172] 
and carried to the. direétory, by 
whom it was considered as indubi- 
table proof of the inimical dispo- 
sition of the American government 
to the French republic. 
This letter, on a cool perusal, 
contained, howe, no hostile de- 
signs against France. Its contents 
were chiefly complaints of the 
arbitrary proceedings of the British 
ministry respecting the trade of the 
United States. He direéted Mr. Mor- 
ris, who had quitted his embassy at 
Paris, and acted as American agent 
at London, to lay before the English 
ministry the imprudence, as well as 
the unjustifiableness of those pro- 
ceedings, at a time when Great 
Britain ought to be particularly so- 
licitous to retain the good will of 
the Americans, in order to induce 
them to receive favourably the 
treaty of commerce just concluded, 
but which met with a multitude of 
opponents, on account of the harsh 
measures that had been so unseason- 
ably taken against the commerce 
and navigation of the United States. 
It was with difficulty he had stem- 
med the torrent of discontent and 
resentment that had arisen on this 
occasion, and prevented the party, 
that favoured the French, from car- 
rying matters to extremities. His 
own views, in which he was se- 
conded by the better sort, were 
peace and neutrality. These would, 
in the course of a few years, raise 
the United States to a condition of 
prosperity and power, that would 
render them formidable to all the 
world, and secure 
quillity at home, and respeét from 
abroad. 
Such was the general tenour of 
this famous letter, the interception 
of which was .looked upon as so 
timely an occurrence for the interest 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
to them tran-- 
1796. 
of France, by admonishing it to 
place no confidence in the Ameri- 
cans. But without the medium of 
this letter, the most judicious of the 
French were convinced that the 
interest of the Americans would 
lead them to aét a neutral part in the 
contest between France and Eng- 
land, and that it would be highly 
impolitic in either of these to insist 
upon their aéting any other. 
The French government did not 
however relinquish the hope of a 
future conneétion with the United 
States, They grounded this expeéta- 
tion on the numbers of people 
there, who testified an aversion to 
all political ties with England, and 
whose republican disposition in- 
clined them to espouse the cause of 
all who opposed the government of 
kings. They also relied on achange 
of men and measures in the Ameri- 
can administration. The presidency, 
it was intimated to them by their 
American partisans, would, ona 
new election, be filled by another 
incumbent, less averse toanalliance 
with France than the present. These 
and other representations of a simi- 
lar tendency, from the same quar- 
ter, induced the French government 
to dissemble the resentment it bore 
to the American for its partiality to 
England, and to extend it no farther 
than to treat the subjects of the 
united states, employed in. their 
commerce and navigation, in the 
same manner in which these were 
treated by the English. 
These misunderstandings, between 
France and the states of America, ° 
had, insome degree, been suspended 
by the recall of Mr. Morris from 
his French embassy, and replacing 
him by a man whose principles were 
more conformable te their own, and 
his person, therefore, more Ries AR 
ble, 
