urgently to request his Britannic majefty to do away this recent rupture, by giving only fuch inftructions as are confiftent with the spirit of the existing and manifeftly binding engagements. This is not done because his majefty feels indifference at the pleasure of mani felting his friendship to the king of Great Britain, and likewife to the king of Pruffia, and their allies, by violating his rigorous duties. The king will do every thing which is poffible, provided it does not compromife the neutrality and profperity of the Danish nation. His majefty confents to confider as blockaded, all thofe French ports, oppofite and near which there fhall be a fuperior naval force of England or of her allies. His majefty will neither enter, nor favour the entering, into a contract with the French government, for fupplying its marine or its armies. His majefty will not fuffer in his dominions the fale of prizes made by French fhips; nor will his majefty cease to claim in France the effects of the English fubjects, and of the fubjects of the allies of England, entrusted to the protection of the Danish flag; and he will exert himself in the recovery thereof, in the fame manner as if they were Danish property. In short, his majefty will omit nothing of that which can cement his connexions with the powers whose friendship and efteem he has always requefted, or which can. manifeft his fidelity with regard to his alliances, and his refpect of the fundamental principles of fociety and of the public weal.

(Signed) A. P VoN BERNSTORFF. Foreign Office, Copenhagen, July 28, 1793.

Counter Declaration of the Court of Denmark, in Reply to the Mem rial delivered by the British Minifter.

HE law of nations is unalter

THE

able. Its principles do not depend on circumstances. An enemy engaged in war can exercife vengeance upon thofe who do not expect it; but in this case, and without violating the rigid law, a fatal reciprocity may take place: but a neutral power which lives in peace, cannot admit of, nor ac knowledge, fuch a compenfation; it can only fcreen itfelf by its im partiality and by its treaties. It is not pardonable for her to renounce its rights in favour of any bellige rent power. The bafis of its rights is the universal and public law, before which all authority must va» nifh; it is neither a party nor a judge; nor do the treaties give room to privileges and favours. All these ftipulations conftitute the perfect law: they are mutual obligations. That would be a very unnatural agreement, which any of the contracting parties might at pleafure fupprefs, interpret, or reftrain. In this manner all treaties would in general, become impracti cable, because they would be uselefs.

What becomes of equity, fidelity, and fafety? and how much more unjust muft become oppofition when it fets afide the infringement of facred duties, the advantages of which have been enjoyed, but only acknowledged as long as they fuited felf-intereft?

Denmark will furely never attempt to juftify the prefent government in France, its nature and origin, but he will not give her judgment,

judgment, and her neutrality will not permit her to exprefs her mind on this subject. We only confine ourselves to the lamenting the difafters which have befel that country, and, on its account, all Europe; and to the withing to fee them brought to a fpeedy termination. But this is not the moment to own or acknowledge a form of government which we have always refused to acknowledge.-The nation is there, and the authority which it acknowledges is that to which application is made in cafes concerning fingle individuals. The commercial connexions subsist likewife in the fame manner as they did between England and France, as long as the latter chofe to preferve peace. The nation has not ceased to acknowledge her treaties with us; at leaft, the conforms herfelf agreeable to thofe treaties. As the appeals to them, fo do we appeal to them-and frequently with good fuccefs, both for ourfelves, and in favour of thofe fubjects of the belligerent powers who commit their effects to the protection of our flag. In cafes of refufal and delay, we have frequently been obliged to bear often and relunetantly, that they only used to make reprifals, fince the nations with whom they were at war fhewed as little regard for their treaties with us; and thus the neutral flag becomes the victim of errors which it cannot reproach itself with. The path of juftice ftill continues open in France. The confuls, and the mandataries of private individuals, are heard.

No

one is prevented from applying to the tribunals of commerce. This is fufficient in ordinary cafes. No fresh negociations are required for

the maintenance of exifting treaties. Minifters become quite fuperfluous in this refpect; there are judges, and this is fufficient.

Thefe confiderations are already violated by the obfervation, that our grievances are frequently heard in France, and that there is no poflibility of getting them redressed. The municipalities, to whom application must be made, are certainly not alike equitable; the fentences of the tribunals of commerce are not founded upon uniform principles; the extreme means of refuge to a medium of power, is totally removed; and thefe circumftances occafion at times grievous acts of injuftice. In this refpe&t none are greater fufferers than the neutral powers; and it would be very unequitable to punith them doubly, and alfo on the part of thofe powers who cry aloud against thofe unjuft proceedings, and yet feem to justify it by their own imitation.

A negociation between a neutral and a belligerent power, which would have for its object that the latter fhould not make use of neu trality to the detriment of the former, cannot be thought of. A neutral power has fulfilled all its duties, if it has never receded from the ftricteft impartiality, and from the acknowledged fenfe of its treaties. In cafe the neutrality fhould prove more advantageous to one of the belligerent powers than to the other, this becomes foreign to the neutrality, and does not concern it. This depends on local fituations and circumftances, and does not remain alike. The detriments and advantages are compenfated and balanced by time. All that which does not abfolutely depend on a neutral power, ought to have no

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influence

The thips bearing the British fag, like those which bear that of the allies of England, find in all the harbours of his majefty every poffible fafety, affiftance, and protection; but thofe cannot be reckoned among their number which have been captured by their enemies. The French privateers cannot be confidered as pirates by the neutral powers, as long as England does not confider and treat them as fuch. In England the prisoners are deemed to be prisoners of war: they are exchanged; and negociations have even been entered into

for this purpose. The ufual laws of war are there obferved in all refpects; and by this rule alone we ought to go. The tri-coloured flag was acknowledged in Denmark at a period when it was acknowledged every where else. Every alteration in this refpect would be impoffible, without involving ourselves into a war, or without deferving one.

The admittance of privateers in Norway is a confequence of this neutrality, before which all regard muft vanish. It has found place in all the maritime wars which ever befel Europe. All the nations in their turn have availed themselves of and defired it. The local de scription allows no general prohibition. It would only bring us into dilemmas, because we could not abide by it in a remote country, where there are coafts of immense extent, numberless harbours and anchoring places, and only a fmall number of inhabitants. The prohibition would therefore be il lufory, and even dangerous, as the French, in virtue of their decrees, would then deftroy the ships which they would no longer hope to put in a flate of safety. The fubject is

(Signed)

A. P. VON BERNSTORFF.

1

Anfwer of the Court of Denmark to the Note delivered on the 10th of Auguft ult. to the fame Purport as that delivered to the High Chancellor of Sweden, by the Imperial Ruffian Ambassador.

/HEREAS I have given an

W

account to the king, my mafter, of the note which the ambaffador extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of her majesty the emprefs of all the Ruffias, baron de Kruedener, delivered on the 10th of Auguft 1793. I have received his majefty's command to answer, That his majefty fees, with the greatest forrow, how much the principles contained in the faid note militate at this time againft his own; that his majefty expected no intimation that manifested doubts which his majesty had not deferved; that it could not but be known to her imperial majefty, that the king had refolved to give no convoys to the Danish fhips bound to France, and that his majefty never had pretended to fend naval ftores into that country; that his majefty could not of course guess the meaning of a declaration which did not concern him, nor of a proceeding which applied the principles and rights of a blockade to fituations which precluded every idea of that kind; that the reftricted commerce in grain, as it now fubfifted, was a quite infignificant circumftance for the caufe which

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her

her Imperial majefty had efpoufed; but that it was not fo with regard to Denmark, as it involved the facrifice of her rights, her indepen dence, and her treaties; that his majefty did not permit himself to enter into a proper inquiry in this refpect, fince her Imperial majefty had rejected the only judge whom his majefty could acknowledge, namely, the univerfal and fpecial law of nations; that his majefty being no longer at liberty to appeal to this law, would only appeal to the friendship and equity of her Imperial majefty, which had been manifefted by fo many years, and fo many proofs; that his majefty acted thus with the greater confidence, as he thought to have evinced his by fo many reciprocal and decifive proofs, as his majefty did not make any ufe of his inconteftible rights to claim, with regard to the liberty of his navigation, the protection due to him in virtue of the most folemn treaties-a protection which her Imperial majefty had herself propofed.

(Signed)

A. P. VON BERNSTORFF.

Foreign Office, Copenhagen, Aug. 23, 1793.

Proclamation of Admiral Langara to the French at Toulon, on the 27th of October.

Frenchmen,

A SCANDALOUS addrefs pub

lied by your pretended le. giflators, has just reached our hands. This writing, unworthy of our re: gard, can be but the last effort of

criminality and of defpair. The people of Toulon are there painted as traitors, who have delivered to the English the port and the fquadron in their harbour,

The whole of Europe knows and refpects your virtues. The whole of Europe knows and detefts your tyrants.

You have for a long time been the plaything and the prey of bad men, who have affaffinated their fovereign for the purpose of poffelfing themfelves of his power. 'Tis to thofe you owe the horrid calamity to which you have been reduced by the extravagant emiffion of affignats, of which they have devoured the fecurity and the pledge. It is only to exempt themfelyes from the fword of the law that they put arms into the hands of rebels, that they fack your towns, pillage the country, plunder the inhabitants, and confifcate their fortunes.

Affected by these misfortunes, the combined fquadrons could not refuse their fuccour to Toulon, at a moment when two armies blockaded this important city, abandoned by its governors, and were about to reduce it to the most horrible ftate of famine.

The people of Toulon have not delivered up their town, which could not be at once the prey of Spain, of England, and of the other powers united and animated by the fame motives. But they have placed the town under our immediate protection, and carried even to a fcruple the conditions

which tend to the re-establishment

of their lawful king. It is only in the town of Toulon that the true friends of order and of peace are to be found at prefent.

The