necessary deduction from these considerations in order to demonstrate that the commander of the King's frigate, in resisting an act of violence, which he had no reason to expect, only did his duty, and that it was the English frigates which committed an act in violation of the rights of a neutral soverign friendly to His Britannic Majesty.

The King hesitated to make formal complaint, so long as he looked upon the affair as merely a misunderstanding that could be cleared up by friendly explanations on the part of the commanders of the respective naval forces kept by the two Governments in the Mediter1anean; but finding himself, with great regret, disappointed in this hope, he must needs insist upon the reparation which is due him and which the justice and friendship of His Britannic Majesty would seem to assure to him.

(Signed) C. BERNSTORFF

Note from Count Wedel-Jarlsberg, Envoy Extraordinary of His Danish Majesty, to Lord Grenville, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, relative to the Capture of the Frigate "Freya," London, July 29, 18001

The undersigned, Envoy Extraordinary of His Danish Majesty, has the honor to bring to the attention of His Royal Majesty the following facts:

On the 25th instant His Danish Majesty's frigate Freya, commanded by Captain Krabbe, which was convoying six vessels, was encountered at the entrance to the Channel by six English war-ships under the command of Captain Baker. An officer from one of these ships was sent on board the Freya, informed himself of its destination, etc., and returned with the customary information. But shortly after he came back with orders to visit the convoy. Permission to do so was refused him. In the meantime the other frigates approached, and one of them fired a shot at one of the vessels of the convoy, which was answered by a shot from the Danish frigate across the bows of the vessel that 1Translation. French text at Martens, Recueil de Traités, vol. 7,

p. 133.

began the attack. The English commander's frigate came nearer and repeated his demand, which was refused by the Danish commander, who protested "that the convoy had not on board any article of contraband," and declared "that, in conformity with his instructions, he would not allow any boat to approach the convoy." A boat was sent notwithstanding, and the Freya fired a shot to turn it back, but did not hit it. The English conmander immediately fired a broadside; but it was not until the sight of two wounded men convinced him that effective hostilities had been begun that he returned the broadside, repelled force with force, and continued the combat with the said flag-ship and three others, until he found himself obliged to yield to the superior strength of his assailants and to lower his flag after having honorably defended and upheld it to the bitter end. The English thereupon took possession of the Danish frigate, held Captain Krabbe prisoner aboard the flag-ship, and brought him with the prize and convoy to the Dunes.

Thus in the midst of constant and secure peace between two friendly and allied nations there has occurred an unheard-of provocation, the enormity of which is sealed with the innocent blood of the subjects of both.

The affair that has just taken place is a direct attack on the independence of Denmark, a violation of the most sacred rights of the sovereign, and an act of aggression so violent that it would give rise to the most serious consequences, if it could be presumed that the instructions of the British Government had authorized such extreme action of a character so incompatible with the friendship existing between the two Courts.

But, in spite of the unfortunate impression created by the facts mentioned, it is a great consolation to the undersigned to feel that the English officers merely overstepped their instructions through overeager and ill-advised zeal, and that therefore His Britannic Majesty will not hesitate, in accordance with his well-known sentiments, to show his great indignation over the act and to give His Danish Majesty the most complete satisfaction.

It is under that reservation and while waiting for orders from his Court on this subject that the undersigned confines himself now to a ministerial demand for the prompt restitution of the frigate Freya and its convoy, and reparation at the expense of the British Government for all damage resulting from the hostilities mentioned.

His Excellency Lord Grenville, to whom the undersigned has the honor to address this note, will certainly share his just resentment of the aforesaid unfortunate incident and his hopes that satisfactory reparation for the offense may be made at once. The undersigned therefore hastens to request most urgently that his Excellency use his good offices to this end, and with the utmost confidence in his Excellency's just and equitable point of view, he has the honor to reiterate the assurance of his consideration and respect.

(Signed) WEDEL-JARLSBERG

Reply of Lord Grenville to Count Wedel-Jarlsberg, July 30, 1800, respecting the Capture of the Frigate "Freya"

The undersigned, His Majesty's principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, has had the honor to lay before the King the note which he received yesterday from Count Wedel-Jarlsberg, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from the King of Denmark.

It was with the greatest surprise and concern that His Majesty received the first accounts of the transaction to which that note relates. Studiously desiring to maintain always with the Court of Copenhagen those relations of friendship and alliance which had so long subsisted between Great Britain and Denmark, His Majesty has, during the whole course of his reign, given repeated proofs of these dispositions, which he had flattered himself were reciprocally entertained by the Government of His Danish Majesty. And notwithstanding the expressions made use of in Count Wedel's note, His Majesty can not even yet persuade himself that it is really by the orders of the King of Denmark, that this state of harmony and peace has been thus suddenly disturbed, or that a Danish officer can have acted conformably to his instructions, in actually commencing hostilities against this country by a wanton and unprovoked attack upon a British ship of war, bearing His Majesty's flag, and navigating the British seas.

1Collection of State Papers, vol. 10, p. 70.

The impressions which such an event has naturally excited in His Majesty's breast have received additional force from the perusal of a note, in which satisfaction and reparation are claimed as due to the aggressors from those who have sustained this insult and injury.

His Majesty, allowing for the difficulty in which all neutral nations were placed by the unprecedented conduct and peculiar character of his enemy, has on many occasions, during the present war, forborne to assert his rights, and to claim from the Danish Government the impartial discharge of the duties of that neutrality which it professed a disposition to maintain. But the deliberate and open aggression which he has now sustained can not be passed over in a similar manner. The lives of his brave seamen have been sacrificed, the honor of his flag has been insulted, almost in sight of his own coasts; and these proceedings are supported by calling in question those indisputable rights founded on the clearest principles of the law of nations, from which His Majesty never can depart, and the temperate exercise of which is indispensably necessary to the maintenance of the dearest interests of his empire.

The undersigned has, in all his reports to His Majesty, rendered full justice to the personal dispositions which he has uniformly found on the part of Count Wedel, to remove all grounds of misunderstanding between the two countries. He can not, therefore, now forbear to urge him to represent this matter to his Court in its true light, to do away with those false impressions, under which (if at all) a conduct so injurious to His Majesty can have been authorized; and to consult the interests of both countries, but especially those of Denmark, by bearing his testimony to the dispositions with which His Majesty's Government is animated; and by recommending to his Court, with all that earnestness which the importance of the occasion both justifies and requires, that these dispositions may, in so critical a conjuncture, find an adequate return; and that a speedy and satisfactory answer may be given to the demand which His Majesty has directed to be made in his name at Copenhagen, both of reparation for what is past, and of security against the repetition of these outrages.

In order to give the greater weight to His Majesty's representations on this subject, and to afford at the same time the means of such explanations respecting it, as may avert the necessity of those extremities to which His Majesty looks with the greatest reluctance, His Majesty has charged Lord Whitworth with a special mission to the

Court of Denmark, and that minister will immediately sail for his destination.

That Court can not but see in this determination a new proof of the King's desire to conciliate the preservation of peace with the maintenance of the fundamental rights and interests of his empire.

(Signed) GRENVILLE

July 30, 1800.

Reply of Count Wedel-Jarlsberg to Lord Grenville, London, August

2, 18001

The undersigned, Envoy Extraordinary of His Danish Majesty, confines himself to acknowledging the ministerial note of Lord Grenville, dated the 30th ultimo, in reply to his of the 29th. He immediately informed his Court thereof, as well as of the mission with which Lord Whitworth is charged to Denmark.

But pending the transfer to Copenhagen of the discussion of the hostilities committed, the undersigned hastens to repeat his urgent demand with regard to the restitution of the frigate Freya, in such condition that it can continue its voyage, and with regard to its convoy. Since the British Government, by means of superior forces, succeeded in making it impossible for His Danish Majesty's frigate to protect its convoy from the carrying out of an act that is contested and in dispute, and since both the frigate and its convoy were brought into an English port, where the searching of the vessels was effected without revealing any contraband article in their innocent cargoes, the undersigned is pleased to believe that the British Government will, by its acts, give the Government of Denmark conciliatory assurance that it is far from desiring to aggravate the difference by a continuation of hostile action, and, by restoring the vessels mentioned, show that it treats them differently from those captured from the enemy.

The undersigned begs Lord Grenville to be good enough to support his just demand with his good offices and to consider compliance.

1Translation. French text at Martens, Recueil de Traités, vol. 7,

p. 137.