vailed between the two Courts. In pursuance of a new order from my Court, I repeat, and formally insist upon what I demanded in my last note of the 17th October. I fondly flatter myself that His Swedish Majesty will adopt far more active measures than the contents of your note allowed me to hope. It is not probable that you will expose Swedish ships to all the severity of the measures which circumstances require to be exercised against suspected vessels, and whose conduct might be considered as connived at, unless the Swedish Court receives from England the most ample reparation respecting the affair of Barcelona.

I have the honor to be, etc.

(Signed) THE CHEVALIER DE HUERTA

Reply of the Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs to Mr. Drummond, December 31, 18001

The undersigned Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, having given an account to the King his master of the contents of the note which Mr. Drummond has done him the honor to transmit to him on the 27th instant, is authorized to return the answer which follows:

The Court of London must have received very incorrect information, to have been able for a moment to presume that Denmark had conceived projects hostile against it, or incompatible with the maintenance of the good understanding which subsists between the two Crowns; and the King is very much obliged to His Britannic Majesty, for having furnished him with the opportunity of contradicting, in the most positive manner, reports as ill founded, as contrary to his

most decided sentiments.

The negotiation which is carrying on at St. Petersburg, between Russia, Prussia, Sweden, and Denmark, has no other object than the renewal of the engagements which, in the years 1780 and 1781, were contracted by the same Powers for the safety of their navigation, and of which a communication was at that time' made to all the Courts of Europe.

1Collection of State Papers, vol. 11, p. 211.

His Majesty the Emperor of Russia. having proposed to the Powers of the north to reestablish these engagements in their original form, Denmark has so much the less hesitated to consent to it, as, far from having ever abandoned the principles professed in 1780, she has thought it her duty to maintain them, and claim them upon all occasions, and not allow herself to admit in respect of them any other modifications than those which result from her treaties with the belligerent Powers.

Very far from wishing to interrupt those Powers in the exercise of rights which the war gives them, Denmark introduces into the negotiation with her allies none but views absolutely defensive, pacific, and incapable of giving offense or provocation to any one. The engagements she will make will be founded upon the strictest fulfilment of the duties of neutrality, and of the obligations which her treaties impose upon her; and if she wishes to shelter her innocent navigation from the manifest abuses and violence which the maritime war produces but too easily, she thinks she pays respect to the belligerent Powers by supposing, that, far from wishing to authorize or tolerate those abuses, they would, on their side, adopt measures best calculated to prevent or repress them.

Denmark has not made a mystery to any one of the object of her negotiation, upon the nature of which some suspicion has been infused into the Court of London; but she has not thought that she departed. from the usual forms, in wishing to wait the definitive result of it, in order to communicate an official account of it to the Powers at war. The undersigned, not knowing that any of the Powers engaged in this negotiation has made a declaration, or adopted measures relative to its object, at which Great Britain might take offense or umbrage, can not without ulterior explanation reply to this point of Mr. Drummond's note.

Much less does he conceive in what respect the engagement taken by the previous convention of the 29th of August last can be considered as contrary to those which Denmark is about to enter into with the neutral and united Powers of the north; and in all cases in which he shall find himself called upon to combat or remove the doubts that shall have been conceived with respect to the good faith of the King, he shall consider his talk to be very easy, as long as this good faith shall be introduced into the reproaches or suspicions advanced against His Majesty. He flatters himself that the English Government, after

having received the required explanations, will have the frankness to allow that the provisional and momentary abandonment, not of a principle, the question with respect to which remained undecided, but of a measure, whose right has never been, nor ever can be, contested, can not be found at all in opposition to the general and permanent principles, relative to which the Powers of the north are upon the point of establishing a cooperation, which, so far from being calculated to compromise their neutrality, is destined only to strengthen it. The undersigned would fain believe that these explanations will appear satisfactory to the Court of London; and that the latter will do justice to the intentions and sentiments of the King, and particularly to His Majesty's invariable desire to maintain and cement, by all means in his power, the friendship and good understanding which subsists between Denmark and Great Britain.

He has the honor to offer to Mr. Drummond the assurance of his most distinguished consideration.

COPENHAGEN, December 31, 1800.

(Signed) BERNSTORFF

Reply of Count Wedel-Jarlsberg to Lord Grenville, January 10, 18001

The undersigned, Envoy Extraordinary from His Danish Majesty, will transmit this day with regret to his Court the official communication he had the honor to receive yesterday from Lord Grenville, upon the subject of the embargo laid upor the Danish vessels in the British ports.

While he waits until the orders of the King his master, relative to this offensive measure, arrive, we can not avoid protesting against the validity of the motives alleged in the said note, and against the justice. of the consequences, which the British Government has conceived it could accredit against the Court of Copenhagen.

A difference which arose between the Courts of Petersburg and London during the negotiation, destined solely to the protection of a 1Collection of State Papers, vol. 11, p. 220.

perfect neutrality in the north, has no relation whatever with that; and as His Imperial Majesty of all the Russias has caused to be published a formal declaration on the subject of the motives of the measures adopted on his part, Denmark finds in it a complete refutation of the argument advanced by the British Minister.

With respect to the principles of the northern Powers respecting the sacred rights of neutrality, they have not been abandoned. Russia, in her belligerent quality, has only suspended the application, and Denmark and Sweden have, by their convention of the 27th March 1794 (officially communicated to all the belligerent Powers), declared, in the face of all Europe, that their system of protection in favor of innocent commerce was invariable.

Hence it follows that his Danish Majesty only now renews ties which have not ceased to exist. The undersigned thinks himself, in consequence, authorized to protest, formally, against proceedings of so hostile a nature, which the King his master could not but have considered as an open and premeditated provocation, had not the communication been accompanied with the assurance that His Britannic Majesty still desires to maintain good harmony with Denmark; a desire which His Danish Majesty has constantly professed, and of which he has given the most unequivocal proofs.

The undersigned, who for a number of years has felicitated himself upon being the interpreter of the unalterable sentiments of the King his master, is deeply hurt that false impressions have just menaced the good understanding between the two Crowns. He wishes that he could still be the instrument of an explanation calculated to do away injurious doubts, and to prevent incalculable consequences to the interests of the reciprocal powers.

It is with these sentiments, and with those of perfect consideration, that he has the honor to renew to his Excellency Lord Grenville the homage of his respect.

January 10, 1801.

(Signed) WEDEL-JARLSBERG

British Instructions to Lieutenant General Trigge regarding His Majesty's Forces in the Leeward Islands, January 14, 18011 SIR: Information having reached this country which leaves no doubt, that the Courts of Copenhagen, Stockholm and Petersburg have agreed to revive the principles of the armed neutrality of the year 1780 and that extensive armaments are now preparing in the ports of the above-mentioned Powers, with the intention of supporting these principles and consequently of resisting by open violence the maritime rights of this country, as established by the law of nations, by the positive stipulations of treaties and by the usage of former wars, His Majesty has resolved to adopt such measures as a conduct so hostile to the just and ancient privileges of the British flag, calls for on his part, for the maintenance and preservation of the best interests of his people; and to employ every possible means, as well to obtain indemnity and reparation for the injury done to the property of His Majesty's subjects, in violation of the most solemn treaties, by the Power which has taken the lead in this confederacy, as to deprive the Courts of Denmark and Sweden (whose conduct has obliged him reluctantly to the resources they may expect to derive from their colonies and trade for entering upon, or carrying on a contest, which as soon as the season will admit of naval operations in the Baltic, it will not be in His Majesty's power to avoid, unless they shall in the interval be induced by this timely act of vigor and justifiable precaution to relinquish the system, to which they are actually engaged, and to give His Majesty such security as the case may appear to require, against the renewal of similar pretensions on their part.

In pursuance of this principle I am commanded to signify to you His Majesty's pleasure that immediately on the receipt of these instructions you are, in concert with the officer commanding His Majesty's naval forces on the Leeward Island station to make every necessary preparation for proceeding in His Majesty's name to seize upon and take possession of the Islands of St. Thomas, St. Croix and St. John and the Swedish island of St. Bartholomeus, together with all ships, stores, or public property of any description, belonging to Russia, Denmark or Sweden, which may be found in the said Islands.

1Thorvald Boye, op. cit., p. 357.