ST ATE: PAPERS. 
séen to prenounce, without, hesi- 
tation; on the events of which 
France is the theatre ;_ and boldly 
profess sentiments so honourable, 
by repelling the proposals made 
by the pretended Government of 
that country to all the States, and 
which were every where rejected 
with indignation. 
“‘ In this unexpected and unpa- 
ralleled- crisis, the Helvetic Con- 
federation, guided by its ancient 
integrity, has joined of itself the 
system of Europe, and embraced 
the cause of social order, and of 
the safety of nations.. It has felt 
» the conyiction that so long as the 
voleano, rekindled in France, 
should threaten to, influence and 
convulse the world, the inesti- 
mable advantages which the high 
allied powers take a pleasure in 
seeing enjoyed by Switzerland, 
its welfare, its independence, its 
neutrality, would be always ex- 
posed to the encroachments of 
that illegal and destroying power 
which no moral restraint is able 
to check. 
“United by the same wish; of 
annihilating this power, the So- 
vereigns assembled at the Con- 
gress of Vienna have proclaimed 
their principles in the treaty of 
the 25th of March, as well as the 
engagements they contracted to 
maintain them. 
“All the other States of Eu- 
rope have been invited to accede 
to it, and they have readily an- 
swered this invitation. Thus, 
the moment is arrived, when the 
august Sovereigns, whose orders 
the undersigned are commissi- 
oned to execute-here, expect that 
the Diet, on receipt of the present 
official communications, ‘will, by 
a formal and authentic declara- 
351 
tion, adopt the same principles, 
and in concert with the under- 
signed, resolve on: the measures 
which may become necessary to 
oppose the common danger. 
_ “ But at the same time that the 
powers expect without any doubt, 
that Switzerland, agreed with 
them on the principal object, will 
make no difficulty in declaring 
that it is armed to attain it, 
and that it has placed itself in the 
same line of policy, they are very 
far from proposing to it to dis- 
play any other force than such as 
is proportioned to the resources 
and the usages ofits people. They 
respect the military system of a 
nation which, remote from. all 
ambition, puts forces on foot only 
to defend its liberty and its inde- 
‘pendence; they know the value 
which Switzerland attaches to the 
principle of neutrality; it is not 
to infringe upon it, but solely to 
accelerate the period when this 
principle may be applied in an 
advantageous andpermanent man- 
ner, that they propose tothe con- 
federation to assume an energetie 
attitude, and adopt vigorous mea- 
sures commensurate to the extra-. 
ordinary circumstances of- the 
times, but without forming a pre- 
_cedent for the future. 
*« It is conformably with these 
principles that the undersigned 
have received from theirrespective 
courts the necessary instructions 
to regulate; by a Convention which 
cannot but be agreeable to Swit- 
zerland, the footing upon which 
iis adhesion is to subsist to the 
sacred cause which it has already 
embraced. They have, therefore, 
the honour to invite the Diet 
without delay to name Plenipo- 
tentiaries to enter into a nego- 
