cquiring Louisiana or some
territory in the vicinity of the United States in order to obtain a
permanent influence in the country, and he alluded to a memorial
written some years before by the Count du Moutier to the same
effect, when he was employed as His Most Christian Majesty's
Minister to the United States. The project seems therefore to have
been long in the contemplation of the French Government, and
perhaps no period is more favourable than the present for carrying
it into execution.

"When I paid my respects to the Vice-President, Mr. Burr, on his
arrival at this place, he, of his own accord, directed conversation
to this topic. He owned that he had made some exertion indirectly
to discover the truth of the report, and thought he had reason to
believe it. He appeared to think that the great armament destined
by France to St. Domingo, had this ulterior object in view, and
expressed much apprehension that the transfer and colonization of
Louisiana were meditated by her with the concurrence or
acquiescence of His Maj'^{s} Gov^{t}. It was impossible for me to
give any opinion on this part of the measure, which, whatever may
be its ultimate tendency, presents at first view nothing but danger
to His Maj'^{s} Trans-Atlantic possessions.

"Regarding alone the aim of France to acquire a preponderating
influence in the councils of the United States, it may be very well
doubted whether the possession of Louisiana, and the means which
she would chose to employ are calculated to secure that end.
Experience seems now to have sanctioned the opinion that if the
provinces of Canada had been restored to France at the Peace of
Paris, and if from that quarter she had been left to press upon the
American frontier, to harass the exterior settlements and to mingle
in the feuds of the Indian Tribes, the colonies might still have
preserved their allegiance to the parent country and have retained
their just jealousy of that system of encroachment adopted by
France from the beginning of the last century. The present project
is but a continuance of the same system; and neither her power nor
her present temper leave room for expectation that she will pursue
it with less eagerness or greater moderation than before. Whether,
therefore, she attempt to restrain the