I found great delicacy as a stranger in making my observations upon these
resolutions, and yet I thought I ought not to pass them over wholly in
silence, but particularly the last. I therefore rose up, and stated that
there was one resolution, of which I did not quite see the propriety. But
this might arise from my ignorance of the customs, as well as of the genius
and spirit of the French people. It struck me that an application from a
little committee in England to the National Assembly of France was not a
dignified measure, nor was it likely to have weight with such a body. It
was, besides, contrary to all the habits of propriety, in which I had been
educated. The British Parliament did not usually receive petitions from the
subjects of other nations. It was this feeling, which had induced me thus
to speak.
To these observations it was replied, that the National Assembly of France
would glory in going contrary to the example of other nations in a case of
generosity and justice, and that the petition in question, if it could be
obtained, would have an influence there, which the people of England,
unacquainted with the sentiments of the French nation, would hardly credit.
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