And in the Armistice it is expressly said, that their private property of every description shall be conveyed to France along with their persons.

What then are we to understand by the words, _their private property of every description_?
Equipments of the army in general, and baggage of individuals, had been stipulated for before: now we all know that the lawful professional gains and earnings of a soldier must be small; that he is not in the habit of carrying about him, during actual warfare, any accumulation of these or other property; and that the ordinary private property, which he can be supposed to have a _just_ title to, is included under the name of his _baggage_;--therefore this was something more; and what it was--is apparent.

No part of their property, says the Armistice, shall be _wrested from them_.

Who does not see in these words the consciousness of guilt, an indirect self-betraying admission that they had in their hands treasures which might be lawfully taken from them, and an anxiety to prevent that act of justice by a positive stipulation?
Who does not see, on what sort of property the Frenchman had his eye; that it was not property by right, but their _possessions_--their plunder--every thing, by what means soever acquired, that the French army, or any individual in it, was possessed of?
But it has been urged, that the monstrousness of such a supposition precludes this interpretation, renders it impossible that it could either be intended by the one party, or so understood by the other.

What right they who signed, and he who ratified this Convention, have to shelter themselves under this plea--will appear from the 16th and 17th articles.