reserve, with thofe very moderate conditions, on which his Majefty would most gladly have laid down his arms.

The Catholic King communicated to the Court of London the affurances he had received from his Majefty, and he urged that Court to perfect the reconciliation which he had long fo earnestly affeed to defire. But the English Minifter, although conftantly feigning a defire of peace, never returned an ingenuous answer to the King of Spain, but was perpetually infulting his Catholic Majefty, with a tender of inadmisible propofitions, quite foreign to the fubject of difpute.

It was now clear, from the moft indifputable evidence, that England did not wish for peace, and that the negociated for no other purpose but to gain time to make the neceffary preparations for war. The King of Spain was perfectly fenfible of this truth; nor was he lefs fenfible how much his own dignity was committed; yet his heart anticipated the calamities of war, and he forgot his own wrongs in his anxious with for peace. He even fuggefted a new plan of a ceffation of arms for a term of years. This plan was perfectly agreeable to his Majefly, on condition, that the United States of America fhould be comprifed in the propofal, and that, during the trace, they should be treated as independent. To render it more eafy for the King of England to fubfcribe to this effential ftipulation, his Majelly confented that he fhould either treat immediately with Congress, or through the mediation of the King of Spain.

in confequence of thefe over

tures, his Catholic Majefty difpatched his plan to the Court of London. Befides the time limited for the fufpenfion of hoftilities (during which the United States were to be considered as independent de facto) his Catholic Majefty took it on himself to propofe, relative to America, that each party fhould have the poffeffion of what they occupied at the time of figning the treaty of fufpenfion, guaranteed to them. Such infinite pains did the King of Spain take to ftop the effusion of human blood!

There is not a doubt but that thefe conditions must appear, to every well-judging perfon, fuch as would have been accepted; they were, however, formally rejected by the Court of London, nor has that Court fhewn any difpofition to peace, unless on the abfurd condition that his Majefty fhould abandon the Americans, and leave them to themselves.

After this afflicting declaration, the continuation of the war is become inevitable; and therefore his Majefty has invited the Catholie King to join him in virtue of their reciprocal engagements, to avenge their refpective injuries, and to put an end to that tyrannical empire which England has ufurped and pretends to maintain upon the ocean.

This fuccinct expofure of the political views, and the progreffive feries of events which have occafioned the prefent rupture between the Courts of Versailles and London, will enable all Europe to draw a parallel between the conduct of his Majefty, and that of the King of England; to render juftice to the purity and directnes

of

pulous attention, to the complaints and reprefentations of the powers, his neighbours or allies; to ftifle in the beginning, all grounds of quarrel that might embitter or alienate the minds of men; to turn afide the fcourge of war, by every expedient compatible with the dignity of the Sovereign of a refpectable nation; and to infpire all people with a juit confidence on the political fytem of a Court which detelted war, without fearing it; which employed no other means than thofe of reafon and fincerity, and which had no other object, but the general tranquillity. In the midst of this calm, the firft fparks of dif. cord were kindled in America. The intrigues of a few bold and criminal leaders, who abuted the credulous fimplicity of their countrymen, infenfibly feduced the greatest part of the English Colonies to raise the ftandard of revolt against the Mother Country, to which they were indebted for their existence and their happinefs. The Court of Verfailles eafily forgot the faith of treaties, the duties of allies, and the right of Sovereigns, to endeavour to profit of circumftances, which appeared favourable to its ambitious defigns. It did not blush to debafe its dignity, by the fecret connections it formed with rebellious fubjects; and after having exhaufted all the fhameful refources of perfidy and diffimulation, it dared to avow, in the face of Europe (full of indignation at its conduct) the folemn treaty which the Minifters of the Mot Chriftian King had figned with the dark agents of the English Colonies, who founded their pretended independence on nothing but the daringnefs of their, revolt.

7

The offenfive Declaration which the Marquis de Noailles was or dered to make to the Court of London, on the 13th of March, in the last year, authorized his Majefty to repel by force of arms, the unheard-cf infult that was offered to the honour of his crown; and the King remembered, on that important occafion, what he owed his fubjects and himself. The fame fpirit of impofture and ambition continued to reign in the councils of France.-Spain, who has, more than once, repented having neglected her true interests, to follow blindly the deftructive projects of the elder branch of the Houfe of Bourbon, was engaged to change the part of mediator, for that of enemy of Great Britain, The calamities of war are multiplied, but the Court of Versailles hath, hitherto, nothing to boat of the fuccefs of its military operations; and Europe knows well how to rate thofe naval victories, which exift no where but in the Gazettes and Manifeftos of pretended conquerors.

Since war and peace impofe on nations duties entirely different, and even oppofite, it is indifpenfibly neceffary to diftinguish, in reafoning as well as in conduct, the two conditions: but in the last Manifefto, publifhed by France, thefe two conditions are perpetually confounded: the pretends to jultify her conduct in making the beft, by turns, nay, almoft at the fame time, of those rights which an enemy only is permitted to claim, and of those maxims which regulate the obligations and procedure of national friendship. The fineffe of the Court of Verfailles, in blending inceflantly two tuppofitus, which have no connec❤

tion,

tion, is the natural confequence of a falfe and treacherous policy, which cannot bear the light of the day. The fentiments and conduct of the King have nothing to fear from the most fevere fcrutiny; but, on the contrary, invites it to diftinguith clearly what his enemies have confounded with fo much artifice. Juftice alone can fpeak, without fear, the language

of reason and truth.

The full juftification of his Majesty, and the indelible condemnation of France, may be reduced to the proof of two fimple, and almost felf-evident principles. First, That a profound, permanent, and, on the part of England, a fincere and true peace, fubfitted between the two nations, when France formed connections with the revolted Colonies, fecret at firft, but afterwards public and avowed. Second, That according to the best acknowledged maxims, of the rights of nations, and even according to the tenor of treaties actually fubfifting between the two crowns, thefe connections might be regarded as an infraction of the peace: and the public avowal of these connections was equivalent to a declaration of war on the part of the Moft Chriftian King.-This is, perhaps, the first time that a refpectable nation had an occafion to prove two truths, fo inconteftible, the memory of which is already acknowledged by every dianterefted and unprejudiced person.

"When Providence called the King to the throne, France enjoyed a molt profound peace." Thele are the expreffions of the laft Manifefto of the Court of Verfailles, which cally remembers the folema affurances of a fincere friendship,

and the moft pacific difpofition which it received from his Britannic Majefty, and which were often renewed by the intervention of Amballadors to the two Courts, during four years, until the fatal and decifive moment of the Declaration of the Marquis de Noailles. The question, then, is to prove, that, during this happy time of general tranquillity, England concealed a fecret war under the appearance of peace; and that her unjust and arbitrary procedure was carried to fuch a pitch, as to render lawful, on the part of France, the boldeft fteps, which are permiffable only in a declared enemy. To attain this object, griefs clearly articulated and folidly eftablished, fhould be produced be fore the tribunal of Europe. This great tribunal will require formal, and, perhaps, repeated proofs of the injury, of the complaint, of a refufal of competent fatisfaction, and of a proteftation of the injured party, that it held itfelf highly of fended by fuch refufal, and that it fhould look upon itself hereafter as releafed from the duties of friend. fhip, and the bonds of treaties. Thofe nations which refpe& the fanctity of oaths, and the advantages of peace, are the floweft to catch hold of opportunities which feem to difcharge them from a facred and folemn obligation; and it is but with trembling that they dare to renounce the friendship of powers, from which they have long borne injuftice and infult.

But the Court of Verfailles hath been either ignorant of thefe wife and falutary- principles, or it hath defpiled them; and, inftead of fixing the foundations of a juit and legitimate war, it hath con

tented itself to spread through every page of its Manifefto, general and vague complaints, expreffed with exaggerations in a metaphorical ftyle. It goes above threefcore years back to accufe England of her want of care to ratify fome commercial regulations, fome articles of the treaty of Utrecht. It prefumes to reproach the King's minifters with using the language of haughtiness and ambition, without condescending to the duty of proving imputations as unlikely as they are odious. The free fuppofitions of the ambition, and infincerity of the court of London, are confeffedly healed up, as if they feared to be difcriminated; the pretended infults which the commerce, the flag, and the territories of France, have undergone, are infinuated in a very obfcure manner, and at laft there efcapes an avowal of the engagement which the moft Chriftian King had already made with Spain," to avenge their respective wrongs, and put bounds to the tyrannical empire which England had ufurped, and pretended to maintain over every fea."

It is difficult to encounter phantoms, or to anfwer clofely and precifely to the language of declamation. The juft confidence of the King, would doubtlefs defire to fubmit to the stricteft examination, those vague complaints, thofe pretended wrongs, upon which the court of Verfailles has fo prudently avoided to explain itself, with that clearness and particularity which alone could fupport its reafons, and excufe its conduct. During a fifteen years peace, the interefts of two powerful, and perhaps jealous nations, which ap

proached in fo many places in the old and new world, would inevitably furnish fubjects of complaint and difcuffion, which a reciprocal moderation would always know how to fettle, but which are but too easily fharpened and impoifoned by the real hatred, or affected fufpicions, of a secret and ambitious enemy: and the troubles of America were but too apt to multiply the hopes, the pretexts, and the unjuft pretenfions of France. Nevertheless, fuch has been the ever uniform, and ever peaceable conduct of the King and his minifters, that it hath often filenced his enemies; and if it may be permitted to difcover the true fenfe of thefe indefinite and equivocal accufations, whofe ftudied obfcurity betrays the features to fhame and artifice-if it may be permitted of contested objects which have no existence, it may be affirmed with the boldness of truth, that feveral of these pretended injuries, are announced for the first time, in a declaration of war, without having been propofed to the court of London, at a time when they might have been confidered with the ferious and favourable attention of friendship. In refpect to thofe complaints which the ambaffadors of his most Christian Majefty have communicated from time to time to the King's minifters, it would be easy to give, or rather to repeat fatisfactory anfwers, which would demonftrate, to the eyes of France herfelf, the King's moderation, his love of juftice, and the fincerity of his difpofition to preferve the gefferal tranquillity of Europe. Thofe complaints, which the court of Verfailles may dispense with recollecting, were very rarely

founded