STATE PAPERS. 
he would find what I ftated to be 
ftri@tly true, and that, of courfe it 
could not be difficult to account for 
my furprize, when, after being told 
that he and his colleagues were to 
take up the negotiation precifely 
where they found it, it mow became 
evident that it was to be flung back 
to the very point from which we 
ftarted, and flung back in a way 
which feemed to threaten a con- 
clufion very different from that he 
foretold, —I fhall not attempt to fol- 
low the French minifter through 
the very elaborate and certainly able 
fpeech he made in reply, with a 
view to convince me that the en- 
quiry into the extent of my full 
powers was the ftrongeft proof the 
Direétory could furnith of their pa- 
cific intention, and the fhorteft road 
they could take to accomplifh the 
defired end. It was in order to 
give activity to the negotiation, 
(adtiver was his word) and to pre- 
vent its ftagnating, that this demand 
was made fo fpecifically; and he 
intimated to me, that it was im- 
pofible for the Directory to pro- 
ceed till a full and fatisfactory an- 
fwer had been given to it. I in- 
terrupted him here, by faying their 
manner of acting appeared to me 
calculated to decide the negotiation 
at once, not to give it activity, fince 
it muft be known I could not have 
‘powers of the defcription he allud- 
ed to; and even fuppofing I had, 
the admitting it would be, in fact, 
neither more nor lefs than a com- 
plete avowal of the principle itfelf, 
which, once agreed on, nothing 
would be left to negotiate about. 
/The other French Plenipotentiary 
‘interpofed here, by faying, that 
would not be the cafe; many arfi- 
~ eles would ftill remain to be pro- 
pofed, and many points for import- 
J 5: 
ant difcuffion. I faid every word I 
heard feemed to prefent frefh diffi- 
culties. Without replying to me, 
the firft-mentioned minifter went 
on, by endeavouring to prove that 
the avowal of having powers to a 
certain extent, did not imply the 
neceflity of exercifing them; that it 
was the avowal alone for which 
they contended, in order to deter- 
mine at once the form the negotia- 
tion was to take; that the note and 
the time prefcribed in it, were in 
confequence of the moft pofitive 
orders from the Directory; and that 
if I drew from it a conclufion dif- 
ferent from the affurances they had 
made me in the name of the Direc- 
tory, I did not make the true infer- 
ence. I replied, that, although 
the prefcribing the day on which 
the queftion was put to me as the 
term within which I was to give 
my an{wer to it, was both a very 
unufual’ and abrupt mode of pro- 
ceeding, yet as a day was much 
more than fufficient for the pur- 
pofe, I fhould forbear making any 
particular remark on this circum- 
ftance: that as to the inference to 
be drawn from the pofitive manner 
in which they appeared to maintain 
the queftion put to me, I really 
could not make it different from 
that I had already expreffed: that 
the reverting, after an interval of 
two months, to a queftion already 
anfwered, and which queftion in- 
volved the fate of the negotiation, 
certainly could not be confidered 
as wearing a very conciliatory ap 
pearance: that in regard to my an- ° 
{wer, it could not be different from 
that I had given before: that my 
full powers, which were in their 
hands, were as extenfive as any 
could be, and it did not depend ‘on™ 
me to give them more or lefs lati- 
Ors tude; 
