July first with the following expression: "I am very happy in being able to give you this new proof of the fraternal sentiments of the French people for their allies, and of their determination to maintain to the utmost of their power the treaties subsisting between the two Republicks." Yet this decree proved as unstable as the former: on the 27th of July it was repealed.

The next decree on this subject was that of the joint committees, of the 15th of November, 1794, already mentioned. Then followed the decree of the committee of publick safety, of the 4th of January, 1795, (14th Nivose, 3d year,) repealing the 5th article in the decree of the 15th of November preceding, and in effect the articles in the original decree of the 9th of May, 1793, by which the treaty with the United States had been infringed. It is not necessary for the secretary to add, that the decree of the 4th of January, 1795, has been repealed by the decree of the executive directory of the 2d of July, 1796; under colour of which are committed the shocking depredations on the commerce of the United States which are daily exhibited in the newspapers. The agents of the executive directory to the Leeward Islands, (Leblanc, Santhonax and Raimond) on the 27th of November, 1796, passed a decree (marked C. C.) for capturing all American vessels bound to or from British ports. The Secretary presumes this is not an arbitrary, unauthorized act of their own, but that it is conformable to the intentions of. the executive directory; the privateers of the French Republick in Europe, having captured some American vessels on the same pretence; and the consul of the Republick, at Cadiz, having explicitly avowed his determination to condemn American vessels on that ground; pleading the decree of the directory for his authority.

The Secretary has already intimated, that the decree of the 15th of November, 1794, was not followed by the extensively good effects expected from it. By a communication from Mr. Skipwith, of the 10th of last September (the latest communication from him, in answer to the Secretary's request for information) it appears that the claims for detention of one hundred and three American vessels by the embargo at Bordeaux remained undetermined; no funds having been appropriated by the legislature for payment of them; and that none of the bills drawn by the

colonial administrations in the West Indies had been paid to him; the treasury having tendered payment in assignats at their nominal value, and afterwards in another species of paper, called mandats, which had suffered a great depreciation even before they were put into circulation: both which modes of payment were refused to be accepted. The progress made by Mr. Skipwith in the adjustment of other claims, so far as known to the Secretary, will appear in the annexed printed statement marked [D,] copies of which were transmitted ten months ago to the offices of the principal collectors of the customs, from the Department of State, for the information of our mercantile citizens.

That nothing might be left undone which could be accomplished by the executive, the attention of general Pinckney, the present minister of the United States to France, was particularly directed to the subject of these claims but the interval which has elapsed since his departure has not admitted of any interesting communication from him, on this business.

In connection with other spoliations by French armed vessels, the Secretary intended to mention those committed under a decree dated the 1st of August, 1796, issued by Victor Hugues and Lebas, the special agents of the executive directory to the Windward Islands, declaring all vessels loaded with contraband articles of any kind liable to seizure and confiscation, with their entire cargoes; without making any discrimination in favour of those which might be bound to neutral, or even to French ports. This decree has been enforced against the American trade, without any regard to the established forms of legal proceedings, as will appear from the annexed deposition (marked E.) of Josiah Hempstead, master of the brigantine Patty of Weathersfield. A copy of the decree, marked [F,] is also annexed.

The Secretary has received a printed copy of another decree of the same special agents to the Windward Islands, dated the thirteenth of Pluviose, fifth year, answering to February the 1st, 1797, authorizing the capture of all neutral vessels destined to any of the Windward or Leeward Islands in America, which have been delivered up to the English, and occupied or defended by emigrants, naming Martinique, Saint Lucia, Tobago, Demarara, Berbice and

Essequibo; and to leeward, Port-au-Prince, Saint Marc, L'Archaye and Jeremie; declaring such vessels and their cargoes to be good prize; as well as all vessels cleared out vaguely for the West Indies. A copy of this last decree will be added to this report, as soon as it shall be translated. All which is respectfully submitted.

TIMOTHY PICKERING.

Department of State, February 27, 1797.

Copy of a decree of the National Convention, of the 9th of May, 1793, 2d year of the French Republick.

THE National Convention, after having heard the report of its committee of marine; considering that the flag of neutral powers is not respected by the enemies of France; that two cargoes of flour having arrived at Falmouth in Anglo-American vessels, and been bought before the war, for the service of the French marine, have been detained in England by the government, which would not pay for it but at a price below what it had been sold for; that a vessel of Papembourg, called the Therisia, commanded by captain Hendrick Kob, loaded with various effects belonging to Frenchmen, was carried into Dover, the 2d of last March, by an English cutter:

That a privateer of the same nation carried into the same port of Dover, on the 18th of the same month, the Danish ship Mercury Christianland, captain Treuchen, which had sailed from Dunkirk on the 17th, with a cargo of wheat, for Bordeaux :

That the ship John, captain Shkeley, loaded with about six thousand quintals of American wheat, in going from Falmouth to St. Malo, was stopped by a frigate, and carried to Guernsey, where the agents of government have simply promised to pay the value of the cargo although it was not on French account:

That 101 French passengers, of different professions, embarked at Cadiz, by order of the Spanish minister, on board the Genoese ship Providence, captain Ambrose Briasco, to be carried to Bayonne, were shamefully pillaged by the crew of an English privateer:

That various reports, which are successively made by the sea port towns of the Republick, announce that the same acts of inhumanity and injustice are multiplied and repeated with impunity every day along the whole sea

coast:

That under such circumstances, all the laws of nations being violated, it is not permissible that the French people should fulfil towards all the neutral powers in general, the vow, they have so repeatedly manifested, and constantly make for the full and entire liberty of commerce and navigation: Decrees as follows:

Article 1. The French ships of war and privateers may stop and bring into the ports of the Republick such neutral vessels, as are loaded in whole or in part, either with provisions belonging to neutrals, and destined for enemy ports, or with merchandise belonging to enemies.

II. Merchandise belonging to enemies, shall be declared good prize, and confiscated for the benefit of the captors; the provisions, belonging to neutrals and loaded for enemy ports, shall be paid for according to their value in the place for which they were destined.

III. In all cases, neutral vessels shall be released when the unlading of the provisions which are stopped, or the merchandise, which are seized is completed; the freight for them shall be payed at the rate stipulated by the persons who shipped them. A just indemnity shall be made in proportion to their detention by the tribunals who have cognizance of the validity of the prizes.

Iv. Those tribunals shall be bound also to transmit, three days after their sentence, a duplicate of the inventory of the said provisions or merchandise to the minister of marine, and another duplicate to the minister for foreign affairs.

v. The present law, applicable to all the prizes which have been made since the declaration of war, shall cease to have effect after the enemy powers shall declare free, and not liable to seizure, although destined for the ports of the Republick, provisions which may be neutral property, and merchandise loaded in neutral ships, which belongs to the French government, or to French citizens.

[B]

To James Monroe, Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America, at Paris. Paris, Vindemiaire, 3d year, (October, 1794.)

SIR,-At your request I now lay before you, a statement of the innumerable embarrassments and difficulties which our commerce has for a long time, and continues still to labour under, in the different ports of the French Republick. It is evident if their government does not soon remedy the incessant abuses and vexations practised daily upon our merchants, vessels, captains and crews, the trade of the United States with France must cease. I cannot give you an ample detail of all the inconveniences and oppressions which have been thrown upon our commerce; many of the consuls and their agents to whom you have written to forward such documents to my office, having not yet done it; besides it would take volumes to expose them at full length.

From the communication however already received from the different ports, and from the information I have collected from the captains present, I can assure you that there are near 300 sail of American vessels now in the ports of France; all of whom have suffered or are suffering more or less delay and difficulties, of which the examples annexed will afford you a general view.-The hardships of which I have chiefly to complain, and out of which there grows incalculable evils may be developed under four general heads.

1st. The capture indiscriminately of our vessels at sea by the vessels of war of the Republick.

2d. The impossibility of Americans selling their cargoes and receiving payment at the ports to which they are conducted, or of their own accord arrive.

3d. The difficulties and procrastination which they find in their transactions with the boards of marine and commerce.

4th. The non-compliance, or heretofore delay in fulfilling the contracts made by the agents of the French Republick in America, for supplies of provisions.