ther attendance in parliament. It has afforded me infinite fatisfac ́tion to obferve, fince my arrival in this kingdom, the temper and wif dom with which your proceedings have been uniformly conducted.

Gentlemen of the house of com

mons,

'I am particularly to exprefs his majefty's acknowledgments for the liberal fupplies which you have contributed for the fervice of the empire and the defence of the kingdom, with fuch unanimity and cheerfulness. The extent of your grants is a convincing proof how warmly you feel yourfelves interefted in the vigorous profecution of a war rendered neceffary by the wanton and unprovoked attack of France, and involving in it the general caufe of focial order, morality, and religion, in all civilized countries. On my part you may be affured they fhall be faithfully applied to the great purposes for which they were granted.

My lords and gentlemen, His majetty obferves with the highest fatisfaction, that during the prefent crifis you have not failed to cherish and to maintain the various fources of your internal prof perity. You have alfo completed the intention fo benevolently entertained of entirely relieving the poorer claffes from the tax of hearthmoney. A wife foundation has been laid for educating at home the Roman Catholic clergy. A fatisfactory arrangement of the treafury has been confirmed by law; and an alteration of duties has been introduced wth a view to prevent the immoderate ufe of fpirituous liquors, and in the hope of introducing a more general habit of fobriety

amongst the lower orders of the people. In the execution of these meatures, you may depend upon my fincere and earnest endeavours to purfue that wife and prudent policy by which they were dictated.

too

On repairing to your respective counties, which I cannot ftrongly and too earneftly recommend, it is fpecially incumbent upon you to make thofe ex. ertions which the times demand, and to inculcate the neceflity of an exact fubmiffion to the laws.By contrafting the bleffings which refult from a well-regulated liberty and peaceable fubordination, with the mifchiefs which neceffarily. fpring from licentioufnefs and anarchy, you will increase the attachment of the people to our free and happy conftitution. To preferve the conftitution inviolate is the great object of his majefty in the prefent conteft, and he cannot but look to its fortunate iffue when he reflects on the loyalty, fpirit, and power of his people, and on their juft fenfe of the invaluable inheritance for which they contend.

It will be the conftant object of my adminiftration, in which his majefty's commands and my own perfonal withes are moft intimately combined, to forward, with unremitting vigilance, the welfare and the happinefs of this country. Thele objects I cannot fo effectually promote, as by attending to, and acting upon, thofe eftablished principles which form the connection between Great Britain and Ireland, on which the fecurity, the freedom, and the profperity of both kingdoms moft effentially depend.

Convention

3

Carvention between his Britannic Majefty and the Emperor of Germany, figned at Vienna 4th of May, 1795,

THE emperor and the king of Great Britain, being equally convinced of the neceflity of acting with vigour and energy against the common enemy, in order to procure to their respective dominions a fafe and honourable peace, and to preferve Europe from the danger with which it is threatened, their imperial and Britannic majefties have thought proper to concert together upon the measures to be adopted for the next campaign, and to agree, for this purpose, on fuch ftipulations as may beft conduce to the falutary object of their intentions already mentioned. With this view, their majetties have appointed their refpective plenipotentiaries; that is to fay, his imperial majefty, his privy counfellor actual, and minifter for foreign affairs, baron de Thugut, commander of the order of St. Stephen; and his Britannic majefty, fir Morton Eden, knight of the bath, one of his majefty's most honourable privy council, and his envoy extraordinary: and minitier plenipotentiary at the court of Vienna; who, after having communicated to each other their respective full powers, have agreed upon the following articles:

on the fum of four millions fix hundred thousand pounds fterling, which is, or is to be raifed, on account of his imperial majefly, on the terms and in the manner fpecified in the two engagements or octrois, the tenor of which is annexed to this convention; his imperial majefty folemnly engag ing to his Britannic majefty, that he will make due provifion for the regular difcharge of the payments which fhall become due in confequence of the faid loans, fo as that thofe payments fhall never fall as a burthen on the finances of Great Britain.

2. In return for the ftipulation contained in the preceding article, and by the means of the faid loan of four millions fix hundred thou fand pounds fterling, affured by the guarantee of Great Britain, his imperial majefty fhall employ in his different armies, in the entuing campaign, a number of troops, which thall not only amount at leaft to two hundred thousand effective men, but which his imperial majefty will exert himself, as much as poffible, to augment even above that number; which troops fhail act against the common enemy, according to the difpofitions agreed upon by a fecret article, forming a part of this convention.

3. The emperor will fee, with pleafure the appointment of general officers, or other perfons of confidence, to be prefent with his armies on the part of his Britannic majefty, to whom all the neceffary communication and information will be furnithed, with refpect to the ftate and firength of the armies, and the number of troops of which they may confifi; and if, in order to facilitate and promote

1

the correfpondence and communication between the armies of the two courts, his imperial majefty fhall think proper to fend an officer, or other perfon, on his part, to the English armies, they fhall, in like manner, receive from the generals of his Britannic majefty all fuch marks of confidence as are moft analogous to the intimate union fo happily fubfifting between the two courts.

4. It is exprefsly agreed, that the faid loan is to reft on the fecurity of all the revenues of all the different hereditary dominions of his imperial majefty. All the neceffary meafures fhall be taken on the part of his imperial majefty, in each of the faid dominions refpectively, to give full and legal effect and validity to the faid loan, and to the engagements for the regular payment of the half-yearly dividends which fhall fall due in confequence thereof; fo that if at any time there fhould happen, from whatever caufe, to be any delay in any of the payments, after the period of their falling due, the holders of the fecurities granted, or to be granted, on the part of his imperial majefty, for the faid loan, may fue the receivers or treasurers of his imperial majefty's revenues, in any of the faid dominions refpectively, at the option of fuch holders, and may recover from them, or any of them, by due courfe of Jaw, the full amount of fuch payments having fo fallen due, in the fame manner as any private individuals are admitted in the faid dominions refpectively to profecute and recover their juft rights againft other private perfons.

5. If it fhould ever happen that, contrary to all expectation, any

part of the dividends due on the faid loans fhould, in confequence of the failure of the payments tipulated to be made by his imperial majefty, be paid by the British government, it is agreed that fuch payments fhall be made at the bank of England, and only on the delivery of the tallies or certificates of the dividends so respectively paid; and every fuch tally or certificate fo delivered up fhall be a valid and legal fecurity, fo as to enable the holder thereof to fue any of the receivers or treasurers of his imperial majefty's revenues, in any of his dominions aforefaid, at the option of fuch holder, and to recover from them, or any of them, the full amount of the fum expreffed in fuch tally or certificate, with intereft thereon, at the rate of five per cent. per annum, to be reckoned from the date of the payment made by the British government. And whereas it is provided, in the terms agreed upon for raifing the faid loans, that, as a collateral fecurity for the faid loans, there fhall be depofited in the Bank of England mortgage actions of the Bank of Vienna, for a fum, in the proportion of four to three of the loan to be fo raifd; it is further agreed, that the governor and company of the faid Bank thall, in cafe of any fuch payment as aforefaid being made by the British government, be authorised to withdraw from the faid deposit such a quantity of the said actions, as fhall be required to make up at leaft the proportion of four pounds for every three which thall be fo paid by the Brith government, to be by the faid government either ufed as a fecurity or claim upon the Bank of Vienna, until re-payment

of

of the faid fum, and of the intereft due thereon, or negociated at the time to fuch extent as may be neceffary in order to effect fuch reimbursement, according as to the faid government may feem moft eligible; and that the quantity of actions fo withdrawn fhall be deducted from or fet off against any quantity, which, according to the terms of the faid loan, might there

after be to be withdrawn from the faid depofit, in proportion to the gradual redemption of the bonds, and the payment of the annuities, as is fpecified in the conditions of the faid loan.

6. And whereas certain advances have been made by the Britifh government to his imperial majefty, on account and by way of Joan; it is agreed that the fame fhall be repaid at London, in the courfe of the prefent year, in exchange for the receipts given by the generals commanding in chief the imperial army, and conformably to the fums contained in the faid receipts. The faid advances thall be reimbursed, at lateft, in two equal parts, in the months of November and December, fo that the total fhall be reimbursed before the expiration of the prefent year. 7. The prefent convention fhall be ratifiod on each fide without any delay, and the exchange of the ratifications, expedited in due form, thall be made within the fpace of one month at lateft.

In witnefs whereof we, the underfigned, being furnished with the fall powers of their imperial and British majefties, have, in their

names, figned the prefent act, and have thereto fet the feal of our

arms.

Done at Vienna, the 4th day of May, 1795.

(L. S.) LE BN. DE THUGUT, MORTON EDEN.

Articles of Agreement for raising French Corps for the Service of Great Britain, 9th March, 1795.

Art. 1. THE French corps fhall be raised under the authority with which his majefty is invetted by an act of the prefent feflion of parliament, intituled, "An act to enable fubjects of France to enlist as foldiers in regiments to ferve on the continent of Europe, and in certain other places, and to enable his majefty to grant commiflions to fubjects of France, to ferve and receive pay as officers in fuch regiments, or as engineers, under certain reftrictions."

2. Each regiment fhall confift of two battalions, comprifing the number of officers, foldiers, &ć. ftated in the plan, No. II.*

3. The recruits thall be taken from among the peasants, deferters, and foldiers, of the troops of the line.

No man fhall be enlifted who is not five feet five inches, or who has not been examined by a furgeon, who will vouch that he has no infirmity which can prevent him from ferving.

4. For each man delivered at the depots or places of rendezvous that thall have been fixed upon, the colonel fhall be paid levy mo