258 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



tive terms, that the present order of 

 things will in no respect interrupt 

 the freedom of commerce and navi- 

 gation in the port of Cuxhaven ; 

 nor, above all, the continuation of 

 the correspondence with England. 

 On the contrary, the officer com- 

 manding the troops of the king 

 garrisoned in the bailiwic of 

 Ritzebuttel will make it his duty 

 to give it every possible facility. 



On the whole, the proceeding 

 which the king has, from necessity, 

 been obliged to foUow, does not 

 admit of any equivocal interpreta- 

 tion. It has no other object than 

 the maintenance of the system of 

 which he is the author and de- 

 fender ; and this object shall not be 

 exceeded. His views and conduct 

 have procured him the confidence 

 of all Europe, and they never will 

 be found inconsistent : and though 

 it is not to be anticipated that the 

 other powers will be disposed to 

 misconceive the purity of his views 

 in the present case, yet his majesty 

 reserves to himself the privilege of 

 explaining himself farther, and in a 

 suitable manner, to those who may 

 be entitled to such explanation. 

 (Signed) Haugwitz. 



Noletransmitted by Mr. Dnimmond 

 iolheDanishMinistcr for Foreign 

 Affairs, dated Bee. 27, 1800. 



T 



HE court of London, informed 

 that Denmark is carrying on 

 with activity negociations very 

 hostile to the interests of the British 

 empire, thinks that it cannot better 

 fulfil the duties which such a cir- 

 cumstance prescribes, than by ad- 

 dressing itself directly to the minis- 

 ter of his Danish majesty, to de- 

 mand from him a frank and satis- 



factoiy explanation. In all the 

 courts of Europe, they speak openly 

 of a confederacy between Denmark 

 and some other powers, to oppose, 

 by force, the exercise of those prin- 

 ciples of maritime law on which 

 the naval power of the British em- 

 pire in a great measure rests, and 

 which, in all wars; have been fol- 

 lowed by the maritime states, and 

 acknowledged by their tribunals. — 

 His Britannic majesty, relying with 

 confidence upon the faith of the 

 engagements recently contracted 

 between the two courts, has not 

 demanded from him any explanation 

 on this head. It was his wish to 

 wait for the moment when the 

 court of Denmark should think it 

 its duty to contradict those reports, 

 so injurious to its good faith, and so 

 little compatible with the mainte- 

 nance of the good understanding 

 which had been re-established be- 

 tween the two countries. At pre- 

 sent, the conduct and the public 

 declaration of one of the powers, 

 which it is pretended has entered 

 into this confederacy, do not permit 

 his majesty to preserve any longer 

 towards the rest the same silence, 

 which he has hitherto observed.— 

 The undersigned, therefore, finds 

 himself bound to demand from his 

 excellency count de BernstorfF, a 

 plain, open, and satisfactory answer 

 on the nature, object, and extent 

 of the obligations which his Danish 

 majesty may have contracted, or the 

 negociations which he is carrying 

 on with respect to a matter which 

 so nearly concerns the dignity of his 

 Britannic majesty, and the interests 

 of his people. His Britannic ma- 

 jesty, always ready to return all the 

 marks of friendship which he may 

 receive on the part of his Danish 

 majesty, hopes to find, in the an- 



