128] ANNUAL REG 1ST E R, 1817. 



CHAPTER XII. 



Russia. — Regulation for the Discharge of the Public Debt. — Facilities 

 granted to Mercantile Men. — The Emperor quits his Capital, having first 

 published a Decree for the Regulation of Proprietors and Colonists. — 

 Sweden. — Conspiracy against the Crown Prince, and his Address to the 

 Citizens of Stockholm. — Proclamation by the King respecting Economy. 

 — His Address to Prince Oscar. — Speech read by the Prince. — Vienna. 

 — Berlin . 



A 



RUSSIA. 



NEW regulation has lately 

 been published at Peters- 

 burgh by the committee created in 

 IS 10, for the discharge of the 

 public debt of the state. The 

 ukase of his jNIajesty the Emperor 

 Avhich accompanies it is of the 

 following tenor. 



" We, Alexander I. by the grace 

 of God, Emperor and Autocrat of 

 all tlie Russias, &c. &c. 



" Tlie measures announced by 

 the ukases of IS 10 and 1S12, for 

 the successive payment of the debts 

 of tlie state were suspended by the 

 events of a war, as fatal in its 

 origin, as glorious in its result : 

 the ta\es which were decreed 

 solely for this piu{)ose were divert- 

 ed from it by the indispensable 

 necessity of employing them to- 

 wards the cxpences which the de- 

 fence of tlie country required. It 

 was impossible, amidst the rapid 

 course of military events, to think 

 of raising the credit of the state ; 

 the system of which had not vet 

 been able to C(jnsoli'late itself : all 

 that could be done was to main- 

 tain it. 15y the aid of the Almighty, 

 this war has been concluded with- 

 out an augmentation of the taxes. 



and without having injured the 

 public credit. Now that peace is 

 restored, finding that the gradual 

 extinction of the debts of the em- 

 pire is as necessary to the gene- 

 ral welfare, as indispensable to 

 strengthen the confidence in the 

 engagements of the government, 

 we have ordered our Minister of Fi- 

 nance to present to the Council of 

 State, for its examination, a plan 

 for additional measures, wliich 

 shall comjjlete the regulations 

 made on this subject ; and after 

 having examined it, with the ad- 

 vice of the Council of State, we 

 have thought fit to ordain what 

 follows : 



1 . For the payment of the debts 

 of the state, the imperial tieasury 

 shall, in the course of the present 

 year, place at the disposal of the 

 connuittee for the payment of the 

 debt, the sum of foity millions of 

 roubles. 



2 Dating from the year 181 S 

 there shall be annually assigned 

 for the same object sixty millions 

 out i.f the revenues of the domains 

 of the crown, till the total extinc- 

 tion of the debts, and till the mass 

 of paper currency shall be reduced 

 to the proportion of what is re- 

 quisite for circulation. 



.3. The 



