et d’employer tous les moyens pour augmenter le nombre des partisans de la bonne cause.  Il me reste, Monsieur, de vous parler de la surete personelle des Patriotes.  Vous les assurerez, que dans tout etat de cause, le roi les prend sous sa protection immediate, et vous ferez connoitre, partout ou vous le jugerez necessaire, que sa Majeste regarderoit comme une offense personelle, tout ce qu’on entreprenderoit contre leur liberte.  Il est a presumer que ce langage, tenu avec energie, en imposera a l’audace des Anglomanes, et que Monsieur le Prince de Nassau croira courir quelque risque en provoquant le ressentiment de sa Majeste.’_ *

     [Extract from the despatch of the Count de Vergennes, to
     the Marquis de Verac, Ambassador from France, at the Hague,
     dated March 1, 1788.

’The King will give his aid, as far as may be in his power, towards the success of the affair, and you will, on his part, invite the Patriots to communicate to him their views, their plans, and their discontents.  You may assure them, that the King takes a real interest in themselves, as well as their cause, and that they may rely upon his protection.  On this they may place the greater dependence, as we do not conceal, that if the Stadtholder resumes his former influence, the English system will soon prevail, and our alliance become a mere affair of the imagination.  The Patriots will readily feel, that this position would be incompatible both with the dignity and consideration of his Majesty.  But in case the chief of the Patriots should have to fear a division, they would have time sufficient to reclaim those whom the Anglomaniacs had misled, and to prepare matters in such a manner, that the question when again agitated, might be decided according to their wishes.  In such a hypothetical case, the King authorizes you to act in concert with them, to pursue the direction which they may think proper to give you, and to employ every means to augment the number of the partisans of the good cause.  It remains for me to speak of the personal security of the Patriots.  You may assure them, that under every circumstance, the King will take them under his immediate protection, and you will make known wherever you may judge necessary, that his Majesty will regard, as a personal offence, every undertaking against their libeity.  It is to be presumed that this language, energetically maintained, may have some effect on the audacity of the Anglomaniacs, and that the Prince de Nassau will feel that he runs some risk in provoking the resentment of his Majesty.’]

This letter was communicated by the Patriots to me, when at Amsterdam, in 1788, and a copy sent by me to Mr. Jay, in my letter to him of March 16, 1788.