[Extract]
The Second Hessian division finally left Plymouth on the 23rd of this month with the pack-horses. They will be convoyed by the Frigates Diamond, Unicorn and Ambuscade. The Frigate Lark sailed from Portsmouth on the 24th with two transports carrying recruits and ammunition. This frigate has one hundred thousand pounds Sterling to pay the troops in America. Well, nothing can distract them from their purpose and it is easy to see that they intend to impose their rule.
You probably know, My lord, about the decree passed in Portugal on the 4th of this month to close all trade in that country to the Americans. It may be presumed that if they had had to supply a number of islands in the vicinity of the American Continent, they would not have come to such a decision which will bring them a dangerous enemy without increasing the number of their friends....
...It is one thing or the other, either the Americans are still English, or they no longer are. In the first case it is not for us to make any distinction between them, nor for England to prescribe to us whom we must admit and whom we must exclude. In the second case, the Americans are the enemy of England and we are a neutral power. Shall we say that they are pirates? They do not commit any acts of piracy against us and it is up to us to decide how we should treat them.
This, My lord, is the legal aspect of the situation, unless I am mistaken. If we proceed from there to our political interests, we will probably find that it is essential for us to weaken a Power which claims sovereignty over three parts of the world and, after appropriating the empire of the Sea to itself, applies tyrannical methods to trade.* It is no less than a matter of breaking the British Power in half. M. de Montesquieu believed that making Ireland independent was the only way to achieve this. He could not have foreseen what is about to happen. Never perhaps has a more important event offered itself to the speculations of France. The essential thing is not to fail without disturbing the peace of the other States, if it is possible. The Ministry that will be able to fulfill this double goal will deserve well of the country and will receive the homage of posterity.
A few days ago, one of the American supporters asked me this question with respect to which you had requested some information from me, My lord. He claims that the Americans are getting ready to put many ships to sea during the next winter and would like to know if they can leave in safety in our ports the prizes which they might capture. I replied that this matter was new and that I could not yet give an answer.
*N[ote] To give you an idea, My lord, of the manner in which these people think and express themselves, it might be useful to offer you quite a recent example. The other day, Lord North was speaking of the Dutch in front of me and was turning their ambition into ridicule as they place themselves on the same footing with England and say we maritime Powers. It is, Lord North added, like the story of the shoemaker who lived next door to the Lord Mayor and said my neig[h]bor and I. Lord Barrington often told me that we could not become a maritime Power and that the more money we spent to achieve this goal, the more he would be pleased being certain that the money will be wasted. I asked him once upon what he based such a strange opinion while speaking of a Power which has an important trade; a large population and Coasts extending along both Seas from Dunkerque to Antibes. He always persisted in his assertion, refusing to reveal his secret.
