To HIS IMPERIAL MAJESTY THE TSAR OF ALL THE RUSSIAS,
GRAND DUKE OF FINLAND, etc.
May it please Your Majesty,
We, the undersigned, venture respectfully to approach Your Majesty as profound sympathisers with the noble and enlightened sentiments to which Your Majesty has given the expression in the Rescript which has resulted in the assembling of the Peace Conference, now in session at the Hague.
Having read, and being moved by, the Petition of the 5th March (21st February), 1899, of over half a million Finnish men and women, in which they made a solemn appeal to Your majesty in support of the maintenance of their full rights and privileges, first confirmed by His Most Gracious and Imperial Majesty Alexander I., in 1809, both at the Diet of Borgo and by the Treaty of Fredrikshamn, and subsequently re-affirmed in the most solemn manner by all his illustrious successors; we venture to express our hope that Your Imperial Majesty will take into due consideration the prayer of the said Petition to Your Majesty's Finnish Subjects.
It would be a matter of great regret to us as to all admirers of Your Majesty's enlightened views, if recent events in the Grand Duchy of Finland should retard the cause of amity among the nations of the civilised world, which has in Your Majesty so illustrious an advocate."
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