commiffioners themfelves, in order that nothing may on this occafron have an unfavourable appearance, and which evidently has no other object than to fecure a happy iffue to the negotiation, by removing at the first outset every thing that might, in the courfe of that negotiation, awaken feelings that might eventually commit it.: The underligned hopes the commiffioners and envoys extraordinary will foon enable him to inform the Executive Directory of their determination. Whatever this determination may be, the undersigned flatters himself, that the explanation he has given will have placed the subject in its true light, and may eventually: serve to remove, in the eyes of all impartial men, the unfavourable impreffion, which might be endeavoured to be made refpecting the intentions of the French republic and her govern

ment.

He concludes by renewing to the commiffioners and envoys extraordinary the affurance of his confideration.

Bellamy, of Hamburgh, to the Editor of the Ami des Loix, in Anfwer to his Paper of the 21ft Prairial.

THE report of the American commiffioners has been circulated throughout all Europe with great profufion. It furnishes fresh nourishment to keep alive the hatred the enemies of France feel against the French government, by endeavouring to prove that corruption has the most powerful influence in the Directory and over their minifters; it may at least fairly be fuppofed, that the report alluded to originated in this perfidious intention; but without attempting to defend those who ftand in need of no defence, I fhall content myself with repelling the injury done to me in that report, by defcribing me in the character of an intriguer.

Citizen Talleyrand, without whofe orders I have done nothing, faid nothing, written nothing, might very well mistake me for another, from the character given to me in the report of the commiffioners-I myself fhould have been led into an error by it, if your journal had not lately named me as the perfon reprefented by the letter Y. I expect from your impartiality, that as you have been the echo of calumnies against me, you will also give room to the following fimple truths, fubftantiated by facts, which I fubmit to the confideration of the public.

Commercial concerns, in which it is well known I was engaged, made my prefence neceffary at Paris, where I had frequent opportunities of fecing Citizen Talleyrand, with whom I was formerly pretty intimately acquainted. One of my friends, a tizen of the United States, who had been informed of that cir

cumstance, came to entreat me to communicate to that minister certain means of bringing about a reconciliation between France and America: I confented, and the minifter thought the propofition was not unworthy of his attention. He accordingly made me immediately acquainted with the charges of the French Jepublic against the Americans, especially with those that were taken from the speech of the Prefident Adams, of which he fent me a French tranflation, together with notes written in his own hand, refpecting explanations and reparations that he required. He next proposed to me that I fhould fee the commiffioners.

A with to oblige him was not the only motive that determined my refolution. The commercial advantages which I should derive from a treaty of peace, towards which I fhould have contributed, made me, I confefs, fomewhat regardless of the refolution I had taken, not to intermeddle in political affairs.

I waited on the commiffioners; and the friend who had entreated me to speak to Citizen Talleyrand, was at once my introductor and my interpreter; for, to my great furprise, they declared that they did not understand French, and I was equally unacquainted with English. In this first conference I fhowed them the above-mentioned note of the minifter, refpecting the Prefident's fpeech. My interpreter wrote down in French from what I dictated to him, five articles which I conceived might conftitute the basis of a treaty of alliance: not a word did it contain relative to any specific fum of money: read these propofitions tranfcribed literally from the report of the American commiffioners *.

Nor

"There is demanded a formal difavowal in writing, declaring that the fpeech of the Citizen Prefident Barras did not contain any thing offenfive to the government of the United States, nor any thing which deserved the epithers contained in the whole paragraph: fecondly, reparation is demanded for the article, by which it shall be declared, that the decree of the Directory there mentioned did not contain any thing contrary to the treaty of 1778, and had none of those fatal confequences that the paragraph reproaches to it: thirdly, it is demanded, that there fhould be an acknowledgment in writing, of the depredations exercised on our trade by the English and. French privateers: fourthly, the government of France, faithful to the profeffion of public faith which it has made, not to intermeddle in the internal affairs of foreign governments with which it is at peace, would look upon this paragraph as an attack upon its loyalty, if this was intended by the President. It demands, in confequence, a formal declaration, that it is not the government of France, nor its agents, that this paragraph meant to defignate. In confideration of these reparations, the French republic is difpofed to renew with the United States of America, a treaty, which fhall place them reciprocally in the fame ftate that they were in 1778. By this new treaty Frante fhall be placed with refpect to the United States, exactly on the fame footing as they ftand with England in virtue of the last treaty which has been concluded between them. A fecret article of this new treaty

would

Nor is that all read over the whole of that conference, and alfo the three other conferences which I held under the defcription of Y. with the whole of the commiffioners together. However mif-fhapen and contradictory the narrative of thefe converfations may appear under their pen, you will perceive that they have never dared to accuse me of having made a demand of twelve hundred thousand livres; that they do not quote a fingle word of mine, that has any refpect to fuch a circumftance; they merely pretend that in one inftance I anfwered in the affirmative, to a queftion which they mention having put to me on this fubject.

What! fhall an accufation of fo ferious a nature reft on no better foundation than a gefture, a nod, or a monofyllable, which is not even so much as mentioned? And fhall they be received as an answer to a question put in a foreign language which I do not understand? The bare ftatement of fuch an accufation is fufficient to refuce it.

With the knowledge of the minifter, I had a fecond conference with them, in which I propofed of my own accord, and as a means of proving their attachment to France, to buy up fome Batavian refcriptions at par-See my propofition as it is reported by the commiffioners; you cannot difcover a word in it refpecting a pretended douceur for the offices*.

The commiffioners were defirous to tranfmit me a written anfwer-read it over again, Citizen, in their own correfpondence, and fay whether it contains a fingle word concerning the pretended twelve hundred thousand livres.

would be a loan to be made by the United States to the French republic; and once agreed upon the amount of the loan, it would be endeavoured to confult the convenience of the United States with respect to the best method of preventing its publicity."

"M. Y. faid further, that if we defired him to point out the fum which he believed would be fatisfactory, he would do fo. We requested him to proceed; and he faid, that there were thirty-two millions of florins of Dutch refcriptions, worth ten fhillings in the pound, which might be af. figned to us at twenty fhillings in the pound; and he proceeded to flate to us the certainty, that, after a peace, the Dutch government would repay us the money, fo that we fhould ultimately lofe nothing; and the only operation of the measure would be an advance from us to France of thirty-two millions on the credit of the government of Holland."

"We committed immediately to writing the anfwer we propofed, in the following words: Our powers refpecting a treaty are ample; but the propofition of a loan in the form of Dutch refcriptions, or in any other form, is not within the limits of our inftructions. Upon this point therefore the government must be confulted: one of the American minifters will, for the purpose, forthwith embark for America, provided the Directory will fufpend all further captures on American veffels, and will fufpend proceedings on thofe already captured, as well as where the decifions have not yet been rendered; and that where fales have been made, but the money not yet been received by the captors, it fhall not be paid until the preliminary queftions propofed to the minifters of the United States, be difcuffed and decided"."

Permit me here to correct and to animadvert on a very serious mistake: in fpeaking of that anfwer of the commiffioners, you fay," When an attempt is made to confide to Y. the negative answer to his propofition of twelve hundred thoufand livres, he thrinks from undertaking it; and he is compelled to confefs, from a kind of fhame, that the propofition comes neither from the Directory, nor even from the minifter, but that it comes merely from himfelf." What levity, what injuftice does not this paragraph betray, in which you fo inconfiderately difpofe of the reputation of an honeft

man!

Peruse once more that anfwer, or get it explained to you, and you fhall not discover in it one fingle word refpecting that pretended propofition of a fum to be paid for attaining the ends of corruption. Read over the whole conference, and you will perceive that, from the very outfet, I hold out the idea of a purchase of Batavian refcriptions as my private individual opinion; and then, perhaps, you will repent of the injury you have done me!

Finally, a third conference took place on the 30th of October: I delivered into the hands of the American commiffioners a paper containing feven articles, among which is to be found the propofed purchase of Batavian refcriptions, but not one word here neither, of the twelve hundred thoufand livres *.

Obferve, Citizen, that in each conference I invariably ftarted by declaring "a circumstance not denied by the commiffioners themfelves, that I did not pretend to any public character; that I did not infinuate any connexion whatever with the Directory; that I was not known to any of its members; and that I took a part in these conferences merely out of complaifance for Citizen Talleyrand, who was ftudious to devife every poffible means of fecuring an honourable peace between the two nations."

Have, therefore, the candour to confefs, that a man unacquainted with the Directory, without poffeffing any weight with any of its members, and who cannot fairly be regarded as attempting to impofe upon the world, is not a perfon of fufficient confideration to be bought at the price of twelve hundred thousand livres.

"1. That the envoys fhould remain in France fix months on the fame etiquette as the Portuguese minifter. 2. That a commiffion of five fhould decide on the reclamations of the Americans relative to prizes. 3. That the American government fhall pay the indemnifications to the American creditors of the French republic in the firft inftance: the French to repay in future. 4. One of the envoys fhall return to America to demand powers to purchafe, for cash, thirty-two millions of Dutch refcriptions. 5. In the interval, the definitive treaty to proceed, and to be ready for fignature on the return of the envoy. 6. The question of the role d'equipage to remain fufpended until his return. 7. Hoftilities to be fufpended for fix months, during the going and the return of the envoy."

Shall

Shall it be faid, that, availing myself of my acquaintance with the minifter, I endeavoured to make good fome claim to that fum? The narrative of the commiflioners is an additional argument to prove the abfurdity of that imputation. You may there read, that, convinced of the inutility of intermediate conferences, I waited upon Mr. Gerry, to entreat him to ask for a perfonal interview with Citizen Talleyrand, the minifter; that I myself conducted him to the house of that minifter, praying him to acquaint the minifter, without any exception, with the whole of the propofitions or demands that had been made to him. And here, indeed, is it that I have to appeal to Mr. Gerry himself, befeeching him to do homage to that truth; to have the goodness to fay, whether he was filent on any propofition; whether he was confcious of the leaft poflible omiflion; and whether I did not exprefs myself in terms of thanks for his very punctilious exactnefs; and what was the answer of Citizen Talleyrand? namely, That the inftructions given by me, Bellamy, to Mr. Gerry, were exact, and that he could always rely upon them*.

What then, might I afk with fome degree of aftonishmentwhat then are the political views of Mr. Gerry, when, notwithstanding the preceding facts, he fo tardily accufes me, in his letter of the 31st May, of not having, as far as he knew, produced any confidential powers, any document, of any nature whatfoever, and confequently of being a perfon who came for ward in a very questionable unauthorized fhape?

But I myself am here guilty of injuftice towards the American commiffioner. It is not he, but you, Citizen, who brand me with the odious fufpicion of being a hireling negotiator, while your own journal contains a proof that Mr. Gerry exonerates me from any fuch imputation.

"Mr. Gerry," you fay, "has pofitively declared, in one of his letters, that no citizen authorized by the minifter, has faid a fyllable to him that carried with it the most remote intimation of the propofition of difburfing money for the purposes of corrup tion."-Say, therefore, Citizen, that I am the perfon, or that Mr. Gerry points out a perfon, who, during the whole course of this negotiation, has been more accredited than I was by the minifter to treat with Mr. Gerry-All the inftructions of Mr. Bellamy are exact, and you may always confide in them. Connect this formal authorization of the minifter with what Mr. Gerry has declared pofitively, and again you must vent a repentant figh for the injury you have done me.

How alfo does it come to pafs, Citizen, that you mention in terms of praise, the exertions made by the minifter of the foreign

* Report of the commiffioners.

2

department