IXXXVÎJ                          APPENDIX.----F. NO. 1.
that under a prince, said to be enlightened and a foe to preju-
dice, a change would have been made in the perfidious and
destructive system pursued with respect to Hayti. It might
have been presumed that France, content, like other nations,
with forming a commercial intercourse with us, would have
renounced her desire of subjugating a people whom she had
already unsuccessfully employed every effort to re-enslaye. It
might have been presumed that Ms majesty Louis xviii. moved
by feelings of justice and humanity, would have recognized out-
independence, and have repaired and effaced, by this act of
justice, the incalculable evils we experienced from the French
under the government of Bonaparte. In a word, it might have
been presumed that by our unceasing efforts to combat and
defeat the armies of the oppressor of Europe we should on the
general restoration of peace, have been deemed worthy of en-
joying some advantages, after having endured all the miseries
of a barbarous and destructive war. These our just hopes were
grounded on the moral principle of justice and equity which
guide the enlightened sovereigns and nations of Europe.
The treaty of Paris was concluded without the slightest men-
tion of Hayti. • France reserved, and the powers of Europe
left to her the light of conquering St, Domingo, and, in despite
of the noble, magnanimous and generous endeavours of the
3RITISU nation and government to compel France to renounce
the slave trade, she retained, by the treaty of Paris, a
right of continuing this odious traffic for five years, with the
sole view of preserving the means of replacing the population
of Hayti, in case of its destruction in the meditated war of
extermination.
In defiance of the act of independence of the 1st of Janu-
ary, 1804, .wherein the Haytians, driven to desperation by the
injustice, the cruelty and unheard of crimes of the French, der
clared in the face of the universe, that they renounced France
for ever, and would die rather than submit to her cruel, tyran-
nic and unjust dominion :
In defiance Qf our above mentioned manifesto wherein we
have explained the just motives which led us to proclaim our
independence, and our determination to bury ourselves beneath
the ruins of our country rather than submit to any invasion of
our political rights ;
In defiance of the laws of nations, of reason, and of morar
lity, contiary to all the principles of humanity, of justice, and
of equity, the French cabinet conceived and resolved upon the
odious project of making the Haytians return to all the horrors
of slavery from which they had emancipated themselves after
twenty-five years pf batfles, sacrifices, and struggles :