The money due by France has been provided by the Chambers, and has been
placed at the disposal of the French Government for the purpose of being
paid to the United States. But questions have arisen between the two
Governments in the progress of those transactions affecting on both
sides the feelings of national honor, and it is on this ground that the
relations between the parties have been for the moment suspended and are
in danger of being more seriously interrupted.
In this state of things the British Government is led to think that the
good offices of a third power equally the friend of France and of the
United States, and prompted by considerations of the highest order most
earnestly to wish for the continuance of peace, might be useful in
restoring a good understanding between the two parties on a footing
consistent with the nicest feelings of national honor in both.
The undersigned has therefore been instructed by His Majesty's
Government formally to tender to the Government of the United States the
mediation of Great Britain for the settlement of the differences between
the United States and France, and to say that a note precisely similar
to the present has been delivered to the French Government by His
Majesty's ambassador at Paris.
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