ity, with violating
those treaties which had secured its independence, with ingratitude to
France, and with partiality to England. These wrongs, which commenced
with the "_insidious_" proclamation of neutrality, were said to be so
aggravated by the treaty concluded with Great Britain, that Mr. Adet
announced the orders of the Directory to suspend his ministerial
functions with the federal government. "But the cause," he added,
"which had so long restrained the just resentment of the executive
Directory from bursting forth, now tempered its effects. The name of
America, notwithstanding the wrongs of its government, still excited
sweet emotions in the hearts of Frenchmen; and the executive Directory
wished not to break with a people whom they loved to salute with the
appellation of a friend." This suspension of his functions therefore
was not to be regarded "as a rupture between France and the United
States, but as a mark of just discontent which was to last until the
government of the United States returned to sentiments and to measure
more conformable to the interests of the alliance, and to the sworn
friendship between the two nations."

This letter was concluded in the following terms:

"Alas! Time has not yet demolished the fortifications with which the
English roughened this country--nor those the Americans raised for
their defence; their half rounded summits still appear in every
quarter, amidst plains, on the tops of mountains. The traveller need
not search for the ditch which served to encompass them; it is still
open under his feet. Scattered ruins of houses laid waste, which the
fire had partly respected, in order to leave monuments of British
fury, are still to be found.--Men still exist, who can say, here a
ferocious Englishman slaughtered my father; there my wife tore her
bleeding daughter from the hands of an unbridled Englishman.--Alas!
the soldiers who fell under the sword of the Britons are not yet
reduced to dust: the labourer in turning up his field, still draws
from the bosom of the earth their whitened bones; while the ploughman,
with tears of tenderness and gratitude, still recollects that his
fields, now covered with rich harvests, have been moistened with
French blood. While every thing around the inhabitants of this country
animates them to speak of the tyranny of Great Britain, and of the
generosity of Frenchmen; when England has declared a war of death to
that nation, to avenge herself for it