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gress, who will receive, with great pleasure, these new assurances of the friendly sentiments, which his Majesty is pleased to continue towards the United States.
I am equally persuaded they will pay the most serious attention to that part of your Excellency s letter, which mentions the infor mation you have received of certain acts or regulations of naviga tion and commerce, passed in some of the United States, which are injurious to the commerce of France. In the mean time, I wish to remove the unfavorable impressions which those acts seem to have made, as if they were a departure from the reciprocity of conduct, stipulated for by the treaty of February the 6th, 1776. The effect of that treaty, is, to place each party with the other, always on the footing of the most favored nation. But those who framed the acts, probably did not consider the treaty as restraining either, from discriminating between foreigners and natives. Yet this is the sole effect of these acts. The same opinion as to the meaning of the treaty, seems to have been entertained by this go vernment, both before and since the date of these acts. For the Arret of the King s Council, of August the 30th, 1784, furnished an example of such a discrimination between foreigners and natives, importing salted fish into his Majesty s dominions in the West In dies ; by laying a duty on that imported by foreigners, and giving out the same, in bounty, to native importers. This opinion shews itself more remarkably in the late Jlrrets of the 18th and 25th of September, which, increasing to excess the duty on foreign import ations of fish into the West Indies, giving the double, in bounty, on those of natives, and thereby rendering it impossible for the former to sell in competition with the latter, have, in effect, prohibited the importation of that article by the citizens of the United States.
Both nations, perhaps, may come into the opinion, that their friendship and their interests maybe better cemented, by approach ing the condition of their citizens, reciprocally, to that of natives, as a better ground of intercourse than that of the most favored na tion. I shall rest with hopes of being authorised, in due time, to inform your Excellency that nothing will be wanting, on our part, to evince a disposition to concur in revising whatever regulations, may, on either side, bear hard on the commerce of the other na tion. In the mean time, I have the honor to assure you of the. profound respect and esteem, with which
I have the honor to be, your Excellence s
most obedient and most humble servant,
TH: JEFFERSON.
