The article respecting the East-India Company, is a demonstration
that better terms of peace might have been obtained, if they had been
insisted upon. During the negociation Mr. Wood waited upon Mr. Rous,
on the subject of an article, including the Company’s affairs, to be
inserted in the treaty. An article was accordingly framed, and sent to
the ministers, who said it was impossible to obtain what was therein
demanded. They altered it: and if it had been permitted to remain with
their alterations, as it had been agreed to by the French ministers, and
as it stood in the preliminaries, the interests of the Company would have
been essentially injured. But Lord Clive opposed it; and in consequence
of this opposition, it was altered to the form in which it now stands in
the general treaty.
With regard to the _present_, or rather _new_ treaty of commerce, the
following is not a little curious.
When the D. of B. Mr. N——le, and the Ducs de Choiseul and Praslin were
together at Choiseul’s hotel, at a conference on the peace, the D. of
B. said, he would not renew the treaty of Commerce that was made at
Utrecht, because some of the articles had been objected to by the British
parliament. The subject dropped after a short conversation upon it:
and they proceeded to renew the treaty of Aix la Chapelle, and other
matters. At length the D. of B. renewed the subject of the treaty of
commerce: upon which Choiseul said, the treaty of commerce had never been
mentioned during the negociation. But, answered the D. it has always been
understood. Choiseul replied, you must either take the treaty of commerce
as it now is, between the two nations (meaning that which was offered
to be renewed) or there must be no treaty of commerce at all. The D. of
B. declared, he would not accept of that treaty; nor would he sign the
treaty of peace unless a treaty of commerce was previously agreed to.
And so, says Choiseul, you want to carve that treaty just as you please;
to put in some articles, and to strike out others—_No!_ said he in an
exclamation, and turning about to a picture of the French King, which
hung up in the room, and clasping his hands together, cried out, _My dear
master! when I sacrifice your honour, take off my head_.
Mr. N——le then said, Mons. Choiseul, what better would you be if that
treaty was renewed? The British parliament would disapprove of it, and
the D. of B. would be impeached for it.—Think you so, said Choiseul?—Yes,
answered the D. of B. and added, if you do not consent to the making
a new treaty of commerce, I will return to England to-morrow morning,
and tell the K. there is no honour in the French ministry; that he must
send for Mr. PITT, who is the only man to deal with them, and renew the
war. The name of _Pitt_ frightened the French minister; he gave up the
contest. A treaty of commerce was made; but has not been published, nor
was it laid before parliament.
During the negociation, the Duc de Choiseul was constantly complaining
of the English news-papers; which, he said, were continually publishing
the terms of the peace; and these papers coming into France, he added,
induced the French to think, and say, he was sacrificing the interest
of France in that treaty; which he apprehended might occasion some
enthusiast to assassinate him. In complaisance to him, and to quiet his
fears on that head, it was, that no authentic defence or even authentic
account of the negociation and treaty, was ever published.
Every reader will make his own observations on this series of
_extraordinary FACTS_. I have given them to the world without any of
those advantages which they might have derived from a detail in fine
language, being convinced, _that plain truth needs no flowers of speech_.
I am, SIR,
Your most humble servant,
An ENGLISHMAN.