PUBLICATION OF RESULTS OF EXPEDITION TO AMERICA. 9 



who, in the suite of King Frederick Augustus I. of Saxony, 

 was in Paris during the months of November and Decem- 

 ber, 1809- the same nobleman, doubtless, who held the post 

 of ambassador from Saxony at the court of Madrid, when 

 Humboldt sought permission from the Spanish monarch to 

 prosecute his travels. 



At the final partition of Poland in 1795, Warsaw, as is well 

 known, was ceded to Prussia. At the Peace of Tilsit it was 

 converted into a dukedom by Napoleon, and bestowed upon 

 the King of Saxony. At the convention of September, 1808, 

 negotiated at Paris by Prince William, all claims of private 

 individuals upon the dukedom of Warsaw were renounced by 

 Prussia, in consideration of an exemption from a war tax of 

 forty millions of francs. At the secret convention of Bayonne 

 in the previous May, France had, however, withdrawn all 

 claims upon the duchy, whether then acknowledged or hereafter 

 to be discovered, exacting in return from the King of Saxony 

 as Duke of Warsaw the sum of twenty million francs, to be 

 paid in three years, and the renunciation of all claims upon 

 France for war supplies and hospital expenses. A specification 

 of the property that was to be sequestered to meet this demand 

 was drawn out at Berlin by Daru, the French Greneral-Intendant, 

 and the act of sequestration was committed to the Council of 

 State at Warsaw, with whom the chief object was to reimburse 

 the duchy as quickly as possible for this sum of twenty millions 

 an undertaking which was likely to be facilitated by the 

 hatred of the Poles to the Prussians. In carrying out the 

 sequestration, the French specification was adhered to, by 

 which, to the great and just annoyance of the Prussians, the 

 property ascribed to the Prussian Government was made to 

 include not only all bank and commercial investments, the 

 funds for the benefit of widows, the property belonging to the 

 great orphan houses, churches, schools, and charitable institu- 

 tions, but even the property of several private individuals, 

 of whom it could only be proved that they had been depo- 

 sitors in the Bank of Berlin. All private property, therefore, 

 of this nature was confiscated, as it was concluded that the 

 greatest part of the capital invested in the Bank, and in com- 

 mercial undertakings in Southern Prussia Warsaw and its 



