Gazette Of The United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser

Extract of a letter from an American in Paris, dated April 18.

"I am sorry to inform you of the continuance of the cause of my being in Paris: the value of your ship and cargo was too important to be relinquished. Although since the recent success of the Austrians the tone of the French government has changed materially towards neutrals, they are not yet in a condition to refund. Indeed, I do not think they are able, since from the Directory down to the lowest scrub in office, every one lives in every species of debauchery far beyond his income, and leaves no artifice untried to strain his credit to its utmost verge. You have seen enough long since, to explain to you the views of the party which refused Lord Malmesbury's last proposition, which occasioned the proscription of Carnot and the banishment of Pichegru and his friends; but you have not the pleasure to view the change of countenance in these once insolent, but now chop-fallen wretches. When I first arrived they were all elation: "Let us render the whole world tributary." Let us outdo the Romans in glorious conquest and extent of power. While every Polard in Paris held this language, the complaints of the neutrals were treated with the utmost contempt and ridicule. "Cite us an instance, said they, of restitution by Alexander or by Cæsar, and we will hear you," "You may thank our forbearance that we have not demanded as much of you as we have received from the Dutch" said another. "What right have such impotent Colonies to expect not to pay an acknowledgement to the masters of the universe, for your political existence as a nation?" All this have we been forced daily to hear, till the check which the unexpected coalition of Russia and Turkey made these wretches resort once more to cunning. They now say that it is a pity we should quarrel, who were once friends; in short, they cant and whine as if they hoped to deceive the neutrals, but until they can force us to swallow the whole of Lethe, they will never succeed, since there is not a neutral in Paris who has not been insulted by the open avowal of their determination (if heaven had favored their schemes) to scourge, to render tributary and to humble to the dust all the nations of the universe."