CHAP. II.] WEST INDIES. 67 
thus a town was saved from plunder, which by the 
strict rules of war might have been given up to an 
exasperated soldiery. 
It is to be lamented that the subsequent conduct 
of the French government of Grenada, towards its 
new subjects, was not quite so generous. By an 
ordinance of the Count de Durat, the new govern¬ 
or, they were enjoined, under the penalty of mili¬ 
tary execution and confiscation of property, due from 
the payment, directly or indirectly, of ail debts due 
by them to British subjects, residing in any part of 
the British dominions; and by another ordinance, the 
prohibition was extended to such debts owing to 
the subjects of the United Provinces of Holland, 
as were guaranteed by any of the subjects of Great 
Britain. The Count D’Estaing had inserted clauses 
to the same effect, in the form of capitulation, 
which he had tendered to the garrison, and it was 
those prohibitions that induced the British inhabi¬ 
tants with an honest indignation, to risk the conse¬ 
quence of an unconditional surrender, rather than 
submit to them. With the virtue and integrity 
that it is to be hoped will for ever distinguish the 
British character, they considered no sacrifice so 
great as the violation of that confidence, which had 
been reposed in them by their friends and creditors 
in Europe. But the ordinances went still further. 
By the regulations which they contained, it was 
enacted, that all the estates belonging to English 
absentees, should be put into the hands of certain 
..persons to be nominated by the governor, called 
