Here I suffer you to breathe, and leave to your meditation what has occurred to me on the genius and character of the French Revolution.  From having this before us, we may be better able to determine on the first question I proposed,—­that is, How far nations called foreign are likely to be affected with the system established within that territory.  I intended to proceed next on the question of her facilities, from the internal state of other nations, and particularly of this, for obtaining her ends; but I ought to be aware that my notions are controverted.  I mean, therefore, in my next letter, to take notice of what in that way has been recommended to me as the most deserving of notice.  In the examination of those pieces, I shall have occasion to discuss some others of the topics to which I have called your attention.  You know that the letters which I now send to the press, as well as a part of what is to follow, have been in their substance long since written.  A circumstance which your partiality alone could make of importance to you, but which to the public is of no importance at all, retarded their appearance.  The late events which press upon us obliged me to make some additions, but no substantial change in the matter.

This discussion, my friend, will be long.  But the matter is serious; and if ever the fate of the world could be truly said to depend on a particular measure, it is upon this peace.  For the present, farewell.

FOOTNOTES: 

[34] See Declaration, Whitehall, Oct. 29, 1793.

[35] It may be right to do justice to Louis the Sixteenth.  He did what he could to destroy the double diplomacy of France.  He had all the secret correspondence burnt, except one piece, which was called Conjectures raisonnees sur la Situation actuelle de la France dans le Systeme Politique de l’Europe:  a work executed by M. Favier, under the direction of Count Broglie.  A single copy of this was said to have been found in the cabinet of Louis the Sixteenth.  It was published with some subsequent state-papers of Vergennes, Turgot, and others, as “a new benefit of the Revolution,” and the advertisement to the publication ends with the following words:  “Il sera facile de se convaincre, QU’Y COMPRIS MEME LA REVOLUTION, en grande partie, ON TROUVE DANS CES MEMOIRES ET CES CONJECTURES LE GERME DE TOUT CE QUI ARRIVE AUJOURD’HUI, et qu’on ne peut, sans les avoir lus, etre bien au fait des interets, et meme des vues actuelles des diverses puissances de l’Europe.”  The book is entitled Politique de tous les Cabinets de l’Europe pendant la Regnes de Louis XV. et de Louis XVI.  It is altogether very curious, and worth reading.

[36] See our Declaration.

LETTER III.

ON THE RUPTURE OF THE NEGOTIATION; THE TERMS OF PEACE PROPOSED; AND THE RESOURCES OF THE COUNTRY FOR THE CONTINUANCE OF THE WAR.