Gazette Of The United States, & Philadelphia Daily Advertiser

A friend has put into our hands a petition
addressed by a large body of the merchants
of Nantz, to the Council of Five Hundred,
in favour of the American commerce.—
This was designed to counteract the effects
of another petition presented by the mer-
chants and owners of privateers, "praying
the council to fix with certainty the politi-
cal and commercial relations between France
and the United States, and to put an end
to the diversity of opinions on this import-
ant subject, whether among the members of
the Directory, or the judiciary or the legi-
lative body."

After answering many declamatory passag-
es in the first petition, the merchants of
Nantz reply to the charge against the Ame-
ricans, that they had sold them a great deal
of bad flour at exorbitant prices: This flour
they state, was mostly purchased by the
commissaries of the republic, and that which
was shipped by private adventurers, was o-
pen to inspection—no frauds were practiced
to obtain a high price. The merchants
speak respectfully of the succours granted
by our government and by private donations
to the refugees from the Colonies.

In speaking of the arret of March 2d,
they say the decree was partial, precipitate,
contradictory, and insufficient.—Partial, by
involving many innocent persons, who had
no suspicion of their intentions. Precipi-
tate, in requiring immediate execution of a
decree that ought to have been notified to
American navigators, before subjecting
them to its penalties. It is certain say they
that none of them could suspect they had
occasion for the role of equipage in the form
prescribed by that arret. The treaty of
1778 does not mention the role; but a pa-
port only, and the form to which the 27th
article refers, appears to require no more
than the report by means of which all the
preliminary formalities are judged to be
fulfilled. It is true, they say, that the most
eminent jurists in France differ as to the real
sense of the formula.— This should be a rea-
son for judging the Americans with less se-
verity. But, say they, why have not the
Americans been notified that they were not
in rule, when they were bringing corn to
France and carrying on the French coasting
trade. Men who have been so well receiv-
ed ought not to expect to be treated as en-
emies, without a declaration of war.—The
arret is contradictory; for an American cap-
tain who meets no privateer and reaches a
French port, is received as a friend—but
if he meets with a French privateer, he is
taken and condemned.—It. is insufficient,
for tho designed to prevent fraud, it only
serves to conceal it the better.

They conclude by declaring that the ar-
ret will bring ruin on many American fami-
lies and on many of the French Colonies,
the wrecks of whose fortunes are on board
the captured vessels—it will reduce the cap-
ital of many merchants in Holland, Ham-
burgh and Bremen, whose debtors have
shipped goods to them on board these ships,
and who have no other means of discharg-
ing their debt—In fine, they say it will a-
lien ate, perhaps for a generation, the affec-
tions of a nation, which is mostly devoted to
France.

Nantz, 30th Thermidor, (August 17)
Here follow the names.