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The republic surely has not interfered in their favour. Such men are not Frenchmen.

Reproaches so little founded, imputations so insidious, will scarcely be able to justify in the eyes of Europe a conduct which, when contrasted with that which France has constantly held with respect to Great Britain, will be sufficiently proved to be unjust and malevolent. Not only the French nation, since it became free, has sufficiently testified by every form its desire of being on a good understanding with the English people, but have realized this wish as far as they could, by uniting to themselves as allies and brothers all the individuals of the English nation. Amidst the combat of liberty and despotism, amidst the most violent agitations, they have, to their honour, observed the most religious respect to all foreigners residing among them, and particularly all Englishmen, whatever were their opinions, their conduct, their connexions with the enemies of liberty: every where they have been aided and succoured with all sort of benevolence and favour.' And in recompense of this generous conduct, the French find themselves subjected to an act of parliament, by which is granted to the English government against foreigners the most arbitrary latitude of authority: to an act which obliges them to have permission or passports to enter, depart, and remain in England;-which empowers secretaries of state to enforce against them, without any motive, and upon a mere suspicion, the most odious forms; to fix the bounds of their residence, beyond which they cannot pass; and even

to expel them at their will from the territory of Britain.

It is

It is evident that all these clauses are contrary to the letter of the treaty of commerce, the fourth article of which extends to all Frenchmen indiscriminately; and there is but too much reason to fear that, in consequence of the determination which his Britannic majesty has formed of breaking off all communication between the governments of the two countries, even the French merchants will find it impossible for them to enjoy the exception which the bill has established in favour of those who shall prove that they have come to England for the purpose of commerce. thus that the British government have first attempted to break a treaty to which England owes a great part of its present prosperity, disadvantagecusto France, obtained by address and management from the ignorance or corruption of the agents of that government which they have now destroyed; a treaty which nevertheless they have religiously observed: at the very moment when France has been accused in the British parliament of violating treaties, the public conduct of the two governments presents a contrast which authorises them vigorously to retort the accusation.

All the powers of Europe will undoubtedly have a right to complain of the rigour of the bill, if it ever obtain the force of a law; but it is France especially, the inhabitants of which, guaranteed from its penalties by a solemn treaty, appear nevertheless to be exclusively menaced by these penalties, which has the right to demand a

satisfaction the most speedy and complete. The executive council might immediately have accepted the rupture of the treaty, which the English government seems to have offered; but they were unwilling to precipitate any of their measures, and before publishing their definitive resolution, were desirous to afford to the British ministry an opportunity of a frank and candid explanation. In consequence the undersigned has received orders to demand of Lord Grenville, to inform him by a clear, speedy, and categorical answer, if, under the general denomination of foreigners in the bill preparing by parliament, upon the proposition of a member of administration, the government of Great Britain mean likewise to include the French.

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remitted to me on the 13th of this month. I cannot help remarking, that I have found nothing satisfactory in the result of it. The explanations which it contains are nearly reduced to the same point which I have already replied to at length. The declaration of wishing to intermeddle with the affairs of other countries is therein renewed. No denial is made, nor reparation is offered, for the outrageous proceedings I stated to you in my letter of December 31; and the right of infringing treaties, and violating the rights of our allies, is still maintained, by solely offering an illusory negociation upon this subject, which is put off, as well as the evacuation of the Low Countries by the French armies, to the indefinite term, not only of the conclusion of the war, but likewise of the consolidation of what is called the liberty of the Belgians.

It is added, that if these explanations appear insufficient to us, if

Reply by Lord Grenville to Mons. you should again be obliged to

A

Chauvelin.

FTER the formal notification which the undersigned has had the honour of making to M. Chauvelin, he finds himself obliged to send back to him the paper which he received this morning, and which he cannot consider otherwise than as totally inadmissible, M. Chauvelin assuming in it a character which is not acknowledged.

(Signed) GRENVILLE.

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hear an haughty tone of language; if hostile preparations should continue in the ports of England— after having tried every effort to preserve peace, you will then make dispositions for war.

tive to the treaty of commerce, had If this notification, or that relaand official form, I should have been made to me under a regular found myself under the necessity of replying to it, that to threaten Great Britain with a declaration of war, because she judged it expedient to augment her forces, and also to declare that a solemn treaty should be broken because England adopted, for her own safety, such precautions as already exist in France, would only be considered,

both

both the one and the other, as new grounds of offence, which, as long as they should subsist, would prove a bar to every kind of negociation. Under this form of extra-official communication, I think I may yet be permitted to tell you, not in a tone of haughtiness, but of firmness, that these explanations are not considered sufficient; and that all the motives which gave rise to the preparations still continue. These motives are already known

times to the rest of Europe, but
which become still more so, being
supported by the propagation of prin-
ciples destructive of all social order.
I have the honour to be, &c.
(Signed) GRENVILLE.

From

M. Chauvelin, to Lord
Grenville.

Portman square, 17th Jan.
1793, 2d Year of the
French Republic.

My Lord,
HAVE the honour of addressing

to you by my letter of December myself to you, to beg of you to

I I

terms, what those dispositions were which could alone maintain peace and a good understanding. I do not see that it can be useful to the object of conciliation to enter into a discussion with you on separate points under the present circuinstances, as I have already acquainted you with my opinion concerning them. If you have any explana tions to give me under the same extra official form, which will embrace all the objects contained in my letter of the 31st of December, as well as all the points which relate to the present crisis with England, her allies, and the general system of Europe, I shall willingly attend to them.

I think it, however, my duty to inform you, in the most positive terms, in answer to what you tell me on the subject of our preparations, that under the present circumstances all those measures will be continued which may be judged necessary to place us in a state of protecting the safety, tranquillity, and the rights of this country, as well as to guarantee those of our allies; and to set up a barrier to those views of ambition and aggrandizement, dangerous at all

grant me an interview. I shall proceed to explain the motives of this request, and you will judge them to be such as will not admit of delay. I shall first desire of you, my lord, security for my communications with the French government. Whatever may be the character which you acknowledge me to possess, you have, at least, never doubted of the authenticity of the declarations which I have transmitted to you in the name of the French nation. I will therefore propose to you, my lord, either absolutely to refuse hearing me, or to give orders for my couriers to be respected, and the secrecy of my letters, as well as those sent as received, to be observed.

I will then, my lord, require to be informed, whether his Britannic majesty will receive my letters of credence, and if he be satisfied with the declarations contained in the paper which I had the honour of transmitting to your lordship last Sunday. I have not only received fresh orders from the executive council of France, to insist upon a speedy and definitive answer; but there is yet another reason which urgently presses for the decision of

his Britannic majesty. I have learnt this day, that the law relating to foreigners obliges them to make their declaration within ten days after the 10th of January ; and, in case of any foreigner, who is amenable to this law, neglecting

respect to the persons who compose my household, in consequence of the law against foreigners.

I have the honour to be, &c.
(Signed) F. CHAUVELIN.

or refusing to make such declara- From Lord Grenville, to M. De

Chauvelin.

Whitehall, Jan. 20, 1793.

tion, the magistrates of this country would be authorized not only to require him to do so, but even to imprison him. I know, my lord, and all those who understand the 17th instant. I have already

the rights of nations know it also, that I cannot be implicated in this law. The avowed and acknowledged organ of a government which executes laws to which 25 millions of men have submitted themselves, my person is, and ought to be, sacred; and even under my diplomatic character, my lord, I could not be ranked among the general common class of foreigners, until his Britannic majesty should have definitively rejected the letters of credence which he knows I have received for him.

But had I been implicated in this law, I owe to the government of a free and powerful nation, which I represent, this declaration, that it would be impossible for me to submit to it; and that all the persecutions which it might please his Britannic majesty to make me endure, would fall upon the French nation, in whose cause and for whose sake it would be my glory to suffer.

After this candid declaration, my lord, thinking myself entitled to an equal sincerity on your side, I will desire of you, in the conversation which I solicit, to inform me, what is the conduct which his Britannic majesty's ministers mean to hold with respect to me, and with

Sir,

HAVE received your letter of

apprized you, that his majesty has reserved to himself the right of deciding, according to his judgment, upon the two questions of acknowledging a new form of government in France, and of receiving a minister accredited on the part of some other authority in France than that of his most Christian majesty. In answer to the demand you now make, whether his majesty will receive your new letters of credence, I have to inform you, that under the present circumstances his majesty does not think proper to receive them.

The request you make of me is equally incompatible with the form of an extra-official communication, and that character in which you have hitherto been known as minister of his most Christian majesty.

Nothing then remains for me to say, relative to the subject of your former letter, particularly after what has just happened in France, than to inform you, that as an agent charged with a confidential communication, you ought certainly to have attended to the necessary measures taken by us to secure your letters and couriers; that as minister of his most Christian majesty you would have enjoyed all those exceptions

exceptions which the law affords to public ministers properly acknowledged as such; but, that as an individual, you can only be considered amongst the general mass of foreigners resident in England.

(Signed) GRENVILLE.

Letter from the same to the same, ordering his immediate departure from the realm, Jan. 24.

I

AM charged to notify to you, Sir, that the character with which you had been invested at this court, and the functions of which have been so long suspended, being now entirely terminated by the fatal death of his most Christian majesty, you have no longer any public character here.

The king can no longer, after such an event, permit your residence here. His majesty has thought fit to order, that you should retire from this kingdom within the term of eight days; and I herewith transmit to you a copy of the order which his majesty in his privy council has given to this effect.

I send you a passport for yourself and your suite; and I shall not fail to take all the other necessary steps, in order that you may return to France with all the attentions which are due to the character of minister plenipotentiary from his most Christian majesty, which you have exercised at this court. (Signed)

GRENVILLE.

house of commons copies of several papers which have been received from M. Chauvelin, late minister plenipotentiary from the most Christian king, by his majesty's secretary of state for foreign affairs, and of the answers returned thereto; and likewise copies of an order made by his majesty in council, and transmitted by his majesty's command to the said M. Chauvelin, in consequence of the atrocious act recently perpetrated at Paris.

In the present situation of affairs, his majesty thinks it indispensably necessary to make a further augmentation of his forces by sea and land; and relies on the known affection and zeal of the house of commons, to enable his majesty to take the most effectual measures, in the present important conjuncture, for maintaining the security and rights of his own dominions, for supporting his allies, and for opposing views of aggrandizement and ambition, on part of France, which would be at interests of Europe, but are partiall times dangerous to the general cularly so, when connected with the propagation of principles which lead to the violation of the most

F

the

sacred duties, and are utterly sub-
versive of the peace and order of all
civil society.
G. R.

Protest in the House of Lords against the Address, voted in answer to the preceding Message, Feb. 1..

Message from his Majesty to the
Houses of Lords and Commons, 1.
Jan. 28.

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Dissentient,

BECA

ECAUSE the immediate tendency of the address is to plunge the nation into war.

2. Because we consider war as an evil of such magnitude, that no

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