"Resolved unanimously, that the opinion of the present assembly is, that a war against North America is evidently a measure, which, by obliging us to carry all our forces to that quarter, puts us out of a condition to resist with vigor, as we might otherwise do, the united efforts of France and Spain, while the said war produces no other effect upon the Americans than to add to the enmity, which has but too long subsisted between us. An enmity, of which we have felt the fatal effects, and which, by putting an obstacle to our union, threatens England with a ruin as complete as it is inevitable." * * * * * TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. Paris, May 2d, 1780. Sir, On the twentysixth of April the Duc de Vauguyon, Ambassador of His Most Christian Majesty to the States-General, presented a Memorial to their High Mightinesses, announcing the abolition of the duty of fifteen per cent, to which the greatest part of Dutch merchandises had been subject on their entering into France, as well as the resolution of the Council of State, taken upon this subject. The following are the contents of the Memoir and the Resolution. "High and Mighty Lords, "The political system of the King is essentially founded upon the invariable principles of justice and moderation. His Majesty has given the most unequivocal proofs of it from the beginning of the troubles, which have arisen between him and the King of England, in pre-engaging all the neutral powers, by the display of a disposition the most favorable to their prosperity, and by proposing to them no other conditions than those of the most absolute impartiality. His Majesty saw himself, with the most sincere regret, obliged not to acknowledge this character in the resolution of the States-General, of the 19th of November, 1778, by which your High Mightinesses suspended the effects of your protection, relative to one branch of commerce, the liberty of which was assured to you by the public laws of equity, and the most precise stipulations of treaties. The King then instructed me to announce to your High Mightinesses, that if you determined thus to make the sacrifice of one part of your rights to his enemies, his Majesty could not preserve to your subjects the advantages conditionally promised by his last regulation, nor the ancient favors, which their commerce enjoyed in his States, and which are not the result of any treaty, but of a hereditary benevolence and affection. Your High Mightinesses assured his Majesty with earnestness, that you were decided to observe the most exact neutrality during the continuance of the troubles between France and England. But if you announced, that the act, which suspended the effects of the efficacious protection of the Republic in favor of ships loaded with ship timber, ought to be regarded as in force until it should be afterwards confirmed, you declared at the same time, that all