Proclamation issued on the sixteenth of August, at Zealand, by Admiral Gambier and Lord Cathcart, Commanders in Chief of his Majesty's Forces by Sea and Land, employed in the Expedition.

"Whereas the present treaties of peace, and the changes of government and of territory, acceded to by so many powers, have so far increased the influence of France on the continent of Europe as to render it impossible for Denmark, though it desires to be neutral, to preserve its neutrality, and absolutely necessary for those who continue to resist the French aggression, to take measures to prevent the arms of neutral powers from being turned against them:

"In this view, the king cannot regard the present position of Denmark with indifference, and his majesty has sent negociators with ample powers, to his Danish majesty, to request, in the most amicable manner, such explanations as the times require, and a concurrence in such measures, as can alone give security against the farther mischiefs which the French meditate, through the acquisition of the Danish navy.

"The king, our royal and most gracious master, has therefore judged it expedient, to desire the temporary deposit of the Danish ships of the line in one of his majesty's ports.

"This deposit seems to be so just, and so indispensably necessary, under the relative circumstances of the neutral and belligerent powers, that his majesty has further deemed it a duty to himself, and to his people, to support this demand by a powerful fleet, and by an army amply supplied with every preparation ne

cessary for the most active and determined enterprize.

"We come, therefore, to your shores, inhabitants of Zealand! not as enemies, but in self-defeuce, to prevent those who have so long disturbed the peace of Europe, from compelling the force of your navy to be turned against us.

"We ask deposit, we have not looked to capture; so far from it, the most solemn pledge has been offered to your government, and is hereby renewed in the name, and at the express command of the king, our master, that if our demand is amicably acceded to, every ship belonging to Denmark shall, at the conclusion of a general peace, be restored to her, in the same condition and state of equipment, as when received under the protection of the British flag.

"It is in the power of your government, by a word, to sheath our swords, most reluctantly drawn against you; but if, on the other hand, the machinations of France render you deaf to the voice of reason, and the call of friendship, the innocent blood that will be spilt, and the horrors of a besieged and bombarded capital, must fall on your own heads, and those of your cruel advisers.

"His majesty's seamen and soldiers, when on shore, will treat Zealand, as long as your conduct to them will permit it, on the footing of a province of the most friendly power in alliance with Great Britain, whose territory has the misfortune to be the theatre of war.

"The persons of all those who remain at home, and who do not take an hostile part, will be held sacred.

"Property will be respected and preserved, and the most severe discipline will be enforced.

lowed, during a period of fifteen years of war and disturbance, with unceasing perseverance. The rigid observance of a freeand impartial neutrality, and the conscientious fulfilment of all the duties belonging thereunto, have formed the object of all its wishes and all its efforts. The Danish government, in its relations and connexions with other states, has never lost sight of that simplicity, which was inseparable from the purity of its sentiments and its love of peace, and which it cannot be suspected of having once changed or debilitated. Hitherto Providence has blessed our undertakings. Without injustice, without any ground of reproach from any of the other powers, we succeeded in keeping up a good understanding with the whole of them. This state of peace and tranquillity is suddenly annihilated. The English government, after having long neglected its own interests by a shameful inactivity, and after having betrayed its allies into a vexatious and uncertain struggle, has suddenly developed all its power and activity to attack a neutral and peaceable state, without any complaint against the same. The means for dissolving the ancient and sacred connections which united Denmark to Great Britain, have been prepared with as much secrecy as promptitude. The Danish government saw the English ships of war upon their coast, without even the conjecture that they were to be employed against Denmark. The island of Zealand was surrounded, the capital threatened, and the Danish territory violated and injured, before the court of London had made use of a single word to express the hostility of its feelings. This hostility, however, soon became evident: Europe will with difficulty believe what

it will hear. The basest, the most violent and cruel object which could ever have been taken up, has no other foundation than some pretended information, or rather that of a mere rumour of an attempt, whicht, according to the English ministry, was to have taken place, in order to draw Denmark into a hostile alliance against Great Britain.

"Upon these pretended grounds, which the least degree of discussion would immediately have shewn as being founded upon arbitrary measures alone, the English government declared to the court of Denmark, in the most imperious manner, that in order to secure its own interests, and to provide for its own safety, it could leave Denmark no other choice than a war, or a close alliance with Great Britain. And what kind of alliance did they offer? An alliance, the first guarantee of which, as a pledge of the subjection of Denmark, was to have delivered up all her ships of war to the British government. There could be no hesitation as to the alternative that was to be adopted. This opening being made, as scandalous in its offers as in its menaces-as offensive in the manner as in the thing itself— left no room for negociation. most justifiable and rooted disdain naturally absorbed every other feeling. Placed between danger and dishonour, the Danish government had no choice. The war commenced: Denmark was by no means blind to the dangers, to the losses, with which she was threatened by this war. Aitacked in the most unexpected and dishonourable manner, exposed in a separate province, and in a manner cut off from all the means of defence, and forced into an unequal contest, she could not flatter herself with escaping a very material injury. Un

The

spotted

spotted honour, however, still remained for her to defend, as well as that reputation which she had earned as the price of her upright conduct. Denmark, therefore, flatters' herself that, on the part of the powers of Europe, she will not appeal in vain. Let impartial cabinets judge whether England was under the political necessity of sacrificing another state without hesitation, to her own safety; a state which had neither offended nor provoked her. Depending upon the justice of her cause, trusting in Providence, and in the love and loyalty of the people to a prince, whose mild sceptre, under Providence, is swayed over a united, brave, and faithful people, the Danish government flatters itself that it will be able to acquit itself without weakness of the painful task which has been imposed upon it by necessity. The government of Denmark believes it has a right to reckon upon the interest and justice of the cabinets of Europe, and they particularly hope for the effects of the same on the part of those illustrious sovereigns whose objects and alliances have served the English for a pretext, and to give a colour to the most crying act of injustice, and whose object is to offer to England the means of making a general atonement for an act of violence, which, even in England, every noble and generous mind will disown; which deforms the character of a virtuous sovereign, and will ever remain a scandal in the annals of Great Britain."

British Declaration.

"His majesty owes to himself and to Europe a frank exposition of the

motives which have dictated his late measures in the Baltic.

"His majesty has delayed this exposition only in the hope of that more amicable arrangement with the court of Denmark which it was his majesty's first wish and endeavour to obtain, for which he was ready to make great efforts and great sacrifices, and of which he never lost sight even in the moment of the most decisive hostility.

"Deeply as the disappointment of this hope has been felt by his majesty, he has the consolation of reflecting that no exertion was left untried on his part to produce a different result. And, while he laments the cruel necessity which has obliged him to have recourse to acts of hostility against a nation with which it was his majesty's most earnest desire to have established the relations of common interest and alliance, his majesty feels confident that, in the eyes of Europe and of the world, the justification of his conduct will be found in the commanding and indispensable duty, paramount to all others among the obligations of a sovereign, of providing, while there was yet time, for the immediate security of his people.

"His majesty had received the most positive information of the determination of the present ruler of France to occupy, with a military force, the territory of Holstein, for the purpose of excluding Great Britain from all her accustomed channels of communication with the continent; of inducing or compelling the court of Denmark to close the passage of the Sound against the British commerce and navigation; and of availing himself of the aid of the Danish marine for the invasion of Great Britain and of Ireland,

"Confident

"Confident as his majesty was of the sources from which this intelligence was derived, and confirmed in the credit which he gave to it, as well by the notorious and repeated declarations of the enemy, and by his recent occupation of the towns and territories of other neutral states, as by the preparations actually made for collecting a hostile force upon the frontiers of his Danish majesty's continental dominions, his majesty would yet willingly have forborne to act upon this intelligence, until the complete and practical disclosure of the plan had made manifest to all the world the absolute necessity of resisting it.

"His majesty did forbear, as long as there could be a doubt of the urgency of the danger, or a hope of an effectual counteraction to it, in the means or in the dispositions of Denmark.

"But his majesty could not but recollect, that when, at the close of the former war, the court of Denmark engaged in a hostile confede-, racy against Great Britain, the apology offered by that court for so unjustifiable an abandonment of a neutrality which his majesty had never ceased to respect, was founded on its avowed inability to resist the operation of external influence, and the threats of a formidable neighbouring power. His majesty could not but compare the degree of influence which at that time determined the decision of the court of Denmark, in violation of positive engagements, solemnly contracted but six months before, with the increased operation which France had now the means of giving to the same principle of intimidation, with kingdoms prostrate at her feet, and with the population of nations under her banners.

"Nor was the danger less imminent than certain. Already the army destined for the invasion of Holstein was assembling on the violated territory of neutral Hamburgh. And, Holstein once occupied, the island of Zealand was at the mercy of France, and the navy of Denmark at her disposal.

"It is true, a British force might have found its way into the Baltic, and checked for a time the movements of the Danish marine. But the season was approaching when that precaution would no longer have availed; and when his majesty's fleet must have retired from that sea, and permitted France, in undisturbed security, to accumulate the means of offence against his majesty's dominions.

"Yet even under these circumstances, in calling upon Denmark for the satisfaction and security which his majesty was compelled to require, and in demanding the only pledge by which that security could be rendered effectual-the temporary possession of that Fleet, which was the chief inducement to France for forcing Denmark into hostilities with Great Britain-his majesty accompanied this demand with the offer of every condition which could tend to reconcile it to the interests and to the feelings of the court of Denmark.

"It was for Denmark herself to state the terms and stipulations which she might require.

"If Denmark was apprehensive that the surrender of her fleet would be resented by France as an act of connivance, his majesty had prepared a force of such formidable magnitude as must have made concession justifiable even in the estimation of France, by rendering resistance altogether unavailing.