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conful, who had become his great idol,* for the purpose of intimidating the grand fignior into fome conceffions, as favourable to France, as detrimental to England. The reafon affigned by Paul, in the Peterburgh gazette, of the 10th of September, 1800, for fetting on fool a great army, on the fide of the Baltic, and diftributing it in certain fiations, which were pointed out, was "That feveral political circumftances induced his majefty, the emperor, to think that a rupture might enfue of the friendship between Ruffia and England."

The most active preparations for naval war were, at the fame time, carried on in all the Ruffian ports.

It is the ufual policy of princes and statesmen to conceal, as much as poffible, their defigns, till the moment of execution. Paul was neither guided in his conduct, by policy, nor by common prudence and difcretion. He gratified his refentments by an effufion of words, before it was in his power to exprefs them by actions. The annunciation of his intention to quarrel with England was followed up, in the end of October, with a declaration, publified in the Peters burgh gazette, of his determination to revive the armed neutrality. He stated that, on mounting his throne, he found his states involved in a war, provoked by a great nation, which had fallen into diffolution; that, conceiving the coalition to be a mere measure of prefervation, this motive had induced him to

join it; that he did not, at that time, think it necessary to adopt the fyftem of an armed neutrality at fea, for the protection of commerce, not doubting, but that the fincerity of his allies, and their reciprocal interefts, would be fufficient to le cure the flag of the northern powers from infult. But that, being dif appointed in his expectation by the prefidious enterprifes of a great power, which had fought to enchain the liberty of the feas, by capturing Danith convoys; the independence of the maritime powers of the north appeared, to him, to he openly menaced: he, confe quently, confidered it as a measure of neceffity to have recourse to an armed neutrality; the fuccefs of which was acknowledged in the time of the American war.”

The rupture with England, which Paul had predicted as not impro bable, was announced, together with the immediate caufe that led to it, by the publication of an official note fent to the foreign minifters at the Ruffian court, in the Peterburgh Gazette, of the 7th of November, 1800: "Whereas, his imperial majesty had learned that the island of Malta, lately in the poffeffion of the French, had been furrendered to the English troops; but, as it yet was uncertain whether the agreement entered into on the 30th of December, 1798, would be fulfilled, according to which, that island was to be restored to the order of St. John of Jerufalem, of which his majesty the emperor of all the Ruffias was grand

As the great idol of his father, was Frederick the Great, of Pruffia. A letter from general Pahlin, November, 1800, ftates, that when he had the honour to dine with Paul, his imperial majesty said that he would give, as a toast, the greatest man in Europe. On which he immediately drank Buonaparte, exclaiming, Huzza! Vivat Buonaparte!"

mafter;

after; his imperial majefty, being determined to defend his rights, had been pleased to command, that an embargo hould be laid on all English Chips in the ports of his empire, till the abovementioned convention fhould be fulfilled.

By this time, the Ruffian envoy, Litakwitch, had received orders from his court to quit England, and to proceed to Copenhagen, where he was appointed ambafiador.

In confequence of the emperor's orders, not only an embargo was laid on near 500 Britifh fhips in the ports of Peterburgh, Riga, Revel, and Cronstadt, but the crews, with their commanders, were taken out of the veffels, and difperfed into the interior parts of the country, to diftances, from a hundred to a thoufand miles, in bodies often of 12 men each, into prifon. On fhore, all British property was fequeftered; feals were placed on all warehoufes containing English goods; and the owners were obliged to enter into recogpilances to take inventories of their effects, and report the fame to the government. When the embargo on the Englifh fhips took place, at Narva, on the 5th of November, the crews of two of the vessels, indignant at fach arbitrary proceedings, on the arrival of a military force, to put them under arreft, making refiftance, with piftols and cutlaffes, weighed anchor, and made off. The emperor, enraged at this, ordered the remainder of the fhips in that harbour to be burnt. In the fame gazette, November 21, that stated this mutiny, as it was called, and the condemnation of the hip, the emperor renewed his declaration, that the embargo hould not be taken off till the

ifland of Malta fhould be given up, to Ruffia, agreeably, as he faid, to the convention of December, 1798.

The preponderating power of the Ruffian empire, in the north, must, at all times, have great influence in the measures of Sweden and Denmark. The authority of the emperor Paul, combined with the maritime interefts, or, as was contended, rights of thefe kingdoms, and the 'irritated pride of the Swedish and Danish courts, formed a confederacy of Sweden Denmark, and Ruffia, against the maritime claims of England: to which Pruffia acceded, though under the strongest proteftations that this was confidered, by the court of Berlin, merely as a measure of prevention, and that it by no means intended any thing hoftile against Great Britain.

The king of Sweden, high fpirited, young, and of a refolute temper, was not only early brought over to a coalition with Paul, but took a very active part in extending it. For this purpofe, he vifited the courts of both Peterburgh and Copenhagen. In the mean time, naval preparations were carried on in his ports and arfenals. Denmark did not join the confederacy without hefitation. Never was

The

the navigation of Denmark more extenfive than at this period, or its trade more flourishing. The merchandifes of Europe, and both the Indies, poured into its ports. Danish merchants, in the capital, and other ports, had amaffed a degree of wealth, hitherto unknown in that country. A ftate of affairs fo profperous, it was unwilling to exchange for a war with England; the certainty of which, fhould it join the coalition, it had every rea[H2]

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fon to apprehend, from what had
happened in the Sound, towards
While Den
the end of Auguft.
mark hefitated, the Ruffian emperor
threatened her with the fevereft
marks of his difpleafure if the thould
perfift in her prudent plan of
Sweden too folicited
neutrality.
the acceffion of Denmark to the
northern league, in a tone which
For
appeared rather dictatorial.
fome time the arrogance of the fo-
licitations of both the Ruffian and
Swedish courts deftroyed their
effect. For fome time, it has been
faid, the court of Denmark felt
greater refentment against its north-
ern neighbours, than at that power
against which they were endeavour-
But the right of vifi-
ing to arm it.
tation at fea, claimed by England,
was every day more and more vi-
gorously afferted. The fituation of
two fuch
Denmark, between
powers, in hoftility to each other,
as Ruflia and Great Britain, was
truly arduous.

In this fituation, Denmark, fen-
fible of the neceffity of connecting
herself with fome great power, by
which he might be protected,
equally from the infolence of the one,
and the predominancy of the naval
power and pretenfions of the other,
formed connections, and yielded to
the direction of the court of Berlin.
The influence and authority of the
king of Pruffia, in Germany, in
which fo valuable a part of the
Danish king's dominions, Holftein,
Slefwick, and the Cimbrian Che-
reonefus itself, was anciently con-
fidered as fituated, had become
nearly equal to thofe of Auftria,
The interefts, and the fecurity of
the north of Germany, were gene-
rally provided for by connections
with the court of Berlin, as thofe of

the fouth were by fimilar con-
nections with that of Vienna. And
during the war, continued between
Auftria and France, beyond the
year 1791, the king of Pruffia was
at the head of what was called
an army of demarcation; fupport-
ed at the common expenfe, for main-
taining the neutrality of the north
of Germany: of which, in fact, he
feemed to be emperor, and to exer-
cife over the fecondary and fubor-
dinate powers, fomething like the
authority of a fovereign lord over
a feudal vaflal. The policy of the
court of Berlin was diftinguished by
an union of prudence with vigour :
and there was a ftrong affinity of
habits and manners between the
Danes and Pruffians. It was there-
fore natural for the Danes to feek a
connection with Pruffia, and it was
as natural for the Pruffian monarch
to accept and cultivate their friend-
fhip and alliance, as thofe of the
Swedes. By a good understand-
ing and alliance with Denmark and
Sweden, which, as well as Den-
mark, was to a certain extent a
German power, the Pruffian mo-
narch would extend and confirm his
authority both in and
northern parts of Germany; and,
by acceding to the northern league
he would be able to balance the
afcendency of Ruffia, and to mode-
rate that character of excefs and
violence, which the perfonal cha-
racter of Paul, to the detriment of
all his neighbours, might, without
fuch an antagonist and moderating
power, introduce into the armed
neutrality. Befides all this, Pruffia
had become herfelt no inconfider-
able maritime power: and to aug.
ment and extend this had long
been one of the main objects of
plans,
thofe political combinations and

on the

plans, in which the genius of the court of Berlin was fo fertile. To maintain the freedom of the feas, therefore, was, and likely to become, every day more and more the intereft of Pruffia; though certainly its commerce had not yet attained to fuch a pitch, as to place it on a level with its projects of continental ambition, if the maintenance or extenfion of both had been inconsistent. Thefe confiderations however, though obvious, were not perhaps, the true motives that influenced at this crifis, the court of Berlin. To penetrate into the fecret workings of the understanding and movements of the heart, that are the original fprings of great affairs, is not in the power of the annalift who keeps fo nearly pace with time; feldom of the future hiftorian. It is poffible that the Pruffian monarch may have been lefs actuated by the confiderations juft ftated, than by fome fecret intrigues with Buonaparte, refpecting indemnities, or a fecret jealoufy and averfion to Auftria, and of course to England, her great ally. Whatever were his fecret motives, an opportunity foon offered of carrying his plan into execution.

In the beginning of October, 1800, a Pruffian vellel, belonging to Emden, laden with naval ftores, and bound for the Texel, Was taken by an English frigate and carried into Cruxhaven, a port belonging to Hamburgh. His Pruffian majefty remonftrated on this to the fenate, in ftrong and fevere language, and directed the duke of Brunswick, as general of the army of neutrality, to march a body of two thousand troops to take poffeffion of the village of Cruxhaven, and of the town and bailliwick of

Ritzebuttel, within which bailliwick. Cruxhaven is fituated. The fenate, after entreating that the courts of London and Berlin would fettle. this affair without involving the government of Hamburgh, purchafed the veffel from the English captain, and delivered her to the Pruffian commander. But the march of. the Pruffians was continued. Lord Carysfort, the British minifter, at Berlin, did not fail to reprefent, that the march of the Pruffians against Cruxhaven, the caufe being now removed, ought to be countermanded. Count Hogwitz, the Pruffian minifter, replied, that his Pruflian majefty, in the character of chief for preferving the neutral line. of demarcation, had found it neceffary to occupy the port of Cruxhaven, in order to watch over the interefts and fecurity of those countries within its boundaries. But that this occupation would not difturb the good harmony that fubfifted between the courts of Berlin and London, and that neither commerce nor a free communication would be interrupted by it.

The declaration of the Pruffian commandant, Wedell, on his entering Ritzebuttel, was, "That the temporary occupation of that bailliwick, and the village of Cruxhaven, by the troops under his command, had been occafioned by a mifunderftanding which had happened withrefpect to a Pruffian fhip. Though after feveral fruitless requests, and amicable attempts had been made, that mifunderstanding was now happily done away, yet, as the marching of troops, rendered neceffary by the inefficacy of these, in the beginning, had once been ordered, and already commenced, his majefty had deemed it expedient [H 3]

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RHODES

HOUSE

OXFORD

LIBRARY

to let it be continued, for the purpole of occupying the bailiwick of Ritzebuttel, to prevent fimilar events, and henceforth to watch himfelf over the maintenance of the neutrality of that place, fo important for all ftates fituated within the line of demarcation. This was the fole object of the arrival of the troops intruffed to his command. As their commanding officer, he would be particularly folicitous in maintaining public tranquillity and fecurity, especially with refpect to relations of neutrality; and, in vigoToufly protecting the civil branches of the Hamburgh government of that place, as well as other inhabitants and ftrangers arriving there, with all their rights, legal relations, affairs, business, and property, wherever it might be requifite: but principally commerce and navigation, which should not, in the leaft, be injured or refrained, but, on the contrary, better fecured and preferved, in their tranquil and undisturbed courfe; without, however, making the leaft alteration in the conftitution and public measures of the place on the other hand, every perfon was required to behave in a peaceable manner to the king's troops under his command; other wife, he would have to afcribe to himfelf the difagreeable confequences, which would inevitably arife from a contrary behaviour." This piece was dated at the bailliwick of Ritzebuttel, November 24, 1800.

The king of Pruffia was now univerfally regarded as a party in that confederation, which, it was well known, was going on among the northern powers. The mouths of the Elbe, the Viftula, the Wefer, and the Ems, lay within the pre

cincts of thofe territories of whose” neutrality he was the principalguardian. And thefe inlets gave him an opportunity of co-operating with the other confederates, as ef fectually as if Pruffia had ranked among the first maritime powers. It was in the power of Pruflia to exclude the merchandise of England from thofe ports, and to cut off the fupplies of grain, which, in Great Britain, at a fealou of great fcarcity, were eagerly expected.

The court of Berlin, joining a plaufible pretext, and an impofing attitude, to a cautious conduct, ferved at once as a model, an excufe, and a field to Denmark, While the prepared for hoftilities the profeffed the moft amicable difpofitions towards England. She entertained fome hopes that under the protection of a Pruflian alliance fhe might efcape the attacks of England, whofe intereft it fo greatly was, to keep on fair terms with Pruffia. Nor could the court of St. James's be furprised or blame her, if the joined a coalition fupported on the one hand by the king of Pruffia, and on the other, by the emperor of Ruffia.

The northern confederacy without the acceffion of Pruffia was not complete. With the good will, or even neutrality of Pruffia, Great Britain might defy the intrigues of Buonaparte, and brave the utmost rage of Paul, though feconded by fo hardy and brave a country as Sweden. The acceffion of Pruffia, involving of neceffity that of Denmark, completed the chain, for excluding the English from the continent, from Petersburgh and Stockholm to the ftrait of Gibraltar. After the march of the Proffian troops to Cruxhaven, and the Prufliar, mani

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