The Musgrave controversy

by Charles Geneviève Louis Auguste André Timothée d' Eon de Beaumont; Samuel Musgrave

An ENGLISHMAN.

[2] In the pamphlet, intituled, An Appendix to the State of the Nation, we find this fact strongly pointed at, p. 16, wherein the author says, in reply to the Observer: “If he means to charge the great statesman (Mr. G.) who was Secretary of State at the time the plans for the reduction of Martinique and the Havannah were carried into execution, with consenting to restore them without compensation; I must tell him, that it was publicly spoken of, at the time the treaty of Paris was negociating, that this gentleman resigned his office of Secretary of State for no other reason, than that further cessions in the West Indies were not insisted on.” And in the Observations on the State of the Nation, we find that author not unacquainted with this part of the negociation, though, agreeable to the principles of the party he espouses, it is but faintly touched; page 29, 8vo edit. are these words, “If this gentleman’s hero of finance, instead of flying from the treaty, which, though he now defends, he could not approve, and would not oppose; if he, instead of shifting into an office, which removed him from the manufacture of the treaty,” &c.

LETTER III.
To Dr. MUSGRAVE of Plymouth.

SIR,

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.