208 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT. [1790. 



preparations of those powers for war, became known, King Louis 

 XVI. of France ordered fourteen sail of the line to be equipped 

 for active service, in ordei to meet contingencies. He was, how- 

 ever, under the necessity of communicating this measure to the 

 National Assembly, then in session, which seized the occasion to 

 deprive the crown of one of its most essential attributes. On the 

 24th of May, a decree was passed by that body, establishing that 

 the right to make war or peace belonged to the nation, and could 

 only be exercised through the concurrence of the legislative and the 

 executive branches of the government ; and that no treaty with an- 

 other power could have effect until it had been ratified by the rep- 

 resentatives of the nation : a committee was at the same time 

 appointed to examine and report upon all the existing treaties of 

 alliance between France and other nations. These proceedings 

 were equivalent to an annulment of the Family Compact between 

 the sovereigns of the house of Bourbon : nevertheless, when the 

 king of Spain found himself pressed by Great Britain to relinquish 

 his exclusive pretensions with regard to America, he formally ap- 

 plied to his cousin of France for aid, agreeably to that compact, in 

 resisting those demands ; declaring, at the same time, that, unless 

 the assistance should be given speedily and effectually, " Spain 

 would be under the necessity of seeking other friends and allies 

 among all the powers of Europe, without excepting any, on whom 

 she could rely in case of need." 



The letter of the king of Spain was submitted by Louis XVI. to 

 the National Assembly, by which it was referred to the committee 

 appointed to examine the existing treaties between France and 

 other nations ; and, in the name of that committee, the celebrated 

 Mirabeau, on the 24th of August, presented a luminous report, in- 

 cluding considerations of the character of the Family Compact and 

 other engagements between France and Spain, and a view of 

 the actual positions of Spain and Great Britain towards each 

 other and towards France. The questions raised by this report 

 were debated, with great display of eloquence and political wis- 

 dom, by Mirabeau, the Abbe Maury, Lameth, Barnave, and other 

 distinguished members of the Assembly ; and it was decreed that 

 France, while taking proper measures to maintain peace, should 

 observe the existing commercial and defensive engagements between 

 her government and that of Spain ; but that a new and national 

 treaty should be immediately negotiated, wherein the relations of 

 the two countries towards each other should be defined and fixed 

 with precision and clearness, agreeably to the views of general 



