One of the surest means for attaining this end is to keep the strictest watch over vessels fitted out for cruising, and to require from those fitting them out a rigid observance of the laws and regulations. There may be no occasion for me to awaken your attention upon this subject; but multiplied facts, and those too of a recent date, force me to believe that the privateers in our colonies are guilty, with impunity, of the most shameful robberies. Instead of attacking the real enemies of France, against whom it would be glorious and useful to engage, the privateers employ the whole time of their cruise in interrupting the trade of allies and of neutrals. But I will not conceal from you, citizens, that the charges which I have mentioned against the privateers, are daily made by the agents of every foreign power, and are often made even by those of our citizens who have been compelled by circumstances to make use of a neutral flag, and pointed at the superiour administrations of the colonies. They are accused of openly suffering these abuses; of permitting weak and feebly armed privateers to take the sea, better fitted for pillage than for combat; of not requiring from every person fitting out a privateer the bail which the law of 23d Thermidor, third year, with so much reason, requires as a security for indemnification to the navigator illegally captured; and of declaring to be valid prizes taken in contempt of the law of nations, of treaties, and of our own laws and regulations. You will perceive what suspicions are excited against the publick functionaries, who are the objects of such charges as these. Your delicacy, then, as well as your duty, will incite you to prevent complaints of this nature; and if, as I cannot yet bring myself to believe, they are substantially founded, you are so much the more blameable, as you will not only have acted contrary to the laws and interests of your country, but will also have disregarded the instructions which you have received. A great part of the complaints which I now transmit to you, might have been prevented, if the administrators of the colonies had taken care that no privateers should be fitted out, but such as were in a condition to resist the enemy. The expense itself of such vessels would have been, in some measure, a security for the solvency of the owner, and of course for his conduct towards the vessels of allies and of neutrals; and besides, an honest and prudent merchant, of easy circumstances, would never expose himself to the dangers which he would incur by an illegal, or even by a hazardous capture. I prescribe it to you, therefore, as a rule, not to suffer any vessel to be fitted out with arms, the capacity of which is not sufficient to take on board at least three months' provisions, and which does not carry at least 16 guns, if four pounders, or 12 six pounders. (Signed) A true extract, FORFAIT. Extract of a Letter from the Minister of Foreign Relations, to Citizen Pichon. Paris, 14 Nivose, year 9, Jan. 3, 1801. I HAVE this very day written to the Council of Prizes, requesting them to adjourn to an indefinite period all decisions upon every kind of property seized under the flag of the United States. If this adjournment excites any inquietude in the United States, you will say, that far from being intended to defer restitutions, it is, on the contrary, calculated to render them both more prompt and more certain. As soon as the convention shall be ratified upon both sides, I will urge forward a decree of the consuls, which shall replevy for the Americans all the prizes, the restitution of which has been engaged for. This step, in the first place, is the only one consistent with principle. It is, moreover, the most advantageous for the Americans, since it does away the intervention of the Council of Prizes, which could proceed only partially in the restitutions; and will save them from the uns voidable delays in its proceedCH. MAU. TALLEYRAND. ings. (Signed) True extract, L. A. PICHON. The Secretary of the Navy to S. Higginson and Co. March 20, 1801. "THE French national ship the Berceau, captured by Capt. Little, is to be restored under the treaty. "You will please to cause her to be delivered, with all her guns, ammunition, apparel, and every thing belonging to her, to the order of Mr. Pichon, commissary general and charge des affaires, from the French government to the government of the United States, whenever such orders shall appear. "This business should be done as if no reluctance accompanied the restoration. We are now at peace with France, and we should act as if we returned to a state of amity with pleasure. Let there be no cause of complaint against the government or its agents. "I have the honour, &c." [COPY.] The Secretary of the Navy to Messrs. S. Higginson and Co. March 20, 1801. ENCLOSED is an account exhibited by the lieutenant of the Berceau, of the pay due to the officers of that vessel from their government, from the time of their capture to the 25th Ventose, amounting to four thousand seven hundred and fifty livres. Instead of allowing them two dollars per week, as you have heretofore been requested, it is the President's desire that you pay to Lieut. Clements the amount of this account, taking his receipt for the same, which you will send to the accountant of the navy as your voucher. I have the honour, &c. Extract. The Secretary of the Navy, to Samuel Brown, Esq. April 1, 1801. "I HAVE to request that you will be pleased to ascertain without delay the state the French national ship Le Bereeau was in at the time of her capture, as to her armament, stores, and provisions, and to cause her to be put in the same condition before she is delivered up to the French government." [COPY.] To Samuel Brown, Esq. Boston.-April 10, 1801. I HAVE received a letter of the 27th ultimo from Messrs. Higginson and Co. who informed me that they expected to transport all the white French prisoners to New York, and that about seventy blacks would remain in their custody, whom they intended to send to New York as soon as they could provide a vessel to take them round. If their intentions in either or both cases have been frustrated, I request that the prisoners may be retained at Boston, as the whites will be wanted for the Berceau, and the blacks will be sent direct from Boston by Mr. Pichon. I have the honour, &c. Washington City, 13 Germinal, 9th year, (3d April, 1801.) SIR, I HAVE learnt, since my arrival in the United States, that many of the French prisoners brought in by American vessels of war are still remaining here. No measures having been taken by my government for facing the wants occasioned by a circumstance entirely unforeseen, I find myself not in a situation to relieve the first necessities of these prisoners. All that I can do is, to procure them a passage back to France or to the colonies. The benevolent dispositions, sir, which you have been pleased to manifest to Citizen Letombe, by your letter of the 10th March, encourage me to request you to obtain from the President of the United States, the necessary authorizations, by which all the individuals who have been brought here in consequence of the past misunderstanding, and who are delivered up to the agents of the Republick, may receive from the United States a daily supply, until the time of their departure, which I will take measures to effect without delay. The supplies, sir, shall be placed to the account of the French Republick, in whose name I will hasten to liquidate and acknowledge this debt; and also to discharge it by drafts on the national treasury, or by any other means in my power. These measures are not only consistent with the sentiments of conciliation which animate the two governments, but they are also conformable to the usage which has always prevailed, and which requires that prisoners or other persons detained by a power, should be supported by the power detaining them. Be pleased, sir, to accept the assurance of my high consideration. L.A. PICHON. To the Secretary of State of the United States. SIR, Georgetown, 1st Floreal, year 9, (April 21, 1801.) I HAVE had the honour to transmit you the copy of the instructions which the minister of the marine sent to the French colonies, to insure the execution of those articles of the treaty which were obligatory from the time of its being signed, and to prevent a repetition of what had passed in those colonies. I have much pleasure in transmitting to you official proofs of the prompt effect which these orders have produced in Guadaloupe. They are contained in the correspondence of the agents of the consuls of the Republick, which has reached me very shortly since, in consequence of the instruction given to all the agents of the Republick in the colonies, to keep me informed of the measures which they might take in obeying the injunctions of the First Consul. I confine myself to lay before you, among the numerous documents which they have sent me,-1st, Extract of the letter which they have written to me.-2d, A printed copy of the order which |