oth--as one might rationally expect that it
would--it would naturally furnish, by common consent, a very
leading and governing motive, as well to the operations of the war,
as to the ultimate issue of it. This, however, is not the view
which is entertained here, or which I can persuade myself is really
acted upon by those whose influence is decisive here.

M. de Thugut, the efficient Minister of this Court, is personally
very much disposed (and long has been so) to the old project of an
exchange of the Netherlands; and though that project appears to be
laid aside for the purpose of conciliating Great Britain and
Holland, yet it is evident that M. de Thugut's opinions are such as
lead him to set but little value upon the possession of the
Netherlands, and, therefore, that every circumstance, either of
expense or of military enterprise, which looks towards the
acquisition and defence of those provinces, is as much discouraged
by him as he can venture to do, without openly declaring the whole
bias of his mind: and it is very remarkable that, much as we have
made it our business to press this to him in all our conversations,
we have never yet been able to draw from him even a cold assent to
the idea of the Low Countries being of any real value in themselves
to the Emperor; though he sometimes feebly admits that, with a
considerable addition to them, they might be made so.

It may be said, that a Convention might engage them on this point,
whatever their inclinations may be; but the answer is, first, that
in point of fact they do object to bind themselves to the employing
one hundred thousand men _in the Netherlands_, though they have not
finally refused it; and secondly, that be there what agreement
there may, the only substantial security for a hearty co-operation
in fighting for that country, or for any manly system to be adopted
hereafter for the preservation of it, must arise from a sense--in
the owners--of the value of its possession, and not from the words
employed in any treaty respecting it. I am aware that part of the
indifference which I so much remark in M. de Thugut may be
affected, for the purpose of throwing the whole weight of the
defence of the Low Countries upon the Maritime Powers; but if that
is his policy, he must mean to support it