This hope has dictated to his majesty the more direct in espousing the Prussian quarutmost forbearance and moderation in all rel, than the emperor of Russia; the ally his diplomatic intercourse with the court of his Prussian majesty, the protector of of St. Petersburgh since the peace of Til- the north of Europe, and the guarantee of sit. His majesty had much cause for sus- the Germanick constitution. It is not in a picion, and just ground of complaint. But publick declaration that his majesty can he abstained from the language of reproach. discuss the policy of having, at any partiHis majesty deemed it necessary to require cular period of the war, effected, or omitspecifick explanation with respect to those ted to effect, disembarkations of troops on arrangements with France, the concealment the coasts of Naples. But the instance of of which from his majesty could not but the war with the Porte, is still more singuconfirm the impression already received larly chosen to illustrate the charge against of their character and tendency. But his Great Britain of indifference to the interests majesty, nevertheless, directed the demand of her ally a war undertaken by Great of that explanation to be made, not only Britain at the instigation of Russia, and without asperity or the indication of any solely for the purpose of maintaining Rushostile disposition, but with that considerate sian interests against the influence of regard to the feelings and situation of the France.-If, however, the peace of Tilsit emperor of Russia, which resulted from the is, indeed, to be considered as the conserecollection of former friendship, and from quence and the punishment of the imputed confidence interrupted but not destroyed.-inactivity of Great Britain, his majesty canThe declaration of the emperor of Russia proves that the object of his majesty's forbearance and moderation has not been attained. It proves, unhappily, that the influence of that power, which is equally and essentially the enemy both of Great Britain and of Russia, has acquired a decided ascendency in the counsels of the cabinet of St. Petersburgh; and has been able to excite a causeless enmity between two nations, whose long-established connection, and whose mutual interests prescribed the most intimate union and co-operation.-His majesty deeply laments the extension of the calamities of war. But called upon, as he is, to defend himself against an act of unprovoked hostility, his majesty is anxious to refute, in the face of the world, the pre- | texts by which that act is attempted to be justified. The declaration asserts that his majesty the emperor of Russia has twice taken up arms in a cause, in which the interest of Great Britain was more direct than his own; and founds upon this assertion the charge against Great Britain of having neglected to second and support the military operations of Russia.-His majesty willingly does justice to the motives which originally engaged Russia in the great struggle against France. His majesty avows with equal readiness the interest which Great Britain has uniformly taken in the fates and fortunes of the powers of the continent. But it would surely be difficult to prove that Great Britain, who was herself in a state of hostility with Prussia, when the war broke out between Prussia and France, had an interest and a duty not but regret that the emperor of Russia should have resorted to so precipitate and fatal a measure, at the moment, when he had received distinct assurances that his majesty was making the most strenuous exertions to fulfil the wishes and expectations of his ally (assurances which his imperial majesty received and acknowledged with apparent confidence and satisfaction); and when his majesty was, in fact, prepared to employ for the advancement of the common objects of the war, those forces which, after the peace of Tilsit, he was under the necessity of employing to disconcert a combination directed against his own immediate interests and security.-The vexation of Russian commerce by Great Britain is, in truth, little more than an imaginary grievance. Upon a diligent examination, made by his majesty's command, of the records of the British court of admiralty, there has been discovered only a solitary instance in the course of the present war, of the condemnation of a vessel really Russian: a vessel which had carried naval stores to a port of the common enemy. There are but few instances of Russian vessels detained and none in which justice has been refused to a party regularly complaining of such detention. It is therefore matter of surprize as well as of concern to his majesty that the emperor Russia should have condescended to bring forward a complaint which, as it cannot be seriously felt by those in whose behalf it is urged, might appear to be intended to countenance those exaggerated declamations, by which France perseveringly en of deavours to inflame the jealousy of other countries, and to justify her own inveterate animosity, against Great Britain.--The peace of Tilsit was followed by an offer of mediation on the part of the emperor of Russia, for the conclusion of a peace between Great Britain and France; which it is asserted that his majesty refused. His majesty did not refuse the mediation of the emperor of Russia: although the offer of it was accompanied by circumstances of concealment which might well have justified his refusal. The articles of the treaty of Tilsit were not communicated to his majesty and specifically that article of the treaty, in virtue of which the mediation was proposed, and which prescribed a limited time for the return of his majesty's answer to that proposal. And his majesty was thus led into an apparent compliance with a limitation so offensive to the diguity of an independent sovereign. But the answer so returned by his majesty was not a refusal. It was a conditional acceptance. The conditions required by his majesty were, ―a statement of the basis upon which the enemy was disposed to treat; and a communication of the articles of the peace of Tilsit. The first of these conditions was precisely the same which the emperor of Russia had himself annexed not four months before to his own acceptance of the proffered mediation of the emperor of Austria. The second was one which his majesty would have had a right to require even as the ally of his imperial majesty; but which it would have been highly improvident to omit, when he was invited to confide to his imperial majesty the care of his honour and of his interests.-But even if these conditions (neither of which has been fulfilled, although the fulfilment of them has been repeatedly required by his majesty's ambassador at St. Petersburgh) had not been in themselves perfectly natural and necessary; there were not wanting considerations which might have warranted his majesty in endeavouring, with more than ordinary anxiety, to ascertain the views and intentions of the emperor of Russia, and the precise nature and effect of the new relations which his imperial majesty had contracted. The complete abandonment of the interests of the king of Prussia, (who had twice rejected proposals of separate peace, from a strict adherence to his engagements with his imperial ally,) and the character of those provisions which the emperor of Russia was contented to make for his own interests in the negotiations of Tilsit, presented no encouraging prospect of the result of any exertions which his imperial majesty might be disposed to employ in favour of Great Britain.—It is not, while a French army still occupies and lays waste the remaining dominions of the king of Prussia, in spite of the stipulations of the Prussian treaty of Tilsit; while contributions are arbitrarily exacted by France from that remnant of the Prussian monarchy, such as, in its entire and most flourishing state, the Prussian monarchy would have been unable to discharge; while the surrender is demanded, in time of peace, of Prussian fortresses, which had not been reduced during the war; and while the power of France is exercised over Prussia with such shameless tyranny, as to designate and demand for instant death, individuals, subjects of his Prussian majesty, and resident in his dominions, upon a charge of disrespect towards the French government; it is not while all these things are done and suffered, under the eyes of the emperor of Russia, and without his interference on behalf of his ally, that his majesty can feel himself called upon to account to Europe, for having hesitated to repose an unconditional confidence in the efficacy of his imperial majesty's mediation.-Nor, even if that mediation had taken full effect, if a peace had been concluded under it, and that peace guaranteed by his imperial majesty, could his majesty have placed implicit reliance on the stability of any such arrangement, after having seen the emperor of Russia openly transfer to France the sovereignty of the Ionian republic, the independence of which his imperial majesty had recently and solemnly guaranteed.But while the alledged rejection of the emperor of Russia's mediation, between Great Britain and France, is stated as a just ground of his imperial majesty's resentment; his majesty's request of that mediation, for the re-establishment of peace between Great Britain and Denmark, is represented as an insult which it was beyond the bounds of his imperial majesty's moderation to endure.-His majesty feels himself under no obligation to offer any atonement or apology to the emperor of Russia for the expedition against Copenhagen. It is not for those who were parties to the secret arrangements of Tilsit, to demand satisfaction for a measure to which those arrangements gave rise, and by which one of the objects of them has been hap fered, any insult to the emperor of Russia. Nor can his majesty conceive that, in proposing to the Prince Royal terms of peace, such as the most successful war on the part of Denmark could hardly have been expected to extort from Great Britain, his maj. rendered himself liable to the imputation, either of exasperating the resentment, or of outraging the dignity, of Denmark.His majesty has thus replied to all the different accusations by which the Russian government labours to justify the rupture of a connection which has subsisted for ages, with reciprocal advantage to Great Britain and Russia; and attempts to disguise the operation of that external influence by which Russia is driven into unjust hostilities for interests not her own.The Russian declaration proceeds to announce the several conditions on which alone these hostilities can be terminated, and the intercourse of the two countries renewed.-His majesty has already had occasion to assert that justice has in no instance been denied to the claims of his imperial majesty's subjects.-The termination of the war with Denmark has been so anxiously sought by his majesty, that it cannot be necessary for his majesty to renew any professions upon that subject. But his majesty is at a loss to reconcile the emperor of Russia's present anxiety for the completion of such an arrangement, with his imperial majesty's recent refusal to contribute his good offices for effecting it.-The requisition of his imperial majesty for the immediate conclusion, by his majesty, of a peace with France, is as extra pily defeated. His majesty's justification | of the expedition against Copenhagen is before the world. The Declaration of the emperor of Russia would supply whatever was wanting in it; if any thing could be wanting to convince the most incredulous of the urgency of that necessity under which his majesty acted.-But until the Russian declaration was published, his majesty had no reason to suspect that any opinions which the emperor of Russia might entertain of the transactions at Copenhagen could be such as to preclude his imperial majesty from undertaking, at the request of Great Britain, that same office of mediator, which he had assumed with so much alacrity on the behalf of France, nor can his majesty forget that the first symptoms of reviving confidence, since the peace of Tilsit, the only prospect of success in the endeavours of his majesty's ambassador to restore the ancient good understanding between Great Britain and Russia, appeared when the intelligence of the siege of Copenhagen had been recently received at St. Petersburgh.-The inviolability of the Baltick sea, and the reciprocal guaranties of the powers that border upon it, guaranties said to have been contracted with the knowledge of the British government, are stated as aggravations of his majesty's proceedings in the Baltick. It cannot be intended to represent his majesty as having at any time acquiesced in the principles upon which the inviolability of the Baltick is maintained; however his majesty may at particular periods have forborne, for special reasons influencing his conduct at the time, to act in contra-ordinary in the substance, as it is offensive diction to them. Such forbearance never could have applied but to a state of peace and real neutrality in the north; and his majesty most assuredly could not be expected to recur to it, after France has been suffered to establish herself in undisputed sovereignty along the whole coast of the Baltick sea from Dantzig to Lubeck. But the higher the value which the emperor of Russia places on the engagements respecting the tranquillity of the Baltick, which he describes himself as inheriting from his immediate predecessors, the empress Catherine and the emperor Paul, the less justly can his imperial majesty resent the appeal made to him by his majesty as the guarantee of the peace to be concluded between Great Britain and Denmark. In making that appeal, with the utmost confidence and sincerity, his majesty neither intended, nor can he imagine that he of in the manner. His majesty has at no time declined to treat with France, when France has professed a willingness to treat on an admissible basis. And the emperor of Russia cannot fail to remember that the last negociation between Great Britain and France was broken off, upon points immediately affecting, not his majesty's own interests, but those of his imperial ally. But his majesty neither understands nor will he admit the pretension of the emperor of Russia to dictate the time, or the mode, of his majesty's pacific negociations with other powers. It never will be endured by his majesty that any government shall indemnify itself for the humiliation of subserviency to France, by the adoption of an insulting and peremptory tone towards Great Britain. His majesty proclaims anew those principles of maritime law, against which the armed neutrality, under could have no objection to furnish the house with whatever information actually existed on the subject alluded to by the right hon. gent. For this purpose he was desirous that the right hon. gent. should shape his motion in such a manner, that it might apply to papers actually in existence. If the right hon. gent. meant to move for any official instruction on the subject, he could inform him that no such existed; but if he confined his motion. simply for the proposal that had been made to the court of Russia on the subject of mediation with Denmark, with the result of that proposal, to such a motion there could be no possible objection. the auspices of the empress Catherine, was originally directed; and against which the present hostilities of Russia are denounced. Those principles have been recognized and acted upon in the best periods of the history of Europe: and acted upon by no power with more strictness and severity than by Russia herself in the reign of the empress Catherine, Those principles it is the right and the duty of his majesty to maintain and against every confederacy his majesty is determined, under the blessing of Divine Providence, to maintain them. They have at all times contributed essentially to the support of the maritime power of Great Britain; but they are become incalculably more valuable and important at a period when the maritime power of Great Britain constitutes the sole remaining bulwark against the overwhelming usurpations of France; the only refuge to which other nations may yet resort, in happier times, for assistance and protection. When the opportunity for peace between Great Bri-ambassador. The answer, too, must be tain and Russia shall arrive, his majesty will embrace it with eagerness. The arrangements of such a negociation will not be difficult or complicated. His majesty, as he has nothing to concede, so he has nothing to require: satisfied, if Russia shall manifest a disposition to return to her ancient feelings of friendship towards Great Britain; to a just consideration of her own true interests; and to a sense of her own dignity as an independent nation. Mr. Whitbread inquired, whether it was the intention of his majesty's ministers to submit to the house any proposition, founded upon the above Papers? Mr. Secretary Canning replied, that he was not aware of any such intention. Mr. Whitbread then gave notice, that after a sufficient time had elapsed to give the members an opportunity of duly investigating the contests of these Papers, he should move some proposition, which would bring the house directly to the point of the propriety, at the present time, of entering into a negociation with France. [RUSSIAN MEDIATION.] Mr. Ponsonby wished to know whether his majesty's ministers had any objections to the immediate production of the proposition made by this country, for the Mediation of Russia, between Great Britain and Deninark, and of the Answer made thereto. Mr. Secretary Canning replied, that unquestionably his majesty's ministers Mr. Ponsonby expressed his wish to shape his motion, so as to attain the object he desired. The right hon. gent. must certainly be better informed on the subject than he was; but he confessed he could not understand how any proposition could be made to the court of Petersburgh, without official instructions to our official, and assuredly all these papers might be forth coming.-After some further conversation, it was agreed to draw up a motion in concert, which was done, as follows: "That an humble address be presented to his majesty, that he will be graciously pleased to give directions, that there be laid before this house, Copies or Extracts of such parts of the Correspondence between his majesty's secretary of state and his majesty's minister at the court of St. Petersburgh, as relate to the request, on the part of his majesty, of his imperial majesty's Mediation for the Restoration of Peace between his majesty and the crown of Denmark." ORDERS IN COUNCIL RELATIVE TO NEUTRAL VESSELS, &c.] The Chancellor of the Exchequer presented to the house, by his majesty's command, the following Papers, viz. ORDERS IN COUNCIL, PRESENTED TO THE HOUSE OF At the Court at the Queen's Palace, the 7th of January 1807; Present, The King's most excellent Majesty in council. Whereas the French government has issued certain Orders, which, in violation | captured and brought in, and, together of the usages of war, purport to prohibit with her cargo, shall be condemned as the Commerce of all Neutral Nations with lawful prize and his majesty's principal his majesty's dominions, and also to pre- secretaries of state, the lords commissioners vent such nations from trading with any of the admiralty, and the judges of the other country, in any articles, the growth, high court of admiralty, and courts of vice produce, or manufacture of his majesty's admiralty, are to take the necessary meadominions and whereas the said govern-sures herein as to them shall respectively appertain. (Signed) WM. FAWKNER. ment has also taken upon itself to declare all his majesty's dominions to be in a state of blockade, at a time when the fleets of France and her allies are themselves confined within their own ports by the superior valour and discipline of the British navý: and whereas such attempts on the part of the enemy would give to his majesty an unquestionable right of retaliation, and would warrant his majesty in enforcing the same prohibition of all commerce with France, which that power vainly hopes to effect against the commerce of his majesty's subjects; a prohibition which the superiority of his majesty's naval forces might enable him to support, by actually investing the ports and coasts of the enemy with numerous squadrons and cruisers, so as to make the entrance or approach thereto manifestly dangerous: and whereas his majesty, though unwilling to follow the example of his enemies, by proceeding to an extremity so distressing to all nations not engaged in the war, and carrying on their accustomed trade, yet feels himself bound by a due regard to the just defence of the rights and interests of his people, not to suffer such measures to be taken by the enemy, without taking some steps on his part to restrain this violence, and to retort upon them the evils of their own injustice: his majesty is thereupon pleased, by and with the advice of his privy council, to order, and it is hereby ordered, That no vessel shall be permitted to trade from one port to another, both which ports shall belong to or be in the possession of France or her allies, or shall be so far under their controul, as that British vessels may not freely trade thereat and the commanders of his majesty's ships of war and privateers shall be, and are hereby instructed to warn every neutral vessel coming from any such port, and destineding the said Draught of Additional Into another such port, to discontinue her voyage, and not to proceed to any such port; and any vessel after being so warned, or any vessel coming from any such port, after a reasonable time shall have been afforded for receiving information of this his majesty's Order, which shall be found proceeding to another such port, shall be struction into consideration, was pleased, with the advice of his privy council, to approve thereof; and to order, as it is hereby ordered, That the right hon. earl Spencer, one of his majesty's principal secretaries of state, do cause the said Instruction to be prepared for his majesty's royal signature. (Signed) W. FAWKNER |