[Extract]

No. 3

The details which you have sent us, Sir, on the condition and the intentions of the Colonies are very interesting and correspond fairly well with the intelligence we have received from other sources; it is only natural to assume that the Ministry will try to give the Americans a false image of our intentions towards them; but they should easily understand that it is merely a lure designed to intimidate them by taking away from them any hope of foreign assistance. However, M.de Bonvouloir who must have arrived there at the end of December will have quickly brought the situation: back in its true light and put them on their guard, for the future, against the false insinuations of their enemy.