In the instructions of a Minister, it was usual to comprise a variety of propositions. Certain things were first to be proposed; if these could not be obtained, he was instructed to come forward with something else, and if this could not be got, he went on to his ultimatum. But, if the proposition of the gentleman from Virginia were to obtain, his instructions would be publicly known. In vain would it be for him to offer this or that, they will say the House of Representatives has directed you what to do, and we will not agree to any thing else. This would be contrary to all diplomatic proceedings; for that reason he should be opposed to the House saying what should be his instructions. Indeed, if it were usual, he should be against it in this instance, as he believed it would encourage an extravagant demand. What, said he, have they said to our Minister--or rather to the person who was formerly our Minister, but who then had no power? They told him to go away; they had nothing to say to him: they would receive no more Ministers from the United States until their grievances were redressed. This country is charged with countenancing an inequality of treaties. The French have said, redress our grievances in a certain way. But, said Mr. R., if we do this, we shall put ourselves under the dominion of a foreign power, and shall have to ask a foreign country what we shall do. This was a situation into which we must not fall without a struggle. Mr. SITGREAVES said, though he had wished to have taken a little more time before he had troubled the committee with his observations; yet, as there now appeared an interval, he should take the opportunity of occupying it for a few minutes. He should not answer the observations of the gentleman from Georgia, with respect to the style of the Answer reported; but he believed that those gentlemen who would look at it without a perverted vision, would not discover the faults in it which that gentleman had discovered. He thought it rather remarkable for the simplicity of its style than for a redundancy of epithet. He discovered more of the latter in the amendment than in the original report. It was true that the superlative was used in different places, but he thought it was used where it ought to be. He would not, however, detain the committee with matter so immaterial, but would proceed to what appeared to him of some consequence. A stranger who had come into the House during this debate, and heard what had fallen from the mover of the proposed amendment, and from members who had followed him, would have supposed, that instead of an act of ordinary course being under discussion, they had been debating the question of a declaration of war against France.