[Extract]

The silence maintained towards you by the English Ministry with respect to the American vessel Dickenson confirms the feeling I already had that M. de Paul had mentioned it to me of his own accord and without instructions from his Court. I hope that this Minister will have transmitted to Ld. Weymouth the answer which I gave him on this subject; it conforms with the King's inclinations demonstrated on different occasions to His British Majesty. But, at the same time, I had to inform M. de Paul that we could not carry our accomodation to the point of ruining our merchants by intercepting an important branch of their trade because of a quarrel which is foreign to us. In spite of the watchfulness on the part of the Court of London, the English ports provide insurgents with as much and even more ammunition than the other ports of Europe. Assuredly they cannot expect us to meet with more success than they themselves can manage. If they wish to pull our merchants out of the market they need only purchase themselves the goods sold to the Americans. To my knowledge, this is the only way to close the favorable market which the Americans have found in Europe, and will always find there, in spite of the repeated cruises and uproar of Great Britain. Besides, Sir, you are to keep these reflections to yourself; you will not use them unless the English Ministers converse with you on this subject, in which case you would present them as your own and not our suggestions.