3006] 
republic; they were. deceived in 
this hope ; and though the treaty 
of friendship, navigation, and com- 
merce, between Great Britain and 
the United States hed been signed 
six weeks before France ‘adopted 
tle meastre I have just spoken ef, 
the English did nor abandon the 
plan they had formed, and conti- 
nued to stop and carry into their 
ports all American yessels bound 
to French ‘ports, or returning from 
them. 
This conduct was the subje&t of 
a note which the undersigned ad- 
dressed on the 7th Vendemiaire, 
4th year {zgth Septembery 1795, 
O.S.) to the secretary of state. 
The remonstranees which it con- 
tained were founded on the duties 
of neutrality, upon the principles 
which Mr. Jefferson had laid down 
in his letter to Mr. Pinckney, 
dated the 13th September, 1794. 
Yet this note has remained with- 
out an answer, though recalled to 
the ‘remembrance of the secretary 
of state by a dispatch of the gth 
Germinal, 4th year (29th March, 
1796, O. S.) ; and American ves- 
sels bound to French ports, or re- 
turning from them, have still been 
seized by the English. Indeed 
more ;. they have added a new vex- 
ation to those they had already 
imposed upon the Americans ; they 
have impressed scamen from on 
board American’ vessels, and have 
thus found the means of strength- 
ening their crews at the expence 
of the Americans, without the go- 
vernment of the United States 
having made known to the under. 
signed the steps they had taken to 
obtain satisfaction for this violation 
of neutrality, so hurtful to the in- 
terests of France, as the under. 
signed hath set forth in his dis. 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1796. 
patches to the secretary of state 
of the gth Germinal, 4th year 
(29th March, 1796, O.S.), 19th 
Germinal (Sth April, 1796), and 
1st Fioreal (2oth April, 1796), 
which have remained without an 
answer, 
The French government then 
finds itself, with respeét to America 
at the present time, in. circum-~ 
stances similar to those of the year 
1795; and if it sees itself obliged 
to abandon, with respeét to them, 
and the neutral powers in general, 
the favourable line of conduct they 
pursued, and to adopt different 
measures, the blame should: falt 
upon the British government: it 
is their condu&t which the Frencle 
government has been obliged to 
follow, . 
The undersigned ntinister pleni-; . 
potentiary conceives it his duty to 
remark to the secretary of state, 
that the neutral governments, or 
the allies of the republic, have no. . 
thing to fear as to the treatment, of 
their flag by the French, since if, 
keeping within the bounds of their _ 
neutrality, they cause the rights of 
that neutrality to be respected by 
the English, the republic will 
respect them. But if through weak. 
ness, partiality, or other motives, 
they should suffer the English. to 
sport with that neutrality, and turn 
it to their advantage, could they 
then complain, when France, to. 
restore the balance of neutrality to 
its equilibrium, shall aét in the 
same mariner as the English? No, . 
certainly ; for the neutrality of 2. 
nation consists in granting to-bel. 
ligerent powers the same advan 
tages; and that neutrality no. 
longer exists, when,, in the course | 
of the war, that neutral nation 
grants to one of the belligerent 
powers 
