in the present war, from which ports
the same navy had been expelled by the aid solicited from France in the
American war (and that aid gratuitously given) (2) that the gratitude
of America was to be shewn, and the _solicitude_ spoken of in the letter
demonstrated?

1 The italics are Paine's. Paine's free use of this document
suggests that he possessed the confidence of the French
Directory.--_Editor._

2 It is notable that Paine adheres to his old contention in
his controversy with Deane. See vol. i., ch. aa of this work;
and vol. i., ch. 9 of my "Life of Paine."--_Editor._.

As the letter was addressed to the Committee of Public Safety, Mr.
Washington did not expect it would get abroad in the world, or be seen
by any other eye than that of Robespierre, or be heard by any other ear
than that of the Committee; that it would pass as a whisper across the
Atlantic, from one dark chamber to the other, and there terminate. It
was calculated to remove from the mind of the Committee all suspicion
upon Jay's mission to England, and, in this point of view, it was suited
to the circumstances of the movement then passing; but as the event
of that mission has proved the letter to be hypocritical, it serves no
other purpose of the present moment than to shew that the writer is
not to be credited. Two circumstances serve to make the reading of the
letter necessary in the Convention. The one was, that they who succeeded
on the fall of Robespierre, found it most proper to act with publicity;
the other, to extinguish the suspicions which the strange conduct of
Morris had occasioned in France.

When the British treaty, and the ratification of it by Mr. Washington,
was known in France, all further declarations from him of his good
disposition as an ally and friend, passed for so many cyphers; but still
it appeared necessary to him to keep up the farce of declarations. It
is stipulated in the British treaty, that commissioners are to report
at the end of two years, on the case of _neutral ships making neutral
property_. In the mean time, neutral ships do _not_ make neutral
property, according to the British treaty, and they _do_ according to
the French treaty. The preservation, therefore, of the French treaty
became of great importance to England, as by that means she can employ
American ships as carriers, whilst the same advantage is denied to
France. Whether the French treaty could exist as a matter of