GENERAL HISTORY. 



[109 



Providence has too suddenly with- 

 drawn the gift it bestowed, yet we 

 cannot fail to behold in it assur- 

 ances of the future accomplishment 

 of our wishes. 



The treaty with the Holy See, 

 which I announced last year, has 

 since been concluded. I have com- 

 manded my ministers, in commu- 

 nicating it to you, to propose the 

 project of a law, necessary to give 

 the legislative sanction to such of 

 its provisions as may be suscepti- 

 ble of it, and to place them in 

 unison with the charter, the laws 

 of the kingdom, and those pri- 

 vileges of the Gallican church, 

 the precious inheritance of our 

 fathers, of which St. Louis and 

 all his successors were no less 

 jealous than of the happiness of 

 their subjects. 



The harvest of 1816, by its bad 

 quality, frustrated in a great de- 

 gree, my hopes. The sufferings 

 of my peo})le have afflicted my 

 heart. I have, liowever, beheld 

 with emotion, that almost every 

 where they have endured them 

 with a touching resignation ; and 

 if, in some places, they have 

 broken out into seditious acts, or- 

 der was soon re-established. In 

 order to mitigate the misfortunes 

 of that period, I have found it 

 necessary to make great efforts, 

 and to draw upon the treasury for 

 extraordinary sacrifices. The de- 

 tails will be laid before you, and 

 the zeal with which you are ani- 

 mated for the public good will 

 not permit me to doubt that these 

 unforeseen expenses will have your 

 sanction. The harvest of this year 

 is more satisfactory over the 

 greatest part of the kingdom ; 

 but, on the other hand, some lo- 

 cal calamities, and the blights 



which have fallen upon the vine- 

 yards, excite my paternal solici- 

 tude for privations which, without 

 your co-operation, I cannot re- 

 lieve. 



1 have ordered the budiret of 

 the charges of the financial year 

 on which we are about to enter to 

 be laid before you. If the ex- 

 penses resulting from treaties, and 

 fiom the deplorable war they have 

 terminated, will not permit any 

 immediate diminution of the taxes 

 voted in preceding sessions, 1 have 

 at least the satisfaction of think- 

 ing, that the economy 1 have pre- 

 scribed will preclude the necessity 

 of requiring any augmentation, 

 and a vote of credit inferior to 

 that of the last budget will suffice 

 for all the wants of the year. 



The conventions which I signed 

 in 1815, in presenting results 

 which could not then be foreseen, 

 have rendered a new negotiation 

 necessary. Every thing leads me 

 to hope that its issue will be fa- 

 vourable, and that conditions far 

 above our means will be replaced 

 by others more conformable to 

 equity, to moderation, and to the 

 possibility of sacrifices, which my 

 people support with a constancy 

 that can add nothing to my love 

 for them, but which give them 

 new claims to my gratitude, and 

 to the esteem of all nations. 



Thus, as I had the happiness of 

 announcing to you in the course 

 of last session, the expenses re- 

 sulting from the army of occupa- 

 tion are diminished a fifth, and 

 the period is not far distant when 

 we may be permitted to hope — 

 thanks to the wisdom and energy 

 of my government, to the love and 

 confidence of my people, and to 

 the friendship of my allies — that 



those 



