after established. His Majesty, however, to be bound to convoke it every year. Placet Regis Majestati.

Art. 10. The nation, having to fix the subsidies necessary to the State, will consider it as a positive duty to fix, for the Civil List, such sums as are necessary to the splendour, independence, and maintenance of its august Sovereign and Royal Family, to the most generous extent that the actual state of the finances of the kingdom will permit-in consequence of which arrangement, the nation shall take upon itself the management and administration of the national funds, including all those which have hitherto been considered as fiscal duties, and land revenues, which shall be paid over to the Minister of Finances, for the purposes established by Parliament. As to the persons, system, and means, by which such funds are to be collected and disposed of, they remain to be fixed in the detail of this article.-Vetat Regia Majestas.

Art. 11. No Sicilian subject shall be arrested, banished, or otherwise punished, or disturbed in the enjoyment of his rights or property, unless in conformity to the rew Code of Laws, to be hereafter established by this Parliament. The Peers to enjoy the same judicial forms which they enjoy in England, as will be subsequently detailed. Placet Regis M jestati.

Art. 12. With that disinterestness which the military branch bas always shewn, it has voted and concluded, and the Parliament has established, that the Feudal System shall be abolished, and all the lands shall be possessed in Sicily, as allodial or free estates; pre

serving, however, the order of succession in the respective families, which is actually enjoyed. The jurisdiction of the Barons shall likewise cease, and therefore the Barons shall be exempted from all the burdens to which they have hitherto been subjected by such feudal rights. There shall also be abolished, the Investitures, Reliefs (rilevi) Fines to the Crown (devoluzioni al Fisco), and every other burden whatever inherent in the feudal system; every family, however, preserving its titles and honours.- -Placet Regis Majestati.

Art. 13. It likewise agrees to establish that the rights called Angarici (being privileges and exemptions from assessment), shall be abolished as soon as the community in general, or the individual, subject to them, shall indemnify the actual proprietors; calculating the capital either at twenty years purchase of the produce of the tax existing at the period of liquidation; or in default of that estimating the same by the books of the respective Segrezia; it being understood, however, that the possessors of lands of whatever nature, shall retain the same power and the same rights as before, so far as regards the exacting of debts or rents, and this in the same man ner and form as they have hitherto enjoyed them.-(His Majesty reserves to himself to give his Royal sanction to the above article, when he shall have received the necessary information respecting it.)

Art. 14. The Military Branch agrees, also, to the suggestion of the Commons, that every proposal relative to subsidies shall proceed exclusively from, and be concluded in, the House of Commons, and

from

tati.

Art. 15. As to the other principles and arrangements of the aforesaid British Constitution, the Parliament will hereafter declare those that are to be admitted, those to be rejected, and those to be modified, according to the difference of the circumstances of the two nations. It therefore declares, that it will willingly receive any projects which its members may make for the convenient application of the British constitution to the kingdom of Sicily, in order to select what may he judged most suitable to the glory of his Majesty, and to the happiness of the Sicilian people. (His Majesty, whenever such articles shall be presented, will determine on those which may merit his Royal sanction.)

TREATY between RUSSIA and TURKEY-The following are the principal of the Sixteen Articles of the Treaty of Peace, concluded between Russia and the Sublime Porte.

Art. 1. There shall be peace and friendship between the two powers, and both the contracting parties shall use every effort to avoid every thing that may occasion hostilities between their subjects.

Art. 2. Full and perfect amnesty

shall be granted to the subjects of both parties who have taken part in the operations of the war against the interest of their mutual sovereigns.

Art. 3. All former treaties shall remain in force, with the exception of such articles which, by this present treaty, have undergone some alteration.

Art. 4. According to the first article of the preliminaries, it is agreed that the river Pruth, from its entrance into Moldavia until its junction with the Danube, and the left bank of the Danube from such junction to the mouth of the Kili, and from thence to the sea, shall form the boundaries of the two empires; the mouth of the said river being for the common use of both. The small islands which, previous to the war, were nninhabited, lying near to the left bank of the Danube, shall remain uninhabited; nor shall any fortifications be erected on the said islands.

On the other hand, the Ottoman Porte relinquishes to Russia all provinces, fortresses, towns, &c. lying on the left bank of the Pruth, and the mid-channel of the said river shall be the boundary between the two empires. The merchant vessels of both nations may navigate the whole course of the Danube; but the Russian ships of war must come no further than the entrance of the Pruth.

Art. 5. His Imperial Russia”. Majesty, on the other hand, restores to the Ottoman Porte the territory of Moldavia, on the right bank of the Pruth, as likewise the Greater and Lesser Wallachia. The inhabitants of these provinces shall be freed from all contribu

2 F 2

tions

tions for the space of two years, and those shall be fixed according to the present largeness of Mol

davia.

Art. 6. The boundaries on the side of Asia shall be fixed exactly as they were before the war broke

out.

Art. 7. The Mahometan inhabitants in the provinces ceded to Russia, as likewise the natives of other parts, who, in consequence of the war, are now in Russia, may return with their property out of Russia, within the space of eighteen months, to Turkey. In like manner, the Christians belonging to the countries now ceded to Russia, and who are at present in Turkey, may, without any molestation, return to Russia.

Art. 8. The Ottoman Porte grants a pardon and general amnesty to the Servians, who shall in no wise or means be molested for their last actions. The fortresses lately erected in their country shall be demolished as being unnecessary, and the Sublime Porte will put garrisons into the ancient fortified places. But that such garrisons shall not infringe any of the rights belonging to the Servian people, the Sublime Porte will for such purpose adopt, in concert with the Servian nation, such measures as may be necessary for their security. The Porte grants to the Servian nation the same advantages as are enjoyed by her subjects of the islands in the Archipelago, and of the other districts; and causes it to partake of the effects of her magnanimity, by permitting it to have the sole management of its internal concerns, by fixing the mass of contributions which it will receive from its own hands; and,

finally, will regulate all these matters conjointly and in concurrence with the Servian nation.

Art. 9. All prisoners of war, whether of the male or female sex, shall be liberated on both sides without reserve.

Art. 10. All affairs and demands of the subjects of both parties, which have been put off on account of the. war, shall not be thrown up; but, on the contrary, shall, after conclusion of the peace, be again examined and decided according to law.

Art. 11. The Russian troops shall quit the provinces, fortresses, and towns restored, within three months from the day of the ratification of the treaty; and, until the expiration of that term, shall, as hitherto, be supplied with every thing necessary.

Art. 12. Both the high contending powers promise to keep the commercial treaties in force.

Art. 13. The Ottoman Porte promises her mediation with the Persian power for restoration of peace with Russia.

Art. 14. Any acts of hostility which may have happened, after exchanging the ratification, shall be considered as not having taken place.

New York Convention.

At a Convention of Delegates from the several counties of the State of New York, hereinafter designated, held at the capitol in the city of Albany, on the 17th and 18th days of September, 1812. [Here follow the names of Delegates from 34 cities and counties.]

Resolved, That the doctrine, of

Jate

late so frequently and violently in culcated, that when war is once declared, all inquiry into its justice and expediency ought to cease, and all opposition to the men in power immediately to be abandoned, is essentially hostile to the vital principles of our republican institutions; and if adopted, would change our present government into one of the worst species of tyranny which the ingenuity of the foes of freedom has yet contrived, a government republican in its forms, in spirit and practice arbitrary and despotic, -that it must be obvious to the most ordinary capacity, that were such a doctrine to prevail, an administration which by its corrup tion or imbecility had justly for feited the confidence of the people, would be tempted to plunge the nation into an unjust or unnecessary war, for the sole purpose of perpetuating their power, and thus building their own greatness on the ruins of their country.

Resolved, That without insisting on the injustice of the present war, taking solely into consideration the time and circumstances of its declaration, the condition of the country, and state of the public mind, we are constrained to consider, and feel it our duty to pronounce it a most rash, unwise, and inexpedient measure; the adoption of which ought for ever to deprive its authors of the esteem and confidence of an enlightened people- because, as the injuries we have received from France, are at least equal in amount to those we have sustained from England, and have been attended with circumstances of still greater insult and aggravation-if war were necessary to vindicate the honour of

the country, consistency and impartiality required that both nations, should have been included in the declaration. Because if it were. deemed expedient to exercise our right of selecting our adversary, prudence and common sense dictated the choice of an enemy, from whose hostility we had nothing to dread. A war with France would equally have satisfied our insulted honour, and at the same time, instead of annihilating, would have revived and extended our com. merce--and even the evils of such a contest would have been mitigated by the sublime consolation, that by our efforts we were contributing to arrest the progress of despotism in Europe, and essentially serving the great interests of freedom and humanity throughout the world. Because a republican government, depending solely for its support on the wishes and affections of the people, ought never to declare a war, into which the great body of the nation are not prepared to enter with zeal and alacrity; as where the justice and necessity of the measure are not so apparent as to unite all parties in its support, its inevitable tendency is to augment the dissentions that have before existed, and by exasperating party violence to its utmost height, prepare the way for civil war. Because, before a war was declared, it was perfectly well ascertained, that a vast majority of the people in the middle and northern states, by whom the burthen and expenses of the, contest must be borne almost exclusively, were strongly opposed to the measure. Because we see no rational prospect of attaining, by force of arms, the ob

jects