§ No. 1. Letter from M. de Caulaincourt to viscount Castlereagh, dated Paris, April 4, 1815.
§ My Lord;—The expectations which induced his Majesty the Emperor, my august Sovereign, to submit to the greatest sacrifices, have not been fulfilled; France has not received the price of the devotion of its Monarch: her hopes have been lamentably deceived. After some months of painful restraint, her sentiments, concealed with regret, have at length manifested themselves in an extraordinary manner: by an universal and spontaneous impulse, she has declared as her deliverer, the man, from whom alone she can expect the guarantee of her liberties and independence. The Emperor has appeared, the Royal Throne has fallen, and the Bourbon Family have quitted our territory, without one drop of blood having been shed for their defence. Borne upon the arms of his people, his Majesty has traversed France, from the point of the coast at which he at first touched the ground, as far as the centre of his capital, even to that residence which is now again, as are all French hearts, filled with our dearest remembrances. No obstacles have delayed his Majesty's triumphal progress: from the instant of his re-landing upon French ground, he resumed the government of his Empire. Scarcely does his first reign appear to have been for an instant interrupted. Every generous passion, every liberal thought, has rallied around him; never did any nation present a spectacle of more awful unanimity.
§ The report of this great event will have reached your lordship. I am commanded to announce it to you, in the name of the Emperor, and to request you will convey this Declaration to the knowledge of his Majesty the King of Great Britain, your august Master.
§ This restoration of the Emperor to the throne of France is for him the most brilliant of his triumphs. His Majesty prides himself, above all, on the reflection that he owes it entirely to the love of the French people; and he has no other wish, than to repay such affections no longer by the trophies of vain ambition, but by all the advantages of an honourable repose, and by all the blessings of a happy tran- 310 quillity. It is to the duration of peace that the Emperor looks forward for the accomplishment of his noblest intentions. With a disposition to respect the rights of other nations, his Majesty has the pleasing hope, that those of the French nation will remain inviolate.
§ The maintenance of this precious deposit is the first, as it is the dearest of his duties. The quiet of the world is for a long time assured, if all the other Sovereigns are disposed, as his Majesty is, to make their honour consist in the preservation of peace, by placing peace under the safeguard of honour.
§ Such are, my lord, the sentiments with which his Majesty is sincerely animated, and which he has commanded me to make known to your Government. I have the honour, &c.
§ CAULAINCOURT, Duc de VICENCE.
§ No.2. Letter from M. Caulaincourt to viscount Castlereagh, dated Paris, April 4, 1815.
§ My Lord;—The Emperor was anxious to express directly to his royal highness the Prince Regent, the sentiments which inspire him, and to make known to him the high value which he places on the maintenance of the peace happily existing between the two countries. I am commanded, in consequence, my lord, to address to you the annexed letter, and to beg your excellency to present it to his Royal Highness.
§ The first wish of the Emperor being, that the repose of Europe should remain inviolate, his Majesty has been anxious to manifest this disposition to the Sovereigns who are still assembled at Vienna, and to all other Sovereigns. I have the honour to be, &c.
§ CAULAINCOURT, Duc de VICENCE.
§ No. III. Letter from Viscouut Castlereagh to M. Caulaincourt.
§ Downing-street, April 8, 1815.
§ Sir—I have been honoured with two letters from your excellency bearing date the 4th instant from Paris, one of them covering a letter addressed to his royal highness the Prince Regent.
§ I am to acquaint your excellency, that the Prince Regent has declined receiving the letter addressed to him; and has, at the same time, given me his orders to transmit the letters addressed by your excellency to me, to Vienna, for the information and consideration of the Allied Sovereigns and plenipotentiaries there assembled. I am, &c CASTLEREAGH.