pleased to return the following most gracious answer: I receive, with great satisfaction, this dutiful and loyal address from my city of London. My endeavours to preserve peace have been unhappily frustrated, by the restless spirit of aggrandisement which actuates the councils of the French government; but I trust the united and vigorous exertions of the nation at large, in support of the just cause we are engaged in, will, under the protection of Divine Providence, enable me to maintain the dignity of my crown, and to defend the rights and interests of my people against every aggression. By the Commissioners for executing the Office of Lord High Admiral of the united Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, &c. The right honourable lord Pelham, one of his majesty's principal secretaries of state, having transmitted to us two additional instructions under his majesty's signet and sign manual, dated the 21th instant, to the commanders of his majesty's ships and privateers that have or may have letters of marque and reprisals against the French and Batavian republics, directing them not to detain or molest any vessels belonging to any state in amity with his majesty, on account of their having on board any organised, thrown, and raw silk, the growth and production of Italy, coming consigned to any merchant of the united kingdom; or to scize (under the provisions therein mentioned) any neutral vessel which shall be carrying on the trade di rectly between the colonies of the enemy and the neutral country to which the vessel belongs, and laden with the property of inhabitants of such neutral country: We send you herewith printed copies of his majesty's instructions above mentioned, and do hereby require and direct you to pay the strictest regard and attention thereto. Given under our hands the 30th of June, 1803. To the respective captains, commanders, and commanding officers of his majesty's ships and vessels. By command of their lordships, A Convention between his Britannic Majesty and the King of Sweden, signed on the 25th of July, 1803. His majesty the king of the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and his majesty the king of Sweden, being equally desirous of promoting the good un derstanding which happily subsists between them, and of preventing the recurrence of those differences which have heretofore arisen respecting the eleventh article of the treaty of alliance concluded and signed at Whitehall on the 21st day of October, 1661, have named and authorised for that purpose, viz. his Britannic ma jesty, the right hon. Robert Banks Jenkinson, Lord Hawkesbury, one of his said majesty's most honourable privy-council, and his principal secretary of state for the foreign department, and his Swedish majesty, George Uldrick baron de Silverhjelm, his envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to his Britannic majesty, and knight of the order of the polar star, who, after having duly communicated to each other their respective full powers, have agreed upon the following articles: Art. I. In the event of one of the contracting parties being neutral during a war in which the other contracting party may be belligerent, the vessels of the neutral party shall not carry to the enemy or enemies of the belligerent party, money, arms or bombs with their fusees and other apurtenances, fire-balls, gunpowder, matches, cannon-balls, spears, lances, pikes, halberts, guns, mcrtars, petards, grenadoes, musketrests, bandaliers, saltpetre, muskets, musket-bullets, helmets, head-pieces, breast-plates, coatsof-mail, commonly called cuirasses, and the like kind of arms; or troops, horses, or any thing necessary for the equipment of cavalry; or pistols, belts, or any other instruments of war; or ships of war, and guard-ships; nor any manufactured articles immediately serving for the equipment of the same, under the penalty, that, if either of the contracting parties shall seize the same, these articles shall be liable to confiscation. II. The cruisers of the belligerent power shall exercise the right of bringing in the ships of the neutral going to the ports of an enemy, laden with cargoes of provisions, or with cargoes of pitch, tar, hemp, and generally all unmanufactured articles whatever, serving for the equipment of ships of all descriptions, and likewise all manufactured articles serving for the equipment of merchant vessels (herrings, iron in bars, steel, rose-copper, brass and brass wire, deal, planks not being oak, and spars, however, excepted), 1803. and if the cargoes so exported in the bottoms of the neutral power are produce of the territories of the said neutral power, and going on account of the subjects thereof, the belligerent power shall, in that case, exercise the right of purchasing them, upon condition of paying a profit of ten per centum upon a fair invoice price, or the fair market price in England or in Sweden respectively, at the option of the owner, with an indemnification for detention and necessary expenses. III. If the cargoes specified in the preceding article (not being enemy's property) are proceeding with a professed destination to the ports of a neutral country, and are brought in under suspicion that their true destination is to the ports of the enemy, and it shall turn out, upon due inquiry, that they were really bound to neutral ports, they shall be at liberty to pursue their voyages, after being indemnified for their detention and necessary expenses, unless the government of the belligerent country, from a reasonable apprehension of their falling into the hands of the enemy, should desire to purchase them; in which case the full price shall be paid, which they would have obtained in the ports of the neutral country to which they were going, with an indemnification for detention and necessary expenses. IV. Herrings, iron in bars, steel, rose-copper, brass and brass wire, deal, planks not being of oak, and spars, shall not be liable to confiscation or pre-emption on the part of the belligerent power, but shall be permitted to pass free in the ships of the neutral country, provided that they are not enemy's property. (H) V. The (L.S.) subject to no unnecessary impediment or inconvenience. I have the honour to be, &c. Correspondence between his Majesty, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, and Mr. Addington, on the Offer of Military Service made by his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. (COPY.) Carlton House, July 18, 1803. Sir, The subject on which I address JORAN ULDRICK SILVERHJELM. you presses so heavily on my Copy of a Letter from his Excellency Lord Hawkesbury, one of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, to his Excellency Baron De Silverhjelm, his Swedish Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary at the Court of Great Britain, by him transmitted to Clais Grill, Esq., his Swedish Majesty's Commercial Agent-General. I have the honour of informing you, that, in consequence of the peculiar circumstances of the moment, it has been judged expedient to issue orders, preventing all ships under Swedish or other neutral colours, from entering any port or place on the coast between the Humber and the Downs, with the exception of Yarmouth Roads and the Downs, to which places they will be still permitted to resort. I have lost no time in enabling you to make an early communication of the measure which the king has thought fit to adopt, as it is his majesty's anxious wish that the trade of neutral nations may be mind, and daily acquires such additional importance, that, notwithstanding my wish to avoid any interference with the disposition made by his majesty's ministers, I find it impossible to withhold or delay an explicit statement of my feelings, to which I would direct your most serious considerations. When it was officially commu nicated to parliament that the avowed object of the enemy was a descent on our kingdoms, the question became so obvious that the circumstances of the times required the voluntary tender of personal services; when parlia liament, in consequence of this representation, agreed to extraordinary measures for the defence of these realms alone, it was evident the danger was not believed dubious or remote. Animated by the same spirit which pervaded the nation at large, conscious of the duties which I owed to his majesty and the country, I seized the earliest opportunity to express my desire of undertaking the responsibility of a military command: I neither neither did, nor do presume on supposed talents as entitling me to such an appointment. I am aware I do not possess the experience of actual warfare; at the same time I cannot regard myself as totally unqualified or deficient in military science, since I have long made the service my particular study. My chief pretensions were founded on a sense of those advantages which my example might produce to the state, by exciting the loyal energies of the nation, and a knowledge of those expectations which the public had a right to form as to the personal exertions of their princes at a moment like the present. The more elevated my situation, in so much the efforts of zeal became necessarily greater; and I confess, that, if duty had not been so paramount, a reflexion on the splendid achieve ments of my predecessors would have excited in me the spirit of emulation; when, however, in addition to such recollections, the nature of the contest in which we are about to engage was impressed on my consideration, I should, indeed, have been devoid of every virtuous sentiment, if I felt no reluctance in remaining a passive spectator of armaments, which have for their object the very existence of the British empire. Thus was I influenced to make my offer of service, and I did imagine that his majesty's ministers would have attached to it more value. But when I find that, from some unknown cause, my appointment seems to remain so long undetermined; when I feel myself exposed to the obloquy of being regarded by the country as passing my time indifferent to sensible to the call of patriotism, much more of glory, it then behoves me to examine my rights, and to remind his majesty's ministers that the claim which I have advanced is strictly constitutional, and justified by precedent; and that in the present situation of Eu rope, to deny my exercising it is fatal to my own immediate honour, and the future interests of the crown. I can never forget that I have solemn obligations imposed on me by my birth, and that I should ever show myself foremost in contributing to the preservation of the country. The time is arrived when I may prove myself sensible of the duties of my situation, and of evincing my devotion to that sovereign, who by nature as well as public worth commands my most affectionate attachment. I repeat, that I should be sorry to embarrass the government at any time, most particularly at such a crisis: but, since no event in my future life can compensate me for the misfortune of not participating in the honours and dangers which await the brave men destined to oppose an invading enemy, I cannot forego the earnest renewal of my application. All I solicit is a more ostensible situation than that in which I am at present placed; for situated as I am, as a mere colonel of a regiment, the major-general commanding the brigade, of which such a regiment must form a part, would justly expect and receive the full credit of pre-arrangement and successful enterprise. I remain, Sir, Very sincerely, yours, (Signed) the events which menace, and in- R. H. Henry Addington, &c. (H 2) G. P. The The prince of Wales repeated his application in a letter dated 26th July. An answer from Mr. Addington informs his royal highness that his first letter has been laid before his majesty, who had referred to the answers which his majesty had judged it necessary to return to similar representationswhich in obedience to the commands of his royal highness, had been laid before his majesty upon former occasions. The prince then desired his note of the 26th of July to be laid before his majesty, which was accordingly done. His majesty referred to the order he had before given Mr. Addington; with the addition that the king's opinion being fixed, he desired that no further mention should be made to him on the subject. The following letter was then written by the prince to the king. LETTER TO THE KING. A correspondence has taken place between Mr. Addington and myself on a subject which deeply involves my honour and character. The answers which I have received from that gentleman, the communication which he has made to the house of commons, leave me no hope but in appeal to the justice of your majesty. I make that appeal with confidence, because I feel that you are my natural advocate, and with the sanguine hope that the ears of an affectionate father may still be opened to the supplications of a dutiful son. I ask to be allowed to display the best energies of my character; to shed the last drop of my blood in support of your majesty's per son, crown,, and dignity; for this is not a war for empire, glory, or dominion, but for existence. In this contest, the lowest and humblest of your majesty's subjects have been called on; it would therefore little become me, who am the first, and who stand at the very footstool of the throne, to remain a tame, an idle, and lifeless spectator, of the mischiefs which threaten us, unconscious of the dangers which surround us, and indifferent to the consequences which may follow. Hanover is lost-England is menaced with invasion Ireland is in rebellionEurope is at the foot of France. At such a moment the prince of Wales, yielding to none of your servants in zeal and devotion-to none of your subjects in duty-to none of your children in tenderness and affection-presumes to approach you, and again to repeat those offers which he already made through your majesty's minister. A feeling of honest ambition, a sense of what I owe to myself and to my family-and, above all, the fear of sinking in the estimation of that gallant army which may be the support of your majesty's crown and my best hope hereafter, command me to persevere, and to assure your majesty, with all humility and respect, that, conscious of the justice of my claim, no human power can ever induce me to relinquish it. Allow me to say, sir, that I am bound to adopt this line of conduct by every motive dear to me as a man, and sacred to me as a prince. Ought I not to come forward in a moment of unexampled difficulty and danger? Ought I not to share in the glory of victory, when I have every thing to Lose |