[Extract]
No 137 /
Separate & Secret.
. . . When I spoke of the Mischiefs that had arisen from the clandestine Sale of the Prizes and dwelt upon the Necessity of a Sequestration, and Restitution to the Owners, he [Vergennes] stopped me a Moment, and very politely desired Leave to interrupt me, to mention the Precautions they had already taken. These Precautions, My Lord, which M. de Maurepas alluded to, are 1st a Circular Order to the Courts of Admiralty in all the different Ports (which Order will as usual be published and stuck up in the Streets) to take every possible Care to prevent the sale of any Prizes or their Cargoes, and to make the Purchase penal.
2nd An Order to the Procureur General des Cours de L'Amiranté to prosecute those who violate this Law, by making any such Purchase, and that immediately, and without waiting for any further Directions from hence.
There is likewise an Order to all the different Commanders of Forts upon the Coast, to make all the American Privateers that are within Distance bring to, and come to an Anchor under the Fort, and if they want Water or Provisions, to detain them there, till those Succours which common Humanity will not Suffer to be refused, can be procured them, but not to let them come into the Ports of France under any Pretence whatever. At the same time that I applauded these Measures, I observed to M. de Vergennes that nothing but Sequestration and Restitution would effectually cure the Evil, that if no Prizes were carried into their Ports hereafter (He had in the Course of our Conversation more than once insinuated, that they would not be admitted) They would have none for the future to Sequester, or deliver, but I insisted strongly on the Sequestration and Restitution of those that are actually in their Ports, nommément the two Jamaica Ships: told him, that I had received a Power of Attorney from the Owner of the Clarendon; that it was certain, that the Ships that passed under the feigned Names of the Hancock and the Boston, were the Clarendon and the Hanover Planter; that their coming in en fraude, and under false Names, was a strong additional Reason for the Restitution I claimed, et venoit à l'Appui de ma juste Demande. His Excellency was as reserved in his Answers as M. de Maurepas had been, and neither promised, nor refused the Restitution. . . .
