The Virginia Gazette

LONDON, November 6.

In the Council of State held yesterday, were taken into consideration the different memorials which have been presented to the Ministry on behalf of the States General of the united provinces, relative to the capture of a great number of Dutch vessels by our privateers. In consequence of this examination, the Earl of Suffolk was charged with the following answer to Count Welderen, Envoy extraordinary from the republick.

SIR,

I have had the honour to present to the King, the memorial which you addressed to his Majesty by order of their High Mightinesses the 8th of last month, which having been considered with all the attention due to the importance of the matter it contains; the King commands me to inform you, that it was with sensible pleasure his Majesty observed, the justice their High Mightinesses had done to his desire of giving unequivocal proofs of his friendship and affection for his ancient and faithful allies, the States General of the united provinces, and the true point of view in which they had taken his Majesty's orders for discharging the vessels specified in that memorial. The same principles have induced the King to give orders that all vessels with legal cargoes belonging to subjects of their High Mightinesses, and brought into the ports of Great Britain by his Majesty's vessels, shall be discharged; and that for the future, the King's officers shall give no hindrance or interruption to the legal commerce of the subjects of their High Mightinesses. His Majesty wishes it were possible to remove from the subjects of their High Mightinesses every the smallest reason of complaint; but they are too well acquainted with the events inseparable from war to believe that this can be effected, even with the strongest disposition to render justice, and the strictest attention to the interests of the subjects of his good allies, by which their High Mightinesses will acknowledge him to be governed. His Majesty without any provocation on his part, and by a course of insidious and unjust proceedings of the court of France, finds himself engaged in actual hostilities with the Most Christian King, who, as all Europe must have seen with astonishment and indignation, in the midst of the most formal and often repeated assurances of perfect friendship and the most pacifick disposition, has violated the publick faith and the rights of Sovereigns, in declaring the rebel subjects of another power independent states, merely because those subjects found it convenient so to name themselves, and to invite such powers as were disposed to make advantage of their rebellion, to join in their confederacy. This unjust aggression, after being represented by the court of France as a step perfectly natural, and advantageous to the interest of her commerce, has been followed by acts of hostility yet more violent and notorious, by sending a fleet to America to support the rebel subjects of his Majesty; and thus before the King of Great Britain had made any other step besides the recall of his Ambassador from Paris. But the King animated by principles entirely different, and desiring to give on all occasions, proofs of his moderation, and of the rectitude of his sentiments and intentions towards their High Mightinesses, has commanded me to declare in his name, at this very time when regard to his own defence and preservation oblige him to prevent as far as possible, all supplies of warlike and naval stores from being transported into the harbours of France, that his Majesty will show all possible attention to the rights of their High Mightinesses, and adhere in the strictest manner to the stipulations (as far as it shall be practicable) and to the spirit of the treaties between himself and their High Mightinesses. Having thus declared his Majesty's sentiments of invariable friendship and affection for their High Mightinesses, and the present situation of affairs between the King and his Most Christian Majesty, it remains that I execute the orders of the King in informing you, Sir, that his Majesty sensible of the extraordinary manner in which he has been suddenly engaged in actual war with the Most Christian King, and of the short advertisement which the subjects of their High Mightinesses could have of this event, is disposed and ready to purchase at a just valuation the naval stores which have been taken, and are actually in the different ports of Great Britain, on board of vessels belonging to subjects of the Republick; to pay the freight of the cargoes, and indemnify the proprietors for all the just expences and damages occasioned by the detension of their vessels; and that his Majesty will give instructions to his Ambassador, to enter into a negociation with the Ministers of the Republick, for the purpose of forming on the principles of equity and friendship, such an arrangement for the future as is suitable to good and ancient allies. His Majesty relies always on the assurances of friendship and attachment which he has received on so many occasions from their High Mightinesses, and in making this open and equitable communication of his sentiments and intentions in the present crisis, cannot help recalling to the minds of their High Mightinesses, the reciprocal engagements subsisting for above a century, between the crown of Great Britain and the Republick. The articles of these engagements are clear and precise; and although the moderation of his Majesty and his sincere desire to extend as little as possible the horrours of the present war, have hitherto prevented him from demanding the accomplishment of these treaties; yet his Majesty does not believe his engagements to be less obligatory than formerly, and will not permit himself to wish or allow any diminution of the reciprocal interest which has so long united the two nations and which his Majesty desires on his part to perpetuate. As his Majesty had received no account of the complaints against the conduct of the commanders of men of war, towards the territories of their High Mightinesses in America, and particularly upon the rivers of Essequibo and Demerara,
before the date of the present memorial, I am ordered to procure his Majesty the most exact informations upon this head, and to assure you that he will not fail to punish the offenders in the most exemplary manner.

I have the honour to be

SUFFOLK.

St. James's, October 19, 1778.