"Nevertheless, notwithstanding this arrangement, his Majesty will permit, to the end that commerce may have its course and not be retarded, that liberty be given to merchant ships to sail without the said convoys, according to the circumstances in which they may find themselves, as well as the facility to separate themselves at sea from the King's ships, if their advantage requires it, in which case the masters of ships shall be obliged to give notice of it beforehand to the commanders of frigates. In one word, the masters of ships shall be held to conform themselves to the orders, which the chiefs of the convoy shall give them, and, consequently, to the instructions which shall be delivered them." Copies are circulated in London, of the answer which the Court has made to the declaration of the Empress of Russia, presented the first of April to the Ministry by M. de Simolin, Minister Plenipotentiary. This piece, which was despatched the 13th of April to the Chevalier Harris, Envoy Extraordinary of his Britannic Majesty to the Court of Petersburg, is of the following tenor. "During the whole course of the war, in which the King of Great Britain finds himself engaged by the aggression of France and Spain, he has manifested those sentiments of justice, of equity, and moderation, which govern all his proceedings. His Majesty has regulated his conduct towards friendly and neutral powers according to theirs towards him, conforming it to principles the most clear, and the most generally acknowledged of the law of nations, which is the only law between nations who have no treaties, and to the tenor of his different engagements with other powers; which engagements have varied this primitive law by mutual stipulations, and have varied it in a great variety of different manners, according to the will and the convenience of the contracting parties. Strongly attached to her Majesty, the Empress of all the Russias, by the ties of a reciprocal friendship and a common interest, the King, from the commencement of the troubles, gave the most determinate orders to respect the flag of her Imperial Majesty and the commerce of her subjects, according to the law of nations and the tenor which he has contracted in this treaty of commerce with her, and which he will fulfil with the most scrupulous exactness. The orders on this subject have been renewed, and the execution of them shall be strictly attended to. It is to be presumed, that they will prevent all irregularity; but if it should happen, that there should be the smallest violation of these repeated orders, the tribunals of the Admiralty, which in this country, as in all others, are established to take cognizance of such matters, and which in all cases judge solely by the general law of nations, and by the particular stipulations of different treaties, would redress the injury in a manner so equitable, that her Imperial Majesty would be satisfied entirely with their decisions, and would acknowledge in them