brought a cargo of staves from Pillau to Oporto; whereupon the said boat's crew examined the said vessel's papers, and asked the said master if he had letters to any person in Spain, as, if he had, his said vessel would be a good prize; who replied, no such letters were on board; when the said boat and crew quitted the said vessel, and commanded the said master to lay his top-sail back, and keep after the said line of battle ship, and that when they got on board, if a flag of any nation was hoisted, he might proceed on his voyage; but no such flag was hoisted, and the said two ships of war kept in for the land, and fired a shot at the said appearers' vessel, which obliged them to follow; and a boat with two officers and a great number of men came on board, and took the command and possession of the said vessel; when the said master asked what was their intention for so doing? and the said officers replied, that they did not know, but were obliged to follow their commander's orders; and toward evening, when it came on to be dark, they kept out to sea with the top-sail constantly laid back, and then many boats (to the best of the said appearers' recollection eight in number) came alongside, filled with armed officers and men, and they got on board the said vessel, at which the said appearers were greatly alarmed; and the said master asked the officer who commanded the man at the helm, what was intended to be done with the said vessel and her crew? who informed him, that the captain was on board, and that the said master might go forward and inquire of him, which he accordingly did; and he commanded him to be silent, and spoke to another officer, who put a pistol to the said master's breast, and informed him, if he uttered a word to any man, a shot should end his existence; and they steering the said vessel for Barcelona Road, the said master begged he might be allowed to get her anchors ready, which was permitted; and while the same was doing, one of the crew spoke a few words, when an officer immediately jumped up, and would have killed him, had he not fortunately been prevented by another officer, and between eight and nine o'clock in the evening they arrived in Barcelona Road, and were hailed by a Spanish frigate riding at anchor, when the said master not being permitted to reply, one of the said English officers called out, "Sueco, Sueco," and a firing began from the said Spanish frigate at the said vessel, when the said English officers and people took to their boats and proceeded towards her, and the firing continuing, the said appearers put their helm a-lee, and ran into the cabin to prevent being shot, and soon afterwards the said firing

ceased, when the said master and his crew got on the deck to save the sails, and bring the said vessel up; and as soon as they had let the anchor go, and hauled the foresails down, another firing commenced, by which Hans Peter Rubarth (the then mate of the said vessel, and brother to the said master) was shot through his left shoulder and arm, and fell to all appearance dead; at which the said appearers were much alarmed, and let the said vessel drive with the little cable she had out, and hastened to assist him into the cabin; and the said appearers. discovered, that the said English officers and men captured in their said boats two Spanish frigates, in which they passed the said vessel, and the wind got more off the shore, and the firing continued, and the shots went over her abaft, and she drove into deep water; and, to prevent drifting out to sea, they let go both anchors, and made the sails fast, and, when the said two Spanish frigates had got out a considerable distance to sea, some Spanish gun-boats came near, whereupon the said appearers were much alarmed, apprehending they would still consider the said vessel an enemy, and sink her, and therefore hoisted a light as a signal that they were friends; and the people on board the said gun-boats inquired if they had any Englishmen left, when the said master informed them there were not, but that his mate was severely wounded; when one of the said gun-boats came alongside, and her crew inquired if any other person was sick; and being answered that all the others were in perfect health, an officer came on board, who seeing the said master weeping over his wounded brother, promised to acquaint Mr. Almgren, the Swedish consul at Barcelona. aforesaid, of his distress, and to send people on board, to assist in weighing the anchors, and conduct the said vessel into the harbor of Barcelona aforesaid to obtain a surgeon; that on the 5th one came on board with four men, and she was towed into the said harbor, and moored in a proper place to perform quarantine, and continued under such restraint ten days, and was then released, and during the same the said master was obliged to keep the said four men, and also the surgeon and two other men, to watch the said mate; and the rigging, sails, and yawl, which were shot and much damaged, they repaired and stoppered as well as they could, and as soon as prattic was obtained, the said mate was taken on shore to the hospital at Barcelona aforesaid; and the said master having obtained freight on the 9th day of October last, sailed from Barcelona aforesaid, but the said mate continued so ill, he was obliged to be left in the said hospital. That in the

latter part of the month of December following, the said master received a letter, dated the 14th day of the said month, from Daniel Christopher Hingst, of Barth aforesaid, the owner of the said vessel stating that the said mate died of his wounds in the hospital of Barcelona aforesaid, on the 29th day of the said month of October, leaving a widow and three infant children. And also the said appearers declared, that they have been informed, and verily believe, that the said line of battle-ship is called the Minotaur, Capt. T. Lewis, but they have not been enabled to learn the name of the said English frigate, or of her commander, and that they used their utmost endeavors for the preservation of the said vessel; that whatever damage or loss the same sustained was not occasioned by or through any neglect or default of them, or any of the then crew, or by reason of any defect or fault in the said vessel or her tackling, but merely by means of the said capture. Therefore the said master has desired a protest; wherefore I, the said notary, at his request, have solemnly protested, and by these presents do protest, against the said Captain T. Lewis, and the other officers and crew of the said ship Minotaur, and also the officers and crew of the said English frigate, and every other person and cause occasioning the said capture and detention, of and for all losses, costs, charges, damages, demurrages, suits, and expenses already and hereafter to be suffered and sustained thereby, to be allowed and recovered in time and place convenient. Thus done and protested in Dover aforesaid, in the presence of James Moon and John Finnings, witnesses thereto, called and requested. In testimony of the truth thereof, the said appearers, interpreter, and witnesses, subscribed their names in the registry of me the said notary; and I the said notary have hereunto set my hand, and affixed my notarial seal. Dated the day and year first above written.

(Signed) THO. PAIN

The said Martin Rubarth, Jacob Christopher Glasen, and Johan Henderick Heuer, were sworn on the Holy Evangelists to the truth of the aforegoing protest; the said Roelof Symons being first sworn faithfully to interpret to them. at Dover aforesaid, the said 7th day of February 1801, before me,

(Signed) THO. PAIN

A Master Extraordinary in Chancery Hoffnung, Martin Rubarth Master. Protest dated February 7th, 1801.

Reply of Count Haugwitz to Lord Carysfort, February 12, 18011 The undersigned, State and Cabinet Minister, has laid before His Prussian Majesty the two notes which Lord Carysfort, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from His Majesty the King of Great Britain and Ireland, has done him the honor to transmit to him on the 27th of January, and 1st of February last.

The undersigned having it in commission to return an explicit and circumstantial answer, is under the necessity of informing Lord Carysfort, that His Majesty can not see without the utmost grief and concern, the violent and hasty measures to which the Court of London has proceeded against the northern naval Powers. Error alone can have given occasion to these measures, as the assertions in the note of the 27th sufficiently show. In that it is said, that the maritime alliance "has for its object, to annul the treaties formerly concluded with England, and to prescribe laws to her, with respect to the principles of them; that the neutrality is only a pretext to impose these laws on her by force, and to establish a hostile alliance against her."

Nothing, however, is farther from the above-mentioned negotiation, than the principles here supposed. It is founded in justice and moderation, and the communication of a copy of the convention to such of the belligerent Powers as had the justice and patience to wait for the same, will prove this beyond the possibility of a denial.

When in the beginning of January the Minister of His Britannic Majesty officially proposed to the undersigned, the question, "whether the northern Courts had actually concluded the confederation which had been reported; and whether Prussia had acceded to it?"-the King conceived that the respect which sovereigns owe to each other, and the liberty possessed by every independent State to consult its own interests, without rendering an account to any other Power, authorized him to withhold any communications relative to himself and his allies; and contented himself with answering, that as he had seen, without interfering, the connections which England had entered into without consulting him, he considered himself entitled to the same confidence; and that if the King of Great Britain thought it his duty to support the rights and interests of his kingdom, His Prussian Majesty considered it as not less his duty to employ every means in the defense of the rights and interests of his subjects.

1Collection of State Papers, vol. 11, p. 229.

This answer might have sufficed a few weeks since; but in the situation in which affairs now are, the King thinks himself called upon to make an explicit declaration to the Court of London, relative to the spirit of the treaty, which has probably been attacked because it was not known, and which is far from having the offensive views of which the contracting Powers have been arbitrarily accused. They have expressly agreed, that their measures shall be neither hostile nor tend to the detriment of any country, but only have for their object the security of the trade and navigation of their subjects. They have been attentive to adapt their new connections to present circumstances. The strict justice of His Majesty the Emperor of Russia has, even in the detail, proposed modifications, which alone might be sufficient to indicate the spirit of the whole. It has since been determined, that the treaty shall not be prejudicial to those which had before been concluded with any of the belligerent Powers. It was also resolved, that this determination should be candidly communicated to those Powers, to prove the purity of the motives and views of the contracting parties. But England would not allow time for this; had she waited this confidential communication, she might have avoided those intemperate measures which threaten to spread the flames of war still wider.

Besides, it only depended on England, previously to draw satisfactory information from the correspondence with Denmark, if, instead of taking hold of two isolated passages, which Lord Carysfort, in his first note, extracted from Count Bernstorff's note of the 31st of December, the Court of London had listened to the solemn declaration which it contained: "That it could never have been supposed for a moment that Denmark had formed hostile projects against England, or plans that could not subsist together with the maintenance of harmony between the two Crowns, and that the Court of Copenhagen congratulated itself on finding an opportunity for contradicting, in the most positive manner, such unfounded reports." This plain and precise declaration agrees with the language which the undersigned had used more than once to Lord Carysfort, when speaking on that subject; and it can scarcely be conceived how the English Court, after that declaration had been received, could conclude from the note of the Minister of Denmark, "That the engagements of the contracting Powers had for their object the introduction of principles of naval rights, which had never been acknowledged by the tribunals of Europe, and which were of a hostile tendency against England." The conclu