602 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1S04. 



8 foreign court, has kept up cor- 

 respondence with persons resident 

 in France, Avith a view to obtain 

 information upon the designs of the 

 French government, or for any 

 other legitimate objet^t, he has done 

 nothing more than what ministers 

 irnder similar circumstances have al- 

 ways been considered as having a 

 right to do with respect to the coun- 

 tries with which their sovereign was 

 at war; and he has done much less 

 than that which it could be proved 

 the ministers and commercial agents 

 of France have done towards the 

 disaffected in different parts of his 

 majesty's territories : thus, in car- 

 lying on such a correspondence, he 

 would not in any manner have vio. 

 lated his public duty. A minister 

 in a foreign country is obliged, by 

 the nature of his otHce, and the du- 

 ties of his situation, to abstain from 

 all communication with the disaf- 

 fected of the country where he is 

 accredited, as well as from every 

 other act' injurious to tlie interests 

 of that country ; but he is not sub- 

 ject to the same restraints with re- 

 spect to countries with which his so- 

 Tereign is at war. His actions to 

 them may be praiseAvorthy or blame- 

 able, according to the nature of the 

 actions themselves; but they do not 

 constitute any violation of his pub- 

 lic character, evcept in as far as 

 they militate against the country, or 

 the security of the country, where 

 he is accredited. 



But of all the governments which 

 pretend to be civilized governments, 

 that of France is the one which has 

 the least right to appeal- to the law 

 of nations. With what confidence 

 can it appeal to that law ? a go- 

 Ternraent which, from the com- 

 Dieneement of hostilities, has never 

 <;tused to violate it ! It promised 



protection to the British subjects re- 

 sident in France, and who might be 

 desirous of remaining there after the 

 recal of his majesty's ambassador, j 

 It revoked that promise without any ' 

 previous notice; it condemned those 

 same persons to be prisoners of 

 war; and it detains them still in 

 that quality, in contempt of its own 

 engagements, and of the usages uni- 

 versally observed by ail civilized na- 

 tions. It has applied that new and I 

 barbarous law, even to individuals 

 who had the authority and protec- 

 tion of the French ambassadors and 

 ministers at foreign courts, to travel 

 through France on their return to 

 their own country. It commanded 

 the seizure of an English packet- 

 boat in one of the ports of Holland, 

 tiiough its ambassador in that coun-, 

 try had previously engaged to let 

 the packet-boats of the respective 

 countries pass in perfect safety until 

 notice should be given to the con- 

 trary. It has detained ai>d con- 

 demned in one of the ports of 

 France, a vessel which had been sent 

 thither as a matter of indulgence, in 

 order to carry to France the French 

 governor of one of the different 

 islands which had been conquered 

 by his majesty's arms. Its conduct 

 relative to the garrison of St. Lu- 

 cia has not been less extraordinary : 

 the principal fort of that island had 

 been taken by assault ; yet the gar- 

 rison had been allowed all the pri- 

 vileges of prisoners of war, and had 

 been permitted to return to France, 

 with an understanding, that an 

 equal number of English prisoners 

 should be released. Vet, notwith- 

 standing that indulgence on the part 

 of the Uritish commander, to which, 

 l)y the nature of the case, the 

 I'rench garrison could not have the 

 slightest pretension, not a single pri, 



sQuey 



