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Foreign Intelligence

STATE PAPER.

Declaration read by the Minister of Bohemia in the second sitting of the deputation of the Empire, in regard to the indemnities of the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

According to the 5th article of the treaty of Luneville, his Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Tuscany ought to obtain a full and complete indemnity for the loss of the Grand Duchy of that name. The amount of this loss may be determined and proved in the most authentic manner. By an exact enumeration of the population of the Grand Duchy, recently made, it is certain that it contained 1,500,000 souls, on 440 square miles: and the account published of the finances of Tuscany, by the late Emperor Joseph II. a statement admired and applauded by all Europe, makes the public and ordinary revenues of the country during the year 1789, deducting the expenses of collection, to be above nine millions of livres of Florence, which are equal to above three million eight hundred thousand German florins. From these data one may be easily convinced, that ten years after, the revenues of the Grand Duchy amounted to four millions, a sum at which his Royal Highness the Grand Duke thinks he may in conscience state them: but without this amelioration, the loss of the Grand Duke may be estimated at more than four millions, taking into account the interest of the revenues of which his Royal Highness has been deprived since the 18th September 1800. In regard to the reparation of this loss, there have been proposed for that purpose, by the imperial court, 1st. The Ecclesiastical states of Salzburg, Berchtesgaden, and Passau. The first of which, according to the documents published in 1801 by the Chancellor of Salzburg, does not yield entirely 600,000 florins: the revenues of the second are much less than 250,000 florins, & those of the third are at most 200,000 fs. which makes under the most favorable supposition one million 330,000 florins. 2dly, The Ecclesiastical States of the free towns in Suabia, proper for being employed as indemnities, and of which the total produce, according to the best works in statistics amount to about 2,370,000 florins, a sum which approaches in a certain degree to that of the revenues of Tuscany, between which, however, and the proposed countries there is this difference, that the first forms a territory connected in all its parts, and which by its situation and soil is superior while the other countries are altogether scattered. In this state of things it may be easily conceived how much the Imperial court ought to be surprised to find in the present plan presented by the mediating powers, in regard to the indemnification of the Grand Duke, proposals which suppress at least two thirds of what is due to that Prince, according to the 5th article of the Treaty of Luneville, by confining the indemnities, 1st, to the territories of Salzburg, Berchtesgaden, and Passau, except the town and territory of the latter bishopric, situated beyond the Inn and the Uz; 2d, to two other objects, altogether insignificant, and no way proper to serve as an indemnity, viz. the bishoprics of Trent and Brixen, the first of which brings only 40,000 florins; and the second 60,000 and which both, notwithstanding that their Bishops are personally invested with the dignity of princes of the empire, form part of the States of the Tyrol, so that their inhabitants are subject to the territorial superiority of Austria. in regard to contributions and military conscription. 3d, To the mediate Abbeys and Convents, which may be comprehended in the countries assigned to the Grand Duke. It is to be remarked on this subject, that in these countries of the empire, there are no considerable mediate chapters, and besides that mediate chapters, and convents subject to sovereignty, are no way proper to form the indemnity of a sovereign; and that, in the Russian and French plan, the Chapters and Convents situated in the countries which are to serve for indemnities, are destined to be placed at the disposition of the new Clergy, or for the maintenance of those which have been approved. The Imperial Court consequently cannot abstain from exposing, and reserving to itself, in the most solemn manner, the rights of the Grand Duke to a fuller indemnification, agreeably to the Treaty of Luneville, & to recommend the fulfilment of it to the due attention of the deputation, as well as to the two mediating Powers.

The undersigned is at the same time charged to declare, in the name of his Royal and Imperial Majesty—1st. That the Imperial Court is ready to submit the estimation of the loss and the indemnities due to the Grand Duke to the same principles, which shall be adopted in regard to the other powers to be indemnified.—2d. That the Imperial Court expects that equal treatment in whatever may be determined in regard to the prerogatives, extensions, and restrictions, in the manner of possessing and enjoying the countries of the indemnities.— 3d. That on its side the Imperial Court is ready to pay all that attention, and shew all that moderation which may contribute to terminate as speedily as possible the affair of the indemnities to the satisfaction of the parties concerned, as well as of the mediating powers.