Note transmitted on the 4th of March, by Baron Von Ehrensward, the Imperial Swedish Minister Plenipotentiary at London, to Lord Hawkesbury, the English Secretary of State.

The undersigned, minister plenipotentiary of his Swedish majesty, has the honour to transmit to his

excellency lord Hawkesbury, first secretary of state of his Britannic majesty, a printed copy of the naval convention concluded on the 16th of December 1800, between his Swedish majesty and his majesty the emperor of all the Rus sias, as well as a printed copy of the naval regulations which the king has recently ordered to be drawn

up.

The undersigned, who, at the command of his court, has the honour to make this communication to the minister of his Britannic majesty, has it likewise in commission expressly to declare, that their majesties, by the said naval convention, have reciprocally determined and settled those rights, which, as neutral powers, they believe themselves entitled to; and by the naval regulations have ascertained those duties for the performance and observance of which, on the part of their subjects, they, as neutral powers, make themselves answerable. The object of their majesties is to confirm and strengthen their rights as neutrality demands, and to promote the repose of their respective states, by the naval convention they have entered into; and nothing is farther from their intention than by such a step to provoke hostilities. The respect which is due to the rights of nations and to treaties-the consciousness that their own inter

ests are inseparably united with the interests and the love of justice, and peace, are the only motives by which their majesties have been actuated: they have therefore learnt, with the greatest astonishment, that the first news of the conclusion of this convention in England has been the occasion of so violent a measure as that of laying an embargo on the Swedish ships.

So far from desiring to introduce any innovations with respect to the maritime states of Europe, by the assertion of their rights of neutra lity, their majesties are sensible that It gives no power whatever where those rights were not acknowledged by former treaties. Eng land has seen those treaties exe cuted; they were officially communicated to her, and she did not protest against them. In like manner it was with regard to the con vention of 1780 and 1781, and the ministry, who now proceed with so much violence, know that the partial renewal of that convention between Sweden and Denmark in 1794, and the armament that fol` lowed, operated during a period of three years without ever being considered as grounds for hosti lities: yet a similar convention is now deemed an hostile confederacy against England. A line of conduct so contradictory proceeds not from the circumstances of the principles and claims of neutral rights having been now enforced; but it seems to have its foundation in that maritime system which England has established in the course of the present war. It appears also, that that government which Europe, from its pacific sentiments, has so often endeavoured to convince of the injustice of its pretensions,

tensions, has now determined to commence a war for the subjection of the sea, after it has rendered itself so renowned in the war undertaken for the freedom of Europe.

If the British minister will refer to the conduct of England against Sweden, and the neutral powers in general, during this war, he will find the real cause why his Swedish majesty has been induced to believe that the formal alliance of several powers, acting upon the same principles, would more effectually tend to convince the court of London of the validity of those principles, than by any one power renewing those reclamations which have hitherto been made in vain: at the same time his majesty never supposed that such an alliance would be considered as an act of hostility. The British minister complains, that the court of London was not before instructed of the intention of the respective courts to renew the convention of 1780; but in the same note he states, that England had entered into engagements this war with its allies respecting neutrals: thus the avowal of the British minister is an answer to his own charge.

If his majesty was not fully convinced of the innocence of his intentions, and if he was desirous of deviating from that line of moderation he has ever observed, he might make an invidious and censurable enumeration of the conduct of England; of the unpunished offences of the commanders of English ships of war, even in Swedish harbours; of the inquisitorial examinations which the captain and crews of the ships detained, as well in the West Indies as in England, have been subjected; of the detention of the convoy in 1798; of the deceit

1801.

ful chicanery with which the proceeding of the courts of Admiralty were accompanied; of the absolute denial of justice in many instances; and lastly, by the insult offered to the Swedish flag at Barcelona. His Swedish majesty must, doubtless, state among the offences of which he has cause to complain, that after one of his ministers had been sent to the British court, its aggressions, instead of being admitted and remedied, were justified. But, he has sought no revenge; his majesty wishes only to procure that security to his flag to which it is entitled. In consequence of this sentiment, the undersigned is empowered to declare, that the British court shall acknowledge the rights of Sweden; that it shall do justice with regard to the convoys detained in 1798, as well as respecting the violence offered to the Swedish flag at Barcelona; and above all, that it shall take off the embargo which has been so unjustly laid on the Swedish ships. His majesty will, with the greatest pleasure, see his ports again opened to the trade of England, and the ancient good understanding between the two courts renewed. His maje ty, impressed with that dignity due to his empire, has, in consequence of the embargo laid upon the Swedish ships, placed a similar embargo on all English vessels in the harbours of Sweden.

As the pacific tendency of the present convention has been proved to a demonstration, his majesty therefore hopes that no consideration, respecting any accidental occurrence which may have taken place between the ally of his ma jesty the emperor of Russia and the court of London, will be introduced. The act of the convention itself proves that its bases are the (K)

rights

been endeavoured to be made re specting the present convention have not, in the slightest degree, weakened the impression which was produced by its first perusal, namely, that the intentions and motives of the contracting powers were hostile to the rights of his majesty; and this impression is fully confirmed by observing that the northern courts have adopted the principles of the convention of 1780, which was entered into at a period when the circumstances of the war, and the proportional strength of the navies of the belligerent powers, altered what was before a general rule of equity to all nations, and rendered it a means of exclusive offence on the part of Great Britain.

Under these circumstances, the embargo laid upon the Swedish ships can only be considered as an act of legitimate and necessary prudence, and cannot be otherwise denominated, while the court of Stockholm continues a party to a convention, the object of which is to impose upon his majesty a new maritime system, incompatible with the dignity of his throne and the rights and interests of his people.

The undersigned requests the baron Von Ehrensward to receive the assurances of his high esteem.

(Signed) HAWKESBURY. Downing-street, March 6, 1801.

Note from the Danish to the British Minister.

The undersigned, having inform ed the king, his master, of the official communication of lord Gren ville, dated the 15th of January last, has received orders to declare, that his majesty is deeply affected at seeing the good understanding

which has hitherto subsisted between Denmark and England, suddenly interrupted by the adoption of a measure as arbitrary as injurious on the part of Great Britain; and that he is not less afflicted and alarmed at seeing that measure jus tified by assertions and suppositions as unjust as ill founded.

He remarks with surprise, that by confounding the cause of the measures taken in Russia against the interests of Great Britain, with the object of the convention relative to neutral navigation, the British government evidently mixes two affairs which have not the least connexion with each other.

It is a subject of perfect notoriety, that the incident of the occupation of Malta by the troops of his Britannic majesty has alone been the occasion of the embargo on the English ships in the ports of Russia, and that the ministers of the neutral courts at Petersburg acted according to their full powers and instructions anterior to that event. The dispute relating to it is absolutely foreign to the court of Copenhagen. It knows neither its origin nor foundation, or at least but very imperfectly, and its engagements with Petersburg have no relation whatever to it. The na ture of those engagements has been solemnly declared to be only defensive; and it is inconceivable how general principles, conformable to every positive obligation, and modified according to the stipulations of treaties, could be justly considered as attacks on the rights, or the dignity, of any state whatever. While the powers who profess them require only their acknow, ledgment, the conflict of principles reciprocally maintained cannot be provoked but by those means which, operating as a denial of facts, place

them in direct and inevitable opposition.

The undersigned, by order of the king his master, calls the serious attention of the British government to these reflexions, and to these just and incontrovertible truths: they are analogous to the loyal sen timents of a sovereign, the antient and faithful ally of Great Britain, who is not only incapable of offering, on his part, any injuries real or voluntary, but who has well founded titles to a return of forbearance and justice.

The prompt cessation of proceed ings hostile to the interests of Denmark is a circumstance to which his majesty still looks forward with the confidence he has ever wished to entertain with regard to his Britannic majesty; and it is in his name, and conformably to the instructions expressed on his part, that the undersigned insists on the embargo placed on the Danish vessels in the ports of Great Britain being immediately taken off.

By a constant series of moderation on the part of the king, the measures to which the outrageous proceedings of the British government authorised him to have had recourse, have been suspended, his majesty deeming it an act of glory to give, by this means, a decisive proof of the falsehood of the suspicions advanced against him, and of the doubts thrown on his intentions.

But if, contrary to all expectation, the English government persists in its violent resolutions, he will see himself with regret reduced to the urgent necessity of exerting those means which his dignity, and the interest of his subjects, will imperiously prescribe.

(Signed) WEDEL JARLSBERG. London, Feb. 23, 1801. (K. 2)

ANSWER.