make no change in the question to be decided.

I must speak frankly to your Highness; our state of possession, our legal situation, which has the double sanction of the people and of the two Chambers, is that of a government, in which the grandson of the Emperor of Austria is the head of the state. We could not think of changing this state of things, unless the nation had acquired the certainty that the Powers revoke their promises, and that their common wish opposes the preservation of the existing government.

What then can be more just than to conclude an armistice? Is there any other means to leave the Powers time to explain themselves, and France time to learn the wish of the Powers?

It will not escape your Highness's observation, that a great power already finds in our state of possession a personal right to inter

vene for its own interests, in our internal affairs, as long as this state shall not be changed. There results from this an addi tional obligation for the two Chambers not to consent, now, to any measure capable of affecting our possession.

Is not the most natural course to be fol lowed that which has been adopted upon our eastern frontiers? Marshal Bubna and Mar shal Suchet have not confined themselves to an armistice; it has been stipulated that we should resume our limits as fixed by the treaty of Paris; because, in fact, the war should be considered as terminated by the sole circumstance of the abdication of Napoleon.

Field Marshal Frimont, on his side, has consented to the armistice, in order, as he says, by preliminary arrangements, to meet those which may be made between the Allies. We do not even know whether England and Prussia have changed their intentions, on the

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subject of our independence, for the march of the armies cannot be taken as a certain indication of the will of the cabinets. The will of two powers is not even sufficient for us; it is their agreement which it is necessary for us to know. Would you wish, Prince, to anticipate this agreement! Would you wish to raise obstacles to it, and cause a new political tempest to arise from a state of things so nearly bordering upon peace?

I do not fear to meet every objection. It is imagined, perhaps, that the occupation of Paris, by two of the Allied Armies, would promote the views which you may have of reinstating Louis XVIII. on the throne; but how can the increase of the evils of war, which could not be ascribed to any other cause, be a means of reconciliation?

I must declare to your Highness, that every indirect attempt to impose a government upon us, before the Powers have explained them.

selves, would immediately force the Chambers

to measures, which would leave, in no case, the possibility of coming to an understanding. The interest of the King himself requires that all should remain in suspence. Force may replace him on the throne, but it will not maintain him there. It is neither by force nor by surprise, nor by the wishes of a party that the national will can be brought to change its government. It would even be in vain, at this moment, to offer us conditions to render a new government more supportable

to us.

There are no conditions to examine so long as the necessity of bending beneath the yoke and of renouncing our independence shall not have been demonstrated to us. Now, Prince, this necessity cannot be even suspected before the Powers are agreed. None of their engagements have been revoked; our independence is under their safeguard; it is we who enter into their views and into the spirit of their declarations. It is the besieging armies which depart from them.

According to these same declarationsnever were any more solemn-all employment of force in favour of the King, by those same armies, in that part of our territory where they alone command, would be regarded by France as the formal avowal of a design to impose a government upon us against our will. We may be permitted to ask your Highness if you have yourself received such a power? Besides, it is not force which pacifies. A moral resistance rejects the form of government which the King had been made to adopt; the more violence should be employed towards the nation the more invincible would this resistance be rendered. The intention of the Generals of the besieging armies cannot be to compromise their own government, and to revoke, in fact, the law which the Powers have imposed upon themselves.

Prince, the whole question is comprised in these few words: