SIR JOHN NORRIS SENT WITH A FLEET TO THE BALTIC.

On the eighteenth day of May, sir John Norris sailed with a strong squadron to the Baltic, in order to protect the commerce of the nation, which had suffered from the king of Sweden, who caused all ships trading to those parts to be seized and confiscated. That prince had rejected the treaty of neutrality concerted by the allies for the security of the empire; and considered the English and Dutch as his enemies. The ministers of England and the states-general had presented memorials to the regency of Sweden; but finding no redress, they resolved to protect their trade by force of arms. After the Swedish general, Steenbock, and his army were made prisoners, count Wellen concluded a treaty with the administrator of Holstein-Gottorp, by which the towns of Stetin and Wisma were sequestered into the hands of the king of Prussia; the administrator engaged to secure them, and all the rest of Swedish Pomerania, from the Poles and Muscovites; but as the governor of Pomerania refused to comply with this treaty, those allies marched into the province, subdued the island of Eugen, and obliged Stetin to surrender. Then the governor consented to the sequestration, and paid to the Poles and Muscovites four hundred thousand rix dollars, to indemnify them for the expense of the siege. The king of Sweden returning from Turkey, rejected the treaty of sequestration, and insisted upon Stetin’s being restored, without his repaying the money. As this monarch likewise threatened to invade the electorate of Saxony, and chastise his false friend; king George, for the security of his German dominions, concluded a treaty with the king of Denmark, by which the duchies of Bremen and Verden, which had been taken from the Swedes in his absence, were made over to his Britannic majesty, on condition that he should immediately declare war against Sweden. Accordingly he took possession of the duchies in October, published a declaration of war against Charles in his German dominions; and detached six thousand Hanoverians to join the Danes and Prussians in Pomerania. These allies reduced the islands of Rugen and Uledon, and attacked the towns of Wismar and Stralsund, from which last place Charles was obliged to retire in a vessel to Schohen. He assembled a body of troops with which he proposed to pass the Sound upon the ice, and attack Copenhagen; but was disappointed by a sudden thaw. Nevertheless he refused to return to Stockholm, which he had not seen for sixteen years; but remained at Carlscroon, in order to hasten his fleet for the relief of Wismar.