of complaint, as well by the detention of the convoy, as in respect to the affair at Barcelona. He wishes the British Court had conformed to the truth of its assurances by its actions, in which case this Court would have been actuated by corresponding sentiments.1

The undersigned has the honor, etc.

LONDON, January 17, 1801.

(Signed) BARON VON EHRENSWARD

Note of Lord Carysfort to Count Haugwitz regarding the Armed Neutrality League, January 27, 18012

As the undersigned Ambassador Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary has been directed by his Court to communicate to the Prussian Ministry His Majesty's note, which, by command of His Majesty the King of Great Britain and Ireland, was presented to the Ministers of Denmark and Sweden, he can not discharge this commission without likewise expressing his sincere satisfaction in being authorized to declare how thoroughly His Majesty is convinced that Prussia can never have sanctioned the measures which have given rise to the above-cited note. Those measures openly disclose an intention to prescribe rules to the British Empire, on a subject of the greatest importance; to force those rules upon Great Britain, and for that end, before any of the Powers who have concurred in it have given the smallest intimation to His Majesty, to enter into a league, the object of which is to renew pretensions which Great Britain at every time has considered hostile to its rights and interests, and so declared whenever an opportunity presented-pretensions which the Russian Court has abandoned, not only in fact, but which, by a treaty actually in force, Russia is bound to oppose, and the execution of which treaty His Majesty is entitled to insist upon. When a ship of war belonging to His Danish Majesty resisted by force the execution of a right, which the King of Great Britain and Ireland, by virtue of the clearest and

1In consequence of the above official intelligence being received at Stockholm, all Swedish ships were immediately stopped from going to England, and an embargo was laid upon all English ships in the Swedish harbors.

2Collection of State Papers, vol. 11, p. 213.

most express stipulations of his treaties which the Court of Denmark had demanded, His Majesty, on that occasion, confined himself to the adoption of such measures as the protection of the trade of his subjects required to be given against that measure of hostility, which this conduct on the part of an officer bearing His Danish Majesty's commission, seemed to show. An amicable arrangement put an end to this dispute, and the King flattered himself, not only that all misunderstanding on that subject was removed, but amity between the two Courts was strengthened anew and confirmed. In this situation of affairs His Majesty must have learned with no less astonishment than concern, that the Court of Copenhagen was employed in negotiations to renew the hostile confederacy against Great Britain which took place in 1780, and that also great preparations were going on in the ports of Denmark. Under these circumstances the King must have been compelled to call for explanations from the Court of Denmark. At this moment he received information that a confederacy was signed at Petersburg, and the answer of the Danish Minister left no doubt respecting the nature and object of this convention, as he declared in the most express manner, "That these negotiations had in view the renewal of those relations which had been entered into between the same Powers in the years 1780 and 1781," adding, "that His Majesty the Emperor of Russia had proposed to the northern Powers the renewal of their connection in its original form." The engagements alluded to had for their object principles of maritime law which never had been recognized by the tribunals of Europe, and the contracting parties mutually engaged to maintain them by force, and to compel by force other nations to adopt them. They are still more repugnant to the express stipulations of the treaties which subsist between the Courts of Stockholm and Denmark, and the British Empire. The convention which these engagements were to renew was negotiated at a time when the Court of Petersburg had adopted hostile measures against the persons and property of His Majesty's subjects, and when nothing but the extraordinary moderation of the King could have authorized other Powers not to consider him as at open war with that Court. In such a state of things, nothing certainly could be more inconsistent with the ideas of neutrality, and nothing more distinctly indicate a hostile disposition, than that those engagements were not postponed till it was ascertained whether Russia was not to be considered as a belligerent Power. Such forbearance was the more to be

expected, and particularly from the Court of Copenhagen, as, by an express article of the league of 1780, the Danish ports and havens in Norway were placed at the disposal of Russia for the purpose of facilitating the prosecution of hostilities out of the Baltic. When, therefore, the King was informed by one of the contracting parties that the object of the negotiations which had been begun at Petersburg, without giving the least intimation, and which at last, according to the information received by the King, had terminated in the conclusion of a convention, was no other than to renew the former confederacy to press upon His Majesty a new code of law to which he had already refused his assent; and when moreover he had the most certain intelligence, and could no longer doubt, that the Powers of the Baltic, engaged in this transaction, were pursuing warlike preparations with the utmost activity; when one of those Powers had placed itself in a state of actual hostilities with His Majesty; no other alternative remained, but either to submit, or to adopt measures which were calculated to put an effectual stop to the hostile operation of a league, which, by the declaration of the Danish Court itself, was openly directed against His Majesty. Meanwhile His Majesty has not omitted. on this occasion to display his wonted justice and good-will. Although he felt it necessary, for the maintenance of his rights, to secure some pledge against the hostile attacks which were meditated against his rights, yet he has taken the utmost care to guard against loss and injury to individuals. Firmly convinced that his conduct towards neutral States has been conformable to the recognized principles of laws, whose basis and sanction is to be found not in passing interests and momentary convenience, but in the general principle of justice; of laws which have been received and observed by the admiralty courts. of all the maritime Powers of Europe; His Majesty does not yet forego the hope that the Courts of Stockholm and Copenhagen will not take upon them the responsibility that will fall upon the authors. of the war; that particularly they will not expose themselves to that responsibility for the introduction of innovations, the notorious injustice of which has induced those Powers by which they were first broached, to oppose, when they found themselves at war; innovations besides, which are expressly repugnant to those treaties which have been concluded with His Majesty. The step on which His Majesty has resolved must have long been foreseen. The British Government has never concealed that it considered the league of 1780 as hostile,

and had never ceased that attention with which it watches over the rights of the nation. It immediately resisted the attempt to renew the principles which at the above-mentioned period had been agitated, and the undersigned declared to Count Haugwitz at the first conference he had with him on his arrival at Berlin, "That his Majesty would never submit to pretensions which were irreconcilable to the true principles of public law, and which strike at the foundations of the greatness and maritime power of his kingdoms." Still later, in the beginning of November, the undersigned had the honor to represent to his Excellency, as the Minister of a Power connected with His Majesty by the most intimate friendship, what disagreeable consequences must follow from the attempt of the northern Powers to press forward those pretensions. He has never ceased to renew this declaration, when, by the command of His Majesty, he has been the interpreter of that satisfaction given to the King by the repeated assurances of the friendship of His Majesty the King of Prussia, and of those constant sentiments of perfect justice of which His Majesty has never for a moment entertained a doubt. His Excellency Count Haugwitz will likewise easily recollect the time when the undersigned, ultimately convinced of the friendly intentions of the Prussian Government, communicated to him, by the command of His Britannic Majesty, the King's resolution to allow of no measures which had for their object to introduce innovations in the maritime law now in force, but, on the contrary, to defend that system in every event, and to maintain its entire execution as it had subsisted in all the Courts of Europe prior to the year 1780. If the Court of Denmark had announced in the most unequivocal manner, the real objects and contents of the engagements into which it had entered, the declaration of the Court, that Prussia was one of the Powers concerned in the negotiation, would have been sufficient to satisfy the King, and to prove to him that it could have no hostile views against his Government; and even still His Majesty is convinced that he may implicitly rely on the friendship of His Prussian Majesty. It is true, that, in relation to Great Britain and Ireland, there can be no similarity between the northern Powers and Prussia. Those Powers are connected with His Majesty by the stipulations of mutual treaties, which are less favorable to their interests, and which more or less modify and soften the rigor of the general law; whereas between His Majesty the King of Great Britain and Prussia no treaty of commerce exists, and all intercourse between them is regulated by the

general principles of the law of nations, and established usages. If, however, His Majesty were to consider his own sentiments, and the incessant wish he has shown to preserve the friendship of a monarch with whom he is connected by so many ties, he could not at all anticipate the possibility of a difference which might not easily and speedily be terminated by an amicable discussion. The repeated assurances of such sentiments on the part of His Prussian Majesty, which the undersigned has been empowered to transmit to his court, confirm this agreeable anticipation; and the known principles which have constantly directed His Majesty the King of Prussia, do not tend to countenance the supposition that the latter has entered into the confederacy, or can enter into the confederacy, to support by force principles in common with other Powers, whose hostile views against His Britannic Majesty have been openly proved. Whatever sentiments the Prussian Government may entertain in regard to the new principles themselves, yet it is too just, and knows too well what sovereigns owe to their people, and to one another, to favor for a moment the design to employ force in order to induce His Britannic Majesty to acknowledge a code which the latter deems inconsistent with the honor and security of his Crown. (Signed) CARYSFORT

BERLIN, January 27, 1801.

British Orders of Council respecting the Embargo on Russian, Danish, and Swedish Vessels1

At the Court of St. James's, the 28th of January, 1801; present, the King's Most Excellent Majesty in Council.

Whereas, His Majesty, by and with the advice of his Privy Council, has been pleased to cause an embargo to be laid upon vessels belonging to the subjects of Russia, Denmark, and Sweden, now within, or which hereafter should come into any of the ports of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, together with all persons and effects on board the said vessels: and whereas it has been represented to His 1Collection of State Papers, vol. 11, p. 222.