The manuscript, apparently written by a secretary, is in the Hubert S. Smith Collection (Volume I: ‘Lord Nelson and the Battle of Copenhagen), 1801, in the William Clements Library at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; it has previously been printed in Thomas Joseph Pettigrew, Memoirs of the Life of Vice-Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson, K.B. Duke of Bronté etc. etc. etc., 2 vols (London: T. and W. Boone, 1849), ii, pp. 23–6.

His Royal Highness began the conversation by saying how happy he was to see me and thanked me for my humanity to the wounded Danes, I then said that it was to me and would be the greatest affliction to every man in England from the King to the Lowest person to think that Denmark had fired on the British flag and became leagued with her Enemies, His Royal Highness stopped me by saying that Admiral Parker had declared War against Denmark, this I denied and requested His Royal Highness to send for the papers and he would find the direct contrary, and that it was the farthest from the thoughts of the British Admiral, I then asked if His Royal Highness would permit me to speak my mind freely on the present situation of Denmark, to which he having acquiesced, I stated to him the sensation which was caused in England by such an unnatural alliance with, at the present moment, the furious enemy of England. His answer was that when he made the Alliance it was for the protection of their trade and that Denmark would never be the Enemy of England, and that the Emperor of Russia was not the Enemy of England when this treaty was formed, that he never would join Russia against England and his declaration to that Effect was the cause of the Emperors (I think he said) sending away His Minister that Denmark was a trading Nation and had only to look to the protection of its lawful commerce, His Royal Highness then enlarged on the Impossibility of Danish Ships under convoy, having on board any contraband trade;