Ro 
Bib ATR) Pod B RURGS, 
clearly and distinctly announced, 
that the contracting parties reci- 
procally promise not to lay down 
their arms without the restitution 
of all the dominions, territories, &c. 
which may have belonged to either 
of them before the war. That the 
date of this stipulation was pre- 
vious to their annexing the Austrian 
Netherlands to France; and the 
notoriety of this ought, at the very 
moment when they had passed that 
law, to have convinced them, that, 
if adhered to, it must prove an in- 
surmountable obstacle to peace. I 
applied his maxim to the West 
India islands, and to the settlements 
in the East Indies; and asked him, 
whether it was expected that we 
were to wave our right of possession, 
and be required still to consider 
them asintegral parts of the French 
republic which must he restored, 
and on which no value was to be 
set in the balance of compensation. 
I also stated the possible case of 
France having lost. part of what she 
deemed her integral dominions, in- 
stead of adding to them, in the 
course of the war, and whether 
then under the apprehension of sull 
greater losses, the government, as 
it was now composed, should 
consider itself as not vested with 
powers sufficient to save their coun- 
try from the impending danger, by 
making peace on the conditions of 
sacrificing a portion of their domi- 
nions to save the remainder, M. 
Delacroix said, this was stating a 
case of necessity, and such a mode 
of reasoning did not attach to the 
present circumstances. I readily 
admitted the first part of this pro- 
position, but contended, that if 
the power existed in a case of 
hecessity, it equally existed in 
[163 
all others, and particularly in 
the case before us, since he him- 
self had repeatedly told me that 
peace was what this country and its 
government wished for, and even 
wanted, ) 
M. Delacroix, in reply, shifted 
his ground, and, by a string of 
arguments founded on premises 
calculated for this purpose, ate 
tempted to prove that from the re 
lative situation of the adjacent 
countries, the present government 
of France would be reprehensible 
in the extreme, and deserve im- 
peachment, if they ever suffered 
the Netherlands to be separated 
from their dominions; that by the 
partition of Poland, Russia, Austria, 
and Prussia had increased their 
power to a most formidable degree ; 
that England, by its conquests, 
and by the activity and judgment 
with which it governed its colonies, 
had redoubled its strength.—Your 
Indian empire alone, said M. De- 
lacroix with vehemence, has enas 
bled you to subsidize all the powers 
of Europe against us, and your mo- 
nopoly of trade has put you in 
‘ possession of a fund of inexhaustible 
wealth. His words werg, ‘* Votre 
empire dans / Inde vaus a fourni les 
moyens de salarier toutes les puise 
sances contre nous, ef VOUS ALEZ UCCAO= 
paré le commerce de maniére que 
toutes les richesses du monde sé 
versent dans vos coffres.”” 
From the necessity that France 
should keep the Netherlands and 
the left bank of the Rhine, for the 
purpose of preserving its relative 
situation in Europe, he passed to 
the advantages which he contended 
would result to the other powers 
by such an addition to the French 
M2 dominions. 
