Paris, and in winter there were few opportunities to send letters; moreover, if they escaped the constant peril of capture by the English, they were liable to be read by the foreign postal authorities. Months often passed without the successful exchange of a letter, and some of the most important papers fell into the hands of the enemy. Under such circumstances the American representatives abroad were to a remarkable degree thrown upon their own responsibility, and might well feel that the fate of a nation depended upon their wisdom.1

terest

More important than such facts was the attitude in which Deane would find Europe waiting. Primarily that atEuropean in- titude was one of intense interest. From the first moment that the Revolution took form the chancelleries of Europe watched with minute attention. The press of Amsterdam teemed with translations of American pamphlets and original discussions of the American situation. From 1774 half the bulk of the Paris and London correspondence of every court of Europe consisted of American news; the ministry of Naples knew in detail of every happening in Philadelphia; at Rome Mgr. Lazzari began a diary of the American Revolution. Never since then, unless possibly in 1900, has this country absorbed so much of the attention of continental Europe.2

sympathy

The vogue of America rested largely on the belief that in that far-off non-contagious land the vision of Rousseau was Sentimental being materialized. The American leaders, such as Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams, were picturesque and appealing in their sentiments and eloquence; in one section of French society liberalism was fashionable; if one may judge from the conduct of the nobility early in the French Revolution it was more than fashionable. Even to those to whom it did not appeal, the liberal experiment was compelling in its possibilities. Sympathy

1 See page 23, note 1.

2 Fish, Guide, 74, 75, 118, 233–235, 240–241, 246, 250.

hung in the balance, but the audience was on tiptoe following the action.1

If America seemed less picturesque to the men of affairs, it seemed also less remote. For a hundred years every war had tended to become a general war. Since Hatred of 1763 England had been regarded as the bully England of Europe, and the strength of England was believed to lie in her commerce and her colonies. The possible disintegration of the British empire was a subject that nearly touched that holy of holies of the European statesman, the balance of power. To France the situation came not entirely as a surprise. Choiseul had predicted it in 1763, France had maintained secret agents in the colonies from that time, and the king himself had attended to their reports. Toward France, therefore, the eyes of the nations were directed as closely as toward London and America.

Turgot

In France Louis XVI, "the Good," had succeeded to the throne in 1774. Neither he nor the prime minister, Maurepas, was the driving force; the energy of the govern- Vergennes and ment lay with Turgot, the minister of finance, and Vergennes, the minister of foreign affairs. Both intent upon revenge on England, Turgot wished for a longer period of recuperation, whereas Vergennes was eager to take advantage of this unique opportunity. In two papers entitled "Réflexions" and "Considérations," the latter urged his views. The colonists, he said, must be supported. If they were conquered, England would turn her armies in America upon the French and Spanish West Indies. It was more likely, however, that the war would cause the overthrow of the existing British ministry and the recall of William Pitt, now earl of Chatham. That sinister genius, the idol of the colonies, would probably effect a reconciliation, and, with

1 For a running account, see J. B. Perkins, France in the American Revolution, Boston, etc., 1911; for the documents, Henri Doniol, Histoire de la participation de la France à l'établissement des Etats Unis d'Amérique, 5 vols., Par s, 1886-92.

the combined forces of England and America, "une epée nue dans les mains d'un furieux," would devastate the world.1

France, however, could not well act openly without Spain. Their fleets together might hope to meet that of England, but that of France alone could not. Spain, Spain delays French action under Charles III and his minister Florida Blanca, was somewhat more energetic than usual. She was still united with France in the Family Alliance, and she desired to regain Florida and Gibraltar. On the other hand, it seemed rash for the greatest colonial power to encourage revolting colonies; besides, she was not fully ready for war, and again the habitual Spanish procrastination stood in the way of prompt action. While goading Spain into activity, Vergennes advised Louis XVI to await her decision before going to war, but meantime by secret succor to prevent the colonies from falling before British arms or promises.

It was possibly the opening of this middle way, rendering unnecessary a definite decision, from which Louis XVI

Tentative sistance

as- shrank almost as nervously as did Charles III, that secured for Vergennes his victory over Turgot and the direction of French policy. On May 2, 1776, he was authorized to use a million francs for the colonies, to which Spain soon added another million. To employ these sums for the colonists, without the knowledge, or at any rate without the proved knowledge, of England, Vergennes had recourse to Pierre de Beaumarchais, a playwright and litterateur, who escaped being a charlatan by being something of a genius, and who had served as a special agent for Vergennes in England.2

Beaumarchais organized a commercial company, under the name of Rodriguez Hortalie and Company, to deal in American products. Through Dumas, a Dutch friend of

1 Charlemagne Tower, The Marquis de La Fayette (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1895), i. 74, 92-97, 108-113.

2 C. J. Stillé, Beaumarchais and "The Lost Million," (Philadelphia, 1886).

Franklin, he was put in touch with Arthur Lee, an American just then in Paris. When, therefore, Deane arrived in France he found everything prepared for him. Beaumarchais The initiative came from neither side alone, but and Lafayette each putting forth its antennæ encountered the other. Nor was the preparation confined to that of the government. In that military age war, anywhere attracted the adventurous. Soldiers of fortune looked to America as a field for possible glory and emolument, while some men, like the young Marquis de Lafayette, burned to baptize their swords in the cause of liberty. Deane was overwhelmed with offers of assistance, as well as with requests for commissions in the American army; and he sent home not only a number of officers, good and bad, but, what was still more necessary, arms from French arsenals, paid for by the French and Spanish millions or to be paid for by cargoes of tobacco. Beaumarchais wrote to Congress, "Your deputies, gentlemen, will find in me a sure friend, an asylum in my house, money in my coffers, and every means of prosecuting their operations whether of a public or a secret nature."

Meantime the Declaration of Independence had been issued and the new United States could reveal its policy. Its representatives need no longer be inconspicuous;

Franklin

accordingly, in September it sent to France its most illustrious citizen, Benjamin Franklin. From his arrival in 1776 till his departure in 1785, sometimes as one of several commissioners, sometimes as sole minister to France, Franklin was universally thought of as the representative of the American cause in Europe. Arriving in Paris at the age of seventy, and preceded by his reputation as a statesman, but still better known as the author of Poor Richard's Almanac and by his discoveries in electricity, he presented to the curious gaze of those who thought to see for the first time in the flesh one of those Arcadians who were becoming the support of conversation, a benignant countenance with gray locks "appearing under a martin fur cap." His lack of ac

quaintance with French court etiquette he concealed under a cloak of agreeable eccentricity, which he knew how to render interesting and not too strange, just as he kept his costume simple but not too simple. Honesty had so long been his policy that it shone from his face, and he captured at once, and contrived to deserve, the complete confidence of the entire diplomatic corps. Perhaps only those who had business with him realized that his disarming ingenuousness of appearance was not unaccompanied by a subtlety based upon a knowledge of human nature more comprehensive than that of Lincoln, though not so profound. All, however, came to realize that the intellect under the fur cap was unique, and that of all great minds produced by America his was the most nearly akin to the Gallic. His pregnant wit passed rapidly from mouth to mouth. His satiric skits were expressed with an artistic delicacy as pleasing to the Parisian as unusual among Americans. Moreover, his artistic sense for language seems but to have reflected his mastery of the art of living. His tact and sympathetic consideration won those who associated intimately with him, while he did not disdain to employ a nicely calculated breadth of acting which gained the remote spectators of the gallery.1

Franklin cap

Franklin took Paris by storm. His piquant sayings and writings caught the public attention, his shoe buckles became the fashion, his pictures were everywhere tures Paris for sale. The best Latin verse since the Augustan age was forged in his honor: "Eripuit cælo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis," "He snatched from Heaven the thunderbolt, the scepter also from tyrants." Hesitant society swung to the American side, and society was at that period the public in France. That Franklin enjoyed himself is clear, and that he liked the French, who liked him, was only natural. It is true that he became very close to those

E. E. Hale and E. E. Hale, Jr., Franklin in France, 2 vols., Boston, 1887-88; and, more particularly, Franklin's Works (ed. John Bigelow, 10 vols., New York, 1887-88), vols. vi.-ix.