I can now assure your excellency that His
Catholic Majesty has not hitherto issued any order for suspending the
deposit, and consequently has not designated any other position on the
banks of the Mississippi for that purpose. But I must inform you, in
answer to your inquiry, that the intendant of these provinces (who
in the affairs of his own department is independent of the general
Government), at the same time that, in conformity with the royal
commands (the peace in Europe having been published since the 4th of May
last), he suspended the commerce of neutrals, also thought proper to
suspend the tacit prolongation which continued, and to put a stop to
the infinite abuses which resulted from the deposit, contrary to the
interest of the State and of the commerce of these colonies, in
consequence of the experience he acquired of the frauds which have been
committed and which it has been endeavored to excuse under the pretext
of ignorance, as is manifested by the number of causes which now await
the determination of His Majesty, as soon as they can be brought to his
royal knowledge, besides many others which have been dropt because the
individuals have absconded who introduced their properties into the
deposit and did not extract them, thus defrauding the royal interests.
It might appear on the first view that particular cases like these ought
not to operate against a general privilege granted by a solemn treaty,
and it is an incontestable principle that the happiness of nations
consists in a great measure in maintaining a good harmony and
correspondence with their neighbors by respecting their rights, by
supporting their own, without being deficient in what is required by
humanity and civil intercourse; but it is also indubitable that for a
treaty, although solemn, to be entirely valid it ought not to contain
any defect; and if it be pernicious and of an injurious tendency,
although it has been effectuated with good faith but without a knowledge
of its bad consequence, it will be necessary to undo it, because
treaties ought to be viewed like other acts of public will, in which
more attention ought to be paid to the intention than to the words in
which they are expressed; and thus it will not appear so repugnant
that the term of three years fixed by the twenty-second article being
completed without the King's having granted a prolongation, the
intendancy should not, after putting a stop to the commerce of neutrals,
take upon itself the responsibility of continuing that favor without the
express mandate of the King, a circumstance equally indispensable for
designating another place on the banks of the Mississippi.
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