fubjection of the fea, after it has rendered itself fo renowned in the war undertaken for the freedom of Europe. If the British Minifter will refer to the conduct of England against Sweden, and the Neutral Powers in general, during this war, he will find the real caufe why His Swedish Majefty has been induced to believe that the formal alliance of feveral Powers, acting upon the fame principles, would more effectually tend to convince the Court of London of the validity of those principles, than by any one Power renewing thofe reclamations which have hitherto been made in vain; at the fame time His Majefty never fuppofed that fuch an alliance would be confidered as an act of hoftility. The British Minifter complains that the Court of London was not before inftructed of the intention of the refpective Courts to renew the convention of 1780; but in the fame note he ftates, that England had entered into engagements this war with its Allies refpecig neutrals; thus the avowal of the British Minifter is an anfwer to his own charge. If his Majefty was not fully convinced of the innocence of his intentions, and if he was defirous of deviating from that line of moderation he has ever obferved, he might make an invidious and cenfura ble enumeration of the conduct of England; of the unpunished offences of the Commanders of English fhips of war, even In Swedish harbours; of the inquifitorial examinations which the Captain and crews of the ships detained, as well in the Weft Indies as in England, have been fubjected to; of the detention of the convoy in 1798; of the deceitful chicanery with which the proceeding of the Courts of Admiralty were accompanied; of the abfolute denial of juftice in many inftances; and laftly, by the infult offered to the Swedish flag at Barcelona -His Swedish Majefty mult, doubtless, ftate among the offences of which he has caufe to complain, that after one of his Minifters had been fent to the British Court, its aggreffions, inttead of being admitted and remedied, were juftified. But he has fought no revenge;-his Majefty wishes only to procure that fecurity to his flag to which it is intitled. In confequence of this fentiment, the undersigned is empowered to declare, that the British Court hall acknowledge the rights of Sweden; that it fhall do justice with regard to the convoys detained in 1798, as well as refpecting the violence offered to the Swedish flag at Barcelona; and above all, that it fhall take off the embargo, which has been fo unjustly laid on the Swedish fhips. His Majefty will, with the greatest pleasure, fee his ports again opened to the trade of England, and the ancient good understanding between the two Courts renewed. His Majefty, impreffed with that dignity due to his Empire, has, in confequence of the embargo laid upon the Swedifh fhips, placed a fimilar em. bargo on all English veffels in the harbours of Sweden.. As the pacific tendency of the prefent Convention has been proved to a demonftration, his Majefty therefore hopes that no confideration, refpecting any accidental Occurrence which may have taken place between the Ally of his Majefty the Emperor of Ruffia and the Court of London, will be introduced. The act of the Convention itself proves that its bases are the rights of Neutrality, and that it is in its nature unconnected with every other subject of difpute. While the underfigned Minifter Plenipotentiary of his Swedish Majefty recom. mends the contents of this prefent Note to the earnest confideration of the Minifter of his Britannic Majefty, he has the honour to intreat that his Excellency Lord Hawkesbury will tranfinit him an fwer, which he hopes will fpeak the fentiments of the King bis Mafter. an privileges, as well of Neutral as of Belligerent Powers. The explanations which have been endeavoured to be made refpecting the prefent Convention have not, in the flightest degree, weakened the impreffion which was produced by its firft perufal, namely, that the intentions and motives of the Contracting Powers were hoftile to the rights of his Majefty; and this impreffion is fully confirmed by obferving that the Northern Courts have adopted the principles of the Convention of 1780, which was entered into at a period when the circumstances of the war, and the propor tional strength of the navies of the Belligerent Powers, altered what was before a general rule of equity to all nations, and rendered it a means of exclufive offence on the part of Great Britain. Under thefe circumstances, the embargo laid upon the Swedish fhips can only be confidered as an act of legitimate and neceffary prudence, and cannot be other.. wife denominated, while the Court of Stockholm continues a party to a Convention, the object of which is to impofe upon his Majesty a new maritime fyftem, incompatible with the dignity of his throne, and the rights and interefts of his people. The underfigned requefts the Baron von Ehrenfward to receive the affurances of his high esteem. (Signed) HAWKESBURY. Downing freet, March 6, 1801. AMERICAN CONGRESS. NEW YORK, March 9.-On Wednef. day laft the Prendent tock the oaths required by the Conftitution, in the Senate Chamber, in prefence of the Senate, the Members of the House of Reprefentatives, Public Officers, and a large concourfe of Citizens, previously to which he delivered the following Addrefs : "Friends and Fellow Citizens, "Called upon to undertake the duties of the first executive office of our country, I avail myself of the prefence of that portion of my Fellow Citizens which is here affembled, to exprefs my grateful thanks for the favour with which they have been pleafed to look towards me, to declare a fincere confcioufnels that the task is above my talents, and that I approach it with thofe anxious and awful prefentiments, which the greatness of the charge, and the weakness of my powers, fo justly infpire. A rifing nation, fpread over a wide and fruitful land, trayerfing all the feas with the rich productions of their industry; engaged in commerce with nations, who feel power and forget right, advancing rapidly to deftinies beyond the reach of mortal eye; when I contemplate thefe tranfcendant objects, and fee the honour, the happiness, and the hopes of this beloved Country, committed to the iffue, and the aufpices of this day, I fhrink from the contemplation, and humble myself before the magnitude of the undertaking. Utterly, indeed, fhould I defpair, did not the presence of many whom I here fee, remind me, that in the other high authorities provided by our Conftitution, I fhall find resources of wildom, of virtue, and of zeal, on which to rely under all difficulties. To you then, Gentlemen, who are charged with the fovereign functions of legiflation, and to thofe affociated with you, I look encouragement for that guidance and fupport, which may enable us to fteer with fafety the veffel, in which we are all embarked, amidst the conflicting ele with ments of a troubled world. During the conteft of opinion through which we have paffed, the animation of difcuffions and exertions has fometimes worn an afpe&t, which might impofe on ftrangers unuled to think freely, and to speak and to write what they think; but this being now decided by the voice of the nation, announced according to the rules of the conftitution, all will of course arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the common good. All too will bear in mind this facred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cafes to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reafonable; that the minority pollefs their equal and to violate would be oppreffion. Let rights, which equal laws muft protect, us, then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and one mind; let us reftore to fecial intercourfe that harmony and affection, without which liberty, and even life itself, are but dreary things; and let us reflect, that having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind to long bled and fuffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance, as delpotic as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bicody perfecutions. During the throes and convulsions of the ancient world, during the agonizing fpafms of infuriated man, feeking through blood and flaughter his long loft liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation of the billows fhould reach even this diftant and peaceful peaceful fhore-that this fhould be more felt and feared by fome and lefs by others, and should divide opinions as to measures of fafety; but every difference of opinion, is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the fame principle. We are all Republicans -all Federalifts. If there be any among us who would wish to diffolve this union, or to change its republican form, let them ftand undisturbed as monuments of the fafety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reafon is left free to combat it. I know, indeed, that fome honeft men fear that a Republican Government cannot be ftrong; that this Government is not ftrong enough. But would the honeft patriot, in the full tide of fuccessful experiment, abandon a Government which has fo far kept us free and firm, on the theoretic and visionary fear that this Government, the world's best hope, may, by poffibility, want energy to preferve itfelf? I truft not; I believe this, on the contrary, the trongest Government on earth. I believe it the only one where every man at the call of the law would fly to the ftandard of the law, and would meet invafions of the public order, as his own perfonal concern. Sometimes it is faid that man can. not be trufted with the government of himfelf-Can he then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of Kings to govern him? Let history anfwer the queftion. Let us then with courage and confi. dence purfue our own federal and repub. lican principles; our attachment to union and reprefentative government. Kindly feparated by nature, and a wide ocean, from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe, too high minded to endure the degradations of the others; poffeffing a chofen country, with room enough for our defcendants to the thoufandth and thoufandth generation; entertaining a due fenfe of our equal right to the ufe of our own faculties, to the ac quifition of our own induftry, to honour and confidence from our fellow citizens, refulting not from birth, but from our actions, and their fenfe of them; enlightened by a benign religion, profeffed indeed and practifed in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring an over-ruling Providence, which, by all its difpeniations, proves that it delights in the happiness of man here, and his greater happinels hereafter; with all thefe bleffings, what more is neceffary to make us a happy and profperous people? Still one thing more, fellow citizens; a wife and frugal government, which can restrain men from injuring one another, fhall leave them otherwife free to regulate their own pur. fuits of industry and improvement, and fhail not take from the mouth of labour the bread it has earned. This is the fum of good government; and this is neceffary to clofe the circle of our felicities. : "About to enter, Fellow Citizens, on the exercife of duties which comprehend every thing dear and valuable to you, it is proper you should understand what I deem the effential principles of our Government, and confequently those which ought to fhape its Administration. I will comprefs them within the narrowest compafs they will bear, ftating the general principle, but not all its limitations: equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever ftate or perfuafion, religious or po litical peace, commerce, and honeft friendship with all nations; entangling alliances with none: the support of the State Governments in all their rights, as the most competent adminißration for our domeftic concerns, and the fureft bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies: the prefervation of the general govern ment in its whole constitutional vigour, as the fheet anchor of our peace at home and fafety abroad; a jealous care of the right of election by the people: a mild and fafe corrective of abuses which are lopped by the word of revolution, where peaceable remedies are unprovided; abfoJute acquiefcence in the decifions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and immediate parent of defpotilin: a well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace, and for the first moments of war, till regulars may relieve them: the fupremacy of the civil over the military authority: economy in the public expence, that labour may be lightly burthered: the honeft payment of our debts, and facred prefervation of the public faith; encouragement of agriculture, and of commerce, as its handmaid: the diffufion of information, and arraignment of all abufes at the bar of the public reafon : freedom of religion, freedom of the prefs, and freedom of the perfon, under protection of the Habeas Corpus : and trial by juries impartially felected. Thefe principles form the bright conftellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. The wisdom of all all our fages, and blood of our heroes, have been devoted to their attainment: they fhould be the creed of our political faith; the text of civic inftruction, the touchftone by which to try the fervices of those we truft; and, fhould we wander from them in moments of error, or of alarm, let us haften to retrace our steps, and regain the road which alone leads to peace, liberty, and fafety. "I repair, then, Fellow Citizens, to the poft you have affigned me. With experience enough in fubordinate offices to have feen the difficulties of this, the greatest of all, I have learnt to expect that it will rarely fall to the lot of im. perfect man to retire from this station with the reputation and the favour which bring him into it. Without pretenfions to that high confidence you repofed in our first and greatest revolutionary character, whofe pre-eminent fervices had entitled him to the first place in his Country's love, and deftined for him the faireft page in the volume of faithful hiftory, I ask fo much confidence only as may give firmness and effect to the legal administration of your affairs. I fhall often go wrong through defect of judgment: when right, I fall often be thought wrong by thofe whofe pofitions will not command a view of the whole ground. I ask your indulgence for my own error, which will never be intentional; and your fupport against the errors of others, who may condemn what they would not if feen in all its parts. The approbation implied by your fuffrages is a great confolation to me for the past, and my future folicitude will be to retain the good opinion of those who have bestowed it in advance; to conciliate that of others, by doing them all the good in my power, and to be inftrumental to the happiness and freedom of all. "Kelying, then, on the patronage of your good will, I advance with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it when. ever you become fenfible how much better choice it is in your power to make; and may that infinite Power, which rules the deftinies of the universe, lead our coun cils to what is beft, and give them a favourable iffue for your peace and profperity." DECLARATION OF THE KING OF PRUS- After the oppreffions which neutral navigation and commerce have experi enced fince the beginning of the war on the part of the English Navy, the different Courts interefted could no longer refrain, after fo many ufelefs complaints, from protecting the violated rights of their fubjects with more energy. The refult was, the Convention entered into on the 16th of December 1800, between Russia, Denmark, and Sweden, the just and mo. derate principles of which had been for merly adopted and followed by the Court of London itself; and his Majesty, the King of Pruffia, who had equally experienced this violence, prejudicial to his States and flag, did not hesitate to accede to the Treaty. The contracting Courts were on the point of communicating to the Belligerent Powers their Convention, and of adopting arrangements with them, when England, by an unexpected step, difconcerted this amicable defign, by laying an embargo upon all the hips of the Maritime Powers of the North in her ports, and thus fhewing herself as an enemy. Pruffian Majefty could not look upon this It might be expected that his conduct with a favourable eye and with indifference: to this end he fent foon after to the Court of London the Declaration of the 12th February, avowing formally and publicly his acceffion to the Convention of St. Petersburgh, and fhewing, at the fame time, the means by which the differences might be accommodated, and an entire rupture avoided. But, instead of adopting the expedient proposed, Eng. land passed over in filence the Note tranf mitted to Lord Carysfort, at Berlin. She has continued to treat as enemies the flags of the North; and, in a Note fent by the Secretary of State, Lord Hawkesbury, to the Envoy from Sweden, Baron Ehrenfward, dated London, the 7th March, fhe has once more manifefted her falfe principles fo often refuted, "That under the prefent circumstances the embargo laid upon the Swedish fhips could not be taken off whilft the Court of Stockholm remained attached to a Coalition, which had no other object than to force his Britannic Majefty to accept a new maritime law incompatible with the dignity and independence of his Crown, as well as with the rights of his fubjects." Such a declaration was foon after fent to the Court of Denmark; and it was added, that he was required to abandon the Northern Coalition, and to enter into a feparate negotiation with England. After having received a reply in the negative, the English Charge d'Affaires Drummond, and the Plenipotentiary Extra ordinary ordinary Vanfittart, left Copenhagen, the fame day in the mean time the Englith fleet, under the orders of Admiral Parker, destined for the Baltic, had actually arrived on the coafts of Zealand. It appears from all thefe events, that the Court of London will not abfolutely defift from its infupportable demands, and accept the means propofed of an amicable approximation: his Pruffian Majefty therefore is forced, conformably to his obligations contracted, to adopt the most efficacious means to fupport the Convention attached, and to return the inimical measures adopted against him; to this end, he will not only fhut up the mouths of the Elbe, the Wefer, and the Ems, but will alfo take poffeffion of the States belonging to his Majesty the King of England, as Elector of Brunswick Lunenburgh, fituated in Germany. With this view, his Majesty the King of Pruffia demands, requires, and expects from the Electoral College of the Privy Counsellors at Hanover, and of the Generality, that they fubmit to this difpofition without delay and reply, and that they follow willingiy the orders which fhall be given relative to the taking poffeffion of the Electorate by the Pruffian troops, as well as with respect to the Electorial Countries. His Majesty demands, principally, that the Hanoverian corps, which has hitherto been in the line of demarcation of the North of Germany, be disbanded, with a proportional part of the other troops. His Majefty requires from the Generals and all the Officers to vow, by writing, not to serve against his Pruffian Majefty; on the contrary, to follow ftrictly his orders till the affair be finished. The troops who fhall remain with their colours hall go into quarters, one on the right bank of the Leine, one on the left bank of the Alter, and behind the Luhe to the Elbe, where they hail remain divided in the towns of Hanover, Gifhorne, Uelgin, Lunebourg, and in the other small towns and villages of that district. All the other places, comprising the fortreffes of Hamelin, fhall be delivered up to the Pruffian troops under the orders of Lieutenant General de Clein. His Majefty, at the fame time, announces, that the maintenance of the Pruffian troops fhall be at the expence of the Electoral country. It shall begin from the end of the month of April. His Majefty has fent his Cabinet Minifter, Schullenbourg, to announce to the Electoral College of Privy Counsellors and Commandants of troops the prefent declaration. On this account, all connection between the Electoral College and his Majesty the King of England thall cease, and the authorities are in confequence refponfible to his Majefty the King of Pruffia for the Government and the Treasury. Under the hope of a voluntary fubmif. fion, his Majesty is induced and ready to promife folemnly, as well to the Nobility as to the Burghers, and to all the inhabitants of the Electorate, the entire enjoyment of their tranquillity, and the fecurity of their property. But if, on the contrary, the Government and the General Officers fhould be of advice to prevent the execution of the meafures adopted, and to oppofe the entrance of the Pruffian troops, his Majefty will be obliged to withdraw thefe promifes, and to treat the Electoral States as enemies. The Civil and Military Magiftrates are therefore refponfible for the fatal effects which might refult. It is on this account that his Majesty advises them to submit to this fummons, and to prevent the rigorous meafures which would inevi tably be taken in cafe of refufal. By order of his Majesty. (Signed) HAUGWITZ. Berlin, 30th March, 1801. CONVENTION CONCLUDED BETWEEN THE REGENCY OF HANOVER AND His Majesty the King of Pruffia having caufed to be communicated to us, by the Count de Schulemberg, General of Cavalry, Minifter of State, of War, and of the Cabinet, and his Envoy here, a Declaration, written and dated at Berlin, on the 30th of March 1801, refpecting measures which his faid Majefty bas refolved to pursue in regard to the Ger man States belonging to his Majesty the King of Great Britain and Ireland, our most gracious Sovereign, in his quality of Elector of Brunfwick and Lunebourg-His Pruffian Majefty having befide invited us repeatedly, and in a pofitive manner, to conform to the prefent circumftances, to enter without delay into the new engagements which he has propofed, and for that purpose to draw up a Convention in the most obligatory form, otherwife his faid Ma jefty would find himself obliged to treat in a hoftile manner the German States of |