STATE PAPERS. 



249 



never induced him to pass the 

 bounds of that moderation and can- 

 dour, which should be cultivated 

 by friendly courts, and to which his 

 majesty trusts the court of Spain 

 will return, when it shall have care- 

 fully inquired into the true causes 

 of the different accidents which have 

 occasionally taken place in its ports. 



The undersigned, chancellor of 

 the court, has the honour to make 

 the present representations to the 

 chevalier de la Huerta, envoy ex- 

 traordinary from his Catholic ma- 

 jesty, as an answer to his commu- 

 nication of the 17th of September, 

 and avails himself with pleasure of 

 the opportunity to express his 

 esteem, &c. 



( Signed ) F. Von Ehrenheim. 



Drottningholm, 

 October 22, 1800. 



Nutcjrom the Swedish Minister for 

 foreign Affairs to the Minister of 

 his Prussian Majesty at Stock- 

 holm, on the Subject of the Af- 

 foir at Barcelona. 



HAVING stated to thekingthe 

 manner in which his Prussian 

 majesty has viewed the memorial of 

 the court of Spain, on the subject 

 of an insult offered to the Swedish 

 flag by the English, the undersign- 

 ed, chancellor of the court, has been 

 commanded to express to M. de 

 Tarach the grateful acknowledge- 

 ments of his majesty for the con- 

 stant attention which the court of 

 Berlin has shewn to the interests of 

 the neutral flags, and the full con- 

 fidence which he reposes in the 

 mode in which they are regarded by 

 that court. The king has viewed 

 with surprise the public responsi- 

 bility to which the court of Sjiain 



has called Sweden upon tliis occa- 

 sion, and the menaces which it has 

 thereto added: notwithstanding all 

 the vexations to which neutral flags 

 have been exposed during the pre- 

 sent war, this is the most oppressive 

 proceeding which they have yet ex- 

 perienced. Being thus incessantly 

 placed between the offence and the 

 reparation, they must soon be drag- 

 ged into a concern in the war, or 

 cease to appear on the seas where 

 it is carried on. These truths, in- 

 volving consequences so important 

 to the other neutral powers as well 

 as to Sweden, his Swedish majesty 

 could not, in general, take upon 

 himself any share of responsibility 

 for the improper use which the bel- 

 ligerent powers may make of the 

 Swedish vessels which they may 

 seize upon. This principle appears 

 tohis Swedish majesty so wellfound- 

 ed, that he flatters himself the court 

 of Berlin will give it all the sup- 

 port which justice and the common 

 interest appear equally to demand; 

 and it has been hitherto respected 

 amidst all the outrages which have 

 been committed on both sides, with- 

 out which the war must have be- 

 come general. Had the Ottoman 

 Porte,Russia, and England, attach- 

 ed such responsibility to all the flags 

 in the port of Alexandria; had they 

 claimed the restitution of Egypt 

 from the respective governments, 

 because their merchant-vessels had 

 been compelled to carry French 

 troops to take that country by sur- 

 prise; and had they used the same 

 forms of application, and insisted 

 on the same peremptory terms and 

 conditions, all commerce, all neu- 

 trality must have been at once an- 

 nihilated. His majesty, therefore, 

 conceived that the violence oft'cred 

 to the Svvcdisih flag at Barcelona 



