(or Prince),

"Independently of the course of our negotiations, I make it my duty,
to write personally to your lordship on the subject of an armistice,
the refusal of which, I confess, seems to me inexplicable. Our
plenipotentiaries have been at head-quarters ever since the 28th of
June, and we have not yet a positive answer.

"Peace already exists, since the war has no longer an object. Our
right to independence, and the engagement taken by the sovereigns to
respect it, would not the less subsist after the taking of Paris. It
would be inhuman, therefore, it would be atrocious, to engage in
sanguinary battles, that would make no alteration in the questions to
be decided.

"I must speak candidly to your lordship; our state of possession, our
legal state, _which has the double sanction of the people and of the
chambers, is that of a government, where the grandson of the Emperor
of Austria is the head of the state. We cannot think of altering this
state of things, unless the nation acquires a certainty, that the
powers revoke their promises, and that the preservation of our present
government is in opposition to their common wishes_.

"What then can be more just, than to conclude an armistice? Are there
any other means of allowing the combined powers time to explain
themselves, and France time to be acquainted with their wishes?

"It will not escape your lordship, that already one great power finds
in our state of possession a personal right to interest itself in our
interior concerns. As long as this state remains unaltered, the two
chambers have hence an additional obligation, not to consent at
present to any measure capable of altering our possession.

"Is not the step, that has been adopted on our eastern frontier, the
most natural to follow? It was not confined to an armistice between
General Bubna and Marshal Suchet: it was stipulated, that we should
return to our limits according to the treaty of Paris; because, in
fact, the war ought to be considered as ended by the simple fact of
the abdication of Napoleon.

"Field-marshal Frimont, on his part, has agreed to the armistice, to
meet by preliminary arrangements those, that may take place between
the allies. We do not even know, whether England and Prussia have
changed their minds on the subject of our independence; for the march
of the armies cannot be any certain indication of the minds of the
cabinets. Neither can the will of two powers suffice us; it is th