STATE PAPERS. 



705 



«ome will not permit them io take 

 a personal part in this glorious en- 

 terprise, but they may by their opu- 

 lence, or by their counsel, conduce 

 to the general design ; and this his 

 majesty experts, and I implore of 

 them ; and thus, by availing onr- 

 selves of every resource with which 

 God and nature have furnished us, 

 the efl'ects of our indignation will he 

 terrible to our enemies. In fine, if any- 

 particular member of the state should 

 wish exclusively to undertake some 

 scheme which he thinks likely to 

 annoy the English, and for which he 

 shall require the assistance of govern- 

 ment, let him communicate his pro- 

 ject to me, and I will provide him 

 with the necessary means, if his 

 purpose should be so well formed as 

 to conduce to the injury of Britain, 

 and the glory of Spain. 



(Signed) The Prince of Peace. 



Nofe of his Britannic Majesfi/s Se~ 

 cretunf of State for Foreign Af- 

 fairs, to be laid before the Minis- 

 iers of the King of Prussia, by 

 the Engliih Minister at that 

 Court. Dated Doicning-Strcel, 

 5th Nov. 1804. 



Ilis majesty has received the ac- 

 count of an unexampled act of vio- 

 lence committed at Hamburgh 

 against the person of Sir G. Rum- 

 bold, his minister at that place, who 

 was forcibly seized in his own house 

 in the night of the 25th of 06^obcr, 

 by a detachment of French soldiers, 

 and carried oil', together with the 

 pa|)«rs belonging to his mission.- — 

 After the repeated proofs which the 

 conduct of the French governmcnf 

 lias exhibited of an utter contempt 

 and defiance of every obligation of 

 the law of nation*, hi* Britannic 



Vol. XLVl. 



majesty can feel no surprise at the 

 perpetration of even such an out- 

 rage as this upon the territory of a 

 weak and defenceless state ; but his 

 majesty owes it, not only to him- 

 self, and to the respectable and un- 

 fortunate city whose rights are most 

 immediately attacked, but to his re- 

 lations with the rest of Europe, and 

 to the dignity of every power which 

 has still the inclination and the 

 means of preserving its indepen- 

 dence, to lose no time in entering 

 his solemn protest against so atro- 

 cious an aggression. If any thing 

 could render such a proceeding more 

 insulting and alarming, it would be 

 the explanation which his majesty 

 understands to have been given of 

 it by the French resident at Ham- 

 burgh : namely, that it took place 

 in consequence of orders given by 

 the minister of police at Paris to tha 

 commander of the French forces in 

 Jlanover. His majesty trusts that 

 there will not be found a power upon 

 the continent which can remain in- 

 sensible to the consequences of a 

 measure, which, in its principle and 

 example, not only menaces every 

 court which may at any time fall 

 within the reach of French arms, 

 but which is subversive at once of 

 th^ sacred rights of neutral territo- 

 ry, of the accustomed intercourse 

 between independent states, and of 

 the privileges of public ministers, 

 hitherto respected and recognized by 

 every age and by every nation. — 

 His Prussian majesty unquestionably 

 will not only participate in the sen- 

 timents which must be common to 

 every sovereign, but the vicinity of 

 his dominions, and his situation, 

 both as a director of the circle of 

 Lower Saxony, and a guarantee of 

 the Germanic constitution, will in- 

 duce him to feci a deep and pecu- 

 Z 2 liar 



