Volume 11 (MA 1268) of a 33-volume collection of the correspondence of Sir James Pulteney, his family and distinguished contemporaries. (MA 487, MA 297 and MA 1260-1290). The arrangement of the collection is alphabetical by the author of the letter. Items in the collection have been described individually in separate catalog records; see collection level record for more information (MA 1268.1-60).
Discussing the relationship with France; congratulating him on his return from Holland; saying "The testimony, which you had the liberality to give in favour of our Gallic Enemy and the humanity, which you shewed to the Dutch Farmers - are worthy of your own character and have a better effect in this conflict of civilisation than is commonly believed. Some Politicians will not thank you for either. The whole issue of the late Expedition is, in my mind, more important than if it had been more brilliant. It has gained us what is more valuable then the most splendid victories - that is a better knowledge of the war in which we are engaged, with much personal credit to our Generals & Soldiers. The Duke of York has learned in Holland that which your friend the Duke of Brunswick was taught in France, and what the present Emperor had learned in Flanders. What a lesson to Princes, nobles & Proprietors to unite in defence of the Power & majesty, which they still hold and which once they are revolved into other hands, are not so easily got back by a counter-Revolution? This is the abstract of all my political creeds and I begin to preach them now with some success; for misfortunes make them intelligible;" comparing Napoleon to George Washington and his consuls to Benjamin Franklin; offering his thoughts on the "issue of the Parisian contest. I would say that every regressive convulsion of the Revolution that tends to take the Power into fewer hands with the [illegible] punishment of their Predecessors is a triumph over Jacobinism in other words over popular Tyranny - I know something of the views of the new Parisian [illegible] - I have followed them from his first Italian successes - his Plans are less connected with the destroying system than those of his Predecessors, and tho' we are apprehensive of his supposed plans of pacific offers I see no reason why he may not end as a kind of Washington; while his fellow consul is following the trait of Franklin. We now receive ambassadors from late Rebels to our own Government without reluctance - the time may come when we may meet those of men who have been the Rebels of their own Government without honor - nous verrons...Europe & France will settle the present contest of Revolution, as England & America did theirs in 1783 - France like America will represent herself & in her own way and if she loses herself like other civilised States she will become innocent like them. If she takes distant boundaries so much the worse for her and the States with whom she is in contact. Let her renounce her interference in our interest and we shall soon learn to let her interior alone - She, like America, will, in the end, I trust, and like England after the American war - bond her debts - which debts so bonded become a medium of that commerce which binds and maintains the order & prosperity of nations. This is indemnity and security, which France & England have equally to look to. If we wish to push the contest further, we are only playing at [illegible] with a Bankrupt and a mad man - This was my doctrine in April '97 - and will be that in which the war will be closed in 103 - perhaps. that is if we close it without paying our debt to the Revolution."