710 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1809. 



that they are happy whose feh'city 

 is entrusted to us. We had last 

 year especially reason to bless the 

 goodness of God, when a generous 

 conqueror restored to us our es- 

 tates, which were already lost ; and 

 this felicity became more precious, 

 when a personal acquaintance with 

 this great man, added to affection 

 and the sincerest gratitude our 

 admiration and our veneration of 

 his great qualities, which have never 

 been sufficiently appreciated; and 

 fixed the basis of a genuine esteem, 

 on which our mutual alliance is as 

 firmly established as on treaties, 

 and which renders it doubly indis- 

 soluble. 



Even at the present moment of 

 trouble, it was to me a great con- 

 solation to behold our country en- 

 joy an almost perfect tranquillity, 

 while the torch of war was en- 

 kindled in other states, and there 

 spread its ravages anew. We be- 

 lieved it necessary to abandon for 

 a time our good city of Dresden, 

 and fix our abode at Leipsic, which 

 is nogreat distance. We hoped that 

 we could continue there, to apply 

 our labours to the government of 

 our faithful subjects; the more so, 

 as, according to the course the war 

 had taken, an hostile invasion of 

 our country was by no means pro- 

 bable. 



We were so much the more 

 painfully affected at beholding tliis 

 hope vanish, and being obliged to 

 remove from Leipsic to a consi- 

 derable distance, in order to place 

 ourselves out of danger, by avoid- 

 ing the route in which the troops 

 which were advancir^g from Bohe- 

 mia, upon Saxony and Franconia, 

 might seize our person and royal 

 family. 



But we live in the entire con- 



fidence that Divine Providence will 

 bless our efforts for the deliverance 

 of our country, and that, supported 

 by the forces of his majesty the 

 king of Westphalia, our faithful 

 neighbour and ally, we shall re- 

 turn. 



We believe it to be our duty, 

 faithful and beloved Saxons, to im- 

 part this confidence to you, remov- 

 ed as we are from you, in order 

 to tranquillize you. In the mean 

 while we thank you publicly for 

 supporting your situation with tran- 

 quillity and dignity, that you have 

 lent no ear to the enemy, and in 

 this given new proof of that love 

 and attachment towards us which 

 are our felicity, and which we feel 

 equally for you. 



It is therefore with confidence 

 that we exhort you to attach your- 

 selves more and more to our prin- 

 ciples, which, hitherto, thanks to 

 God, have always constituted the 

 happiness of the country, and at 

 the same time to consider and 

 avert the evils which the ill-inten- 

 tioned might seek to scatter among 

 you, by propagating an erroueous 

 doctrine. 



For it cannot be unknown to 

 you, that there are in our domi- 

 nions, people weak, seduced, or 

 wicked, who not only do not ap- 

 prove of our system, and the prin- 

 ciples on which we have only from 

 conviction adopted it, but who dare 

 to avow and even act in a contrary 

 manner. 



We seriously enjoin by these pre- 

 sents all the authorities of our king- 

 dom to observe with great atten- 

 tion those who render themselves 

 suspicious by a like mode of think- 

 ing, and especially those who dis- 

 turb peace by rash discourse, or by 

 open acts, as well as those wUo 



spread 



