178 
Given at our court. at St. James’s, 
the 25th day of May, 1792, in 
the 32d year of our reign. 
GoD SAVE THE KING. 
Note from M. Chawvelin to Lord 
~ Grenville, May 24th, 1792. 
THE undersigned Minister Ple- 
nipotentiary from the King of the 
French to his Britannic Majesty, 
has the honour to state to his Ex- 
cellency Lord Grenville, Minister 
of State for foreign affairs, 
That the royal proclamation pub- 
lished on the 21st of this month, 
and ‘communicated to the two 
Houses . of ' Parliament, contains 
some expressions which might, con- 
trary to the intentions of the Bri- 
tish ministry, give weight to the 
false opinions which the enemies of 
France endeavour to circulate with 
respect to her intentions towards 
Great Britain. 
If certain individuals of this coun- 
try have established a correspond- 
ence abroad, tending to excite 
troubles therein ; and if, as the pro- 
clamation seems to insinuate, cer- 
tain Frenchmen have come into 
their views, that is a proceeding 
wholly foreign to the French na~ 
tion, to the Legislative Body, to 
the King, and to his ministers ; it 
is a proceeding of which they are 
entirely ignorant, which militates 
against every principle of justice, 
and. which, whenever it became 
known, would be universally con- 
demned in France. Independently 
of those principles of justice, from 
which a free people ought never to 
deviate, is it not evident, from a 
due consideration of the true inte- 
rests of the French nation, that she 
ought to desire the interior tran- 
quillity, the continuance and the 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1792. 
force of the constitution of a coun- 
try which she already looks upon 
as her natural ally ? 
Is not this the only, reasonable 
wish which a people can form, 
who sees so many efforts united 
against its liberty? The Minister 
Plenipotentiary, deeply sensible of 
these truths, and of the maxims 
of universal morality upon which 
they are founded, had already re- 
presented them in an official note, 
which he transmitted to the British 
ministry the 15th of this month, by 
the express orders of his court ; and 
he thinks it his duty to repeat, on 
the present occasion, the important 
declarations it contains : 
«« Religiously faithful to the prin- 
ciples of its constitution, whatever 
may be definitively the fortune of 
her arms in this war, France repels 
every idea of aggrandizement; she 
wishes to preserve her own limits, 
her liberty, her constitution, and 
her inalienable riglit of reforming 
herself whenever she shall judge 
proper : she will never consent that 
foreign powers should in any shape 
dictate, or should dare to nourish a 
hope of dictating laws to her; but 
this very pride, so natural and so just, 
is a pledge to all the powers from 
whomshe shall have received no pro- 
vocation, not only of her constantly 
pacific dispositions, but also of the 
respeet which the French will at all 
times know how to pay to the laws, 
the usages, and all the forms of go- 
vernment of different people. The 
King also desires that it may be 
known, that he would disavow, de- 
cidedly and severely, all those of 
his agents in foreign courts at peace 
with France, who might dare to de- 
viate a moment from this respect, 
either by fomenting or by favour- 
ing revolts against the established 
order, 
=a 
