the Court of London had done on the 15th of June last, the
two Imperial Courts think, that they must not delay to communicate
their reply reciprocally to the three respective Courts, as necessary
to their mutual direction, and they have directed in consequence their
Ambassadors and Ministers with the said Courts, to present copies of
them to their respective Ministers.

Their Imperial Majesties have seen with the greatest satisfaction, in
that which was transmitted to them by his Most Christian Majesty, the
assurance of the grateful sentiments and real pleasure, with which his
Majesty has received the said Articles, but they could not but be so
much the more affected by the exposition of the motives, which have
appeared to his Britannic Majesty sufficient to prevent his
acceptation of them. It appears convenient to them in the actual state
of things to refer to another time, and other circumstances the
observations, which they might produce, and which it would probably be
useless to expose in the present moment, but what cannot be so either
at present or in future, is that the belligerent powers may see in
their proper light the Articles, which have been proposed to them, and
may in consequence appreciate them properly.

The mediating powers could not allow themselves to make any
propositions, which might wound the dignity or delicacy of either of
the parties, or any of those, which might in the first instant have
obliged them implicitly or explicitly to decisions, which can only be
the result of a consent obtained by the way of negotiations. They must
consequently have confined themselves to seeking and finding out some
proper means to enable the belligerent powers to assemble their
respective Plenipotentiaries, at the place where the Congress shall
sit, to endeavor, under the mediation of the two Imperial Courts, to
settle amicably all the differences, which are the causes of the
present war, and when once they have met, and are provided with
instructions for all possible cases, to be continually at hand, to
seize one of those happy moments, which circumstances sometimes bring
on, and which are often lost forever, or at least for a great while,
when one has not been at hand to take advantage of them.

They have found at the same time no other inconveniency in this, but
that perhaps the progress of the negotiation might not be altogether
so rapid as it would undoubtedly be wished. The suspension of arms and
of the