feaual. We now proceed to take notice of fome other particulars refpecting the engagement, not mentioned by lord Nelfon.

The carnage on board the Danish fhips was exceffive. It was calcuJated by the commander-in-chief, Oliver Fisher, at 1800. The veffels were crowded with men, and from fome fingular neglect, probably originating in the idea of the wounded being fo near the city that they could not be immediately accommodated there, there was not, on board their block fhips, a fingle furgeon. When our people boarded them, they found hundreds bleeding to death. As foon as the fire of the Danish line had flackened and lord Nelfon perceived that the fhips and batteries of the enemy were in his power, he went to his cabin, and wrote a letter to the prince royal reprefenting the expediency of allowing a flag of truce to pals, and ftating, that if this was denied, he should be under the neceffity of deftroying the floating batteries, now in his power, while it would be impoffible to fave thofe brave men by whom they were defended. This note was addressed, "To the brothers of Englishmen, the Danes." When, in confequence of this reprefentation, he received permiffion to land, and went on thore to adjust terms of conciliation, he was received by the brave and generous Danes, with the loudeft acclamations, and treated by the

accomplished prince of Denmark with every mark of refpect.* The immediate confequence of their conference was an armiftice, which foon led to an amicable convention.+ The dreadful engagement heard, feen, and felt on the Danish fhore, wound up the feelings of all ranks to the highest pitch of fenfibility: but all individual hopes and fears feemed to be loft in a general blaze of patriotic ardour. From the crown prince, whofe cool intrepidity and judgement were gloriously difplayed in the fight of his people and of Europe, to the humbleft citizen, one heroic mind and purpofe feemed to animate and unite the whole. Never had the Danish valour, in the brightest periods of their hiftory, fhone out with more diftinguished luftre. The daring pirates of the ninth and tenth centuries did not exhibit greater intrepidity and prowefs in invading, than their defcendents of the nineteenth century did in refifting an invafion from England. If the recollection of a common origin, a fimilarity of manners, and long habits of commercial and focial intercourse, tends to imprefs on the two nations a conviction that they are fitted and deftined to be good friends to each other, the ever-niemorable battle of Copenhagen, not more glorious to the one party than the other, ought to be a long memento, that they are not lefs fitted to be mutually dreadful and deftruc

+ See State Papers.

VOL. XLIII.

[1]

tive

tive enemies. Lord Nelfon told the crown prince's aid-de camp, colonel Lundholm, who waited on him refpecting the proferred flag of truce, that "the French fought bravely, but that they could not have flood an hour, the fight which the Danes maintained for four. I have been in 105 engagements, faid he, in the courfe of my life, but that of to day was the most terrible of all." Admiral fir Hyde Parker in his difpatches to the admiralty, faid, "Were it poffible for me to add any thing to the well earned renown of lord Nelfon, it would be by allerting that his exertions, great as they have heretofore been, never were carried to a higher pitch of zeal for his country's fervice."

The Swedish fleet at Carlferona, left that port the 31st of March, but was prevented from joining the Danes by contrary winds. Sur

mifes were current that the Swedish government was more eager to incite the Danes than to take themfelves a fhare in actual hoftilities. But they were wholly groundlefs.

On the 22d of March the Danish and Swedish ifles in the West Indies were reduced by a fquadron under admiral Duckworth.

The propofals made by lord Nelfon, in the conference with the prince of Denmark, are faid to have been thefe. It, That Denmark fhould recede from its alliance with Ruffia. 2d. That the English fhould be permitted to repair their fhips in the Danifh docks. 3d. That the wounded on board the English fleet fhould be taken care of in Danish hofpitals. The laft of thefe conditions was readily granted: the others rejected. An armiftice however was agreed to, and prolonged from day to day. A notice of fix hours, in

cale of an intention of renewing hoftilities on either fide, was to be given previously to the termination of the armiftice. What paffed in different converfations between the Danish prince and the English viceadmiral has not been yet difclofed. But whatever were the points that impeded a pacification on the part of Denmark, they were given up in confequence of intelligence, that the emperor of Ruffia, Paul I. was found dead in his bed on the night that followed the 22d of March. This fudden and important event was joyful to all, the French government excepted, and furprising to few! For more than a year past Paul had exhibited multiplied fymptoms of infanity, as has been probably remarked by the readers of our annual narratives. In this the predominant ingredient was generally anger and rage. When difpatches were prefented to him from the British government,containing terms of conciliation, he returned them unopened, after piercing them in many places with a penknife. In a review of fome troops in front of his palace, an officer was thrown from his horfe and diflocated his arm. The brutal emperor, inftead of fhewing any figns of compassion, kicked the officer, as he lay on the ground, with his foot. Yet his madnefs, though ftill though ftill fomewhat tinctured with violence, was fometimes mixed with a degree of whimfical humour. In private converfation with a nobleman of his court, without any provocation or preli minary he gave him a hearty flap in the face, adding, "This falutation with my hand Paul," alluding to one of the epiftles from Paul, the apostle. A few days before the young king of Sweden, who had gone to con

cert

tert the measures of the armed neutrality, left Petersburgh, the emperor gave a tournament, a diverfion of which he was very fond, and in which he performed perfonally as a combatant. In the evening, while the glass was in circulation, with Ruffian brifkness, a dispatch was received from Buonaparte, together with feveral carricatures, faid to be published in England, in which Paul was reprefented as a lunatic. The converfation turned on the military fucceffes of his new French friends; the projects formed by the northern confederacy to humble the pride of England, and the invincible prowefs which the emperor had displayed all day long in the tournament. His majefty, fired with the fpirit of chivalry, immediately refolved to send a defiance to all the potentates of Europe. The court gazette of St. Peterfburgh, December 30, 1800, contained the following: "It is faid that his majefty, the emperor, feeing that the powers of Europe cannot agree, and wifhing to terminate a war which has raged eleven years, intends to propofe a place, where he will invite all other potentates, to fight with them in harriers clofed up: for which purpose they are to bring with them their moft enlightened minifters, and moft fkilful generals, as fquires, umpires, and heralds; fuch as Thugut, Pitt, and Bernstorff. He himself intends to have with him count Vander Pahlin and count Kutofoff. It is not known whether this rumour is to be depended upon meanwhile it does not feem to be altogether without foundation, as it bears the mark of what has often been imputed to him."

In the moft arbitrary govern

ments, the ftability of power depends on public opinion. When all perfonal refpect for even an Afiatic defpot is gone, the combinations and intrigues of courtiers, eafily breaking through the feeble barrier of courtly fplendour, which fines moft at a diftance, feldom fail to produce a revolution of government. The connection between a perfonal contempt for the fovereign, and a revolution of government is ftill more neceflary in a country where commerce, the progrels of knowledge, and ideas of liberty, have both difpofed and enabled numerous bodies of men to trace the connection between their own interefts and the conduct of the fovereign. But most of all is revolution to be apprehended from folly and madnefs in the court, in fuch a country as Ruffia, in which the fucceffion to the crown has been fo irregular, and in which revolutions have been fo frequent-certain it is that, from the date of the challenge, ideas and expectations of fome revolution became familiar in the minds and converfations of men of all nations: but among none more than among the Ruffians. court gave out that the emperor was cut off by a ftroke of apoplexy: the world believed that his death was the effect of a confpiracy. This queftion we leave to future hiftorians. It is a queftion indeed that belongs rather to the memoirs of a particular court, than to the political hiftory of Europe. It is with the effects of the death of Paul, not with the chain of circumftances that involved it, that an annalist is principally concerned.

The

The new emperor Alexander, proclaimed on the day fucceeding the night of his father's death, de[12]

clared

clared for the laws and fyftem of his auguft grandmother. It was among the first acts of his reign, to give orders that the British failors and masters, who had been taken from the feveral British fhips, in a state of fequeftration, and fent to various towns throughout the Ruffian dominions, fhould be fet at liberty and carefully conducted to the feveral ports from whence they were taken. All prohibitions against the exportation of corn were removed: and the exportation of all kinds of grain was permitted. Peace and good understanding were re-established between the courts of London and Petersburgh, and all difputes between Great Britain and the northern powers, were amicably adjufted. By this fettlement the northern powers obtained two material points: first, a limitation of the right of fearch; and fecondly, a diminution of articles deemed contraband of war.*. While the negotiation was going on, we had a fleet in the Baltic of 25 fail of the line, and nearly 45 frigates, floops, bombs, and gun-vellels. The chief divifion of the fleet, under lord Nelfon and admiral Graves, lay in Kioge-bay; and another, under admiral Totty, off Bornholm. Captain Murray, with a fmall fquadron, was off

Dantzick; and lord H. Poulett cruized with a few fhips off Rostock. The Danish troops evacuated Hamburgh: the free navigation of the Elbe, Wefer, and Ems was refiored; and the court of Berlin gave assurances that, after certain arrangements fhould be made for the quiet of Germany, the Pruffian troops fhould evacuate Bremen and Ha

nover.

The termination of hoftilities between Great Britain and Denmark was attended with fome pleafing and affecting circumftances, fuch as might be expected in a reconciliation of friends. The honourable colonel Stuart, who commanded the military on board our fleet, and whofe gallantry was greatly praifed by lord Nellon, after an armistice was agreed on, brought over a letter from the prince of Denmark to our good king, his uncle. When the embargo, that had been laid on the Danifh fhips in the British ports, was, in confequence of the pacification, taken off, the expenfe of both laying it on and taking it off was defrayed out of the English treafury. This mild and liberal proceeding gave general fatisfaction not only to the government and people of Denmark, but also to the people of England.

CHAP.

HOUGH the difficulties and

Great Britain, from the commencement of the war, had been very great, the fituation of this country, in the three firft months of 1801, had become critical and alarming almost beyond any former example. Repeated efforts to circumfcribe had only ferved to extend the power of France. The fouth and weft of Europe, fubdued by the arms, or crouching under the power of that mighty ftate, was detached from all co-operation, in the war with England, or dragged into the ftream of hoftility againft her. The northern powers, envious of our commercial and naval greatnefs, and inftigated by the intrigues of Buonaparte, revived claims inconfiftent with both; and were prepared to maintain them by armies and armaments. At a time when the British nation, hard preffed by fcarcity, and threatened with

famine, looked for a fupply of of the

Elbe, and the Baltic, thefe ports were fhut against her. To crown the feries of calamities, the executive council of the king was in the act of diffolution, and that at a time when a fevere indifpofition rendered it impoffible for the retiring minifters to return, into the hands of their fovereign, the badges of their office.

One conceffion after another, on the part of the British government, during the whole courfe of the prefent reign, had abundantly fecured to the Irish catholics their civil and religious rights; and admitted them, too, into as great a participation of political power, as was thought compatible with the tranquillity of the flate, and even with folemn and religious engagement. They were only excluded from fitting in parliament, and from holding about thirty public offices. The men of pro[13]

perty