240 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



of nations, and which has been gene- 

 rally admitted and recognised. It 

 follows, therefore, that the resistance 

 of a commander of a ship of war, 

 offered by a power at amity, must 

 necessarily be considered as an act 

 of hostility, and such as the king 

 persuades himself cannot be en- 

 joined to the commanders of the 

 ships of war of his Danish majesty 

 in their instructions. His Britan- 

 nic majesty, therefore, entertains no 

 doubt that his Danish majesty will 

 have felt much displeasure at hear- 

 ing of this violent and insupport- 

 able conduct on the part of an offi- 

 cer in his service ; and the ting is 

 persuaded of the alacrity with 

 which his Danish majesty will 

 afford him that formal disavowal 

 and that apology which he has so 

 good a right to expect in such a 

 case, together with a reparation 

 proportioned to the nature of the 

 offence committed. 



I am specially commissioned, sir, 

 to demand of you this disavowal, 

 apology, and reparation. The con- 

 fidence which I must feel in the 

 known j ustice of his Danish majesty, 

 leads me to hope that this simple 

 and amicable representation will be 

 sufficient to obtain it with that dis- 

 patch which so important a case re- 

 quires ; but I must not at the same 

 time conceal from you, that, great 

 and sincere as is the desire of the 

 king, my master, to maintain and 

 cultivate the most strict harmony 

 and friendship with the court of 

 Denmark, nothing shall induce him 

 to depart from this just demand. 

 (Signed) Anth. Merry. 



Reply of the Dani&h Minister to the 

 above Note of Mr. Merry. 

 Both custom and treaties have 

 no doubt conferred on the bellige- 



rent powers the right of searching' 

 neutral vessels, not under convoy, J 

 by their ships of war, &c. ; but as " 

 this right is not a natural one, but 

 merely conventional, its effects can- 

 not be arbitrarily extended beyond 

 what is agreed to and conceded, 

 without violence and injustice. But 

 none of the maritime and inde- 

 pendent powers of Europe, as far 

 as the undersigned has observed, 

 have ever acknowledged the right i 

 of permitting neutral ships to be ' 

 searched, when escorted by one or 

 several ships of war ; and it is evi- 

 dent they could not do so without 

 exposing their flag to degradation, 

 and without forfeiting a certain 

 essential proportion of their own 

 rights. 



Far from acquiescing in these 

 pretensions, which at present are no 

 longer acknowledged, most of those 

 powers have been of opinion, since 

 this question has been stirred, that 

 they ought to hold out an opposite 

 principle in all their conventions 

 respecting objects of this nature, 

 in conformity with a number of 

 treaties concluded between the 

 most respectable courts of Europe, 

 which contain proofs of the pro- 

 priety of adhering to that prin- 

 ciple. 



The distinction attempted to be 

 established between ships with and 

 without convoy, is moreover equally 

 just and natural — for the former 

 cannot be supposed to be in the 

 same predicament as the latter. 



The search insisted upon by the 

 privateers or state ships of the bel- 

 ligerent powers, with respect to 

 neutral bottoms not accompanied 

 by convoy, is founded on the right 

 of acknowledging their flag, and of 

 examining their papers. The only 

 question is to ascertain their par- 



