ARTICLE 8 Inasmuch as the aforesaid documents are absolutely necessary to prove neutral ownership of goods on board the ship, particular care must be exercised not to throw them overboard, or any other writings or papers without exception, or on any occasion whatever, particularly on encountering another vessel, since by such a proceeding the vessel may lay itself open to well founded suspicion and to disagreeable consequences. ARTICLE 9 Care should be taken that there be not on board a Russian vessel a merchant, a commercial employee, or other officer, or more than one third of the sailors, who are subjects of one of the belligerent Powers, since otherwise such a vessel might meet with many unpleasant incidents. Vessels purchased in time of war from subjects of belligerent Powers would be exposed to similar complications. Therefore, now and as long as the present war lasts, they may not be purchased for any other purpose than for navigation in the Baltic or in the Black Sea. ARTICLE 10 It is forbidden, in general, to carry any goods from any point whatever to places that are now under blockade or siege, by land or by sea; and if any of our merchants should risk such unlawful commerce, they shall not, in spite of their loss, have the slightest right to seek our protection. ARTICLE 11 All our subjects, who happen to be in foreign lands for commercial purposes, must conform strictly to the local mercantile laws in force. as well as to the ordinances of the place where they reside or to which they send their vessels. And in order that these laws and ordinances may be known to them so far as possible, the Department of Foreign Affairs shall communicate to our Chamber of Commerce all papers relating thereto, so that all merchants may be informed thereof by means of the gazettes. ARTICLE 12 Our purpose to protect and to defend in the most effectual manner the commerce and navigation of our faithful subjects in nowise contemplates that our course shall result in injury to any of the belligerent Powers, or that individual merchants take advantage of it for the purpose of making unlawful gains. Therefore we expressly forbid the merchants of our empire to permit foreigners to sail ships or to carry on commerce under their name. In case of contravention of our will in this respect, the guilty party shall forfeit his right to engage in maritime commerce and to enjoy our imperial protection therein. If our subjects, who are engaged in maritime commerce, strictly comply with the terms of this ordinance, they can count, in return, on our full and unlimited protection in their business in a foreign country, as well as on the attentive and zealous intercession of the Minister, agents, or consuls, who reside there in our behalf. To this end our Department of Foreign Affairs will provide them in due time with proper instructions. On the other hand, those of our subjects who shall not observe these rules can not have the slightest claim on our protection in the misfortunes and losses which may result from wilfully neglecting to use the necessary circumspection enjoined upon them. The Chamber of Commerce, in notifying our present ordinance to Russian merchants engaged in commerce in the ports, shall not fail at the same time to supply the custom houses with the necessary instructions relating thereto, nor to inform the heads of the governments where there are ports of our will, in order that it may be uniformly observed in all the tribunals, in so far as they are concerned therewith. Given at Czarsko-Zelo, May 8/19, 1780. (Signed) CATHERINE Reply of the Court of France to the Danish Declaration regarding the Neutrality of the Baltic Sea, May 25, 17801 Far from wishing to extend the theater of the war, the King has constantly manifested his desire to restrict it. The solicitude of His Majesty to fix precisely the portions of neutral coasts where his subjects may not attack the enemy has already proved how greatly he respected the sovereignty of all the Powers that border on the Baltic Sea; since they have declared themselves neutral, His Majesty has 1Translation. French text at Martens, vol. 3, 176. regarded that sea as closed by order of its sovereigns. He shall continue to follow the same course, and since it is apparently the wish of His Danish Majesty that orders be given that no French vessel shall commit acts of hostility beyond the sound, the Envoy of Denmark can assure His Majesty that the King will gladly comply with his desire. His Majesty has nothing more at heart than to do what is advantageous and agreeable to neutral Powers, those Powers especially that show themselves to be the protectors of the freedom of the seas, and in particular His Danish Majesty, whose confidence and friendship he earnestly desires to keep. (Signed) VERGENNES Declaration of His Danish Majesty to the Courts of London, Versailles and Madrid, July 8, 17801 If the most exact and perfect neutrality, with the most regular navigation, and the most inviolable respect to treaties, could have kept free the commerce of the subjects of the King of Denmark and Norway from the inroads of the Powers with whom he is at peace, free and independent, it would not be necessary to take measures to ensure to his subjects that liberty to which they have the most incontrovertible right. The King of Denmark has always founded his glory and his grandeur upon the esteem and confidence of other people. It has been his rule, from the beginning of his reign, to testify to all the Powers, his friends, a conduct the most capable of convincing them of his pacific intentions, and of his desire to contribute to the general happiness of Europe. His proceedings have always been conformable to these principles, against which nothing can be alleged; he has not, till now, addressed himself, but to the Powers at war, to obtain a redress of his griefs; and he has never wanted moderation in his demands, nor acknowledgments when they have received the success they deserved: but the neutral navigation has been too often 1Translation. For the French text, see Martens, Recueil de Traités, vol. 3, p. 178. See also, Annual Register, 1780, p. 352. molested, and the most innocent commerce of his subjects too frequently troubled; so that the King finds himself obliged to take proper measures to assure to himself and his allies the safety of commerce and navigation, and the maintenance of the inseparable rights of liberty and independence. If the duties of neutrality are sacred, the law of nations has also its rights avowed by all impartial Powers, established by custom, and founded upon equity and reason. A nation independent and neuter, does not lose by the war of others the rights which she had before the war, because peace exists between her and all the belligerent Powers. Without receiving or being obliged to follow the laws of either of them, she is allowed to follow, in all places (contraband excepted), the traffic which she would have a right to do, if peace existed with all Europe, as it exists with her. The King pretends to nothing beyond what the neutrality allows him. This is his rule, and that of his people; and the King can not accord to the principle, that a Power at war has a right to interrupt the commerce of his subjects. He thinks it due to himself and his subjects, faithful observers of these rules, and to the Powers at war themselves, to declare to them the following principles, which he has always held, and which he will always avow and maintain, in concert with the Empress of all the Russias, whose sentiments he finds entirely conformable with his own. (1) That neutral vessels have a right to navigate freely from port to port, even on the coasts of the Powers at war. (2) That the effects of the subjects of the Powers at war shall be free in neutral vessels, except such as are deemed contraband. (3) That nothing is to be understood under the denominations of contraband, that is not expressly mentioned as such in the third article of his treaty of commerce with Great Britain, in the year 1670, and the 26th and 27th articles of his treaty of commerce with France, in the year 1742; and the King will equally maintain these rules with those Powers with whom he has no treaty. (4) That he will look upon a blockaded port as one into which no vessel can enter without evident danger, on account of vessels of war stationed there, which form an effectual blockade. (5) That these principles serve for rules in procedure, and that justice shall be expeditiously rendered, after the rules of the sea, conformably to treaty and usage received. (6) His majesty does not hesitate to declare, that he will maintain these principles with the honor of his flag, and the liberty and independence of the commerce and navigation of his subjects; and that it is for this purpose he has armed a part of his navy, although he is desirous to preserve, with all the Powers at war, not only a good understanding, but all the friendship which the neutrality can admit of. The King will never recede from these principles, unless he is forced to it: he knows the duties and the obligations; he respects them as he does his treaties and desires no other than to maintain them. His Majesty is persuaded, that the belligerent Powers will acknowledge the justice of his motives; that they will be as averse as himself to doing any thing that may oppress the liberties of mankind, and that they will give their orders to their admiralty and to their officers, conformably to the principles above recited, which tend to the general happiness and interest of all Europe. COPENHAGEN, July 8, 1780. BERNSTORFF Convention for an Armed Neutrality between Russia and Denmark and Norway, July 9, 17801 Whereas the commerce and navigation of neuter Powers is greatly injured by the present war at sea which has broken out between Great Britain, on the one part, and France and Spain, on the other part, Her Majesty the Empress of Russia, and His Majesty the King of Denmark and Norway, in consequence of their assiduous attention to support their own dignity, and to unite their constant care for the safety and welfare of their respective subjects; as well as from the respect which they have at all times manifested for the rights of nations in general, have found it necessary, in the present circumstances, to determine their conduct according to these sentiments. Her Majesty the Empress of Russia, in her declaration to the belligerent Powers, dated February 28, 1780, has plainly stated, in the face of all Europe, the fundamental principles which derive from 1 Jenkinson's Treaties, vol. iii, p. 259. Sweden and the United Provinces acceded to this treaty on July 21, 1780, and January 5, 1781, respectively |