[Extract]
No 1079.
My dear sir: On Tuesday the 8th instant, the usual day for the Ambassadors' audience, it seems that the English Ambassador2 expressed himself most vigorously to the Comte de Vergennes, complaining about the protection given to American privateers in French ports, which is so offensive to England, that her coasting trade has sustained injury, and even coal ships have been attacked: That in French ports prizes are sold publicly, which is against the Treaties provided in such cases: and many other things which do not correspond to the reciprocal expressions of good faith, which have been the case in the war against the Rebels. . . .
They were speaking about what was the most common knowledge, that everything was a maneuver of this Court, masked by the pretence of freedom of trade: that under said pretence, in the ports of Dunkerque, St. Malo, Nantes, La Rochelle, and Bordeaux there was an open traffic with the Americans, finding the piers covered with articles of war, that publicly these were embarked as much in French vessels as in American vessels, under the pretext of their being permitted for sale in this Kingdom: That he [Stormont] had already spoken clearly on the subject and he did not know whether he could remain in Paris, that he was at the point of considering his departure. . . .
