Page:Handbook of maritime rights.djvu/93

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THE ARMED NEUTRALITIES.
79

the flag round his body and seek his glory in the grave."

At the Treaty of Amiens in the following year it was sought to make this matter a subject of treaty arrangement, but Lord Hawkesbury, writing to the English plenipotentiary at Amiens, said:—"His Majesty will never consent in a treaty of peace to place out of his hands those means which may be necessary to the security of his dominions in time of war."

In 1807 there was an attempt at a third armed neutrality, again under the hegemony of Russia. The battle of Friedland and the Peace of Tilsit had detached Russia from the coalition against Napoleon, and the Emperor Alexander proclaimed anew the principles of the armed neutrality of 1801. In the English counter-declaration against Russia the following words occurred:—"Those principles of maritime law it is the right and duty of His Majesty to maintain against every coalition, and, under the blessing of Providence, His Majesty