It is a satire upon the declaration of Indepen∣dence, and an encouragement to the British government to treat America with contempt. At the time this minister of petitions was acting this miserable part, he had every means in his hands to enable him to have done his business as he ought. The success or failure of his mission depended upon the success or failure of the French arms. Had France failed, Mr. Jay might have put his humble petition in his pocket and gone home. The case happened to be otherwise, and he has sacrificed the honour and perhaps all the advantages of it, by turn∣ing petitioner. I take it for granted, that he was sent to demand indemnification for the captured property; and in this case, if he thought he wanted a preamble to his demand, he might have said: That tho' the government of England might sup∣pose itself under the necessity of seizing American property bound to France, yet that supposed ne∣cessity could not preclude indemnification to the proprietors, who, acting under the authority of their own government, were not accountable to any other.—But Mr. Jay sets out with an implied recognition of the right of the British government to seize and condemn; for he enters his complaint against the irregularity of the seizures and the condem∣nation, as if they were reprehensible only by not being conformable to the terms of the proclamation 0