isper across the
Atlantic, from one dark chamber to the other, and there terminate. It
was calculated to remove from the mind of the Committee all suspicion
upon Jay's mission to England, and, in this point of view, it was suited
to the circumstances of the movement then passing; but as the event
of that mission has proved the letter to be hypocritical, it serves no
other purpose of the present moment than to shew that the writer is
not to be credited. Two circumstances serve to make the reading of the
letter necessary in the Convention. The one was, that they who succeeded
on the fall of Robespierre, found it most proper to act with publicity;
the other, to extinguish the suspicions which the strange conduct of
Morris had occasioned in France.

When the British treaty, and the ratification of it by Mr. Washington,
was known in France, all further declarations from him of his good
disposition as an ally and friend, passed for so many cyphers; but still
it appeared necessary to him to keep up the farce of declarations. It
is stipulated in the British treaty, that commissioners are to report
at the end of two years, on the case of _neutral ships making neutral
property_. In the mean time, neutral ships do _not_ make neutral
property, according to the British treaty, and they _do_ according to
the French treaty. The preservation, therefore, of the French treaty
became of great importance to England, as by that means she can employ
American ships as carriers, whilst the same advantage is denied to
France. Whether the French treaty could exist as a matter of right after
this clandestine perversion of it, could not but give some apprehensions
to the partizans of the British treaty, and it became necessary to them
to make up, by fine words, what was wanting in good actions.

An opportunity offered to that purpose. The Convention, on the public
reception of Mr. Monroe, ordered the American flag and the French flags
to be displayed unitedly in the hall of the Convention. Mr. Monroe made
a present of an American flag for the purpose. The Convention returned
this compliment by sending a French flag to America, to be presented by
their Minister, Mr. Adet, to the American government. This resolution
passed long before Jay's treaty was known or suspected: it passed in
the days of confidence; but the flag was not presented by Mr. Adet till
several months after the treaty had been ratified. Mr. Washington made
this the occasion of say