§ No. I.—LETTER from Count Nicholas de Romanzoff to Mr. Secretary Canning, dated Erfurth,30 Sept.12 Oct.1808.—Received Oct.21.
§ Sir; I send to your Excellency a Letter which the emperors of Russia and Prance write to his majesty the king of England. The emperor of Russia flatters himself that England will feel the grandeur and the sincerity of this step. She will there find the most natural and the most simple Answer to the Overture which has been made by admiral Saumarez. The union of the two empires is beyond the rer.ch of all change, and the two Emperors have formed it for peace as well as for war.—His Majesty has commanded me to make known to your Excellency that he has nominated plenipotentiaries who will repair to Paris, where they will await the answer which your excellency may be pleased to make to me. I request you to address it to the Russian ambassador at Paris. The plenipotentiaries named by the emperor of Russia will repair to that city on the continent to which the plenipotentiaries of his Britannic Majesty and his Allies shall have been sent.—In respect to the bases of the Negotiation, their Imperial Majesties see no difficulty in adopting all those formerly proposed by England, namely, the Uti Possidetis,and every other basis founded upon the reciprocity and equality which ought to prevail between all great nations. I have the honour to be, with sentiments of the highest consideration, & c. (Signed)