by abstaining from any
vigorous exertions in behalf of it, and in the end, whether his
coolness and inactivity shall have been produced by a real or
disguised opinion, the result will equally have been fatal to that
earnest and animated concert, which is so much to be wished for on
this occasion.

You see that I have so far considered the Convention, as taking
place upon the terms proposed by us; but you will have known, long
before you receive this letter, that they have persisted from the
first in asking, as indispensable conditions, that their loan must
be completely satisfied in England to enable them to answer the
demands of this year, and that they must receive from England a
considerable subsidy for next campaign, if it is expected that they
should act vigorously in the prosecution of the war, which they
assert themselves to be utterly unable to do without pecuniary
assistance from England. We have urged them very ineffectually on
this point: they declare that they have good hopes of M. de Merey's
succeeding in obtaining these demands at London, and the
negotiation actually hangs upon the report which they hourly expect
from him on this subject; though we have repeatedly told them that
their expectation was hopeless, and that, meanwhile, the delay
occasioned by it might be fatal to those exertions which required
immediate action and enterprise.

What decision the Cabinet will make upon this heavy demand of
subsidy, is doubtless a very important question, of which they will
be the fit and competent judges; but if that question simply turned
upon the supposed probability of our being able to purchase, even
at that dear rate, a proportionate degree of energy and activity in
the war from this Government, I confess I do not hesitate to say
that, from what I see here, I should not believe, if the experiment
is tried, it will well answer their expectations. There is no soul
in the bodies of these men--none, at least, which is alive to the
magnitude of all the objects now at stake, or which leads them to
share with you, as it ought the great points of common danger and
common interest; and while these mainsprings are wanting, it is in
vain to look for such movements and effects as cannot be produced
without them. If this radical defect did no