answer from his own court. The
conclusion of the treaty fell to his successor. Whoever will be at the
trouble to compare it with the treaty of 1734, will, I believe, confess,
that, if the former ministers could have obtained such terms, they were
criminal in not accepting them.

But the merchants "deemed them unsafe and unprofitable." What merchants?
As no treaty ever was more maturely considered, so the opinion of the
Russia merchants in London was all along taken; and all the instructions
sent over were in exact conformity to that opinion. Our minister there
made no step without having previously consulted our merchants resident
in Petersburg, who, before the signing of the treaty, gave the most full
and unanimous testimony in its favor. In their address to our minister
at that court, among other things they say, "It may afford some
additional satisfaction to your Excellency, to receive a public
acknowledgment of _the entire and unreserved approbation of every
article_ in this treaty, from us who are so immediately and so nearly
concerned in its consequences." This was signed by the consul-general,
and every British merchant in Petersburg.

The approbation of those immediately concerned in the consequences is
nothing to this author. He and his friends have so much tenderness for
people's interests, and understand them so much better than they do
themselves, that, whilst these politicians are contending for the best
of possible terms, the claimants are obliged to go without any terms at
all.

One of the first and justest complaints against the administration of
the author's friends, was the want of rigor in their foreign
negotiations. Their immediate successors endeavored to correct that
error, along with others; and there was scarcely a foreign court, in
which the new spirit that had arisen was not sensibly felt,
acknowledged, and sometimes complained of. On their coming into
administration, they found the demolition of Dunkirk entirely at a
stand: instead of demolition, they found construction; for the French
were then at work on the repair of the jettees. On the remonstrances of
General Conway, some parts of these jettees were immediately destroyed.
The Duke of Richmond personally surveyed the place, and obtained a
fuller knowledge of its true state and condition than any of our
ministers had done; and, in consequence, had larger offers from the Duke
of Choiseul than had ever been received. But, as these were sho