e.
Is it possible that any man who has contributed to the independence of
Amer-ica, and to free her from the tyranny and injustice of the British
government, can read without shame and indignation the note of Jay to
Grenville? It is a satire upon the declaration of Independence, and an
encouragement to the British government to treat America with contempt.
At the time this Minister of Petitions was acting this miserable part,
he had every means in his hands to enable him to have done his business
as he ought. The success or failure of his mission depended upon the
success or failure of the French arms. Had France failed, Mr. Jay might
have put his humble petition in his pocket, and gone home. The case
happened to be otherwise, and he has sacrificed the honour and perhaps
all the advantages of it, by turning petitioner. I take it for granted,
that he was sent over to demand indemnification for the captured
property; and, in this case, if he thought he wanted a preamble to his
demand, he might have said,

'That, tho' the government of England might suppose itself under
the necessity of seizing American property bound to France, yet
that supposed necessity could not preclude indemnification to the
proprietors, who, acting under the authority of their own government,
were not accountable to any other.'

"But Mr. Jay sets out with an implied recognition of the right of the
British government to seize and condemn: for he enters his complaint
against the _irregularity_ of the seizures and the condemnation, as if
they were reprehensible only by not being _conformable_ to the _terms_
of the proclamation under which they were seized. Instead of being the
Envoy of a government, he goes over like a lawyer to demand a new trial.
I can hardly help thinking that Grenville wrote that note himself and
Jay signed it; for the style of it is domestic and not diplomatic.
The term, _His_ Majesty, used without any descriptive epithet, always
signifies the King whom the Minister that speaks represents. If this
sinking of the demand into a petition was a juggle between Grenville
and Jay, to cover the indemnification, I think it will end in another
juggle, that of never paying the money, and be made use of afterwards to
preclude the right of demanding it: for Mr. Jay has virtually disowned
the right _by appealing to the magnanimity of his Majesty against the
capturers_. He has made this magnanimous Majesty the umpire in the case,
and the gover