[Extract]

I see, Sir, by the letter you have addressed to M. le Comte de Maurepas, that you lean towards believing that we could admit into our ports the Arrwrican privateers with their prizes. To determine your ideas on this subject I will ob~frve to you, that, all things being equal, nothing would prevent us permitting the Americans not only to bring their prizes into our ports but also to sell them; but the treaty of commerce signed at Utrecht ties our hands on this point; the subject is treated in articles 15 and 36; in examining them you will see that we cannot permit the sale of prizes made by the Americans, nor even allow, beyond the agreed term, the privateers of that nation. We know perfectly well the exceptions we might propose to elude the execution of the treaty referred to; but the King and his Council judge it best not to raise this question in the present conjuncture, and His Majesty preferred rather to follow the conduct held up to the present, than to render his neutrality suspected by protesting against onerous and illegal engagements. For the rest, Sir, the Americans are informed of our principles in this matter, and I do not know that their discontent has been yet excited; it is for their dexterity and prudence to suggest the means of preventing the application.