[Extract]

It is but too true, Monsieur le Comte, that our preparations must constitute a serious charge on the King's finances. We have not, however, any other means, either to repulse the first attacks with which we are threatened, or to avert war, if there still remains any hope of doing so. I confess that my hopes grow weaker in proportion as I follow the progress of this country. Through the different pretexts which the British Ministry makes use of to disguise its hostile intentions, it is impossible not to distinguish a determination tending to war. In any other circumstances, the half of what they have already done would leave us no doubt as to what we should have reason to expect from them. The present circumstances joined to the pacific assurances of the English Ministers are, it is true, well fitted to deceive, and the period which elapses between the measures taken from time to time supports all the artifices which they make use of to calm our suspicions. But we cannot conceal from ourselves that the facts remain, that they accumulate, and that in separating the good alloy from the bad, I mean, what is applicable to the American war from that which can only be intended for a foreign war, in this latter respect the maritime forces of England will shortly be on a formidable footing. If they are not sufficient to suddenly make war with advantage in all parts of the world, they are at least more considerable than those which Great Britain has ever been able to gather together at any period before commencing hostilities.