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 task 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.

BERNSTORFF

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. Bartholomew, 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, De Væbnede Neutralitetsforbund, p. 357.

Additional Instructions to Lieutenant General Trigge, January 14, 18011

SIR: In addition to the instructions contained in my letter of this day's date I have to inform you that His Majesty from his anxiety to avoid coming to open war with Denmark and Sweden is still willing to entertain a hope, that the display of the vigorous and decided measures he is compelled to adopt against their trade and colonies may still induce them to relinquish their present engagements with Russia and to give such security as His Majesty may deem necessary for their observance of a system of neutrality consistent with the maritime rights of this country. Under these circumstances and until the effect upon the Courts of Copenhagen and Stockholm of the measures His Majesty has ordered to be taken, can be ascertained, whatever appearance of existing hostility these measures may assume, His Majesty is disposed to consider them rather as steps of just and necessary precaution, and with a view to indemnify his own subjects for the injury they have sustained by the confederacy to which these Powers are a party, than as arising out of an actual state of war.

This being the case you are not to consider any property or other articles liable to seizure, and which in such cases have usually fallen to the share of the captors as acquired to them for their advantage His Majesty reserving to himself to determine hereafter respecting the disposal of such property and to what amount an appropriation may be proper for the reward of the captors, and with this view you will cause all articles and effects coming under this description to be deposited in proper places of safety until His Majesty's pleasure shall be known or to be sent to this country on board the ships in which they may be seized as the nature of the cargo or stores may appear to require. (P. R. O.)

British Order of Council laying an Embargo on Russian, Danish, and Swedish Ships, January 14, 18012

At the Court of St. James's, the 14th January 1801; present, the King's Most Excellent Majesty in Council.

Whereas His Majesty has received advice, that a large number of

1Thorvald Boye, op. cit., p. 358.

2Collection of State Papers, vol. 11, p. 217.

vessels belonging to His Majesty's subjects have been and are detained in the ports of Russia, and that the British sailors navigating the same, have been and now are detained, as prisoners, in different parts of Russia; and also, that, during the continuance of these proceedings, a confederacy of a hostile nature, against the just rights and interest of His Majesty, and his dominions, has been entered into with the Court of St Petersburg by the Courts of Denmark and Sweden, respectively; His Majesty, with the advice of his Privy Council, is thereupon pleased to order, as it is hereby ordered, that no ships or vessels belonging to any of His Majesty's subjects be permitted to enter and clear out for any of the ports of Russia, Denmark, or Sweden, until further order; and His Majesty is further pleased to order, that a general embargo or stop be made of all Russian, Danish, and Swedish ships and vessels whatsoever now within, or which hereafter shall come into any of the ports, harbors, or roads within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, together with all persons and effects on board the said ships and vessels; but that the utmost care be taken for the preservation of all and every part of the cargoes on board any of the said ships or vessels, so that no damage or embezzlement whatever be sustained.

And the Right Honorable the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, and the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, and the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, are to give the necessary directions herein as to them may respectively appertain.

W. FAWKENER

Notification of Lord Grenville, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, to the Danish and Swedish Ambassadors regarding the Embargo on Danish and Swedish Ships, January 15, 18011

The undersigned, principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, has been commanded by His Majesty to make the following communication to Count von Wedel-Jarlsberg, and Baron von Ehrensward, Danish and Swedish Envoys at this Court.

1Ibid., p. 218.

His Majesty has heard with the sincerest concern, that at the moment when the Court of Petersburg had adopted the most hostile measures against the persons and property of His Majesty's subjects, the two Courts of Copenhagen and Stockholm had concluded a convention with that Power for the maintenance of a naval armed confederacy in the north of Europe. If the circumstances under which the convention alluded to was negotiated and concluded, could have left any doubt in His Majesty's mind respecting the objects to which it is directed, that doubt would, by the declarations of the Court of Petersburg, and still farther by the recent and official declarations of the Court of Copenhagen, have been completely removed. It is sufficiently known with what hostile intentions an attempt was made, in the year 1780, to introduce a new code of public law against Great Britain, and to support by force a system of innovation prejudicial to the dearest rights of the British Empire. But His Majesty has hitherto had the satisfaction to see that those arbitrary and injurious measures have been completely given up. At the beginning of the present war, the Court of Petersburg, which had taken a most active part in the establishment of the former alliance, entered into articles with His Majesty, which are not merely incompatible with the convention of 1780, but which are directly in the face of it; engagements which are still in force, and the reciprocal execution of which His Majesty is entitled to demand upon every principle of good faith, during the continuance of the war. The conduct of His Majesty towards the other Powers of the Baltic, and all the decisions of his courts of justice in regard to prizes, have been uniformly, and notoriously, founded upon those principles which previously to the year 1780 had guided all other European courts of admiralty. Nor had the intention to renew the former confederacy been communicated to His Majesty on the part of any of the contracting Powers, till he received information of the actual signing of the convention, and had been apprized by the declaration of one of the parties, that the object of it was to confirm the stipulations entered into in the years 1780 and 1781, in their original shape. No further doubts therefore can remain, that the object of their confederacy, and the naval preparations, which the contracting Parties pursue with vigor, is nothing less than to place themselves in a situation to maintain by force, pretensions which are so obviously inconsistent with the principles of justice, that those Powers, which, when neutral, brought them forward, were the first