I have read with particular attention your letter to Dr. Musgrave, and
can no longer be in doubt what your business at present is in a country
where you are an _outlaw_.
You exhibit to us a character most singularly profligate. You alone in
this age have had it in your power to be equally false and treacherous
to two such great nations as England and France. While you were
only secretary to the Duke of Nivernois, you abused the privileges
of your character, and engaged in the dirty business of _debauching
our manufacturers_. You so entirely forgot the dignity of your rank
afterwards, when Minister Plenipotentiary, that you continued the same
practice, although it is contrary to the law of nations. You do not
even blush to charge this article of expence in the state of your
disbursements to the Comte de Guerchy. “Avance aux ouvriers Anglois
de la manufacture de toiles peintes, tant hommes que femmes, debauche
par le Sieur _L’Escalier_ a Londres et des environs pour les faire
passer ailleurs 195l.” Lettres, Memoires, &c. p. 172. The meanness and
rascality of such an employment in you and Monsieur _L’Escalier_ can
only be equalled by the tameness and ignominy of the administration at
that time in suffering _L’Escalier_, a notorious pimp and an _outlaw_
here, to be after this in the public character of _Secretary_ of the
Comte de Guerchy. The attestations of _L’Escalier’s outlawry_ were
printed here, witnessed by Solomon Schomberg, a Notary Public, and by
the Lord Mayor. They were dispersed at the Hague, to serve the purpose
of shewing at a certain juncture that England was bullied by France. You
afterwards quarrelled with all your best friends, as well as with the
ministers of your fortune, and your own Court, which had raised you so
rapidly from nothing, from being a writer to the police at Paris on the
pension of 600 livres, or 25 guineas a year, to the dignity of Minister
Plenipotentiary at the most important Court in Europe. Modern times
scarcely produce an instance of political treachery equal to your’s in
printing the secrets of the Court by whom you were employed, and the
private letters of your benefactor the Duke of Nivernois, of Monsieur
Sainte-Foy, Monsieur Moreau, &c. Your particular quarrel with Guerchy
had nothing to do with the sentiments of the Duke of Nivernois, of
Mess. Sainte-Foy, Moreau, and other gentlemen, on the conduct of the
French parliament, the administration of their finances, &c. which were
intrusted to you, as their private friend, under the seal of secrecy.
You betrayed their confidence without the least provocation on their
part, or a pretence of justification of your own conduct from any one
circumstance in those letters. After quarrelling with almost all your
own countrymen, you published in the same volume a gross abuse of this
nation, and called the English a parcel of fools and madmen, at the
very time that this country afforded you an honourable protection, and
an hospitality you have abused. “Apres deux secousses de tremblement
de terre, qui arriverent ici en 1750, _un soldat enthousiaste_ s’avisa
d’en predire un troisieme, qui devoit renverser Londres. Il se dit
inspire, & d’un ton enthousiaste en fixa le jour, l’heure, & la minute.
Londres consterne au souvenir des deux secousses qui s’etoient suivies
dans l’intervalle d’un mois, & plus effraie encore a l’approache d’un
troisieme & plus terrible tremblement que ce soldat enthousiaste avoit
annonce pour le 5 d’Avril, la ville s’est montree susceptible de toutes
sortes d’impressions. Plus de 50 mille habitans, sur la foi de cet
oracle, avoient ce jour-la pris la fuite: la plupart de ceux que les
raisonnemens ou les raillerie de leurs amis avoient retenue, attendoient
en tremblant l’instant critique, & n’ont montre de courage qu’apres qu’il
a ete passe. Le jour arrive, la prophetie, semblable a la plupart des
predictions, ne fut point accomplie; le faux Samuel fut mis un peu tard
aux petites maisons & _la tete de ces fiers insulaires si senses & si
philosophes ne fut pas a l’epreuve de la prophetie d’un fou_.” P. 14. I
believe there is not to be found so gross and silly an abuse of a whole
nation for the weakness of a few hysteric women, and superannuated men,
nor so false a representation of any fact. Were your other dispatches
to your court, Sir, composed of such wretched stuff as this? I hope the
_bottle-conjurer_ finds his place in the second part of your _memoires_.
That innocent joke of the late Duke of Montague, your countrymen
generally talk and write of as a serious proof of the folly and credulity
of this nation. The English laughed at your weak attack on them as a
nation, and superior to such abuse, desired that you might continue to
enjoy the protection of their noble system of laws, and the privileges
of their country. They considered their own glory, not the worthlessness
of the individual. They would have parted with so insignificant a wretch
as you without the least regret; but they would not suffer you to be
forced away, nor kidnapped, merely because it would have been an outrage
to their laws, and the honour of their nation. They too, as politicians,
thought you might be induced to make some discoveries, and were ready
to profit by your treason to your own country in the secrets you might
reveal for the benefit of their’s, but at the same time they would have
abhorred the traitor. When I mention the English nation as anxious for
your safety, I mean the body of the people. The administration _at that
time_ wished that you might be carried off to France. Mansfield and
Norton saw Guerchy often on the occasion, and Sandwich signed more than
one warrant to apprehend you. The French ministry, and the people here
in power at that time, planned your destruction; but the generosity of
two or three individuals saved you, and preserved a viper in the bosom of
their country. Now is just the season for such noxious reptiles to come
forth. They always meet the approaching storm. Leagued with the enemies
of our country, whether French or English, your slender abilities are
still employed against a nation you hate, but in your heart honour and
revere. After having for some years talked very openly of the wonderful
discoveries you could make, and the impeachment you could support, after
frequently declaring, that _you had two heads in your pocket_, when a
worthy gentleman steps forth and states the charge, you at once recoil,
and declare that you do not even believe a word of it, but think that
_l’Angleterre a plutot donne de l’argent a la France, que la France de
l’or a l’Angleterre pour conclure la derniere paix_. So absurd an idea
I shall not undertake to refute, because I believe you are the only man
_at large_, who entertains it; but I shall in this first address to you,
desire you to state _two_ facts to the public, relative to the subject
of your letter to Dr. Musgrave. The _first_ is, What was the negociation
relative to the island of _Porto-Rico_? The Duke of Bedford set out for
Paris, Sept. 5, 1762. Every thing of importance was soon entirely settled
between the two courts. The most material arrangements had been made here
in private with Lord Bute before his Grace’s departure. The news of the
taking the Havannah was afterwards first received in England, while the
Duke was in Paris, on Sept. 29. Now I ask what alteration in the terms
of the treaty did such important intelligence produce? What was to be
given England, additional to the former stipulations, in consequence
of the surrender of the Havannah, when that likewise was to be given
up? You are called upon to state that transaction; what you know of the
ten days cession of Porto Rico to us by the negociation at Paris, and
the subsequent surrender of that island on the receipt of _two_ letters
from hence, one of which the Duke of Bedford ought to produce for his
justification in _that part_ of the business; the other is too sacred to
appear. The _second_ question I shall now ask is, _whether you have not
declared that you were offered 7000 louis for your papers?_ Your letter
to Dr. Musgrave is extremely evasive on this head. You say, “Je me suis
toujours flatte de l’estime & de l’amitie _des Anglois_ avec lesquels
j’ai vecu. _Qui d’eux_ dans ces sentimens auroit ose me temoigner
assez de mepris pour me faire une pareille proposition?” No, Sir, _no
Englishman_ was employed in so dirty a business; but one of your own
country was found to make the proposition, to which you objected. You
said the sum was too trifling for papers of such importance. My other
letters shall give the world more truths; for I will drag you forth to
the public view, not merely as a trifling Frenchman, trifling in every
thing serious, and serious only in trifles, but as the enemy of England,
as a pensioned tool of a wicked ministry, who hope by your means to
trifle or perplex an enquiry, which may not stop at your patron, the
detested _Thane_, to whom, although a Frenchman, you have sacrificed the
great _Sully_ in the most fulsome and lying of all dedications, prefixed
to your pirated _Considerations Historiques & Politiques sur les Impos_.
Your connections, Sir, are at length discovered, and the plan of your
operations, so secretly concerted by Bute’s three deputies, Jenkinson,
Dyson, and _Target_ Martin, at a house in Pall Mall, which governs this
kingdom, shall be given to the public. You will experience, that although
English generosity makes us always ready to give refuge and protection to
a distressed foreigner, even from the country of our inveterate enemies,
we will not suffer among us a French traitor and a spy, in the pay of
an administration odious to this whole nation. I shall only at present
add, that one of your friends will soon prove to you that your own poet
_Corneille_ says very truly,
_Et meme avec justice on peut trahir un traitre._