We had, if I am not mistaken, a minister at that
court, who might try its temper, and recede and advance as he found
backwardness or encouragement. But to send a gentleman there on no other
errand than this, and with no assurance whatever that he should not
find, what he did find, a repulse, seems to me to go far beyond all the
demands of a humiliation merely politic. I hope it did not arise from a
predilection for that mode of conduct.
The cup of bitterness was not, however, drained to the dregs. Basle and
Berlin were not sufficient. After so many and so diversified repulses,
we were resolved to make another experiment, and to try another
mediator. Among the unhappy gentlemen in whose persons royalty is
insulted and degraded at the seat of plebeian pride and upstart
insolence, there is a minister from Denmark at Paris. Without any
previous encouragement to that, any more than the other steps, we sent
through, this turnpike to demand a passport for a person who on our part
was to solicit peace in the metropolis, at the footstool of Regicide
itself. It was not to be expected that any one of those degraded beings
could have influence enough to settle any part of the terms in favor of
the candidates for further degradation; besides, such intervention would
be a direct breach in their system, which did not permit one sovereign
power to utter a word in the concerns of his equal.--Another repulse. We
were desired to apply directly in our persons.
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