These answers, though of a dilatory nature, may be looked upon as an eventual acceptation of the mediation. The minister observed that it will be, in effect, difficult to avoid it. That a refusal will not be consistent with the dignity of the two powers that had offered their interposition. That the king is obliged, from friendship and good policy, to treat them with attention. He further observed, that the demands of the king of France will be so just and so moderate, that they might be proposed to any tribunal whatever. That the only reason the king could have to suspend a formal acceptation is, that at the time the offer was made, he was not acquainted with the intentions of his allies, namely, Spain and the United States.

The minister observed to the committee, that, in his opinion, this conduct must afford congress' a new proof of the perseverance of the king in the principle of the alliance, and of his scrupulous attention to observe his obligations; he added that, however, it is not without inconveniency that this dilatory plan has been adopted. The distance between the allied powers of France and the United States has obliged the court of Versalles to adopt that plan, though liable to inconveniences, in order to conform to the engagements made by the treaties to determine nothing into a negociation without the participation of congress. Besides, several states being invaded by the enemy, the French council thought it inconvenient to begin a negociation under these unfavorable circumstances. And being in hopes that the diversions made by the king's arms will prevent the British from making very great exertions against the thirteen United States, the French minister expected that during the course of the present campaign they might be enabled to present the situation of their allies in a more favorable light to the congress that might assemble for peace. These delays, however, cannot with propriety take place for any long time; and it was the opinion of the French ministry that it would be contrary to decency, prudence, and the laws of sound policy again to refuse listening to the propositions of peace made by friendly powers; for which reason the chevalier de la Luzerne was directed to lay all these facts confidentially before congress. The minister informed the committee that it was necessary that the king should know the intentions of the United States with regard to the proposed mediation; and that his majesty should be authorized by congress to give notice of their dispositions to all the powers who would take part in the negociation for a pacification. The minister delivered his own opinion, that he saw no inconveniency arising from the congress imitating the example of the king, by showing themselves disposed to accept peace from the hands of the emperor of Germany and the empress of Russia. He added, that congress should rely on the justice and wisdom of those two sovereigns; and at the same time, he renewed the assurances that his majesty will defend the cause of the United States as zealously as the interests of his own crown. He informed the committee that, according to all accounts, the British ministry were removing as far as possible, in this negociation, every idea of

acknowledging the independence of what they call their thirteen colonies; and he said that congress would judge by themselves that the court of London would debate with the greatest energy and obstinacy, the articles relating to America. He availed himself of this reflection to impress the committee with the necessity congress are under of securing in their favor the benevolence and good will of the mediating powers, by presenting their demands with the greatest moderation and reserve, save independence, which will not admit of any modification. He further observed, that it was possible the difficulty of making a definitive peace might engage the mediators to propose a truce; and that it was necessary therefore to authorize eventually the plenipotentiary of the United States to declare their intention thereon.

He further observed that whatever might be the resolution of congress, they would do well to recommend to their plenipotentiary to adopt a line of conduct that would deprive the British of every hope of causing divisions between the allies, and to assume a conciliating character as much as can be consistent with the dignity of his constituents, and to show such a confidence in the plenipotentiary of his most christian majesty as is due to a power so much interested to support the dignity and honor of a nation whose independence they have acknowledged.

The minister told the committee that whatever might be the resolution of congress respecting a peace or a truce, it was necessary to carry on the war with the utmost vigor. He urged reasons too well known to congress to be related.

He desired the committee to inform congress, that in case the offer of mediation from the two imperial courts should become so serious and so pressing as to oblige the king to give a decisive answer, his majesty would accept of it conditionally for himself and the United States. The taking this resolution would have no inconvenience, as the court of France knew no reasons which could prevent them from following the example of the king by trusting their interests into the hands of just and wise mediators, and the refusal being liable to very dangerous concequences. The minister concluded the conference by observing, that a great object was to secure the United States from the proposition of uti possidetis: that the surest way to obtain that end was to reduce the English to confess that they are not able to conquer them. That present circumstances require great exertions from the consideration; and that it was plain that every success gained by the army of congress would infinitely facilitate the negociations of their plenipotentiaries.

NO. 12.

A FRAGMENT OF POLYBIUS.

From his treatise on the Athenian government.

This was presented by Sir William Jones, to Dr. Franklin at Paris, about the last of June, 1782. It was, no doubt, drawn by him, and was supposed to be an indirect mode of sounding Dr. Franklin, as to terms of accommodation with Great Britain, short of an express and open acknowledgment of the independence of the United States.

Athens had long been an object of universal admiration, and consequently of envy; her navy was invincible, her commerce extensive; Europe and Asia supplied her with wealth; of her citizens, all were intrepid, many virtuous; but some too much infected with principles unfavorable to freedom. Hence an oligarchy was, in a great measure established; crooked counsels were thought supreme wisdom; and the Athenians, having lost their true relish for their own freedom, began to attack that of their colonies, and of the states which they had before protected! Their arrogant claims of unlimited dominion, had compelled the Chians, Coans, Rhodians, Lesbians, to join with nine. other small communities in the social war, which they began with inconceivable ardor, and continued with industry surpassing all example, and almost surpassing belief. They were openly assisted by Mausolus, king of Caria, to whose metropolis the united islands had sent a philosopher, named Eleutherion, eminent for the deepest knowledge of nature, the most solid judgment, most approved virtue, and most ardent zeal for the cause of general liberty. The war had been supported for three years with infinite exertions of valor on both sides, with deliberate firmness on the part of the allies, and with unabated violence on the part of the Athenians; who had, nevertheless, dispatched commissioners to Rhodes, with intent to propose terms of accommodation; but the states, (perhaps too pertinaciously,) refused to hear any proposal whatever, without a previous recognition of their total independence by the magistrates and people of Athens. It was not long after this, that an Athenian, who had been a pupil of Isæus together with Demosthenes, and began to be known in his country as a pleader of causes, was led by some affair of his clients to the capital of Caria. He was a man, unauthorized, unemployed, unconnected; independent in his circumstances as much as in his principles: admitting no governor, under Providence, but the laws; and no laws but those which justice and virtue had dictated, which wisdom approved, which his country had freely enacted. He had been known at Athens to the sage Eleutherion; and, their acquaintance being renewed, he sometimes took occasion in their conversations to lament the increasing calamities of war, and to express his eager desire of making a general peace on such terms as would produce the greatest good from the greatest evil; for "this," said he, "would be a work not unworthy

of the divine attributes, and if mortals could effect it, they would act like those beneficent beings, whom Socrates believed to be the constant friends and attendants of our species."

He added, "As to the united nations, I applaud, admire, and almost envy them; I am even tempted to wish that I had been born a Chian or a Rhodian; but let them be satisfied with the prize of virtue which they have already obtained. I will yield to none of your countrymen, my friend, in my love of liberty; but she seems more lovely to my eyes, when she comes hand in hand with peace. From that union we can expect nothing but the highest happiness of which our nature is capable; and it is an union, which nothing now obstructs but-a mere word.

"Let the confederates be contented with the substance of that independence which they have asserted, and the word will necessarily follow.

"Let them not hurt the natural, and, perhaps, not reprehensible, pride of Athens, nor demand any concession, that may sink in the eyes of Greece, a nation to whom they are and must be united in language, in blood, in manners, in interest, in principles. Glory is to a nation, what reputation is to an individual; it is not an empty sound: but important and essential. It will be glorious in Athens to acknowledge her error in attempting to reduce the islands, but an acknowledgment of her inability to reduce them, (if she be unable,) will be too public a confession of weakness, and her rank among the states of Greece will instantly be lowered.

"But, whatever I might advise, if my advice had any chance of being taken, this I know, and positively pronounce, that while Athens is Athens, her proud but brave citizens will never expressly recognize the independence of the islands their resources are no doubt exhaustible, but will not be exhausted in the lives of us and of our children. In this resolution all parties agree: I, who am of no party, dissent from them; but what is a single voice in so vast a multitude? Yet the independence of the United States was tacitly acknowledged by the very offer of terms, and it would result in silence from the natural operation of the treaty. An express acknowledgment of it is merely formal with respect to the allies; but the prejudices of mankind have made it substantial with respect to Athens.

"Let this obstacle be removed: it is slight, but fatal; and, whilst it lasts, thousands and ten thousands will perish. In war much will always depend upon blind chance, and a storm or sudden fall of snow may frustrate all your efforts for liberty; but let commissioners from both sides meet, and the islanders, by not insisting on a preliminary recognition of independence, will ultimately establish it forever.

"But independence is not disunion. Chios, Cos, Lesbos, Rhodes, are united, but independent on each other: they are connected by a common tie, but have different forms and different constitutions. They are gems of various colors and various properties, strung in one bracelet. Such an union can only be made between states, which, how

widely soever they differ in form, agree in one common property, freedom. Republics may form alliances, but not a federal union, with arbitrary monarchies. Were Athens governed by the will of a monarch, she could never be co-ordinate with the free islands; for such an union would not be dissimilarity but dissonance: but she is and shall be ruled by laws alone, that is, by the will of the people, which is the only law. Her Archon, even when he was perpetual, had no essential properties of monarchy. The constitution of Athens, if we must define it, was then a republic with a perpetual administrator of its laws. Between Athens, therefore, and the freest states in the world, an union may naturally be formed.

"There is a natural union between her and the islands, which the gods have made, and which the powers of hell cannot dissolve. Men, speaking the same idiom, educated in the same manner, perhaps, in the same place; professing the same principles; sprung from the same ancestors, in no very remote degree; and related to each other in a thousand modes of consanguinity, affinity, and friendship, such men, (whatever they may say through a temporary resentment,) can never in their hearts consider one another as aliens.

"Let them meet then with fraternal and pacific dispositions, and let this be the general ground-work and plan of the treaty.

1. "The Carians shall be included in the pacification, and have such advantages as will induce them to consent to the treaty rather than continue a hazardous war.

2. "The archon, senate, and magistrates of Athens shall make a complete recognition of rights of all the Athenian citizens of all orders whatever, and all former laws for that purpose shall be combined in one. There shall not be one slave in Attica.

NOTE. "[By making this a preliminary, the islanders will show their affection for the people of Athens; their friendship will be cemented and fixed on a solid basis; and the greatest good will be extracted, as I at first proposed, from the greatest evil.]

3. "There shall be a perfect co-ordination between Athens and the thirteen united islands, they considering her not as a parent, whom they must obey, but as an elder sister, whom they cannot help loving, and to whom they shall give pre-eminence of honor and co-equality of

power.

4. "The new constitutions of the confederate islands shall remain. 5. "On every occasion requiring acts for the general good, there shall be an assembly of deputies from the senate of Athens and the congress of the islands, who shall fairly adjust the whole business, and settle the ratio of the contributions on both sides. This committee shall consist of fifty islanders and fifty Athenians, or of a smaller number chosen by them.

6. "If it be thought necessary and found convenient, a proportionable number of Athenian citizens shall have seats, and power of debating and voting on questions of common concern, in the great assembly