41. _Islanders in Revolt._
The natives of a small island in the possession of England rise and,
after murdering the majority of the whites, imprison the remainder. No
English man-of-war is on the spot, but the commander of a French war
vessel in the neighbourhood, who is informed of the insurrection by a
fugitive, resolves to interfere to save the lives of the surviving
whites. He therefore sails at once for the island, shells the harbour,
disembarks a number of men, relieves the white prisoners, and remains
in command of the island until an English man-of-war arrives on the
spot.
42. _Seizure of Ambassadors._
The Marquis de Monti, the French envoy in Poland during a war between
Poland and Russia, being in Dantzic when, in 1734, that town
capitulated to the Russians, was seized and made prisoner because he
had taken an active part in the war; he was not released until 1736,
although France protested against his captivity.
When the Marechal de Belle Isle, the French ambassador to Prussia,
passed, in 1774, on his way to Berlin, through Hanover, he was seized,
made a prisoner, and sent to England, which country, together with
Hanover, was then at war with France.
43. _An Envoy in Debt._
Baron de Wrech, who had for some time been minister plenipotentiary of
the Landgraf of Hesse-Cassel at Paris, was recalled in 1772. When he
asked for his passports, the Duc d'Aiguillon, the French foreign
secretary, refused to deliver them to him before he had paid debts due
to the Marquis de Bezons and other creditors.
44. _Treaty Bargaining._
States A and B enter into a new commercial treaty in which, among other
stipulations, it is agreed that state A should lower by 20 per cent.
its general import duty on manufactured cotton goods coming from state
B, and that, in return for this reduction, the latter should reduce by
20 per cent. its general import duty on manufactured leather goods
coming from state A.
Some of the other states possessing commercial treaties with A and B,
which embody the most favoured nation clause, at once demand from A and
B that the reduction of 20 per cent. of import duty on manufactured
cotton and leather goods should also be granted to the imports from
their respective territories.