with England. The treaty with France says, that neutral ships make neutral property, and thereby gives protection to English property on board American ships; and Jay's treaty delivers up French property on board American ships to be seized by the English. It is too paltry to talk of faith, of national honour, and of the preservation of treaties, whilst such a barefaced treachery as this stares the world in the face.

The Washington administration may save itself the trouble of proving to the French Government its most faithful intentions of preserving the treaty with France; for France has now no desire that it should be preserved; she had nominated an envoy extraordinary to America, to make Mr. Washington and his Government a present of the treaty, and to have no more to do with that, or with him. It was at the same time officially declared to the American Minister at Paris, that the French Republic had rather have the American Government for an open enemy than a treacherous friend. This, Sir, with the internal distractions caused in America, and the loss of character in the world, is the eventful crisis alluded to in the beginning of this Letter to which your double politics have brought the affairs of your country. It is time that the eyes of America be opened upon you.

How France would have conducted herself towards America, and American commerce, after all treaty stipulations had ceased, and under the sense of services rendered, and injuries received, I know not. It is, however, an unpleasant reflection, that in all National quarrels, the innocent, and even the friendly part of the community, become involved with the culpable and the unfriendly; and as the accounts that arrived from America, continued to manifest an invariable attachment, in the general mass of the people, to their original ally, in opposition to the new-fangled Washington faction, the resolutions that had been taken in France were suspended. It happened also, fortunately enough, that Governor Morris was not Minister at this time.

There is, however, one point that yet remains in embryo, and which, among other things, serves to shew the ignorance of Washington treaty-makers, and their inattention to pre-existing treaties, when they were employing themselves in framing or ratifying the new treaty with England.

The second article of the treaty of commerce between the United States and France, says, "The Most Christian

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"King and the United States, engage mutually not to grant "any particular favour to other Nations, in respect to commerce and navigation, that shall not immediately "become common to the other party, who shall enjoy the "same favour freely, if the concession was freely made, or on allowing the same compensation if the concession was "conditional."

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All the concessions, therefore, made to England by Jay's treaty are, through the medium of this second article in the pre-existing treaty, made to France, and become engrafted into the treaty with France, and can be exercised by her as a matter of right, the same as by England.

Jay's treaty makes a concession to England, and that unconditionally, of seizing naval stores in American ships, and condemning them as contraband. It makes also a concession to England to seize provisions and other articles in American ships. Other articles, are all other articles; and none but an ignoramus, or something worse, would have put such a phrase into a treaty. The condition annexed to this case is, that the provisions and other articles so seized, are to be paid for at a price to be agreed upon. Mr. Washington, as president, ratified this treaty after he knew the British Government had recommenced an indiscriminate seizure of provisions, and of all other articles in American ships: and it is now known that those seizures were made to fit out the expedition going to Quiberon Bay, and it was known beforehand that they would be made The evidence goes also a good way to prove that Jay and Grenville understood each other upon that subject. Mr. Pinkney, when he passed through France in his way to Spain, spoke of the recommencement of the seizures as a thing that would take place. The French Government had by some means received information from London to the same purpose, with the addition, that the recommencement of the seizures would cause no misunderstanding between the British and American Governments. Grenville, in defending himself against the Opposition in Parliament, on account of the scarcity of corn, said (see his speech at the opening of the parliament that met October 29, 1795) that the supplies for the Quiberon expedition were furnished out of the American ships, and all the accounts received at that time from England stated that those seizures were made under the treaty. After the supplies for the Quiberon expedition had been procured, and the expected success had failed, the seizures were counter

manded; and had the French seized provision vessels going to England, it is probable that the Quiberon expedition could not have been attempted.

In one point of view, the treaty with England operates as a loan to the English Government. It gives permission to that Government to take American property at sea, to any amount and pay for it when it suits her; and, besides this, the treaty is in every point of view a surrender of the rights of American commerce and navigation, and a refusal to France of the rights of neutrality. The American flag is not now a neutral flag to France; Jay's treaty of surrender gives a monopoly of it to England.

On the contrary, the treaty of commerce between America and France was formed on the most liberal principles, and calculated to give the greatest encouragement to the infant commerce of America. France was neither a carrier nor an exporter of naval stores, or of provisions; those articles belonged wholly to America; and they had all the protection in that treaty which a treaty can give. But so much has that treaty been perverted, that the liberality of it on the part of France has served to encourage Jay to form a counter-treaty with England; for he must have supposed the hands of France tied up by her treaty with America, when he was making such large concessions in favour of England. The injury which Mr. Washington's administration has done to the character, as well as to the commerce of America, is too great to be repaired by him. Foreign Nations will be shy of making treaties with a Government that has given the faithless example of perverting the liberality of a former treaty to the injury of the party with whom it was made.

In what a fraudulent light must Mr. Washington's character appear in the world, when his declarations and his conduct are compared together! Here follows the letter he wrote to the Committee of Public Safety, whilst Jay was negociating in profound secrecy this treacherous treaty:

"George Washington, President of the United States "of America, to the representatives of the French "People, members of the Committee of Public "Safety of the French republic, the great and good "friend and ally of the United States.

"On the intimation of the wish of the French republic "that a new Minister should be sent from the United States,

"I resolved to manifest my sense of the readiness with "which my request was fulfilled (that of recalling Genet,) "by immediately fulfilling the request of your Government "(that of recalling Morris.)

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"It was some time before a character could be obtained "worthy of the high office of expressing the attachment "of the United States to the happiness of our allies, and "drawing closer the bonds of our friendship. I have now "made choice of James Monroe, one of our distinguished "citizens, to reside near the French republic, in quality of "Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America. "He is instructed to bear to you our sincere solicitude for "your welfare, and to cultivate with zeal the cordiality so happily subsisting between us. From a knowledge of "his fidelity, probity, and good conduct, I have entire con"fidence that he will render himself acceptable to you, and "give effect to your desire of preserving and advancing "on all occasions the interest and connection of the two "nations. I beseech you, therefore, to give full credence "to whatever he shall say to you on the part of the United "States, and most of all, when he shall assure you that your "prosperity is an object of our affection. And I pray God "to have the French republic in his holy keeping.

"G. WASHINGTON."

Was it by entering into a treaty with England to surrender French property on board American ships to be seized by the English, whilst English property on board American ships was declared by the French treaty not to be seizable, that the bonds of friendship between America and France were to be drawn closer? Was it by declaring naval stores contraband when coming to France, whilst by the French treaty they were not contraband when going to England, that the connection between France and America was to be advanced? Was it by opening the American ports to the British navy in the present war, from which ports that same navy had been expelled by the aid solicited from France in the American war (and that aid gratuitously given) that the gratitude of America was to be shewn, and the solicitude spoken of in the letter demonstrated?

As the letter was addressed to the Committee of Public Safety, Mr. Washington did not expect it would get abroad in the world, or be seen by any other eye than that of Robespierre, or be heard by any other ear than that of the Committee; that it would pass as a whisper across the

Atlantic from one dark chamber to the other, and there terminate. It was calculated to remove from the mind of the Committee all suspicion upon Jay's mission to England, and in this point of view it was suited to the circumstances of the moment then passing; but as the event of that mission has proved the letter to be hypocritical, it serves no other purpose of the present moment than to shew that the writer is not to be credited. Two circumstances served to make the reading of the letter necessary in the Convention: the one was, that they who succeeded on the fall of Robespierre, found it most proper to act with publicity; the other, to extinguish the suspicions which the strange conduct of Morris had occasioned in France.

When the British treaty and the ratification of it by Mr. Washington were known in France, all further declarations from him of his good disposition, as an ally and a friend, passed for so many cyphers; but still it appeared necessary to him to keep up the farce of declarations. It is stipulated in the British treaty, that commissioners are to report, at the end of two years, on the case of neutral ships making neutrál property. In the mean time, neutral ships do not, make neutral property according to the British treaty, and they do according to the French treaty. The preservation, therefore, of the French treaty became of great importance to England, as by that means she can employ American ships as carriers, whilst the same advantage is denied to France. Whether the French treaty could exist as a matter of right after this clandestine perversion of it, could not but give some apprehensions to the partizans of the British treaty, and it became necessary to them to make up by fine words what was wanting in good actions.

An opportunity offered to that purpose. The Convention, on the public reception of Mr. Monroe, ordered the American flag and the French flag to be displayed unitedly in the hall of the Convention. Mr. Monroe made a present of an American flag for the purpose. The Convention returned this compliment, by sending a French flag to America, to be presented by their Minister, Mr. Adet, to the American Government. This resolution passed long before Jay's treaty was known or suspected: it passed in the days of confidence ;-but the flag was not presented by Mr. Adet till several months after the treaty had been ratified. Mr. Washington made this the occasion of saying some fine things to the French Minister; and the better to