LON 
af If was thrown. The excitement of the national fenfi- 
bility was chiefly referved for the Danifh war : a circitm- 
Itance highly creditable to the national feelings and cha¬ 
racter, as it muft be recollected, that Denmark was, with 
one exception, the weakelt of our new adverfaries, and that 
it was from Iioftilitiess againft her only that Great Britain 
derived thofe advantages by which (he f'ucceeded in coun¬ 
teracting the defigns of the more powerful of them. 
The war with Denmark, and the military and naval 
meafures by which it was commenced, offering the firft 
grand feature of a Clive and fuccefs ful warfare that oc¬ 
curred in this year, as well as the firft fpecimen of the po¬ 
litics of the new adminiflration, it is our duty to prefent 
this fubjeCt to our readers in one connected view ; in or¬ 
der to which, we muft take a fhort retrofpeit of preceding 
events. In the courfe of the negotiations which, from 
the unfortunate peace of Freiburg, and the ftil! more la¬ 
mentable policy of the Pruflian cabinet, terminated in 
the concluiion of the treaties of Vienna and Paris, be¬ 
tween Pruiliaaiid France, repeated intimations were given 
by Bonaparte, when he found that the tide of fortune 
continued to run in his favour, that one of the firit and 
principal ufes he fliould make of his fuccefs, would be, 
to cut off thofe channels of communication which Great 
Britain frill preferved with the continent. As the con¬ 
currence, and even the co-operation, of Pruffia was ne- 
cefiary for this purpofe, to her were thefe intimations firft 
addrefi'ed. She was not long in acceding to thofe mea¬ 
fures, which, ere many months elapfed, proved the caule 
of her own downfall: (he took forcible pofTeffion of the 
king’s German dominions, and excluded the Britifh 
flag from her own ports, and from others to which her 
power or influence extended. 
Denmark offered yet a feeble obftacle to the wifhes of 
Bonaparte : it was to overawe her that lie next turned his 
attention. To eng-age her by fair or foul means to (hut 
the ports of her German provinces, and to attempt to ob- 
ftrult the commerce of England in its paffage through the 
Sound, was the next ftep in his refriefs career. This was 
announced in no unintelligible terms, by the many official 
and unofficial agents, which his aftive diplomacy em¬ 
ployed in every court of Europe : the public newlpapers 
were fometimes made the expounders of his will upon 
thefe topics. The court of Denmark could not be the lad 
informed of what was puffing; her own interefts, and the 
delire of Bonaparte, that the fliould at once learn his de¬ 
termination, and the fuccefs he had met with in binding 
Pruffia to it, fpeedily put her in poffeffion of what die was 
to expeft. She took the alarm. In hopes, perhaps, of 
obtaining fome conlolatory information, or in the irill 
more delufive expectation of deriving fome affiftance by 
which to avert the impending (form, count Bernftorff, 
the Danifh minifler for foreign affairs, undertook a jour¬ 
ney to Berlin. That court, divided as it had been, for 
fome months, between the honed but feeble endeavours 
of one minifter and the infamous intrigues of another, 
had not yet thrown itfelf into the gulf. Its final and 
official content to Bonaparte’s propofal had not been given ; 
and the well-intentioned part of the Pruflian minidry was 
dill in hopes of preferving their own and their country’s 
honour. To thefe men count Bernftorff directed his at¬ 
tention—on them his hopes relied ; and, as they did not 
delpair of maintaining their own independence, they al¬ 
lowed him to believe that they would aflift in the fupport 
of that of Denmark. He accordingly did not hefitate to 
affert, that Denmark would refill any attempt upon her in¬ 
dependence, from whatever quarter it came. At that 
time, poifibiy, he believed it; and the events of the dim¬ 
mer of 1806 rather tended to confirm him in this belief. 
The battle of Jena, however, and its immediate confe- 
quences, diffipated the delufion. Then Bonaparte became 
' the abfolute difpofer of all the north and north-eaft of 
Germany : he placed garrifons in ttie Hans-towns; he 
violated the neutrality of the Danifh territory, and al’- 
fumed, for the winter, a pofitiou fo bordering upon it. 
DON. 1 ’fi'7 
held himfelf, anc! by his agents, fuch language, and au- 
thorifed acts of fuch magnitude, that there could no longer 
remain, in the mind of any unprejudiced man, a doubt as 
to his future intentions. 
Such was the hate of things, when the Britifh govern¬ 
ment, having kept an attentive eye upon the trapf.uftiohs 
which led to it, determined to fend to fea a powerful mi¬ 
litary and naval armament, confiding of about 20,000 
men, and a fleet of 27 fail of the line, with veffels of all 
other deferiptions, to the number of near ninety pendants. 
But fuch had been the fecrecy attending thefe prepara¬ 
tions, that the whole force was nearly ready for fea be¬ 
fore the extent of it was known to the public ; and it had 
actually left the ports of England many days before its 
deftination was even fufpelted. A divifion of the fleet, 
under the immediate direction of commodore Keats, was 
detached to the Great Belt, with inftruCtions to allow no mi¬ 
litary force whatever to enter Zealand. That enterprifing 
and judicious officer led his line-of-battie fiiips through a 
little-known and intricate navigation, without the fmallefk 
accident; and ftationed his whole fquadron in fuch a man¬ 
ner, as that, by the veffels being within telegraph-diftance 
of each other, nothing could attempt to pals them with¬ 
out a certainty of interception. The communication was 
entirely cut off.between Zealand, the adjacent ifle of Fu- 
nen, and the main land of Holftein, Slefwic, and Jutland* 
No troops from any of the latter could pals into Zealand 5 
which was thus placed, as to any military fuccour, in a 
complete date of blockade—a wife and humane precau¬ 
tion, calculated at once to enfure the fuccefs of our enter- 
prife, and to render it as bloodlefs as poifibie, if it fliould 
be ultimately neceflary to have recourfe to arms. The 
Britifh army accompanied the main body of the fleet to 
the Sound, where it was reinforced by the troops that had 
been for fome time employed at Stralfund and the ifle of 
Riigen, as auxiliaries to the king of Sweden. Lord Cath- 
cart, who was with thofe troops, was appointed to the 
chief command of the whole land-force. Admiral Gam- 
bier, one of the lords of the admiralty, commanded the 
fleet. 
Hitherto the warlike preparations of our government 
appear as the molt prominent feature of this undertaking.. 
Much of its fuccefs was indeed expected to be derived 
from them ; but it was, at the fame time, underftood, 
that, with the exception of the above-mentioned eventual 
and precautionary order to obftruft the paffage of any 
troops acrofs the Belt, the whole of our armament was to 
remain, in the firft inftance, inactive. No offenfive ope¬ 
rations w’ere to be undertaken, until the refult of a nego¬ 
tiation was known, which was, at the fame time, to be 
opened with the court of Denmark, in order to obtain, 
without hoftility, and by an arrangement equally advan¬ 
tageous to both countries, the objeft which was confidered 
of paramount importance to Great Britain. 
To conduit this negotiation, his majefty’s minifters fe- 
lected Mr. Jackfon, who had, for feveral preceding years, 
redded at the court of Berlin, as envoy from this country, 
and who was fuppofed to have become peculiarly well ac¬ 
quainted, in that and other high diplomatic fituations, with, 
the general politics of the North of Europe. The details 
of that gentleman’s million to the Danifh court have not 
been, as praliiled on many fimiktr occafions, laid before 
parliament. But the fubltance of his inftruCHons, which 
were themfelves offered to be produced when the ('abject 
was. difculfed in the houfe of commons, was very gene¬ 
rally known ; and we have been able, from good and au¬ 
thentic fources, to coliedt the following particulars of 
what paffed upon that occalion. Upon the ground of Bo¬ 
naparte’s delign to fhut the ports of Holftein againft the 
Britifh flag, and forcibly to employ the Danifh navy againft . 
this country, Mr. Jackfon was inftruffed to repair to the 
refideftce of the prince-royal of Denmark, and to enter 
into immediate and unreferved explanation with his royal • 
liighnefs refpeCting the views and fentiments of the Bri¬ 
tifh government. He was to ufe every argument in his 
pow§£ 
