242 AUNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



foreign aftliirs, lias had the honour 

 to lay before the king the note 

 which he received yesterday from 

 count Wedel Jarlsberg, envoy ex- 

 traordinary and minister plenipo- 

 tentiary from the king of Denmark. 

 It was with the greatest surprise 

 and concern that his majesty re- 

 ceived the first accounts of the 

 transaction to which that note re- 

 lates. Studiously desiring to main- 

 tain always with the court of Co- 

 penhagen those relations of friend- 

 ship and alliance which had so long 

 subsisted between Great Britain 

 and Denmark, hismajestyhas, dur- 

 ing the whole course of his reign, 

 given repeated proof of these dis- 

 positions, which he had flattered 

 himself were reciprocally entei-- 

 tained by the government of his 

 Danish majesty. And notwith- 

 standing the expressions made use of 

 in count Wedel's note, his majesty 

 cannot even yet persuade himself 

 that it is really by the orders of the 

 king of Denmark that this state of 

 harmony and peace has been thus 

 suddenly disturbed, or that a Danish 

 oflScer can have acted conformably 

 to his instructions, in actually com- 

 mencing hostilities against this 

 country, by a wanton and unpro- 

 voked attack upon a British ship of 

 war, bearing his majesty's flag, and 

 navigating the British seas. 



, The impressions which such an 

 event has naturally excited in his 

 majesty's breast have received ad- 

 ditional force from the perusal of a 

 note, in which satisfaction and re- 

 paration are claimed as due to the 

 aggressors from those who have sus- 

 tained this insult and injury. 



Hisraajest}', allowing for the dif- 

 ficulty in which all neutral nations 

 were placed by the unprecedented 

 conduct and peculiar character of 



his enemy, has, on many occasions, 

 during the present war forborne to 

 assert his rights, and to claim from 

 the Danish government the impar- 

 tial discharge of the duties of that 

 neutrality which it professed a dis- 

 position to maintain. But the de- 

 liberate and open aggression which 

 he has now sustained cannot be pas- 

 sed over in a similar manner. The 

 lives of his brave seamen have been 

 sacrificed, the honour of his flag ha.s 

 been insulted, almost in sight of his 

 own coasts ; and these proceedings 

 are supported by calling in question 

 those indisputable rightSjfounded on 

 the clearest principles of the law of 

 nations, from which his majesty 

 never can depart, and the tempe- 

 rate exercise of which is indispen- 

 sably necessary to the maintenance 

 of the dearest interests of his em- 

 pire. 



The undersigned has, in all his 

 reports to his majesty rendered full 

 justice to the personal dispositions 

 which he has uniformly found on 

 the part of count Wedel, to re- 

 move all grounds of misunderstand- 

 ing between the two countries. 

 He cannot, therefore, now forbear 

 to urge him to represent this matter 

 to his court in its true light, to do 

 away those false impressions, under 

 which (if at all ) a conduct so in- 

 jurious to his majesty can have been 

 authorized, and to consult the inte- 

 rests of both countries, but especi- 

 ally those of Denmark, by bearing 

 his testimony to the dispositions 

 with which his majesty's govern- 

 ment is animated ; and by recom- 

 mending to his court, with all that 

 earnestness which the importance 

 of the occasion both justifies and 

 requires, that these dispositions may, 

 in so critical a conjuncture, find an 

 adequate return ; and that a speedy 



