nounced in it. In confequence of this Treaty, his Britannick Majefty and Their High Mightineffes the Lords States General of the United Provinces, defiring to come to a farther understanding between themfelves upon the repartition of the faid fums to be furnished to his Pruflian Majefty, have refolved to conclude for that purpose, between themselves, the prefent Convention, and have named in confequence, that is to fay, his Britannick Majefty, the Lord Baron Malmesbury, Peer of the Kingdom of Great Britain, a Privy Counfellor, and Knight of the Order of the Bath; and Their High Mightineffes the States General, the Sieurs Laurent Pierre van de Spiegel, Counsellor Penfionary of the Province of Holland and of Welt Friefland, Keeper of the Seals, and Deputy of the faid Province at the Affembly of the States General, and Henri Fagel, Greffier of Their High Mightineffes; who, after having mutually communicated their refpective full powers, and having found them in good and due form, have fettled the following

Articles:

ARTICLE I. Their High Mightineffes the States General fhall furnish for their quota part of the entire fum to be paid to his Pruffian Majefty, in order to enable him to fulfil the engagements which he has contracted by the Treaty of Subfidy, concluded and figned this day, the fum of Four Hundred Thoufand Pounds Sterling, after the fame valuation which is stipulated for in the above-mentioned Treaty; which fum fhall be divided in fuch a manner that One Hundred Thousand Pounds Sterling may be appropriated to anfwer part of the expences expreffed in the faid Treaty under the name of Charges of completing, of putting in motion, and of eftablishment;" whilst the remaining Three Hundred Thoufand Pounds fhall be divided into nine equal portions, to anfwer in part the expences of bread and forage, according to the valuation of the faid Treaty, and in part of Subidy, which his Britannick Majefty and Their High Mightineffes have engaged themselves by Article III. of the Treaty to furnish to his Pruffian Majefty.

ART. II. As the existing circumftances do not permit their High Mightineffes to enter into engagements of Subfidy for an indefinite term, it is understood that the prefent Convention will not be extended beyond the term of the prefent year; but if unhappily the war fhould not then be finished, his Britannick Majefty and the States General will confult together, in order to take, from time to time, all the adequate meafures for renewing this Convention, and for fupporting with vigour the juft caufe in which his Britannick Majefty and their High Mightineifes find themfelves engaged.

ART. III. The prefent Convention fhall be ratified on both fides, and the exchange of the ratifications fhall take place in the fpace of one month, or fooner if it be poffible.

In faith of which we, Plenipotentiaries of His Britannick Majefty, and of the Lords States General of the United Provinces, in virtue of our refpective powers, have figned the prefent Convention, and affixed to it the Seal of our Arms.

Done at the Hague, the Nineteenth of April, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-Four.

(L. S.) L. P. VAN DE SPIEGEL. (L. S.) H. FAGEL.

Declaration of the King of Pruflia to the Cerman Empire, on his Seceffion from the Prefent Continental Confederacy.

THE period being arrived in which his Pruffian Majefty is forced to difcontinue taking that active part in the prefent war, which hitherto has been the effect of his generolity and pure patriotifm, on account,

and

and in confideration of what is owing by his Majefly to the prefervation of his own eftates, and to the welfare of his fubjects, his Majefty thinks it particularly his duty to lay before their Highneffes the CoStates of the German Empire, the real caufes and true motives by which he was induced to take fuch a refolution.

At the time when the French Nation, in the unfortunate delufion of imaginary liberty, had not only diffolved every tie of civic order amongst themfelves, but alfo meditated the fubverfion of the repofe and welfare of other nations, by the introduction of their anarchic horrors, and, in fact, had already fallen in a hoftile manner on fuch territories of his Imperial Majefty, and of the German Empire, as were nearest to them, his Majesty thought proper to unite his juft arms with thofe of his Im perial Majefty, and afterwards with thofe of the whole German Empire, and thofe of his other Allies, in order to fet bounds to the deftructive enterprizes of a delirious nation, and to reftore peace and happiness to thofe as guiltlefs as highly endangered States. This object was ever the guide of the arms of his Majefty down to the prefent moment, and more impreffive on his mind, in proportion as the madness of the French augmented, and the danger of all Germany became more imminent. The efforts of his Majefty to fet a boundary against this mighty torrent of ill-fortune on the German territories, were, it is true, at first but proportioned to the danger, but foon exceeded the utmost of his ability. The war was not a war with a civilized nation, and welldifciplined armies, but a war with a delirious and never diminishing fwarm of men, with a highly populous nation, provided with every refource for war to back them; a fet of men who did not fight merely for victory, but who fought by fire, fword, and the poifon of their pernicious doctrines, to fubvert the whole focial edifice of Germany. To oppofe this almoft unconquerable enemy, the King, on his part, brought into the field 70,000 men, and thofe his choiceft troops; with thefe has his Majefty combated, even until this third campaign, under every ima ginable obftacle, far from the Pruffian dominions, amidst already exhaufted lands, excefs of dearnefs of the neceffaries of life, and almost infupportable expence.

Belides thefe unparalleled efforts, his Majefty has made to the common caufe every poffible facrifice which the national ftrength of Pruffia would permit; nor has he hesitated to expofe even his facred perfon, and the Princes of his family, to every danger by which the repofe and fafety of Germany could be conquered from the enemy. For this object alone has fo much Pruffian blood been fplit; for this, fuch immenfe treasures drained from his dominions. Such a war muft neceffarily have more exhaufted his refources than thofe of fuch powers whofe dominions lay more contiguous to the fcene of hoftility; and thus his Majefty fell into an abfolute impoflibility of taking any longer that active part, from his own means, without utterly ruining his own dominions, and entirely exhaufting the property of his fubjects.

His Majefty, however, ftill remained deeply impreffed with a patriotic hope of being able to lend help and protection, and that with increased force, to the German Empire; and to be enabled to do this, he entered into a negociation with the Confederate Powers, propofing certain arrangements to them, the principal points of which were, besides the payment of a fubfidy to him, a ftipulation that the fubfiftence of the greatest part of the Pruffian army fhould be provided for by the Empire in general; and that, until a final plan fhould be concluded to this effect, the Six Anterior Circles of the Empire, who lay moft expofed to danger, and who reaped immediate benefit from the defence, fhould be charged provitionally with the furnishing of the fame: and it was alfo declared to

the Diet of the Empire, and the circles abovementioned, that in cafe these frank and free propofals were not acceded to by the Emperor, his Majefty would be compelled to withdraw the greatest part of his troops, and to leave the Empire to its fate.

Several States have made declarations fuitable to the preffing circumftances in which they and the whole Empire were placed; in particular his Electoral Highness of Mentz, full of exalted and patriotic fentiments towards the Empire, complied with every requifition relative to the fubfiftence of the Pruffian troops which depended upon him, and fummoned an immediate Congrefs of the Six Circles.

His Majefty entertained a juft expectation, that fimilar good confe. quences would every where have flowed from his patriotic intentions, and his hard-earned merits in his former defence of the whole Empire. Every retrofpect feemed to confirm thefe hopes: on one fide, the paft afforded the admonishing picture of the dreadful torrent of an all-fubverting enemy; on the other, the noble and heroic ftand of the Pruffian army, and the immenfe facrifices of the blood of his warriors, and the treafures of his dominions, made by the magnanimity of his Pruffian Majefty. Even then that army was ftanding on the Banks of the Rhine, the Bulwark of the whole Empire, and to which the enemy did not dare to penetrate; but the fubfiftence of that army, undertaken by the whole Empire, was the fole condition under which it no longer could be eftive, and which the phyfical impoffibility of Pruffia alone bearing the burden did abfolutely oblige Pruffia to infift upon. Was it acceded to, fo as the future afforded the confolatory profpect of his Majefty acting with that known alacrity, that well-proved fidelity, in the defence of the Empire, and the protection of its Conftitution, to the ntmoft of his power? But every impartial obferver might have eafily anticipated the confequences of refufal of the required fubfiftence, and the return of the Pruffian troops into his Majefty's own States. Then might the overpowerful and defirous enemy ravage, uncontrouled, throughout the Empire, and with plundering and murderous hands, unbridled and unlimited, bear down the Germans, their husbandry, all law, order and property fubvert with anarchic abominations, the Conflitutions of more Imperial States, annihilate Princes and Nobles, erafe the temples of religion, and drive from the hearts of Germans their natural love of virtue and order, by the aids of the feductive allurements of licentioufnefs, and the precepts of an unfeeling immorality.

All thefe and fimilar obfervations, fo. timple and fo obvious as they were, did nevertheless not fucceed in bringing the arrangement for the fubfiftence of the army to a juft conclufion. This propofal was, befides this, fufficiently connected with another arrangement, which his Majefly had defigned to offer the Confederate Powers, which it did not feem good to his Imperial Majefty to comply with, and which other States did alfo not approve.

Moreover, the propofal gave rife to an exception, which, after fo many and meritorious actions, fuch unparalleled facrifices, which his Majefty had already made, he, in truth, had no reafon to expect, and, on which his Majefty, not without much forrow, finds it his duty to make fome remarks.

The fummoning of the Six Circles, by the Elector of Mentz, has been reprefented as irregular, though in fact it is strictly conftitutional. Meafures there were propofed precifely contradictory to the negociations for the fubfiftence, and the univerfal arming of the peasants was refolved on, though it is plain that fuch a meafure is as inefficient as dangerous, and completely adverfe to the object propofed; inefficient againit an enemy

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who

who preffes forward in a mass with an infanity of fury, approved tactics, and a numerous artillery! Dangerous, because, when the peafant is armed, and brought away from his ordinary mode of life, the enemy may easily become his moft dangerous feducer; and finally adverse to the object propofed, becaufe fuch an armament is wholly incompatible with the operations and fubfiftence of difciplined armies. These reasons, which flowed from the most sincere conviction of his Majesty, have been reprefented in the most odious colours and the most falfe and fcandalous motives have been attributed to him, for his diffent to this measure; and, in order to prevent the arrangement of the fubfiftence, projects of extending his dominions, of fecularizing ecclefiaftical territories, and of oppreffing the empire, have been rumoured to have been by him in contemplation; and of which his Majesty's known patriotism, and acknowledged virtues, will form the best contradiction.

After what is paft, every hope of the Subfiftence being acceded to, being now vanished, His Majefty does now renounce the fame, and alfo every refolution of the Empire, and of the Circles relative thereto. His Majesty has therefore taken the refolution no longer to grant his protection to the German Empire, but to order bis army (excepting twenty thousand auxiliaries, according to different treaties) inftantly to return to his own dominions.

At the fame time that his Majefty finds himself compelled to withdraw a portion of his troops from the defence of thofe States, for which they have already combated with fo much glory, he expreffes the moft earnest withes, that thofe confequences he has above alluded to may not take place; but that the exertions of his Imperial Majefty, and of the Empire, may eventually infure to both a full indemnity, and a general and honourable peace. To his Majefty remains the juft confolation, and permanent glory, of having, on his part, made fuch facrifices to the defence and fafety of the Emperor in the prefent awful crifis, as certainly few States in Europe, or Members of the Germanic Body, could, without much hefitation, have refolved upon.

Berlin, March 13, 1794.

House of Commons.

Ordered to be printed May 17th, 1794.

The COMMITTEE to whom the feveral Papers referred to in his Majefty's Meffage of the 12th of May, 1794, and which were prefented (fealed up) to the Houfe, by Mr. Secretary Dundas, upon the 12th and 13th Days of the faid Month, by his Majefty's Command, were referred; and who were directed to examine the Matters thereof, and report the fame, as they fhould appear to them, to the Houfe; have proceeded, in Obedience to the Orders of the Houfe, to the Confideration of the Matters referred to them.

THEY find, on the firft infpection, that the books and papers which

they are directed to examine, contain a full and authentic account of certain proceedings of two Societies, calling themfelves The Society for Conftitutional Information, and The London Correfponding Society, who appear to be clofely connected with other Societies in many parts of Great Britain, and in Ireland; and the Committee alfo obferve, from recent circumstances, which have already come under their obfervation, that these proceedings appear to become every day more and more likely to affect the internal peace and fecurity of thefe Kingdoms, and to require, in the moft urgent manner, the immediate and vigilant attention of Parliament.

The Committee have, therefore, thought it their indifpenfable duty, in the first inftance, to fubmit to the Houfe the general view which they have been enabled to form of thefe tranfactions, referving a more particular statement for a fubfequent Report.

In the book containing the proceedings of the Society for Conftitutional Information, which was found in the cuftody of the perfon acting as Secretary to the Society, there are regular entries of what paffed on each day of meeting, from the end of the year 1791 to the 9th of May in the prefent year.

From these it appears, that during almoft the whole of that period, and with hardly any confiderable interval, except during part of the Summer in 1792 and 1793, this Society has, by a series of refolutions, publications, and correfpondence, been uniformly and fyftematically purfuing a fettled defign, which appears to your Committee to tend to the fubverfion of the established Conftitution, and which has of late been more openly avowed, and attempted to be carried into full execution. The principles on which this defign is founded are ftrongly and unequivocally proved, from refolutions formed as early as the 18th of May 1792, in which the Society applaud the intention of publishing a cheap Edition of the first and fecond Parts of The Rights of Man; and refolve, "That a Copy of Mr. Paine's Letter (informing them of this intention) together with these Resolutions, be tranfmitted to all the Affociated Societies in Town and Country; and that this Society do congratulate them on the firm as well as orderly spirit and tranquil perfeverance manifefted in all their proceedings, and exhort them to a steady continuance therein:" And alfo, "That 3000 Copies of the Letter and Refolution should be printed for the ufe of the Society." This fingle circumstance would, in the judgment of your Committee, leave little doubt of the real nature of the defigns entertained by this Society. Their conduct in other refpects has correfponded with it.

On the 11th of May in the fame year they vote an Addrefs, in terms of approbation and applaufe, to the Society of Jacobins at Paris. They

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