from the day on which it is figned, In faith of which, we, the underfigned plenipotentiaries of their Danish and Britannic majeftics,. have figned, in their names, and in virtue of our powers, the present convention, and have affixed to it feals bearing our arms. Done at Copenhagen, this 29th Circular Letter addressed by the Spanish Minifier to the Foreign Minifiers at the Court of Spain, relative to a Violation of the Right of Neutral Flags, alleged to have been committed by the English at Bar cclona. Sir, Have the honour of communicating to you a copy of the me. morial which the king my mafter has defired me to tranfmit to his minifter at Stockholm, in order to be delivered to the minifter of his Swedish majefty. The principles which are there eftablished, and the event which gave rife to them, are of fuch a nature as nuft intereft all the commercial nations of Europe, and particularly neutral princes. His majefty is already perfuaded that your government will confider the affair under the fame point of view, and he flatters himself that it will concur in effacing, as far as poffible, from the annals of this war, an action fo deftructive to that confidence and hofpitality which the flags of neutral powers ought to enjoy. I renew to you, fir, on this occa Letter to the Minifier for Foreign Affairs of his Swedish Majefty, on the fame Subject. Sir, The king, my mafter, has feen, with the livelieft indignation, by a Swedish majefty, at Barcelona, to report made by the conful of his the captain-general of Catalonia, containing a declaration of captain Rudbart, of the Swedish galliot Hoffnung, that on the 4th of September laft, in the afternoon, two English fhips and a frigate forced the faid captain, after having exregular, to take on board English amined his papers, and found them officers, and a confiderable number of failors, and to fuffer himself to be towed, in the evening, by several English boats, as far as the road of Barcelona, and under the cannon of the batteries: that the English, having compelled the faid captain and his crew to be filent, by holding a piftol to his breaft, took poffeffion of the rudder, and at nine in the evening, by means of the faid galliot, and the boats which furrounded it, made an attack on two frigates under Spanish colours, which were there at anchor, and which having no reason to fufpect that a friendly and neutral vessel could conceal enemies on board, and thus ferve to favour a moit treacherous attack, were in a manrender. For the other particulars, ner furprised, and forced to furand and the violence exercifed by the English in the Swedish vetfel, I refer to the declaration of the captain, hereto annexed. The king, my mafter, cannot confider this event but as interefting, and wounding the rights of all the powers of Europe, England excepted; and in particular as an infult of the higheft magnitude to the flag of his Swedish majefty. It is evident, indeed, that the belligeent powers, in admitting neutral fhips into their roads and ports, wifh to foften the fcourge of war, and to maintain thofe commercial relations between one nation and another, which their mutual wants require. Every thing then that tends to render this navigation fubject to fufpicion and danger, equally wounds the rights and interefts of all nations. But in the prefent cafe, the rights and honour of the Swedish flag have been violated in a manner fo infulting, that few fuch inftances are to be found in the maritime hiftory of Europe. This action, fhould it remain unpunished, would tend to embroil two friendly nations, to annihilate their commercial relations, and to make the flag which fhould fuffer it to be confidered as a fecret auxiliary of the hoftile power, and thus force Spain to purfue thofe measures which the interefis of its fubjects and the fecurity of its ports would require. The king, my mafter, however, has ordered me to convey to his Swedish majefty an account of this grievous infult offered to his flag; and not doubting of the refentment he will feel on account of a proceeding fo bafe and difloyal, on the part of the naval officers of his Britannic majefty, he expects that the court of Stockholm will require of the English miniftry, in the most urgent manner, that the officers who, have rendered themselves culpable on this occafion fhall be feverely punished, and that the two Spanish frigates. furprised and carried from the road of Barcelona by a ftratagem fo contrary to the rights of nations and the rules of war, fhall be immediately reftored, with their cargoes, as being illegal. ly captured by means of a neutral vellel, which ferved as an inftrument in the hands of the atlailants. His catholic majesty thinks him felf fo much better founded to con fider the fuccefs of this remonftrance as certain, fince the Englith government itself cannot dif femble, that its enemies, by fol lowing this example, might employ neutral veffels in the like manner, to infeft its harbours, and to occafion great damage in all its ports. But if, contrary to all expectation, the steps taken by his Swedish majesty, to obtain from the court of London reparation for the infult offered to his flag, as well as reftitution of the two frigates, fhould not be attended with fuccefs before the end of this year, his majefty will fee himfelf obliged, though with regret, to purfue, in regard to the Swedish flag, fuch meafures of precaution as may in future protect his ports and harbours from an abufe fo dange rous, and fo infulting as that which has been lately committed by the English. He, perfectly accords with his Catholic majefty with refpect to the light in which this new abufe of power is to be confidered, and the common danger which fuch examples muft occafion both to neutral and belligerent powers. His majefty will therefore immediately make remonftrances to the court of London, to which he is equally induced by his friendly connections with the Spanish court, and the violation of the neutrality of his flag. In thefe remonftrances, which will have for their first object the rights of the Swedish flag and of Swedish-fubjects, his Catholic majefty will certainly admit it to be right that the king fhould confider himfelf as the principal party; but while he attends to his own interefts, he will not neglect those of Spain. Juftice requires that what has been obtained in an unjustifiable 'manner fhall be restored. His majefty will demand, but without anfwering for the confequence of this meafure. He will, when it fhall be time, make confidential communications to the Spanish court, with refpect to the difpofitions which the English government fhall manifeft on the fubject; but the juftice of 1 his Catholic majefty will undoubt edly leave to him the free choice of the forms and means to be employed in this negociation, nor attempt to limit any precife time or mode of retoration. Spain and all Europe is acquainted with the long process which Sweden has carried on in on the of restoration, and there can be no reason to expect that fpeedier juftice will be done in a caufe which requires reftitution to be made to an enemy. In the mean time his Swedith majefty cannot confider himself as liable to any kind of responsibility with refpect to an affair to the caufes of which he was an entire stranger. According to the statement of the Spanish court itself, it was, under the circumftances withwhich it took place, not fuppofed that the Swedish government and nation were involved in it. It would be much to be lamented, fhould the injuftice of a third power be able to break connections which feveral direct difcuffions during the war have not altered Unfortunate events of this nature have frequently taken place, and fome as if they were peculiar to the Spanish ports. A Swedir fhip which was taken in the harbour of Pallage itself, a fe cond Swede plundered and entirely deftroyed by the French in Alicant; and feveral others taken by the French privateers at the entrance of the harbour of Malaga, have occafioned his Swedish majefly to make friendly reprefentations and remonftrances to the court of Spain, to procure refpect and fecurity to the trade of his kingdom. His majesty would have been happy to have then feen the fame energy with which it now makes complaints; but the fruitlefinefs of his remonftrances never never induced him to pafs the bounds of that moderation and candour, which fhould be cultivated by friendly courts, and to which his majefty trufts the court of Spain will return, when it fhall have carefully inquired into the true caufes of the different accidents which have occafionally taken place in its ports. The undersigned, chancellor of the court, has the honour to make the prefent reprefentations to the chevalier de la Huerta, envoy extraordinary from his Catholic majefty, as an answer to his communication of the 17th of September, and avails himfelf with pleafure of the opportunity to exprefs his efteem, &c. has called Sweden upon this occa P was (Signed) F. Von. Ehrenheim. Drottningholm, October 22, 1800. Note from the Swedish Minifter for foreign Affairs to the Minifter of As Pruffian Majefty at Stockholm, on the Subject of the Affair at Bar celona. HA AVING stated to the king the manner in which his Pruflian majefty has viewed the memorial of the court of Spain, on the fubject of an infult offered to the Swedish flag by the English, the underfigned, chancellor of the court, has been commanded to exprefs to M. de Tarach the grateful acknowledgements of his majefty for the constant attention which the court of Berlin has fhewn to the interests of the neutral flags, and the full confidence which he repofes in the mode in which they are regarded by that court. The king has viewed with furprise the public relponfibility to which the court of Spain was not to be treated in any other manner than that of which he had previously to complain, and he referves to himself the privilege of demanding reparation for the injuries done to his fubjects or his flag at fuch opportunity, and by fuch means, as the particular fituation may afford. His majefty, however, ought not to conceal, that, in the prefent cale, the injury which has thence refulted to a friendly power gives him fo much the more uneafinefs, as he regards the capture made by the Englifh as very illegal, and he is anxiously defirous of being able, by his reprefentations, to contribute to its reftitution. His majefty will certainly make every exertion to effect an arrangement upon which the continuance of amicable relations between Sweden and Spain is unexpectedly made to depend; but he cannot, at prefent, take thofe fteps with refpect to the two frigates which he has not hitherto taken with respect to his own convoys, nor give the court of Spain any better hopes than he has himfelf. The undersigned embraces this occafion, &c. D'Ehrenheim. Reply of the Spanish Minifier to the Stockholm, Dec. 29, 1800. Sir, I have this moment received from my court an answer to the difpatches, in which I communicated the firft fteps I had taken with his Swedish majefty, when I had the honour to prefent my first note on the fubject of the outrage of which the English were guilty in the road of Barcelona. . The king, my mafter, has ob ferved with regret the coldness with (Signed) The chevalier de Huerta. |