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vernment, at the commercial profperity of Great Britain, it is fo totally forgotten, that, even in the course of the present war, by a new regulation of the customs, a variety of foreign articles, the importation of which was till then prohibited, are now permitted to be brought in, and of confequence a new channel of trade opened to other nations. Can it have escaped the reflection of any impartial obferver, that fuch a change of commercial regulations is the very reverse of any plan on the part of Denmark to injure or diminish the trade of her neighbours; or that the English, whofe fhips are admitted to equal privileges with thofe of Danish fubjects themselves, and whose industry and enterprise are so much greater, must be the principal gainers by this alteration? Upon the queftion, therefore, of the principles and fpirit of the Danish government, it is but reasonable if we infift upon being tried and adjudged by fuch measures.

With respect to those abuses of neutrality, which the noble Lord does not hesitate to reprefent as countenanced and supported by the Danish government, it cannot be denied, that fome particular perfons have, by their conduct, given caufe for a reasonable fufpicion of endeavouring, in their connexions with foreigners, improperly to convert the laws and treaties of their country to their private advantage. The queftion however is, whether the Danish government (whofe duty it never can be pretended to be, to put arbitrary bounds to the lawful commercial profits of its fubjects) has ever taken any steps towards preventing fuch abufes as might justly fupply occafion for complaint; whether, both before and after the commencement of the present war, laws have not been published, and other measures taken, the grand object of which was to preserve the trade of Denmark within the limits prescribed by treaty, by checking the fraudulent defigns of certain unprincipled individuals; and, finally, whether thofe offenders, whofe tranfgreffions have come to the knowledge of the magistrates, have been brought to public justice, and punished as they deserved?

Immediately upon the commencement of maritime operations in the present war, the neceffary qualities and duties of thofe perfons who were defirous, either as fhip-owners or masters, to enjoy the advantages which the happy neutrality of Denmark seemed to offer, were most minutely and accurately defined by two royal ordonnances, dated 22d and 23d of February 1793. According to the rule laid down in these ordonnances, every person who folicited a royal paffport must be a Danish citizen, fettled within the king's dominions, that is to fay, having a fixed abode, the domicile and refidence, if married, of his family, and if not, of himself, when not occafionally abfent upon bufinefs; he must alfo, if thus qualified as a citizen, be provided with a certificate from the proper magiftrates, ftating his declaration upon oath before them, either. that the fhip is folely his property, or, if there be co-owners, that

every one of them, without exception, is a Danish fubject; together with a claufe alfo upon oath, that the fhip is not laden with any articles declared to be contraband by any treaty, nor with goods belonging to any of the belligerent powers or their fubjects. It is not till after the fulfilment of all thefe conditions, that a pailport can be iffued, which even then, in order to prevent all poffible abuses by a fecond expedition, is valid only for a fingle voyage, that is, till the return of the fhip to fome port in Denmark. It must be further obferved, that all thofe veffels which are intended to fail beyond Cape Finisterre, must be provided with other paffports, grantable to none but fuch as have already been Danish citizens for the fpace at least of three years. I fhall pafs over the further obligations binding on fhip-owners, as to other needful documents for their veffels; fuch are the builder's brief, bill of fale, meafuringbill, mufter-roll, &c. &c. and proceed to a few neceffary explanations on the two fubjects of contraband and admiffion to the rights of burgher or citizen.

Upon the breaking out of the prefent hoftilities, a very confiderable number of perfons delivered in petitions, praying to be admitted to the privileges of the burgherthip, fome with intent to fettle in a country exempted from the horrors of war; others, that, in their refpective characters of mariners, or fhip-mafters, they might again obtain employment in that way of life in which they had been educated, and which could now no longer be had in their native countries: this was more efpecially the cafe in his Majefty's German dominions, which being fituated nearer to the scene of war, feemed, upon that account, to require more particular attention. The precaution, therefore, which had been taken by the ordonnances of the 22d and 23d of February 1793, were not thought fufficient; and accordingly two other ordonnances were published on the 23d and 24th of December 1796, by which it was decreed, that, befides the conditions already detailed, no married man thould be admitted to the rights of a burgher, whofe family refided in any other place than that in which he was a candidate for the burghership; and that every captain or master of a veffel fhould find undeniable fecurity to the amount of 200 rixdollars, which fecurity was not to be releafed till the expiration of five years; a space of time confidered as fufficient to determine whether he entertained a real intention of fettling for ever within. the territories of his Danish Majefty. It was further directed, in order to prevent foreigners from fettling in the villages or in the country, where they might eafily withdraw themfelves from the eyes of the police, that no ftranger fhould be permitted to exercise the profeffion of a mariner, unlefs he became a burgher of fome commercial town or other place entitled to the fame privileges. When thefe facts and ordonnances are compared with what the noble Lord has been pleased to advance as to the facility of Danith burgherthip,

burghership, afferting, "that the privileges of being admitted to the rights of a burgher in each Danish city, is fold to the first comer, without any attention being paid whether the perfon is a Cherokee Indian, Mandingo negro, English or Dutchman," one cannot but be led to fufpect that the accufation is founded on something else than mere ignorance of the real fituation of affairs.

Nor lefs extraordinary is the charge which the noble Lord has ventured to make with refpect to contraband. "The harbours," fays he, "of Carthagena, Cadiz, Ferrol, Toulon, L'Orient, Breft, and Rochefort, have received all their naval ftores from the hands of neutrals:" and then he goes on to impeach the Danish flag, as taking the principal fhare in this illicit commerce. It is only the confummate affurance with which this accufation is made by the pen of a man of his rank and office, that can, perhaps, for a moment procure it credit with a few of his countrymen. If, indeed, the government of Denmark has, upon any point, made use of peculiar precautions to fecure itself from blame or fufpicion, it has been upon this. Exclufive of the rules laid down in the aforementioned royal ordonnances, another decree was promulgated on the 28th of March 1794, under a fuppofition that fome abuses had taken place; in this the exportation of every species of contraband to a belligerent flate is feverely prohibited: and in cafe of the shipment of fuch articles for neutral ports, the fhip-owners are bound to deliver to the proper magiftrates certificates of the arrival and unloading of these articles at the respective neutral ports to which they had been avowedly deftined. We will venture to affert, that no commercial nation ever before adopted fuch ftrong and effectual means to avoid and fecure itfelf from any reproach of this fort; and we defy, in the face of all Europe, the noble Lord, and all our other open and fecret enemies, to produce a single fact to prove, that from this period there has been exported from any Danish port any contraband of war deftined to any port of a belligerent. Had his Lordship been acquainted with fuch an instance, he had the means of preferring his complaints in the name of his nation, with the most pofitive certainty of obtaining all poffible fatisfaction. Such an odious infinuation, therefore, whether originating from the noble Lord himself, or from fome other person, of whofe fecret malice he may not have been aware, thrown out too in general expreffions, without proof, without inftancing a single fact, and at a time when fears and anxieties pervaded every bofom, cannot but render the motive to it extremely fufpicious.

The ordonnance of July 25, 1798, concerning the merchantmen from Fleckeroe, contained alfo the ftricteft regulations that can well be devised for preventing the fecret conveyance of military contraband by the Danish merchant fhips failing under convoy : the refult has fully demonftrated the efficacy of thefe measures; and the feverity which has been displayed in punishing every VOL. XI. * B b

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offence against these regulations, when publicly denounced and legally proved, must convince every impartial obferver, that the Danish government was feriously refolved not to fuffer the violation of its laws. The partners in a mercantile houfe in Copenhagen, against whom an information was laid at the fuit of the King's attorney, for an abuse with respect to royal fea-paffes, have long fince been exiled: another perfon, a fhip-owner, who had fold his name as a cover for veffels belonging to belligerents, was punished with banishment, his name rendered infamous, and his property confifcated; and even at this noment feveral profecutions of the fame nature are pending before the tribunals. So much by way of reply to the naked affertion of the noble Lord, that any illicit and fraudulent practices of neutralization are favoured and fupported by thofe very authorities upon whom it is incumbent to prevent the flag from being abufed, and to watch over the lawful courfe of commerce.

But our author, who is, it feems, fully inftructed in the fecret fprings which actuate the northern powers, and Denmark in particular, fupplies us with fome perfectly new, and indeed unexpected illustrations. Great plans, fays he, were formed for monopolizing the trade and navigation of the Dutch into Danish hands; for covering the trade to the French and Dutch Weft India fettlements, and converting it to their own profit: the whole traffic of the Mauritius was carried on through Danifh hands; the fettlement at Batavia was alone, by their means, preferved to the mother-country; the hoftile defign of interrupting the commerce of Britain became prevalent throughout the nation; and the government found itself as unable to refift the temptation of levying taxes and impofing duties upon this commerce, as the merchants were of monopolizing it.

The ftrong and obvious reply which every body acquainted with the fubject must make to the accufation, is this, that the Danish government never has interfered, nor does it now in the smalleft degree, with the commerce of its fubjects; it acknowledges it to be its duty to promote the profperity of the country by every proper fupport on its part; to protect every fair branch of induftry; and, as far as may be in its power, to promote every natural and accustomed trade, and fecure it from moleftation; but as to fpeculations, it leaves thefe entirely to the individuals who make it their bufinefs to avail themfelves of times and circumftances, according to their skill: in fuch cafes it only interferes when compelled to act either as a judge of the actions of its fubjects, or as their protector againft unjult attacks. With refpect to the revenues which the Danish government derives from the trade carried on by its fubjects, it is indeed extraordinary how thefe can be an object of reproach in the mouth of the fubject of a country, which from her own commerce, extended over every ocean, col

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lects the most confiderable part of her revenue, and the most efficacious means of greatness. In Denmark these duties are fo moderate, that they may be confidered as barely furnishing the supply neceffary for those various charges of the state, which the conduct of the belligerents, and the precautions requifite for securing trade from abfolute deftruction, have occafioned; and Government has always been willing to forego a part the moment it appeared likely to produce misunderstanding or inconvenience; fuch, for instance, was the revoking the liberty granted of carrying freights from the East Indies to parts in Europe (a privilege then used by only four veffels), as foon as it was apprehended that its further use might give rife to abuses, and cause complaints on the part of the belligerent powers: fuch, alfo, was its putting a stop to the diftribution of thofe paffports, which, in a few inftances, had been granted, to Danifh fhip-owners in Europe for fuch veffels as they had given inftructions to purchase in the Eaft Indies.

But to return to the commercial projects pretended by our author to have been formed by Denmark, and to the question of whether there really does exift a plan for monopolizing the French and Dutch Eaft and West India trade: I cannot but think fuch an accufation rather fingular from an English statesman, who certainly ought not to have been ignorant that his countrymen, even before his publication came out, had rendered the. very idea of fuch a defign impoffible, by feizing on the greatest part of the French and Dutch fettlements both in the Eaft and Weft Indies: fuch a plan too must have been difcovered by efforts in fome degree at leaft correfponding with the greatness of the undertaking. If, therefore, the cafe be otherwife, the noble Lord must forgive us for treating the fuggeftion ás altogether a chimera of his own brain, and the facts which follow will throw fome light upon the fubject.

According to the best statistical accounts, the French trade in the West Indies before the revolution, employed every year 600 veffels, each, upon an average, of 250 tons: the Dutch trade to Surinam, and the other Weft India fettlements, required every year about 107 veffels. The Dutch East India Company fent every year to Batavia between 20 and 30 large veffels; and the French trade to the Mauritius, Bourbon, and the coast of Guinea, employed about 180 vessels.

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It might be forefeen that a part of this trade, during a war between the great maritime powers, would fall into neutral hands; and a nation, which owes its flourishing condition to the extent of its trade, cannot take it amifs that the merchants of other countries also know how to make use of conjunctures: but what proportion do our commercial undertakings bear with refpect to the plans fuppofed to be formed by us?

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