ormable_ to the _terms_
of the proclamation under which they were seized. Instead of being the
Envoy of a government, he goes over like a lawyer to demand a new trial.
I can hardly help thinking that Grenville wrote that note himself and
Jay signed it; for the style of it is domestic and not diplomatic.
The term, _His_ Majesty, used without any descriptive epithet, always
signifies the King whom the Minister that speaks represents. If this
sinking of the demand into a petition was a juggle between Grenville
and Jay, to cover the indemnification, I think it will end in another
juggle, that of never paying the money, and be made use of afterwards to
preclude the right of demanding it: for Mr. Jay has virtually disowned
the right _by appealing to the magnanimity of his Majesty against the
capturers_. He has made this magnanimous Majesty the umpire in the case,
and the government of the United States must abide by the decision. If,
Sir, I turn some part of this business into ridicule, it is to avoid the
unpleasant sensation of serious indignation.

"Among other things which I confess I do not understand, is the
proclamation of neutrality. This has always appeared to me as
an assumption on the part of the executive not warranted by the
Constitution. But passing this over, as a disputable case, and
considering it only as political, the consequence has been that of
sustaining the losses of war, without the balance of reprisals. When
the profession of neutrality, on the part of America, was answered by
hostilities on the part of Britain, the object and intention of that
neutrality existed no longer; and to maintain it after this, was not
only to encourage farther insults and depredations, but was an informal
breach of neutrality towards France, by passively contributing to the
aid of her enemy. That the government of England considered the American
government as pusillanimous, is evident from the encreasing insolence of
the conduct of the former towards the latter, till the affair of General
Wayne. She then saw that it might be possible to kick a government into
some degree of spirit.(1) So far as the proclamation of neutrality was
intended to prevent a dissolute spirit of privateering in America under
foreign colors, it was undoubtedly laudable; but to continue it as a
government neutrality, after the commerce of America was made war upon,
was submission and not neutrality. I have heard so much about this thing
called neutrali