America.

You were born French; you never could ceafe to be French. The late war, which was not declared but by the captivity of nearly all our feamen, and the principal advantages of which our common enemies entirely owed to the courage, the talents, and the numbers of the brave Americans, who are now fighting against them, has wrefted from you that which is most dear to all men, even the name of your country. To compel you to bear the arms of parricides against it, must be the completion of misfortunes: with this you are now threatened: a new war may juftly make you dread being obliged to fubmit to this moft intolerable law of flavery. It has com, menced like the last, by depredations upon the most valuable part of our trade. Too long already have a great number of unfortunate Frenchmen been confined in American prisons. You hear their groans. The prefent war was declared by a meflage in March laft, from the King of Great Britain to both Houses of Parliament; a moft authentic act of the British fovereignty, announcing to all orders of the State, that to trade, (with America) though without excluding others from the fame right, was to offend; that frankly to avow fuch intention, was to defy this fovereignty; that she should revenge it, and deferred this only to a more advantageous opportunity, when the might do it with more appearance of legality than in the laft war; for the declared that fhe had the right, the will, and the ability to revenge, and accordingly

supplies.

The calamities of a war thus proclaimed have been restrained and retarded, as much as was poffible, by a monarch whofe pacific and difinterested views now reclaim the marks of your former attachment only for your own happinefs. Conftrained to repel force by force, and multiplied hoftilities by reprifals, which he has at laft authorifed, if neceflity should carry his arms, or those of his allies, into a country always dear to him, you have not to fear either burnings or devastations and if gratitude, if the view of a flag always revered by those who have followed it, fhould recall to the banners of France, or of the United States, the Indians who loved us, and have been loaded with prefents by him, whom they also call their father; never, no never, fhall they employ against you their too cruel methods of war. Those they must renounce, or they will cease to be our friends..

:

It is not by menaces that we fhall endeavour to avoid combat. ing with our countrymen; nor fhall we weaken this declaration by invectives against a great and brave nation, which we know how to refpect, and hope to vanquifh.

As a French gentleman, I need not mention to thofe among you who were born fuch as well as myself, that there is but one auguft House in the universe, under which the French can be happy, and ferve with pleafure; fince its head, and thofe who are nearly allied to him by blood, have been at all times, through a long line of monarchs, and are at this day,

more

more than ever delighted with bearing that very title which Henry IV. regarded as the firft of his own. I fhall not excite your regrets for thofe qualifications, thofe marks of diftinction, thofe decorations, which, in our manner of thinking, are precious treafures, but from which, by our common misfortunes, the American French, who have known fo well how to deferve them, are now precluded. Thefe, I am bold to hope, and to promife, their zeal will very foon procure to be diffused among them. They will merit them, when they dare to become the friends of our allies.

I fhall not ask the military companions of the Marquis of Levi, those who shared his glory, who admired his talents and genius for war, who loved his cordiality and franknefs, the principal characteristics of our nobility, whether there be other names in other nations, among which they would be better pleased to place their

own.

Can the Canadians, who faw the brave Montcalm fall in their defence, can they become the enemies of his nephews? Can they fight against their former leaders, and arm themselves against their kinfmen? At the bare mention of their names, the weapons would fall out of their hands.

I fhall not obferve to the minifters of the altars, that their evangelic efforts will require the fpecial protection of Providence, to prevent faith being diminished by example, by worldly intereft, and by fovereigns whom force has impofed upon them, and whofe political indulgence will be leffened proportionably as thofe fovereigns

I fhall not

fhall have lefs to fear. obferve, that it is neceffary for religion, that thofe who preach it fhould form a body in the State; and that in Canada no other body would be more confidered, or have more power to do good, than that of the priests, taking a part to the government, fince their refpectable conduct has merited the confidence of the people.

I fhall not represent to that people, nor to all my countrymen in general, that a vast monarchy, having the fame religion, the fame manners, the fame language, where they find kinfmen, old friends and brethren, must be an inexhauftible fource of commerce and wealth, more easily acquired and better fecured, by their union with powerful neighbours, than with ftrangers of another hemifphere, among whom every thing is different, and who, jealous and defpotic governments, would fooner or later treat them as a conquered people, and doubtless much worse than their late countrymen the Americans, who made them victorious. I fhall not urge to a whole people, that to join with the United States, is to fecure their own happiness; fince a whole people, when they acquire the right of thinking and acting for themselves, must know their own interest; but I will declare, and I now formally declare in the name of his Majefty, who has authorised and commanded me to do it, that all his former fubjects in North America, who shall no more acknowledge the supremacy of Great Britain, may depend upon his protection and fupport.

Done on board his Majefty's fhip the Languedoc, in the har[Z] 3

bour

T

HE defire I have always had of foftening, as much as in

COUSIN,

IAM

the Admiral.

AM informed that doubts have arifen on the period from which ought to be fixed the commencement of hoftilities, and that from this incertitude may refult many difputes prejudical to commerce. To prevent which, I have thought proper to explain to you more particularly what I have already fufficiently told you in my letter of the 10th of July. I charge you, in confequence, to inform thofe who are under your orders, that the infult done to my flag on the 17th of June, 1778, by the English fquadron feizing my frigates, the Pallas and the Licorne, puts me to the neceffity of making reprifals, and that it is from that day, the 17th of June, 1778, that I fix the commencement of hofti. lities against my fubjects, by the fubjects of the King of England. These being for this purpofe only, I pray God, that he will take my coufin into his holy and merciful protection.

war, has induced me to direct my attention to that part of my fubjects who employ themfelves in the fisheries, and who derive their fole fubfiftence from those refources. I fuppofe that the example which I fhall now give to my enemies, and which can have no other views than what arise from fentiments of humanity, will induce them to grant the fame liberty to our fisheries which I readily grant them. In confequence whereof, I fend you this letter to acquaint you, that I have given orders to all the commanders of my veffels, armed fhips, and captains of privateers, not to moleft (until further orders) the English fishery, nor to ftop their veffels, whether they be laden with fresh fish, or not having taken in their freight; provided, however, that they do not carry offenfive arms, and that they are not found to have given fignals, which might indicate their holding an intelligence with the enemy's fhips of war. You will make known these my intentions to the officers of the

Admi.

the Spaniards, who have been imprisoned, and whose houses have been invaded; befides which, the Court of London has hitherto neglected to accomplish what the 16th article of the laft Treaty of Paris ftipulated relative to that coaft.

Grievances fo numerous, fo weighty, and recent, have been at different times the object of complaints made in the King's name, and ftated in memorials which were delivered either to the British Minifters at London, or tranfmitted to them through the chan. nel of the English Ambaffador at Madrid; but although the answers which were received have been friendly, his Majefty has hitherto obtained no other fatisfaction than to fee the infults repeated, which lately have amounted to the number of one hundred.

The King, proceeding with that fincerity and candour which characterize him, has formally declared to the Court of London, from the commencement of its difputes with France, that the conduct of England fhould be the rule of that which Spain would

hold.

His Majefty likewife declared to that Court, that, at the time their differences with that of Paris might be accommodated, it would be abfolutely neceffary to regulate thofe which had arifen, or might ftill arife, with Spain; and in the plan of mediation which was fent to the under-written Ambaffador the 28th of laft September, and which was by him delivered to the British Miniftry in the beginning of October, a plan with which Lord Grantham was apprized, and of which he received a copy, his Majesty declared in pofitive terms to the belligerent powers, that, in

confideration of the infults which his fubjects and dominions had suffered, and likewise of the attempts levelled against his rights, he should be under the neceffity of taking his part, in cafe the negociation, inftead of being continued with fincerity, fhould be broken off, or should produce no effect.

The caufes of complaint given by the Court of London not hav ing ceafed, and that Court fhewing no difpofitions to give reparation for them, the King has refolved, and orders his Ambaffador to declare, that the honour of his Crown, the protection which he owes to his fubjects, and his own perfonal dignity, do not permit him to fuffer their infults to continue, and to neglect any longer the reparation of thofe already received; and that in this view, notwithstanding the pacific difpo fitions of his Majefty, and even the particular inclination he had always had and expreffed for cultivating the friendship of his Britannic Majefty, he finds himself under the difagreeable neceffity of making ufe of all the means which the Almighty has entrusted him with, to obtain that justice which he has folicited by fo many ways, without being able to acquire it: in confiding on the juftice of his caufe, his Majefty hopes that the confequences of this refolution will not be imputed to him before God or man; and that other nations will form a fuitable idea of this refolution, by comparing it to the conduct which they themselves have experienced on the part of the British Ministry.