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Tilsit, He was under the Necessity of employing to disconcert a Combination directed against His own immediate Interests and Security.

The Vexation of Russian Commerce by Great Britain is, in Truth, little more than an imaginary Grievance. Upon a diligent Examination, made by His Majesty's Command, of the Records of the British Court of Admiralty there has been discovered only a solitary Instance in the Course of the present War, of the Condemnation of a Vessel really Russian: a Vessel which had carried Naval Stores to a Port of the Common Enemy. There are but few Instances of Russian Vessels detained: and none in which Justice has been refused to a Party regùlarly complaining of such Detention. It is therefore Matter of Surprize as well as of Concern to His Majesty that the Emperor of Russia should have condescended to bring forward a Complaint which, as it cannot be seriously felt by those in whose Behalf it is arged, might appear to be intended to countenance those exaggerated Declamations, by which France perseveringly endeavours to inflame the Jealousy of other Countries, and to justify Her own inveterate Animosity, against Great Britain...

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The Peace of Tilsit was followed by an Offer of Mediation on the Part of the Emperor of Russia, for the Conclusion of a Peace between Great Britain and France; which it is asserted that His Majesty refused.

His Majesty did not refuse the Mediation of the Emperor of Russia: although the Offer of it was accompanied by Circumstances of Concealment which might well have justified His Refusal. The Articles of the Treaty of Tilsit were not communicated to His Majesty and specifically that Article of the Treaty, in Virtue of which the Mediation was proposed; and which prescribed a limited Time for the Return of His Majesty's Answer to that Proposal. And His Majesty was thus led into an apparent Compliance with a Limitation so offensive to the Dignity of an Independent Sovereign. But the Answer so returned by His Majesty was not a Refusal. It was a conditional Acceptance. The Conditions required by His Majesty were, a State

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ment of the Basis upon which the Enemy was disposed to treat; and a Communication of the Articles of the Peace of Tilsit. The First of these Conditions was precisely the same which the Emperor of Russia had Himself annexed not four Months before to His own Acceptance of the proffered Mediation of the Emperor of Austria. The Second was one which His Majesty would have had a Right to require even as the Ally of His Imperial Majesty, but which it would have been highly improvident to omit, when he was invited to confide to His Imperial Majesty the Care of His Honour and of His Interests.

But even if these Conditions (neither of which has been fulfilled, although the Fulfilment of them has been repeatedly required by His Majesty's Ambassador at St. Petersburgh) had not been in themselves perfectly natural and necessary; there were not wanting Considerations which might have warranted His Majesty in endeavouring, with more than ordinary Anxiety, to ascertain the Views and Intentions of the Emperor of Russia, and the precise Nature and Effect of the new Relations which His Imperial Majesty had contracted.

The complete Abandonment of the Interests of the King of Prussia, (who had twice rejected Proposals of separate Peace, from a strict Adherence to His Engagements with His Imperial Ally,) and the Character of those Provisions which the Emperor of Russia was contented to make for His own Interests in the Negotiations of Tilsit, presented no encouraging Prospect of the Result of any Exertions which His Imperial Majesty might be disposed 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 Contributions are arbitrarily exacted by France from that Remnant of the Prussian Monarchy, such as, in its entire and most flourishing State, the Prussian Monarchy would have been unable to discharge; while the Surrender is demanded, in Time of Peace, of Prussian Fortresses, which had not been re

duced during the War; and while the Power of France is exercised over Prussia with such shameless Tyranny, as to designate and demand for instant Death, Individuals, Subjects of His Prussian 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 Interference on Behalf of His Ally, that His Majesty can feel Himself called upon to account to Europe, for having hesitated to repose an unconditional Confidence in the Efficacy of His Imperial Majesty's Mediation.

Nor, even if that Mediation had taken full Effect, if a Peace had been concluded under it, and that Peace guaranteed by His Imperial Majesty, could His Majesty have placed implicit Reliance on the Stability of any such Arrangement, after having seen the Emperor of Russia openly transfer to France the Sovereignty of the Ionian Republic, the Independence of which His Imperial Majesty had recently and solemnly guaranteed.

But while the alleged Rejection of the Emperor 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 Britain and Denmark, is represented as an Insult which it was beyond the Bounds of His Imperial Majesty's Moderation to endure.

His Majesty feels Himself under no Obligation to of fer 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 at Tilsit, to demand Satisfaction for a Measure to which those Arrangements gave rise, and by which one of the Objects of them has been happily defeated.

His Majesty's Justification of the Expedition 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 Necessity under which His Majesty acted.

But until the Russian Declaration was published, His Majesty had no Reason to suspect that any Opinions which the Emperor of Russia might entertain of the Transactions at Copenhagen could be such as to preclude His Imperial Majesty from undertaking, at the Request of Great Britain, that same Office of Mediator, which He had assumed with so much Alacrity on the Behalf 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 Endeavours of His Majesty's Ambassador to restore 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 Guarantees of the Powers that Border upon it, Guarantees said to have been contracted with the Knowledge of the British Government, are stated as Aggravations of His Majesty's Proceedings in the Baltic. It cannot be intended to represent His Majesty as having at any Time acquiesced in the Principles upon which the Inviolability of the Baltic is maintained; however His Majesty may at particular Periods have forborne, for special Reasons influencing His Conduct at the Time, to act in Contradiction to them. Such Forbearance never could have applied but to a State of Peace and real Neutrality in the North; and His Majesty most assuredly could not be expected to recur to it, after Francè has been suffered to establish Herself in undisputed Sovereignty along the whole Coast of the Baltic Sea from Dantzig to Lubeck.

But the higher the Value which the Emperor of Russia places on the Engagements respecting the Tranquillity of the Baltic, which He describes Himself as in

o from His immediate 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 utmost Confidence and Sincerity, His Majesty neither intended, nor can He ima

gine that He offered any Insult to the Emperor of Rus sia. Nor can His Majesty conceive that, in proposing 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 from Great Britain, His Majesty rendered 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 different Accusations by which the Russian Government 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 Operation of that external Influence by which Russia is driven into unjust Hostilities for Interests not her own.

The Russian Declaration proceeds to announce the several Conditions on which alone these Hostilities, can be terminated, and the Intercourse of the Two Countries renewed.

His Majesty has already had Occasion to assert that Justice has in no Instance been denied to the Claims of His Imperial Majesty's Subjects.

The Termination of the War with Denmark has been so anxiously sought by His Majesty, that it cannot be necessary for His Majesty to renew any Professions upon that Subject. But His Majesty is at a Loss to reconcile the Emperor of Russia's present Anxiety for the Completion of such an Arrangement, with His Imperial Majesty's recent Refusal to contribute His good Offices for effecting it.

And

The Requisition of His Imperial Majesty for the immediate Conclusion, by His Majesty, of a Peace with France, is as extraordinary in the Substance, as it is offensive in the Manner. His Majesty has at no Time declined to treat with France, when France has professed a Willingness to treat on an admissible Basis. the Emperor of Russia cannot fail to remember that the last Negotiation between Great Britain and France was broken off, upon Points immediately affecting, not His Majesty's own Interests, but those of His Imperial Ally. But His Majesty neither understands nor will

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