By one party, the system pursued by the existing administration with regard to the belligerent powers, had been uniformly approved; by the other, it had been as uniformly condemned.

In the contests therefore which preceded the choice of electors, the justice of the complaints which were made on the part of the French republic were minutely discussed, and the consequences which were to be apprehended from her resentment, or from yielding to her pretensions, were reciprocally urged as considerations entitled to great weight in the ensuing election.
[Sidenote: The minister of France endeavors to influence the approaching election.] In such a struggle, it was not to be expected that foreign powers could feel absolutely unconcerned.

In November, while the parties were so balanced that neither scale could be perceived to preponderate, Mr.
Adet addressed a letter to the secretary of state, in which he recapitulated the numerous complaints which had been urged by himself and his predecessors, against the government of the United States; and reproached that government, in terms of great asperity, with violating those treaties which had secured its independence, with ingratitude to France, and with partiality to England.

These wrongs, which commenced with the "_insidious_" proclamation of neutrality, were said to be so aggravated by the treaty concluded with Great Britain, that Mr.Adet announced the orders of the Directory to suspend his ministerial functions with the federal government.

"But the cause," he added, "which had so long restrained the just resentment of the executive Directory from bursting forth, now tempered its effects.