o. 
STAC E 
Biitish ministry, announces that the 
electorate of Hanover has been 
taken possession of, and that the 
ports of the German Sea, and of 
Lubeck, have been closed against 
the British flag. 
This declaration gives the lie to 
all those assurances by which the 
‘cabinet of Berlin has hitherto endea- 
voured tocloak its proceedings : to 
which it moreover adds the preten- 
sion that his Prussian majesty has 
acquired. by his system of policy, 
claims to the gratitude of all the 
northern powers. 
Thus actually dispossessed of the 
ancient inheritance of my family, 
‘and insulted in my rights as a sove- 
reign, | have ordered those measures 
& _to be taken which the honour of 
_ my crown require: but, still owe 
it to myself, to Europe, and to my 
subjects, to make a public declara- 
tion of my sentiments, as elector of 
Brunswick Lunenburgh, upon the 
“unjust usurpation of my German 
possessions. 
Tt is not necessary to prove how 
contrary this act is to the rights of 
nations, or to the laws of the Ger- 
manempire. Their infraétiog is too 
evident to be required to be proved. 
“It is the most sacred principles of 
_ good faith, of honour, and in fact 
of all the obligations upon which the 
reciprocal safety of different states 
amongst themselves, and of each 
civil society in itself, repose, which 
are trodden under foot in such a 
Manner, that the world would have 
difficulty in believing it, if 1 did not 
cause the facts to be laid before 
them; which are atthenticated in 
_ the narrative which | have ordered 
to be prepared. 
The proceedings of the court of 
Berlin, when the electorate was oc. 
tupied by its troops, in 1801—its 
PAPERS. 
O96 
conduct, far from being friendly 
during the negociation for the in- 
demnities which followed the peace 
of Luneville—the declaration which 
it made, when France prepared to 
invade the electorate—and, lastly, 
the burthensome conditions under 
which it endeavoured to cause it to 
be evacuated, to substitute her own 
troops instead of those of France, 
had given too many proofs to the 
government of Hanover, not to 
oblige it to endeavour to avoid all 
sort of intervention on the part of 
this power, even at the moment 
that it was on the point of engaging 
in a dispute with France. The 
events which retarded the arrival in 
Hanover of the expedition con- 
certed between Great Britain, Rus- 
sia, and Sweden, gave the Prussian 
troops an opportunity of anticipat- 
ing them, after the French army 
had been obliged to evacuate the 
-clectorate. 
This step was accompanied by 
the most friendly protestations on 
the part of Prussia. She invited 
the Hanoverian government to re- 
sume its functions in my name, and 
to collect the wreck of thearmy. 
The country, already so unfortu- 
nate, doubly felt the weight of the 
numerous requisitious extorted by 
the Prussian corps, without the least 
regard to the situation in which the 
French left it. 
After the unfortunate result of 
the campaign of the allies in. the 
south of the empire, an attack in 
the north was to be expected. His 
imperial majesty of Russia, fo ob- 
viate the dangers to which Prussia 
might be exposed, placed, ia conse= 
quence of the conyention of Potz- 
dam, his troops under Count de 
Tolstoy, and the corps of general 
Benningsen, under the orders of his 
a tS: Prussian 
