-1808.] 
tented to make for his own interests in the 
negotiations of Tilsit, presented no encou- 
raging prospect of the result of any exertions 
which his Imperial Majesty might be dis- 
posed to employ in favour of Great Britain. 
It is not while a French army still occupies 
and lays waste the remaining dominions of the 
King of Prussia, in spite of the stipulations 
of the Prussian treaty of Tilsit; while con- 
tributions are arbitrarily exacted by France 
from that remnant of the Prussian monarchy, 
such as, in iis entire and most flourishing 
state, the Prussian’ monerchy would have 
been unable to discharge ; while the surren- 
der is demanded, in time of peace, of Prussian 
fortresses, which had not been reduced during 
the war; and while the power of France is 
exercised over Prussia with such shameless 
tyranny, as to deSignate and demand for in- 
Stant death, individuals, subjects of his Prus- 
sian Majesty, and resident in his dominions, 
upon a charge of disrespect towards the 
French government ;—it is not while all 
these things are done.and suffered, under the 
eyes of the Emperor of Russia, and without 
his interfererce on behalf of his aily, that 
his Majesty can feel himself called upon to 
account to Europe for having hesitated to re- 
pose an unconditional confidence in the efi- 
cacy of his ipapextal Majesty’s mediation. 
Nor, even if that mediation had taken full 
effect, if a peace had been concluded under it, 
and that peace guarranteed by his Imperial 
Majesty, could his Majesty have placed im- 
plicit reliance on the stability of any such ar- 
rangement, alter having seen the Emperor of 
Russia openty transfer to France the sove- 
reignty of the Ionian republic, the indepen- 
dence of which his Imperial Majesty had ree 
cently and solemnly guaranteed. 
But while the alleged rejection of the Em- 
peror of Russia’s mediation between Great 
Britain and France is stated as a just ground 
of his Imperial Majesty’s resentment, his 
Majesty’s request of that mediation for the 
re-establishment of peace between Great Bri- 
tain and Denmark is represented as an in- 
sult which it was beyond the bounds of his 
Imperial Majesty’ s moderation to endure, 
His Majesty feels himself under no obliga- 
tion to offer any atonement or apology to the 
Emperor of Russia for the expedition against 
Copenhagen. It is not for those who were 
parties to the secret arrangements of Tilsit, to 
demand satisfaction for a measure to which 
thuse arrangements gave rise, and by which 
one of the objects of them has been happily 
defeated. 
His Majesty’s justification of the expedi- 
tion against Copenhagen is before the world, 
The Declaration of the Emperor of Russia 
would supply whatever was wanting in it, if 
any thing could be wanting to convince the 
most incredulous of the urgency of that ne- 
cessity under which his Majesty acted. 
Bat until the Russian Declaration was pub- 
lished, his Majesty had no reason to suspect 
_is maintained 5 
patticular Jenieds have forborne, for special 
State of Public Affairs in December. 597 
that any opinions which the Emperor of Rus- 
sia might entertain of the transactions at Coe 
penhagen, could be such as to. preclude his 
Imperial Majesty from undertaking, at the 
request of Great Britain, that same office of 
mediater, which he had assumed with: so 
much alacrity on the bebalf of France. Nor 
can his Majesty forget that the first symptoms 
of reviving confidence, since the peace of 
Tilsit, the only prospect of success in the en- 
deavours of his Majesty’s ambassador to re- 
store the ancient good understanding between 
Great Britain and Russia, appeared when the 
intelligence of the siege of Copenhagen had 
been recently received at St. Petersburgh. 
The inviolability of the Baltic sea, and the 
reciprocal guaranties of the powers that bor- 
der upon it, guaranties said to have been con- 
tracted with the knowledge of the British 
government, are stated as aggravation of his 
Majesty’s proceedings in the Baltics It can- 
not be intended to represent his Majesty as 
having at any time acquiesced in the princi- 
ples upon which the inviolability of the Baltic 
however his Majesty may, at 
reasons influencing his conduct at the time to 
act in contradiction to them. Such forbear. 
ance never could have applied but to a state of 
peace and real neutrality inthe North; and 
his Majesty most assuredly could not be ex- 
pected to recur to it, after France has been 
suitered to establish herself in undisputed SO= 
vereignty along the whole coast of the Baltic 
sea, from Dantzic to Lubeck. 
But the higher the value which the Empe- 
ror of Russia places on the engagements 1e= 
specting the tranquillity of the Baltic, which 
he describes himself as inheriting from his im- 
mediate predecessors, the Empress Catherine 
and the Emperor Paul, the less justly can his 
Imperial Majesty resent the appeal. made to 
him by his Majesty as the guarantee of the 
peace to be concluded between Great Britain 
and Denmark. In making that appeal, with 
the most confidence and sin ncerity, his Majesty 
neither intended, nor can he imagine that he 
offered, any insult to the Emperor of Russia, 
nor can his Majesty coaceive that, in. pro- 
posing to the Prince Royal terms of peace, 
such as the most successful war on the part of 
Denmark could hardly have been expected to 
extort trom Great Britain, his Majesty ren- 
dered himself liable to the imputation either 
of exasperating the resentment, or of outraging 
the dignity of Denmark. 
His Majesty has thus replied to all the dif- 
ferent accusations by which the Russian Go- 
vernment labours to justify the rupture of a 
connection which has subsisted for ages, with 
reciprocal advantage to Great Britain and 
Russia; and attempts to disguise the operas 
tion of that Leen influence by which Rus- 
sia is driven into unjust hostilities for interests 
not her own. 
The Russian declaration proceeds to an- 
nounce the several conditions on which alone 
these 
