Monthly Chronicle.

practicable . Hetreated as equally impracticable any attempt at restonngthe ancient form of government in the seven United Provinces . He talked wilh an air of triumph of the establishment of a National Convention at the Hague , and with an affectation of feeling , that by it the cause of freedom had extended itself over such a large number of people . He , however , was ready to confess , that from the great losses the Dutch Republic had sustained in its colonies , and particularly from the weak manner in which they had defended them , it could not be expected that his Majesty would consent to a full and complete restitution of them , and that

it was reasonable , that some should be sacrificed ; and he asked me if I could inform him how far our views extended on this point ? I said , I had reason to believe that what his Majesty would require would . be possessions and settlements which would not add to the wealth of our Indian dominions , but only tend to secure to us their safe and unmolested possession . You mean by this , said M . Delacroix , the Cape and Tnncomale ? I said , they certainly came under that description ; and I saw little prospect of their being restored to the'Du . tch . M . Delacroix launched forth on this into a most laboured dissertation on the value ot the

Cape of Good Hope , which he did not consider at all as a port derelache , but as a possession which , in our hands , would become one of the mosf fertile and most productive colonies in the east ; and , according to his estimation of it , he did not scruple to assert , that it would ultimately be an acquisition of infinitely greater importance to England than that of the Netherlands to France ; and , if acquiesced in , should be reckoned as a full and ample compensation for them . He added , ' if you are masters of the Cape and Trincomale , we shall hold all our settlements : in India , and the islands of France and Bourbon , entirely at the tenure of

your will and pleasure ; they will be ours only as long as you choose we should retain them . You will be sole masters in India , and we shall be entirely dependent uponj'ou . " I repeated to him , that it was as means of defence , not of offence , that these possessions would be insisted on ; and that , if the matter was fairly and dispassionately discussed , he would find that they afforded us a great additional security , but no additional power of attack , even if we were disposed to disturb the peace of that part of the world . If these , and perhaps some few other not very material settlements belonging to the Dutch , were to be insisted upon , and if he would be pleased to enumerate all we should still have to restore / to them , while they had nothing to restore to England , it was imposssible not to con . sider the terms on which his Majesty proposed peace to Holland as generous and liberal .

M . Delacroix was not at all disposed to agree with me on this point ; and said , Holland , stript of these possessions , would be ruined . He then held out , but as if the idea hadjust crossed his mind , the possibility of indemnifying the Dutch for their losses in India , by giving them a tract of territory towards the Meuse ( I could not find out whether he meant Aix-la-Chapelle , Liege , or the countries of . Tuiiers and Berg ) , and hinted , that if this , was not to be done , an additional Sugar Island might , perhaps , be ceded to the Dutch Republic . I told him all this might become a subject of future discussion ; and I conceived , that if \ ve could agree upon the

more essential points , the Treaty would not break oiion those secondary considerations . Our conversation had now been extremely long , and M . Delacroix ended by saying , that , although he had taken upon himself to enter with me thus far upon the subject , yet I must not consider any thing he said as binding , or as pledging the Republic , till such time as he had laid the papers 1 had given him before the I « : rectory ; and , hi order to do this with more accuracy , he again asked me , whether , in his report , he was to slate the disuniting Belgium from France as nsinc qua non from which his Majesty would not depart ? I replied , it most certainly was a

sine qua non from which his Majesty would not depart ; and that any proposal which would leave the Netherlands annexed to France would be attended with much greater benefit to that power , aud loss to the allies , than the present relative situation of the Belligerent powers could entitle the French Government to expect . M . Delacroix repeated his concern at the peremptory way in which 1 made this assertion , and asked , whether it would admit of no modification ?—I replied , if Fiance could , in a conlreprojel , point out a practicable and adequate one , still keeping in view , that the Netherlands must not belong lo or be likely again to fall into the hands of France , such a proposal might certainly be taken into consideration . M . Delacroix by no means encouraged me to explain myself more fully ;