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 required 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 shail 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.)

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

British Order of Council laying an Embargo on Russian, Danish, and Swedish Ships, January 14, 18011

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 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 for 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 Hon. 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 to the Danish and Swedish Ambassadors regarding an Embargo on Danish and Swedish Ships, January 15, 18012

The undersigned, principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, has been commanded by His Majesty to make the following communi

1Collection of State Papers, vol. 11, p. 217. 2Collection of State Papers, vol. 11, p. 218.

cation to Count von Wedel-Jarlsberg, and Baron von Ehrensward, Danish and Swedish Envoys at this Court.

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 year 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 to oppose them when they became belligerent, and the establishment of which, if it should be effected, would be one of the principal means of overthrowing the strength and security of the British Empire. On the knowledge of these circumstances, His Majesty the King would act contrary to the interest of his people, the dignity of his crown, and the honor of his flag (which by the discipline, courage, and skill of his navy, has risen to so extraordinary a pitch of greatness), were he to delay the adoption of the most effectual measures to repel the attack he has already experienced, and to oppose the hostile effects of the confederacy armed against him. His Majesty has therefore authorized the undersigned officially to communicate to Count WedelJarlsberg and Baron von Ehrensward, that an embargo has been laid upon all the Danish and Swedish ships in the ports belonging to His Majesty. But in the execution of this measure His Majesty will take care that no violent or severe proceedings shall be exercised on the part of His Majesty towards innocent individuals. His Majesty is still animated by the most anxious desire that the circumstances which have rendered these steps necessary may cease, and that he may be enabled to return to those relations with the Courts of Stockholm and Copenhagen, which existed between them, till that mutual goodunderstanding was interrupted by the present attempts to renew former pretensions.

(Signed) GRENVILLE

Reply of Baron Ehrensward, January 17, 1801, to the Notification of Lord Grenville regarding an Embargo on Danish and Swedish Ships.1

The undersigned, Minister Plenipotentiary of His Imperial Swedish Majesty, received the official notification, by which his Excellency Lord. Grenville, first Minister of State, signified to the undersigned, that His

1Collection of State Papers, vol. 11, p. 221.

.

Britannic Majesty had ordered an embargo to be laid on all the Swedish ships that should be found in the harbors within his dominions. So unexpected an event between Powers who were in relations of friendship towards each other, was received with astonishment by His Imperial Majesty, who was not only unconscious of having given His Britannic Majesty the least cause of complaint, but on the contrary was entitled to have demanded indemnification for repeated aggressions. Actuated by this reflection, he rather expected that the notification was transmitted with the view to bury his grievances in oblivion, than to give occasion for fresh ones, which should renew the remembrance of the past.

As the English Court has stated, as the ground of this notification, that a maritime convention was in contemplation, it would doubtless have acted with more justice, had it waited for an official communication from the Swedish Court, which it most assuredly would in proper time have received, of a convention, which is considered in so odious a point of view, as to urge it to an act of violence against a Court, whose connection with England nothing else could have disturbed. As the dispute between the Russian and English Courts related to the island of Malta, and the declaration of the Danish Court referred to the convention of 1780, the undersigned can see no just reason why the Swedish Court, which had given no cause of complaint to the English, and from which no other declaration was required than what related to the note of the 31st of December, which has just been received, should be attacked in so hostile a manner before any answer had been given to the insinuations contained in that note.

The undersigned, who imparted the contents of the note of his Excellency Lord Grenville to his Court, is obliged, in conformity to the orders of his master, to protest, as far as by the present act he can formally protest, against the embargo laid on the Swedish ships, and all loss or damage that may be thereby occasioned. He demands, in the most forcible and expressive terms, that, in pursuance of the stipulations of the treaty of 1661, the embargo may be taken off, the continuance of which can no otherwise be considered than as a designed and premeditated declaration of war on the part of England, as well by the detention of the convoy, as in respect to the affair at Barcelona. The undersigned, whom the expression of the desire of the British. Court could not escape, observes, in the hostile determination by which. it is accompanied, only to give His Imperial Swedish Majesty cause.