266] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1706. 
But did not a great number of 
those very emigrants from France, 
who occasioned so many mischiefs 
to the country, resort to a neutral 
country? Why did not these co- 
Jonists, always rebels to the laws, 
take up arms to defend them, 
as well as the magistrates, who 
were their organs? It can now be 
no longer doubted, from letters 
that have been intercepted, and the 
official reports of the agents of the 
republic, that Philadelphia was 
the seat of an English committee, 
which without doubt, eluded the 
vigilance of the American govern- 
ment, and of which the colonists 
were the agents in the same manner 
as the Austrians at Basle were the 
more ostensible agents of an Aus. 
trian committee. 
Even supposing that the emi- 
grant colonists were only so cow- 
ardly as to withdraw themselves 
from the evils of the war, which 
they provoked by their resistance 
to the Jaws respecting the emanci- 
pation of the blacks, and that they 
only sought an aslyum in the 
United States, ought they nor to 
have taken the first safe and ho. 
gourable opportunity which pre- 
sented, in order to return to the 
French territories? Yet in vain 
did the ministers of the republic, 
in America, invire them by official 
intimations, by journals and by 
placards, to return to France, of- 
fering them a free passage aboard 
the ships of the republic, They 
still refused, hoping that the tri- 
umphs of England and of Spain 
would speedily facilitate their re- 
turn to their native soil again, 
polluted by slavery, and would 
enable them to carry along with 
them the pride of dominion, inso- 
Jence, and death. Men who call 
themselves refugees, and vi@tims 
of persecution, to whom the re- 
public siretches out her arms when 
she has the right to be severe, and 
who rather chuse to keep at a dis- 
tance during that revolution, which 
calls for the united efforts of all, 
are not such in reality emigrants ? 
After this statement, is it possible, 
without criminality to mak» any 
distin¢tion between the emigrants 
of France, and those of the colo- 
nies? Undoubredly, citizens le- 
gislators, you never can be of that 
opinion, and your justice will never 
be disarmed by the arts of per- 
fidious men, who now basely and 
hypocritically cringe before the tri- 
umphs of the republic. 
Their property, justly forfeited 
to the republic, will amount to 
two milliards of crowns, when it 
shall have been restored to its pro- 
per value by wise and discreet ma- 
nagement. You wil! thus, by en- 
forcing the just severity of thelaws, 
find a new fund for the expence of 
several Campaigns, which the wis. 
dom and moderation of the peopte 
may not he able to avoid, or, in 
case of peace, a particular resource, 
which will raise to the highest pitch 
the prosperity of the republic. 
The executive directory, im- 
pressed with the importance of the 
object which they have now sug. 
gested, propose ta the legislative 
body to take their message into the 
most serious consideration, and to 
declare, that the laws respecting 
emigrants shall be sent and exe- 
cuted in alk the colonies, as well 
as in France. 
(Signed) 
REwseEvt, Presi. 
By the Executive Directory, 
Lacarpe, Sec. 
Message 
