Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818)/Toll of Elsfleth

[Extract.]

The Count de Bernstorff has read the annexed Project of Protocol on the question of the Toll of Elsfleth, in its relations with the Claims of the Duke of Oldenburg.

That Project has been adopted unanimously, and it has been consequently decided that the steps to be taken at the German Diet shall be entrusted to the Ministers of the Courts residing at Frankfort.

Prince Metternich has besides undertaken to recommend the Interests of the Duke of Oldenburg, in the name of his Sovereign, and in the most pressing manner, to the Austrian Minister, President of the Diet, and to recommend him to take all the measures necessary to bring about the results arrived at by the Conference, as being the only means of regulating the affair of the Toll of Elsfleth in a manner satisfactory to all the Parties interested.

Annex
Resolution of the Conference.

After having discussed the proposition made by the Russian Cabinet relative to the Toll of Elsfleth, the Plenipotentiaries of the Five Courts, considering:

That, on the one side, the Duke of Oldenburg, deprived by the force of events of a considerable part of the benefits assured to him by the Recés of the Empire of 1803, and the Treaty of the 6th April of the same year, can be considered as entitled to claim a supplementary Indemnity; and

That on the other side, the decision of an affair which has already called forth, on the part of other members of the Germanic Confederation, a complaint of infringement of rights and interests is not within the competence of the United Cabinets;

Are unanimously of opinion, that in consequence of the Claim which the Duke of Oldenburg has addressed to His Majesty the Emperor of Russia, and which that Monarch has had submitted to the Conference, it is desirable that the five Cabinets should address themselves on the subject to the President of the Germanic Diet, and to make known to him that the five Courts, although they do not dispute the force of the arguments in favour of the pretention of the Duke of Oldenburg, that they consequently can only wish that that Prince should be maintained for some years more in the possession of the Toll of Elsfleth, they have considered that the Diet alone can decide the question, and to consult on the means of terminating, through a Mediating Commission, the difference which has arisen on the subject of that Toll between the Duke of Oldenburg and the Town of Bremen.