the anticipations of his Imperial Majesty have been veri fied. Sectarians, acting in the darkness which they so much needed to veil their guilty projects, excited in Piedmont an insurrection, which might, by its consequences, retard the progress of good in the Two Sicilies, and, by compromising the army, which was then advancing upon Naples, encourage revolt throughout the whole peninsula. Already alarming symptoms justified disquietude for other countries; and from that moment the Russian troops were bound to march. They, in fact, did march-not to extend the power of Russia, or to make the slightest infringement upon the bounds of ter ritorial possession, guaranteed to all the governments of Europe by the treaties concluded since 1814, but to succour the allies of the Emperor, and this, as we have said above, at the express solicitations of his Imperial, Roy. al, and Apostolic Majesty, and of his Royal Highness the Duke de Genevois. They marched, not to overthrow institutions which have emanated from legitimate authority, but to prevent insurrection from usurping a power which would be a universal scourge. Finally, they marched, not to obstruct the developement of public prosperity in any state whatever, but to further the reestablishment of order in countries where the workings of evil men had ultimately rendered the assistance of a foreign force indispensable. Such has been such will always be, the sole intention of the Emperor, should he ever find himself again under the necessity of putting his armies in motion. No burden would have resulted from their march, or from their temporary presence. They would have traversed peaceably the immense space which separated them from Italy; and, as soon as the object was attained for which two monarchs solicited their aid, the Emperor would have issued his orders for them to return to their country. We are justified, therefore, in repeating and affirming, that never did the love of war, never the ambitious thought of exercising an exclusive influence in the councils of other monarchs, or upon the destinies of people confided by Providence to their care, direct the policy of his Imperial Majesty. Irrefragable facts now attest the sincerity of this language. Malevolence ascribed to Russia hostile views, with regard to the Porte. Disturbances manifested themselves in Walachia and Moldavia; and our conduct, as well as our declarations, has shewn that we are determined to observe the rights of nations and the faith of treaties in our relations with the Turkish government. They were pleased, afterwards, to insinuate, that we had abandoned our projects against Turkey, to invade the western territories of Europe. A single contradiction has confounded the authors of these odious accusations; and the march of our armies, supported and maintained by all the strength of the empire, was stopped the moment we were certainly assured that the legitimate government had recovered the plenitude of its authority in the kingdom of Sardinia. Thus, sir, it is with the confidence of having fulfilled the duties of a friend and of an ally-it is with the determination of always fulfilling those duties, and the consoling persuasion of having contributed to the tranquillity of Italy and of Europe, that the Emperor is about to quit Laybach. He will set off on the 1st (13th) May, and will proceed to St Petersburgh, by way of Warsaw, happy to lend his as sistance to his allies, if it should become necessary-more happy still to enjoy for a long future the spectacle of a peace, the blessings of which Russia feels, and in the maintenance and consolidation of which she is interested as much as any other power. The political system of our august master not being destined to undergo any change, all his ministers and agents will continue to follow and to execute the general instructions which they have hitherto received. The present circular will regulate their language, with respect to the events of which it treats; and the Emperor even authorizes you, sir, to make known and deliver a copy of it to the government to which you are accredited, &c. LAYBACH, May 12. The assembling of the allied mo. narchs, and of their ministers, at Troppau, determined upon after the events which had overturned the legitimate government of Naples, was destined to fix the particular point of view which it became necessary to assume with respect to those fatal events, in order to concert a common course of proceeding, and to combine, in the spirit of justice, of preservation, and of moderation, the measures necessary for protecting Italy from a general insurrection, and the neighbouring states from the most imminent dangers. Thanks to the fortunate unanimity of sentiments and intentions which prevailed between the three august sovereigns, this first labour was soon accomplished. Principles clearly laid down, and mutually adopted with the most perfect sincerity, led to analogous resolutions; and the bases which were esta blished at the very first conferences have been invariably followed during the whole course of a meeting rendered memorable by the most remarkable results. This meeting, transferred to Laybach, assumed a more decisive character by the presence and the co-operation of the King of the Two Sicilies, and by the unanimous concurrence with which the princes of Italy acceded to the system adopted by the allied cabinets. The monarchs were convinced that the governments most closely interested in the destinies of the Penin sula, rendered justice to the purity of their intentions; and that a sovereign, placed in a most painful situation by acts with which perfidy and violence had contrived to associate his name, yielded with entire confidence to measures which would at once terminate this state of moral captivity, and restore to his faithful subjects that repose and that well-being of which they had been deprived by criminal factions. The effect of these measures soon manifested itself. The edifice which had been reared by revolt-fragile in its superstructure, and weak in its foundation; resting only on the cunning of some, and upon the momentary blindness of others; condemned by an immense majority of the nation, and odious even to the army which was enrolled to defend it-crumbled to dust at the first contact with the regular troops selected to destroy it, and who at once demonstrated its nothing ness. The legitimate authority is restored; the factious have been dispersed; the Neapolitan people are delivered from the tyranny of those impudent impostors, who, deluding them with the dreams of false liberty, in reality inflicted upon them the most bitter vexations; who imposed upon them enormous sacrifices, solely to gratify their own ambition and rapine; and who were rapidly accelerating the ruin of a country, of which they incessantly proclaimed themselves the regenerators. This important restoration has been completed, as far as it could, and as it ought to be, by the counsels and acts of the allied sovereigns. Now, when the King of the Two Sicilies is again invested with the plenitude of his rights, the monarchs will confine themselves to the most ardent good wishes for the plans which this sovereign is about to adopt to re-construct his government upon a solid basis, and to secure, by laws and by wise institutions, the true interests of his sub. jects, and the constant prosperity of his kingdom. During the progress of these great transactions we saw burst forth, on more than one side, the effects of that vast conspiracy which has so long existed against all established power, and against all those rights consecrated by that social order under which Europe has enjoyed so many centuries of glory and happiness. The existence of this conspiracy was not unknown to the monarchs; but in the midst of those agitations which Italy experienced after the catastrophe of 1820, and of those wild impulses which were hence communicated to every mind, it developed itself with increasing rapidity, and its true character stood revealed in open day. It is not, as might have been supposed at an earlier period-it is not against this or that form of government, more particularly exposed to their declamations, that the dark enterprizes of the authors of these plots, and the frantic wishes of their blind partisans, are directed. Those states which have admitted changes into their political system are no more secure from their attacks than those whose venerable institutions have survived the storms of time. Pure monarchies, li mited monarchies, federative constitutions, republics, all are comprehended, all are ingulfed, in the proscriptions of a sect who brand as an oligarchy everything, of whatever kind, that rises above the level of a chimerical equality. The leaders of this impious league, indifferent as to what may result from the general destruction they meditate, careless about all stable and permanent organization, aim merely at the fundamental bases of society. To overthrow what exists, for the chance of substituting whatever accident may suggest to their wild imaginations, or to their turbulent passions-this is the essence of their doctrines, the secret of all their machinations. The allied sovereigns could not fail to perceive that there was only one barrier to oppose to this devastating torrent. To preserve what is legally established-such was, as it ought to be, the invariable principle of their policy, the point of departure, and the final object of all their resolutions. They were not to be deterred in their purpose by the vain clamours of ignorance or malice, accusing them of condemning humanity to a state of stagnation and torpor, incompatible with its natural and progressive march, and with the perfecting of social institutions. Never have these monarchs manifested the least disposition to thwart real ameliorations, or the reform of abuses which creep into the best go. vernments. Very different views have constantly animated them; and if this repose, which governments and nations were justified in supposing secured by the pacification of Europe, has not operated all the good which might have been expected to result from it, it is because governments have been compelled to concentrate all their energies in the means of opposing bounds to the progress of a faction, which, disseminating everywhere error, discontent, and a fanaticism for innovation, would soon have rendered the existence of any public order whatever problematical. Useful or necessary changes in legislation, and in the administration of states, ought only to emanate from the free will and the intelligent and well-weighed conviction of those whom God has rendered responsible for power. All that deviates from this line necessarily leads to disorder, commotions, and evils far more insufferable than those which they pretend to remedy. Penetrated with this eternal truth, the sovereigns have not hesitated to proclaim it with frankness and vigour; they have declared that, in respecting the rights and independence of all legitimate power, they regarded as legally null, and as disavowed by the principles which constitute the public right of Europe, all pretended reform operated by revolt and open hostility. They have acted conformably to this declaration, in the events which have taken place at Naples, in those of Piedmont, and in those even which, under very different circumstances, though produced by combinations equally criminal, have recently made the eastern part of Europe a prey to incalculable convulsions. The monarchs are so much the more decided not to deviate from this system, because they consider the firmness with which they have maintained it in so critical an epoch, as the true cause of the success which has attended their efforts towards the re-establishment of order in Italy. The governments of the Peninsula have acknowledged that they had nothing to fear, either for their political independence, the integrity of their territories, or the preservation of their rights, in claiming the assistance which was afforded to them upon the sole condition that it shall be made available only to the defence of their own existence. It is reciprocal confidence which has saved Italy; it is that which has extinguish |