IGQ ANNUAL REOISTEH, 1818. |,Nov. 



and relations established by these 

 same treaties, and recognized by 

 all the states of Europe. 



" The undersigned, while he 

 begs their Excellencies to have 

 the goodness to transmit to their 

 august Sovereigns, the expres- 

 sion of the intentions and senti- 

 ments of the King his master, has 

 the honour of offering them the 

 assurance of his highest con- 

 sideration. 



(Signed) " Richelieu. 

 " Aix4a-Chapelle,Nov. 12, 1818." 



PROTOCOL 



Signed at Aix-la-Chapelle, on the 

 \5th Nov. 1818, bi/the Pleni- 

 potentiaries of the Courts of 

 Austria, France, Great Britain, 

 Prussia, and Russia. 

 " The Ministers of Austria, 

 France, Great Britain, Prussia, 

 and Russia, as a consequence of 

 the exchange of the ratifications 

 of the convention signed on the 

 9th of October, relative to the 

 evacuation of the French territory 

 by the foreign troops, and after 

 having addressed to each other 

 the notes of which copies are 

 subjoined, have assembled in 

 conference to take into consider- 

 ation the relations which ought 

 to be established, in the existing 

 state of things, between France 

 and the co-subscribing Powers 

 of the treaty of peace of the 20th 

 of November, 1815 — relations 

 which, by securing to France the 

 place that belongs to her in the 

 system of Europe, will bind her 

 more closely to the pacific and 

 benevolent views in which all the 

 Sovereigns participate, and will 

 thus consolidate the general 

 tranquillity. 



" After having maturely inves- 



tigated the conservative princi- 

 ples of the great interests which 

 constitute the order of thing? 

 established, under the auspices 

 of Divine Providence, in Europe, 

 by the treaty of Paris of the 

 SOth of May,' 1814, the reces of 

 Vienna, and the treaty of Peace 

 of the year 1815, the Courts 

 subscribing the present act, do, 

 in consequence, unanimously 

 acknowledge and declare — 



" 1. That they are firmly re- 

 solved never to depart, neither 

 in their mutual relations, nor in 

 those which connect them with 

 other states, from the principles 

 of intimate union which has 

 hitherto decided over all their 

 common relations and interests 

 — a union rendered more strong 

 and indissoluble by the bonds of 

 Christian fraternity which the 

 Sovereigns have formed among 

 themselves. 



*' 2. That this union, which 

 is the more real and durable, 

 inasmuch as it depends on no 

 separate interest or temporary 

 combination, can only have for 

 its object the maintenance of 

 general peace, founded on a 

 religious respect for the engage- 

 ments contained in the treaties, 

 and for the whole of the rights 

 resulting therefrom. 



" 3. That France, associated 

 with other Powers by the resto- 

 ration of the legitimate Monar- 

 chical and Constitutional Power, 

 engages henceforth to concur in 

 the maintenance and consolida- 

 tion of a system which has given 

 peace to Europe, and assured its 

 duration. 



" 4. That if, for the better 



attaining the above declared 



object, the Powers which have 



concurred 



