During 1777 Lord Stormont held many similar conferences with Vergennes in which the naval liberties permitted the Americans in French ports were the subject of discussion. Vergennes set forth the position of his government in a way that was reasonably acceptable to England. He declared that its purpose was to prevent every violation of its treaties and of the law of nations. He gave orders that the prizes captured by the Americans should not be sold in French ports. At different times he commanded the American vessels of war to sail within twenty-four hours from French harbors. When the British wrath flamed out at some overt act of the Americans, Vergennes appeased it by vigorous and decisive acts of repression, aimed at the American captains and agents. A past master in soft and plausible answers, he excused flagrant violations of British rights by explaining that every government had some tempestuous spirits which were hard to control, and that the “avidity of gain” in merchants could not always be restrained. The British government could not object to the public acts of the French government, or to the reception which it gave to the American Commissioners, whom it received “privately with all civility,” but avoided an open reception, as it was “cautious of giving umbrage to England.” As regards its observance of the treaty of Utrecht, and its inability to grant the freedom of its ports to American vessels and their prizes, its declarations to the Commissioners were in line with those which it made to Lord Stormont. On the other hand, the Commissioners were given to understand, through secret and informal channels, that the Colonies had the sympathy of the French government; that so far as was consistent with French treaties, they might expect favors and indulgences; that the ports of France were open to American ships “as friends;” that ways of disposing of American prizes which would not be offensive to England might be found; and that other irregularities would be permitted unnoticed.[352] The Commissioners pressed their favors as far as they could safely go; indeed, so far, that at one time they endangered the continuance of their friendly relations with the French Court.