"Whereupon having deliberated, their Noble and Grand Mightinesses have thought fit and resolved, that the affairs be proposed to the Generality, and that they answer in turn to the before mentioned Memorial of the Prince de Gallitzin, that their High Mightinesses have received, with much satisfaction, the communication, which it has pleased her Majesty, the Empress of Russia, to give them of her designs, as well as of the declaration, which she has caused to be made to the said Courts; that their High Mightinesses regard this communication as the most convincing proof of the benevolence of her Majesty for this Republic, and holding themselves honored by it, they think themselves, consequently, obliged in all respects to give her a cordial and positive answer; that their High Mightinesses put the highest value on the new proof, which her Imperial Majesty gives on this occasion of her generosity and acknowledged equity, as well as on the project she has conceived, and the means which she has resolved to employ to obtain the most exact neutrality in the present war with the belligerent powers, and protect not only the honor of the Russian flag, as well as the commerce and navigation of her subjects, in not permitting them to be disturbed by any of the powers at war, but also to assure the liberty and repose of Europe upon the solid foundations of the justice of the law of nations and the treaties subsisting, and thus to consolidate the equitable system of navigation and commerce of the neutral powers; that their High Mightinesses having nothing more at heart, than to observe a strict neutrality with her Majesty, the Empress of Russia, in the present war, but instructed by experience, in the losses which the commerce and navigation of the neutral powers have suffered, by the fluctuations and uncertainty of the belligerent powers in the state of the law of nations, from whence have resulted to them many inconveniences and great damages occasioned by the operations of the present war, their High Mightinesses have judged it necessary, in concert with her Majesty, the Empress of Russia, to fix this law upon a solid basis, and to request, for this end, the concurrence of the neutral maritime powers; that, moreover, as to what concerns the extent and limits of this law, their High Mightinesses conform themselves wholly to the five points contained in the declaration of her Imperial Majesty made to the Courts of Versailles, Madrid, and London, communicated to their High Mightinesses by the Prince de Gallitzin the third of April of this year, and are, consequently, ready to make similar declarations to the belligerent powers, their High Mightinesses being sincerely disposed to enter into conferences with her Imperial Majesty of all the Russias, and other neutral maritime powers, upon the measures which may be unanimously taken, to the end to maintain effectually, both for the present era and for the time to come, the liberty of navigation and commerce, by