ESTAING

“ BIGREL DE GRANDOLOS, «“ Secrétaire nommé par le roi à la suite de l’escadre “ commandée par M. le comte d'Estaing.

A bord du Languedoc, de l'imprimerie de F.-P.

Demange, imprimeur du roi et de l’escadre ”,

N. B.— Les nombreuses fautes qui se trouvent dans cette pièce figurent sur l'impression du bord 1.

En parlant de cette proclamation aussi mal imprimée qu'empnatique, de la Fayette écrivait à l'amiral :

“— Vôtre d-propos du Canada fait un effet admirable ; toutes les imaginations sont huchées sur des

raquettes et glissent le long du lac Champlain ”.

1 — À DEOLARATION ADRESSED IN THE NAMF O7 THE KING OF FRANOE TO ALL THE ANOIENT FRENOH IN Nu: AMERICA

Editor of Magazine of American History.

My brother, Rev. Dr. T. Stafford Drowne, has the original document with the above title, which was printed in French on board the ‘“ Languedoc ”’, for the count D’Estuing, October 28, 1778. It was translated from the French, and published in the ‘“ Massachusetts Spy ”, at Worcester, Massachusetts, December 10, 1778, a copy of which is now in my possession, and I take pleasure in presenting it to your readers.

Henry T. Drowwe.

The undersigned authorized by His Majesty, and thence cloathed with the noblest of titles, with that effaces all others; charged in the name of his Father of his country, and the beneficent protector of his subjects, to offer a support to those who were born to snjoy the blessings of his government.

To all his countrym.n in North America:

You were born French ; you could never cease to be French. The late war, which was not declared : ; by the captivity of

Néanmoins le Canadien-français resta sourd à cet appel et la suite prouvera qu'il a agi sagement et qu’il a bien fait,

Le fameux politique américain, Seward, après avoir

visité les côtes du Labrador et une partie du Canada,

nearly all our seamen, and the principal advantages of which our common enemies entirely owed to the courage, the talents, and the numbers of the brave Americans, who are now fighting against them, has wrested from you, that which is most dear to all men, even the name of your country. To compel you to bear the arms of Parracides against it, must be the completion of misfortunes. With this you are now threatened : A new war may justly make you dread being obliged to submit to this most valuable part of our trade. Too long already have a great number of unfortunate Frenchmen, been confined in American prisons. You hear their groans. The present war was declared by a message in March last from the King of Great Britain to both houses of Parliament ; a most authentic act of the British sovereignty, announcing to all orders of the State, that to trade (with America) though without excluding others from the same right, was to offend ; that frankly to avow such intention was to defy this sovereignty ; that she would revenge it and defer this only to a more advantageous opportunity, when she might doit with more appearance of legality than in the last war :—For she declared that she had the right, the will, and the ability to “evenge ; and accordingly she demanded of parliament the supplies.

The calamities of a war thus proclaimed have been restrained and retarded as much as was possible, by a Monarch whose pacific and disinterested views now reclaim the marks of your

tit

voyait plus clair que ses prédécesseurs. Dans le récit d’une croisière qu'il fit sur l’Emérence et qu'il publia dans “l’Albany's Evening Journal”, le fameux secré-.

taire d’État écrivait :

‘. Comme la plupart de mes compatriotes j'avais

en tête que le Canada n'était composé que d’une bande.

former attachment, only for your own happiness. Constrained to repel force by force, and multiplied hostilities by reprisals, which he has at last authorized, if necessity should carry his arms, or those of his allies into a country always dear to him, you have not to fear either burnings or devastations: And if gratitude, if the view of a flag always revered by those who have followed it, should recal to the banners of France, or of the United States, the Indians, who loved us, and have been loaded with presents by him, when they also call their 4 Father ” ; never, no never shall they employ against you their too cruel methods nf war. These they must renounce,. or they will cease to be our friends.

Itis not by manaces that we shall endeavour to avoid combating with our country men, nor shall we weaken this declaration by invectives against a great and brave nation, which we know how to respect, and hope to vanquish.

As a French gentleman, I need not to mention to those

‘among you who were born such as well as myself, that there

is but one august house in the universe, under which the French can be happy, and serve with pleasure ; since its head, and those who are most nearly allied to him by blood, have been at all, through a long line of monarchs, and are at this day more than ever delighted with bearing that very title which Henry IV regarded as the first of his own. I shall

de terre sise au nord des Etats-Unis. Il était facile de s'en emparer, parce que ses habitants pouvaient à peine

compter sur leurs propres ressources, Depuis je suis

not excite your regrets for those qualifications, those marks of distinctions, those decorations, which, in our matter of thinking, are precious treasures; but from which, by our common misfortunes, the American French, who have known so well how to deserve them are now precluded. These, I am bold to hope and to promise, their zeal will very soon procure to be diffused among them. They will merit them when they dare to become the frier.1s of our allies.

I shall not ask the gmilitary companions of the Marquis of Lévis, those who shared his glory, who admired his talents and genius for war, who loved his cordiality and frankness, the principal characteristics of our nobility, whether there be other names in other nations, among which they would be better pleased to place their own.

Can the Canadians, who saw the brave Montcalm fall in their defence, can they become the enemies of his nephews ? Can they fight against their former leaders, and arm themselves against their kinsmen? At the bare mention of their names the weapons would fall out of their hands.

I shall not observe to the ministers of the altars, that their evangelic efforts will require the special protection of Providence, to prevent faith being diminished by example, by worldly interest, and by sovereigns, whom force has imposed upon them, and whose political indulgence will be lessened proportionably as those sovereigns shall have less to fear, I shall not observe, that it is necessary for religion that those who preach it should form a body in the state; and that in Canada no other body would be more considered, or have more power to do good than that ofthe priests, taking a part in the government ; since their respective conduct has merited the confidence of the people.

bien revenu de cette idée. J’ai constaté que l'Amérique Britannique du Nord, s'étendant depuis Terreneuve jusqu’au Pacifique, occupe une partie considérable de la

zône tempérée. D'’innombrables lacs la couvre. On

I shall not represent to that people, not to all my countrymen in general, that a vast monarchy, having the same religion, the same manners, the same language, where they find kinsmen, old freinds, and brethren, must be an inexhaustible source of commerce and wealth, more easily acquired and better secured, by their union with powerful neighbours, than with strangers. of another hemisphere, among whom everything is different, and who, jealous and despotic sovereigns, would sooner or later treat them as a conquered people, and doubtles much worse that their late countrymen the Americans, who made them victorious. I shall not urge to a whole people that to join with the United States is to secure their own happiness ; since a whole people, when they acquire the right of thinking and acting for themselves, must know their own interest: but I will declare, and I now formally order in the name of His Majesty, wh9 has autkorized and commanded me to do it, that all his former subjects in North America, who shall no more acknowledge the supremacy of . Great Britain, may depend upon his protection and support.

Done on board of His Majesty's ship, the “ Languedoc ”, in the harbour of Boston, the twenty-eighth day of October, in the

year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight. EsTaINe,

Bigrel De Grandolos, Secretary appointed by the King, to the Squadron commanded by the Count d'Estaing. Printed on board the “ Languedoc”, by F. P. Demange, printer to the King and the Squadron.

Je donne cette traduction anglaise, à titre de curiosité ; la proclamation française étant l’originale. — F, pe Sr-M.

jouit ici de paysages merveilleux. Le Saint-Laurent traverse des contrées superbes, Il est constellé d'îles et il arrose un pays destiné à former plus tard un vaste empire. Les champs de blé de l’ouest, ses terrains de chasse et de pêche, ses forêts inépuisables — le plus éonsidérables de l’univers — ses pêcheries si renommées et à juste titre, ses mines à peine connues, sont les bases indestructibles de sa richesse nationale, On se méfie ici de l’Angleterre et des Etats-Unis; fort est celui qui se mettrait à entreprendre de conquérir ce beau pays. La politique la plus saine, la plus pratique des Etats-Unis est de rechercher l'alliance du Canada. Il en est temps encore, car nos voisins sont inexpérimentés et se rendent peu compte des hautes destinées qui les attendent. (Cela vaut mieux que d’avoir constamment les yeux tournés vers les vieilles colonies espagnoles et vers les côtes et les îles du golfe du Mexique.

“ Je ne vivrai pas assez longtemps pour voir cela, mais un jour viendra — et il est proche — où les Etats- Unis regretteront amèrernent ce moment de foli.

Napoléon lui-même, dans ses heures de mélancolie,

songeait au Canada sur son rocher de Sainte-Hélène.

SE et EE NL RRT RS

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Dans son Mémorial, Las Cases ne dit-il pas ?

“— Le 28. Dimanche l’empereur m'a fait appeler vers les deux heures. Nous avons parcouru quelques journaux. Ils nous apprenaient que son frère Joseph avait acheté de grandes propriétés au nord de l'Etat de New-York sur le fleuve Saint-Laurent, et qu’un grand nombre de Français se groupaient autour de lui de manière à fonder bientôt un établissement, On faisait observer que le choix du lieu semblait fait dans les intérêts des Etats-Unis et en opposition à la politique de l'Angleterre ; car dans le sud à la Louisiane, par exemple, les réfugiés n'avaient pu avoir d’autres vues et d'autre avenir que le repos et la prospérité domestique ; tandis qu’au lieu où on les plaçait il était évident qu’ils devaient devenir bientôt un attrait naturel pour la population du Canada déjà français et former par la suite une barrière ou même un point hostile contre les Anglais qui en sont encore les dominateurs. L'empereur disait que cet établissement devait compter en peu de temps une réunion d'hommes très forts dans tous les genres. S'ils remplissaient leur devoir, ajoutait-il, il sortirait de là d'excellents écrits, des réfuta-

tions victorieuses du système qui triomphe aujourd’hui

en Europe. L'Empereur ajoute qu'il avait déjà eu à l'île d'Elbe quelque idée semblable ”.

#— Plus tard, dit de Las Cases, dans une longue conversation privée du matin, l’empereur revenait sur toutes les horreurs de notre situation à Sainte- Hélène, Il épuisait les chances d’un meilleur avenir, A la suite de tous ces objets que je ne puis rendre ici, s’'abandonnant à son imagination, il disait qu'il n’y avait plus pour lui de séjour que l'Angleterre et l'Amérique. Celui de son inclination, ajoutait-il, serait l'Amérique française, parce qu’il y serait vraiement libre et qu’il n’aspirait qu’à l’indépendance et au repos. Il faisait alors son roman, Il se voyait près de son frère Joseph entouré

d’une petite France,