STATE
- by tio means equal to that of
• troops prifoners of war.'
It is not our purpofe here to examine the negotiations which, it is pretended, the Lar.dgrave, and the Duke of Brunfwick en- tered upon with the court of France ; but every one knows that thefe princes thought them- felves in no wife bound by what pafled. The defign of fowing dif- fidence among the allies, which France had certainly in view by alledging thefe pretended nego- tiations, will not have its defired efredl. Nor will we trouble our- felves to examine whether the prudence and intereft of the court of Verfailles required the difarm- ing of the auxiliary troops : Though that court has long adopt- ed it as a maxim to confult only her own intereft, and to give no other reafon but her own conve- nience, without conlidering whe- ther it would be pofllble to re- concile thefe motives with the laws of juftice and equity ; thefe are rot, however, fufficient means to juftify to the eyes of the public, the pretenfions formed with regard to the auxiliary troops.
Nor need we enter into expla- nations with France about the manner in which the Brunfwick troops were retained, nor of that which concerns his royal high- nefs the hereditary Prince of Wolfenbuttel. It would be very eafy to free ourfelves from all re- proach on that head. It is fuf- ficient that thefe two articles were amicably terminated with his royal highnefs the Duke of Brunfwick. The queftion between the king and France is, whether the king had reafon to oppofe the difarming of the auxiliary
PAPERS. i>)|
troops, and whether he had a right to keep them in his pay. We need only fee the convention to decide in favour of the affirma- . tive. It does not contain one v/ord which can naturally mean a difarming ; nor does it contain any tacit confent to this pretence. It is indeed ftipulated, that the troops Ihould not be confiderei as prifoners; but if it could be concluded from he'nce that the difarming had been granted, i: mult at the fame time be owned, that the convention delivered up thefe troops to the mercy and difcreticn of France. The French miniftry themfelves would not go upon fo llrange a fuppofi- tion.
Thefe troops, in quality of troops, and confequently armed, were to return home, aud there to find quarters. It was in confe- quence of this regulation that ad- vice was given of the conventiota to the fovereigns of the auxiliary troops. It is abfurd to fay, that by this means they had been difband- ed. The Landgrave's troops re- mained, notwithftanding, in the payof Great Britain, and the troops of the Dukes of Brunfwick and Go- tha, and alfo thofe of the Count de la Lippe, never loft their qua- lity of fubfidiary troops of the king, as eleftor. To maintain the contrary, would be to fay, that his majefty, in quality of king and elector, had the power of revoking the treaties of fubfidy concluded between them, without confulting iKefe princes, a power which his majefty does not pretend to, and which the Duke of Cumberland neither had, nor could bave, a de- fign to make ufe of. The true fenfe of the convention certainly O 7. was.
