of a Treaty of Alliance, dated the 16th of August, 1814, as also on the convention concluded on the same day, terminated the objects of their mission, in the Sitting of the 6th of September, and having endeavoured, in various private conferences, to remove the difficulties which stood in the way of an absolute union, have attained this day, the 8th of September, an object so important to the safety and the welfare of the country at large:

The Diet has in consequence decreed

The Treaty of Alliance between the 19 cantons of Switzerland, of which the following is the tenour and effect, shall be signed and sealed as a true Federal Convention, in the forms heretofore used for the Acts of the Diet.

Federal Compact.

1. The 19 Sovereign Cantons of Switzerland, viz. Zurich, Bern, Lucerne, Uri, Schweitz, Glaris, Unterwalden, Zug, Friburg, Soleure, Basle, Schaffhausen, Appenzel, St. Gall, Grisons, Argovia, Turgovia, Tessin, and Vaud, are united by the present treaty, for the preservation of their liberty. and independence, and for their common safety against any attack from foreign Powers, as well as for the maintenance of order and public tranquillity in the interior. They reciprocally guarantee their constitutions, such as they have been accepted by the Chief Authorities of each canton, in conformity to the principles of the Treaty of Alliance. They reciprocally guarantee their territory.

2. For the maintenance of this

guaranty, and the neutrality of Switzerland, there shall be raised among the men of each canton, fit to bear arms, a contingent upon the calculation of two in each hundred. The troops shall be furnished by the cantons as follows: - Berne, 4,184, Zurich 3,858, Vaud 2,964, St. Gall 2,630, Argovia 2,416, Grisons 2,000, Tessin 1,084, Lucerne, 1,784, Turgovia 1,670, Friburg 1,240, Appenzel 972, Soleure 904, Basle 816, Schweitz 602, Glaris 482, Schaffhausen 466, Unterwalden 282, Zug 250, Uri, 236, making a total of 30,006 men..

This proportion is fixed for one year, and shall be revised by the Diet in 1815, in order to its being corrected.

declaration the insulting pretext that it is in retaliation for a wanton destruction committed by the army of the United States in Upper Canada, when it is notorious, that no destruction has been committed, which, notwithstanding the multiplied outrages previonsly committed by the enemy, was not unauthorised and promptly shown to be so; and that the United States have been as constant in their endeavours to reclaim the enemy from such outrages, by the contrast of their own example, as they have been ready to terminate, on reasonable conditions, the war itself.

Whereas the enemy by a sudden incursion have succeeded in invading the capital of the nation, defended at the moment by troops less numerous than their own, and almost entirely of the militia; during their possession of which, though for a single day only, they wantonly destroyed the public edifices, having no relation in their structure to operations of war, nor used at the time for military annoyance; some of these edifices being also costly monuments of taste and of the arts, and others repositories of the public archives, not only precious to the nation, as the memorials of its origin and its early transactions, but interesting And whereas, these proceedings to all nations, as contributions to and declared purposes, which exthe general stock of historical inhibit a deliberate disregard of the struction and political science.

And whereas advantage has been taken of the loss of a fort, more immediately guarding the neighbouring town of Alexandria, to place the town within the range of a naval force, too long and too much in the habit of abusing its superiority wherever it can be applied, to require, as the alternative of a general conflagration, an undisturbed plunder of private property, which has been executed in a manner peculiarly distressing to the inhabitants, who had inconsiderately cast themselves upon the justice and generosity of the

victor.

And whereas, it now appears, by a direct communication from the British Commander on the American station, to be his avowed purpose to employ the force under his direction," in destroying and laying waste such towns and districts upon the coast as may be found assailable;" adding to this VOL. LVI.

principles of humanity, and the rules of civilized warfare, and which must give to the existing war a character of extended devastation and barbarism, at the very moment of negociation for peace, invited by the enemy himself, leave no prospect of safety to any thing within the reach of his predatory and incendiary operations, but in manful and universal determination to chastise and expel the invader.

Now, therefore, I, James Madison, President of the United States, do issue this my proclamation, exhorting all the good people thereof, to unite their hearts and hands in giving effect to the ample means possessed for that purpose. I enjoin it on all officers, civil and military, to exert themselves in executing the duties with which they are respectively charged. And more especially, I require the officers commanding the respective military districts, to be vigilant 2 G

and

and alert in providing for the defence thereof; for the more effectual accomplishment of which, they are authorised to call to the defence of exposed and threatened places portions of the militia most convenient thereto, whether they be or be not parts of the quotas detached for the service of the United States under requisitions of the general government.

On an occasion which appeals so forcibly to the proud feelings and patriotic devotion of the American people, none will forget what they owe to themselves, what they owe to their country and the high destinies which await it; what to the glory acquired by their fathers, in establishing the independence which is now to be maintained by their sons, with the augmented strength and resources with which time and Heaven had blessed them.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be fixed to these presents.

Done at the city of Washington, the first day of September, in the year of our Lord 1814, and of the Independence of the United States the 39th.

JAS. MADISON.

By the President,

and towns of my kingdoms, know ye; That by a Decree of the General Extraordinary Cortes, of the 6th August, 1811, all jurisdictional seignories of whatever class or condition were incorporated with the nation; that all payments both real and personal, which owed their origin to a jurisdictional title, were abolished, with the exception of such as proceeded from free contract in the exercise of the right of property, the territorial and manorial seigniories remaining in the class of other rights of property; abolishing also the privileges called exclusive, privative, or prohibitive, such as those of the chase, fishing, ovens, and mills. In this state of things representations have been made to me by various grandees of Spain, and titulars of Castile, jurisdictional lords of townships in Arragon, Valencia, and other provinces, complaining of the robberies which they have suffered and do suffer, under pretence of the said decree, in the enjoyment of the rights and payments which it reserved to them, demanding restitution, and some of them praying a declaration of the nullity of the decree. The said memorials have been referred to my Council of State, and to the law officers of

JAS. MONROE, Sec. of State. the Crown; and observing the de

Spanish Royal Ordinance.

Don Ferdinand VII. by the Grace of God, King of Castile, Leon, Arragon, &c. to those of my Council, to the Presidents and Regents of my Audiences, the Corregidors, Intendants, Governors and Mayors, of all the cities

licacy and circumspection with which the latter have abstained from pronouncing as to the nullity of the decree, until they had collected all the materials for forming ajudgment on that interesting point, my Council has also abstained from entering into an examination of it until the said law officers deliver their opinion. With regard to the claim made by the said jurisdictiona