means as he may judge best." 5. Suspension of the treaties with France; 6.
An army of sixteen thousand men, with provision for twenty thousand more
should occasion demand; 7. A loan and an adequate system of taxation.

These recommendations are substantially identical with those made by
Hamilton in a letter to Pickering, and the presumption is strong that
McHenry's paper is a product of Hamilton's influence, and that it had the
concurrence of Pickering and Wolcott. The suggestion that the President
should be given discretionary authority in the matter of procuring ships
of the line contemplated the possibility of obtaining them by transfer
from England, not through formal alliance but as an incident of a
coöperation to be arranged by negotiation, whose objects would also
include aid in placing a loan and permission for American ships to join
British convoys. This feature of McHenry's recommendations could not be
curried out Pickering soon informed Hamilton that the old animosities were
still so active "in some breasts" that the plan of cooperation was
impracticable.

Meanwhile the composite mission had accomplished nothing except to make
clear the actual character of French policy. When the envoys arrived in
France, the Directory had found in Napoleon Bonaparte an instrument of
power that was stunning Europe by its tremendous blows. That instrument
had not yet turned to the reorganization of France herself, and at the
time it served the rapacious designs of the Directory. Europe was looted
wherever the arms of France prevailed, and the levying of tribute both on
public and on private account was the order of the day. Talleyrand was the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, and he treated the envoys with a mixture of
menace and cajolery. It was a part of his tactics to sever the Republican
member, Gerry, from his Federalist colleagues. Gerry was weak enough to be
caught by Talleyrand's snare, and he was foolish enough to attribute the