which alone might be sufficient to indicate the spirit of the whole. It has since been determined that the treaty shall not be prejudicial to those treaties which had been before concluded with any of the bel ligerent powers. It was also resolved that this determination should be candidly communicated to these powers, to prove the purity of the motives and views of the contracting parties. But England would not allow them time for this. Had she waited this confidential communication, she might have avoided those intemperate measures which threaten to spread still wider the flames of war. She might likewise have received satisfaction from the correspondence with Denmark, if, instead of dwelling on two detached passages copied into the first note of lord Carysfort, from the note of count Bernstorff of the 31st of December, the court of London had attended to the solemn declaration that "it could never be for a moment imagined that Denmark entertained any hostile projects against Great-Britain, or such as were inconsistent with the maintenance of a good understanding between the two powers; and that the court of Denmark congratulated itself on having obtained an opportunity to contradict such unfounded reports in the most positive manner."

This open and explicit declaration accorded with the assurances which the undersigned had more than once given to lord Carysfort on the same subject; and it is difficult to conceive, how the English court could conclude, as it afterwards appeared that it did, from the note of the Danish minister, "that the convention of the contracting powers went to establish new principles of maritime law,

which had never been acknowledged by the tribunals of Europe, and the object of which was hostile to Eng land."

The conclusion is totally false, and as little authorised by the ans swer of the Danish court as the undeserved accusation, that it proposed" to excite a hostile confe deracy against Great-Britain, and with that view was employed in active preparations.”

Never were measures more incontestably merely defensive than those of the court of Copenhagen; and the spirit of them will be less mistaken, when it is recollected what menacing demonstrations that court experienced on the part of the British government, in conse quence of the affair of the frigate Freya, before it adopted those measures.

The arbitrary conduct of Eng land on this occasion is naturally explained by the lofty pretensions she has so long advanced, and which have been several times renewed in the notes of lord Carysfort, at the expence of all the mari time and commercial powers. The British government has, in the present more than in any former war, assumed to itself the sovereignty of the sea, and has arbitrarily form ed a maritime code, which it is extremely difficult to reconcile with the true principles of the law of nations: it exercises over friendly and neutral powers a usurped jurisdiction, which it maintains to be just, and endeavours to represent as an indefeasible law sanctioned by all the tribunals of Europe.

Never have the sovereigns of England permitted their subjects to be made amenable to this law, in the numerous cases when the abuse of power has transgressed the limits of justice. The neutral powers

have made the strongest remonstrances and protestations; but experience has shown that these are generally without effect. It is not therefore surprising, that after so many and repeated injuries they should have had recourse to a measure which may prevent them in future, and with that view have entered into a well concerted alliance, which may define their rights, and place them in a proper relation to the belligerent pow

ers.

The maritime alliance, as it has been consolidated, will lead to this salutary object, and the king makes no difficulty to declare to his Britannic majesty, that he has found in it his own principles, that he is intimately convinced of its necessity and utility, and that he has formally acceded to the convention which was concluded between the courts of Russia, Denmark, and Sweden, on the 16th of December last his majesty is therefore among the number of the contracting powers, and as such is obliged not only to take a direct part in all events which may interest the affairs of the neutral states, but is bound to support that convention by such vigorous measures as the course of circumstances may require.

The note of lord Carysfort refers to a subject relative to which his majesty conceives he is not obliged to answer, nor even has a right to form an opinion. Disputes exist between the courts of London and Petersburg, which in no manner have connexion with that to which the above-mentioned minister has endeavoured to unite them. But as much as the conduct of Prussia has been hitherto guided by the

most unexceptionable impartiality, it will be equally guided by a respect for the alliances which are a proof of it. Stipulations which contain in themselves nothing hostile, and which the security of his subjects prescribed to him, bind him to have recourse to all the means which providence has placed in his power.

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As unpleasant as the extremities are to which England has proceeded, the king entertains doubt of the possibility of a speedy return to conciliatory and pacific dispositions; and in this respect confides in the sentiments of justice which he has so often had the happiness to experience on other occasions from his Britannic majesty.

Only by the recall and entire taking off of the embargo can things be restored to their former state; and England must judge whether she will consent to afford the neutral powers this means of proceeding to the overtures which they are ready to make. But as long as those measures shall continue, which were adopted from hatred to a common principle, and against an alliance no longer to be feared, the hostile determination which must be the consequence will be the necessary result of the treaty; and the undersigned has it in command to declare to the minister of his

Britannic majesty, that the king, while he testifies his concern at the circumstances that have occurred, and which he has never occasioned, will fulfil, in the most sacred manner, the obligations imposed on him by treaties.

The undersigned, while he exécutes this command, has the honour to assure lord Carysfort of his high esteem. (Signed)

Berlin, Feb. 12.

HAUGWITZ.

Note

Note transmitted on the 4th of March, by Baron Von Ehrensward, the Imperial Swedish Minister Plenipotentiary at London, to Lord Hawkesbury, the English Secretary of State.

The undersigned, minister plenipotentiary of his Swedish majesty, has the honour to transmit to his excellency lord Hawkesbury, first secretary of state of his Britannic majesty, a printed copy of the naval convention concluded on the 16th of December 1800, between his Swedish majesty and his majesty the emperor of all the Russias, as well as a printed copy of the naval regulations which the king has recently ordered to be drawn up.

The undersigned, who, at the command of his court, has the honour to make this communication to the minister of his Britannic ma

jesty, has it likewise in commission expressly to declare, that their majesties, by the said naval convention, have reciprocally determined and settled those rights, which, as neutral powers, they believe themselves entitled to; and by the naval regulations have ascertained those duties for the performance and observance of which, on the part of their subjects, they, as neutral powers, make themselves answerable. The object of their majesties is to confirm and strengthen their rights as neutrality demands, and to promote the repose of their respective states, by the naval convention they have entered into; and nothing is farther from their intention than by such a step to provoke hostilities. The respect which is due to the rights of nations and to treaties-the consciousness that their own inter

of

ests are inseparably united with the interests and the love justice; and peace, are the only motives by which their majesties have been actuated: they have therefore learnt, with the greatest astonishment, that the first news of the conclusion of this convention in England has been the occasion of so violent a measure as that of laying an embargo on the Swedish ships.

So far from desiring to introduce any innovations with respect to the maritime states of Europe, by the assertion of their rights of neutrality, their majesties are sensible that it gives no power whatever where those rights were not acknowledged by former treaties. England has seen those treaties executed; they were officially communicated to her, and she did not protest against them. In like manner it was with regard to the convention of 1780 and 1781, and the ministry, who now proceed with so much violence, know that the partial renewal of that convention between Sweden and Denmark in 1794, and the armament that fol lowed, operated during a period of three years without ever being considered as grounds for hosti lities: yet a similar convention is now deemed an hostile confederacy against England. A line of conduct so contradictory proceeds not from the circumstances of the principles and claims of neutral rights having been now enforced; but it seems to have its foundation in that maritime system which Eng land has established in the course of the present war. It appears also, that that government which Europe, from its pacific sentiments, has so often endeavoured to convince of the injustice of its pretensions,

tensions, has now determined to commence a war for the subjection of the sea, after it has rendered itself so renowned in the war undertaken for the freedom of Europe.

If the British minister will refer to the couduct of England against Sweden, and the neutral Powers in general, during this war, he will find the real cause why his Swedish majesty has been induced to believe that the formal alliance of several powers, acting upon the same principles, would more effectually tend to convince the court of London of the validity of those principles, than by any one power renewing those reclamations which have hitherto been made in vain at the same time his majesty never supposed that such an alliance would be considered as an act of hostility. The British minister complains, that the court of London was not before instructed of the intention of the respective courts to renew the convention of 1780; but in the same note he states, that England had entered into engagements this war with its allies respecting neutrals: thus the avowal of the British minister is an answer to his own charge.

If his majesty was not fully convinced of the innocence of his intentions, and if he was desirous of deviating from that line of moderation he has ever observed, he might make an invidious and censurable enumeration of the conduct of England; of the unpunished of fences of the commanders of English ships of war, even in Swedish harbours; of the inquisitorial examinations which the captain and crews of the ships detained, as well in the West Indies as in England, have been subjected; of the detention of the convoy in 1798; of the deceit

1801.

ful chicanery with which the proceeding of the courts of Admiralty were accompanied; of the absolute denial of justice in many instances; and lastly, by the insult offered to the Swedish flag at Barcelona. His Swedish majesty must, doubtless, state among the offences of which he has cause to complain, that after one of his ministers had been sent to the British court, its aggressions, instead of being admitted and remedied, were justified. But, he has sought no revenge; his majesty wishes only to procure that security to his flag to which it is entitled. In consequence of this sentiment, the undersigned is empowered to declare, that the British court shall acknowledge the rights of Sweden; that it shall do justice with regard to the convoys detained in 1798, as well as respecting the violence offered to the Swedish flag at Barcelona; and above all, that it shall take off the embargo which has been so unjustly laid on the Swedish ships. His majesty will, with the greatest pleasure, see his ports again opened to the trade of England, and the ancient good understanding between the two courts renewed. His majesty, impressed with that dignity due to his empire, has, in consequence of the embargo laid upon the Swedish ships, placed a similar embargo on all English vessels in the harbours of Sweden.

As the pacific tendency of the present convention has been proved to a demonstration, his majesty therefore hopes that no consideration respecting any accidental occurrence which may have taken place between the ally of his majesty the emperor of Russia and the court of London, will be introduced. The act of the convention itself proves that its bases are the (K)

rights

been endeavoured to be made respecting the present convention have not, in the slighest degree, weakened the impression which was produced by its first perusal, namely, that the intentions and motives of the contracting powers were hostile to the rights of his majesty; and this impression is fully confirmed by observing 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 proportional 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 exclusive offence on the part of Great Britain.

Under these circumstances, the embargo laid upon the Swedish ships can only be considered as an act of legitimate and necessary prudence, and cannot be otherwise denominated, while the court of Stockholm contines a party to a convention, the object of which is to impose upon his majesty a new maritime system, incompatible with the dignity of his throne and the rights and interests of his people.

The undersigned requests the baron Von Ehrensward to receive the assurances of his high esteem. (Signed) HAWKESBURY. Downing-street, March 6, 1801.

Note from the Danish to the British Minister.

The undersigned, having informed the king, his master, of the official communication of lord Gren ville, dated the 15th of January last, has received orders to declare, that his majesty is deeply affected at seeing the good understanding