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une Notice sur quelques vaisseaux confisqués en le priant d'en prendre une lecture préalable, afin d'en faire le sujet d'une conversation ultérieure.

C'est dans le même dessein que M. de Hogendorp fait passer à son Excellence un autre Mémoire sur des négociations et des hypothèques dans les Iles Danoises. Par ce moyen il sera plus facile à M. Hogendorp de traiter ces matières avec son Excellence, lorsqu'elle voudra bien avoir la bonté de passer quelques instans chez lui.

M. de Hogendorp garde encore la chambre. Cependant il aura chez lui la Constitution à une heure à midi. Il a appointé M. de Düve. Au reste il est aujourd'hui ou demain aux service de son Excellence toutes les fois que la service de son Altesse Royale n'occupe pas impérieusement tous ses momens pour des objets d'une importance majeure.

Il regrette infiniment que son indisposition l'ait privé si long temps de la conversation de Monsieur l'Ambassadeur et de la connaissance de Miladi son épouse.

De son Excellence le très humble

et très obéissant Serviteur,

CHARLES DE HOGENDORP.

[Enclosure in M. de Hogendorp's Note.]

Statement respecting Dutch Vessels under the Prussian Flag laid under embargo in Spring, 1806.

Fifty or sixty Dutch vessels from Holland, and for the greatest part from Gröningen, under a simulated Prussian flag, arrived in London in the spring of 1806, with cargoes of oats, corn, and other stores, which were delivered there conformably to the orders of the masters.

These vessels were all laid under embargo by the English Government at the end of the month of March or the beginning of April in the same year, in consequence of the suspicion that the Prussian Government would choose the French side, and with permission nevertheless to the masters of the said ships to

return to their country, provided a sufficient security for the value of these ships were given. A certain part of these vessels, (fifteen or twenty in number) whereof the owners were known in England, and who could therefore get credit to give the said caution, availed themselves of it immediately, and sailed away; but the masters of the forty remaining, who were themselves the owners, for want of connexions in foreign countries, and whose knowledge of navigation was confined to that of the narrow seas, unable to obtain securities, were, in consequence, obliged to remain.

War with Prussia broke out, and eighteen or twenty of those ships were condemned and sold. Meanwhile, Prussia again changed her political system, and united herself to the cause of Great Britain. In consequence, the vessels not yet condemned were liberated from embargo, so that the captains remained in possession of them, and obtained leave to depart, while the securities for the first mentioned fifteen or twenty vessels were left free from suit or other proceedings.

The unfortunate situation of those owners, whose ships (eighteen or twenty in number) were condemned for want of giving security, is sufficiently obvious; whereas those who obtained proper securities, and those whose turn to have suits. instituted against them would have come later, were released without difficulty or loss.

This misfortune falls upon men, inhabitants of Gröningen, whose constant traffic is with England, to which they carry stores and other produce from Holland, and who, by industry and economy from their youth, have become proprietors of these vessels, who are totally ruined by the loss of them, and whose numerous families are plunged into abject poverty. This kind of coasting trade with small vessels, worked by two, three, or four hands of the captain's family, was the support of almost a whole village by their losses its existence is almost annihilated. The assertion that these vessels were Prussian vessels, on account of their papers, and that the Prussian Government

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ought to take this affair upon itself, cannot be made applicable to them. No; they were true Dutchmen by birth, and from ancient times inhabitants of the province of Gröningen, and who, as such, being comprehended in the unhappy war, could not go to England without a simulated flag, with which they have served England many years. These facts are as well known in England as they are here that they were Dutch vessels with a simulated flag.

M. de Hogendorp to Lord Clancarty.

The Hague, January 29, 1814.

My Lord-The first lines I write with my sick hand are addressed to your lordship, in order to express to you my gratitude for the most agreeable communications you have given me just now. I shall immediately transmit all your papers to his Royal Highness; but meanwhile I expect his orders, I cannot bear to remain silent, nor to shut up in my heart my admiration for the loyal sentiments of the Prince Regent and his Ministers-I am not now speaking to the Ambassador, but to the Earl of Clancarty, who settled with me this business like a friend and a brother.

I have the honour to be, &c.,

HOGENDORP.

Lord Castlereagh to M. Gremoens (Berne).

Langres, January 29, 1814. Sir-Your letter of the 15th of October last, addressed to the Prince Regent, has been received and laid before his Royal Highness. I am commanded to convey to you and to those of your countrymen in whose name you addressed his Royal Highness, the expression of his Royal Highness's satisfaction at the patriotic sentiments contained in that communication, and I am charged to assure you that his Royal Highness will always take the warmest interest in everything that may contribute to the welfare, the happiness, and real independence, of the Swiss nation.

VOL. IX.

P

I have great pleasure in being the instrument of acquainting you with these sentiments on the part of the Prince Regent. I have, &c., CASTLEREAGH.

Lord Castlereagh to Count Zeppelin.

Langres, January 30, 1814.

The Undersigned, his Britannic Majesty's principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, has the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Count Zeppelin's letter of December 26, 1813, and to acquaint him that it was laid before the Prince Regent as soon as it arrived in England.

Lord Castlereagh has received his Royal Highness's commands to inform Count Zeppelin of the sincere satisfaction which his Royal Highness feels in returning to the ancient relations of amity with his Royal Highness the King of Wirtemberg, for whose person he cannot fail to entertain that regard which the recollection of former connexion, as well as the ties of blood which unite the two families, naturally excite.

The Undersigned is charged to assure Count Zeppelin that, whenever a person furnished with the regular credentials shall be despatched from the Court of Stutgard to that of London, he shall be received as the accredited Minister of his Royal Highness the King of Wirtemberg, and his Royal Highness will then be ready, on his part, to direct a person to proceed to Stutgard, duly authorized to act in a similar capacity.

Lord Castlereagh begs to offer to Count Zeppelin his congratulations upon the restoration of amity between their respective countries, and to assure him of his high consideration.

CASTLEREAGH.

Lord Castlereagh to H.R.H. the Prince Regent.

Langres, January 30, 1814.

Sir-As your Royal Highness commanded me to write to you, if anything occurred that was not of an official nature, I

take the liberty of stating that the Emperor of Russia, very early in my first audience, adverted to his wish to visit England, and to his satisfaction at the invitation he considered himself as having received from your Royal Highness. I assured his Imperial Majesty that it was a subject on which I had often heard your Royal Highness express the strongest solicitude, and that his Imperial Majesty might be assured of the warmest reception from your Royal Highness and the nation. I have not the smallest doubt, from the manner in which the Emperor touched the subject, that it is his determination to execute this purpose.

The Emperor then stated to me that the Archduchess Catherine had a very earnest desire also to see England, and his Imperial Majesty asked me if I saw any objection to her undertaking this excursion. I ventured to assure his Imperial Majesty that I was confident any branch of his family would experience from your Royal Highness the most cordial reception. The Emperor said he should speak to me again on this subject.

Count Münster arrived here yesterday. I think he is not looking well. He seems satisfied with his interview with the Chancellor Hardenberg on your Royal Highness's Hanoverian affairs.

I should have earlier stated to your Royal Highness that the Emperor of Russia received with expressions of strong interest the notification of the Princess Charlotte's marriage, and seemed fully to approve of the intended regulation of the succession.

Upon public affairs here I can add nothing worthy of your Royal Highness's notice, which I have not detailed to Lord Liverpool.

The head-quarters were moved from hence yesterday to Chaumont. The enemy are moving in considerable force on the side of Vitry and Bar-le-Duc. An intercepted letter from Berthier states Buonaparte to be with the army, which he says is both "belle et bonne;" and that they are moving upon the

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