Folio 1: Finch to [?Harrington]. Am informing you of the result of 2 conferences...

Folio 1: Finch to [?Harrington]. Am informing you of the result of 2 conferences which have taken place with Count Osterman on our Grand Affair and as the good service between our 2 courts and the proceedings of the negotiation under discussion depend on faithfuland exact account of everything that has passed, I believed I should write my minutes in French as designed for Osterman so that he can see that nothing is forgotten by one's inadvertance or added by my design and so that minister can not say, if something is misunderstood, that he could ever suspect that I had misrepresented it. When he had seen and approved this, it will be sent to you by courier without changing one iota, thus having a kind of authenticity approaching a correct procedure. We were like real weather-cocks at liberty. No discussion came to anything nor advanced the negotiation a single step. I proposed to him that explanations should be put on paper of the lesser difficulties which might continue subsequently, since in that manner I would be able to detail all the reasons that had determined HM to propose each condition, Osterman, having agreed to this expedient, began at once to put on paper the explanations on each article according to the note taken, serving me for this purpose with those good materials which you put in my hands, of which I send a copy for you to see it is originally your work, not only the translation which I tried to render faithfully which belongs to me. From beginning of negotiation Osterman asked on every occasion about the title. Minutes of article discussed. Osterman had taken word for word from article 5 of Campredon's treaty. Terms objected to could be erased without difficulty. It appeared to me of little consequence what Czarina was called, even the master. Having determined this, we took the project in hand. Small alterations in preamble. Our difficulties began at article 4. Osterman said that one could wish not only that maritime aid proposed by HM but the same body of land troops that he asked from Russia could also be stipulated from his side according to article 6 of Campredon. Discussions on Russian troops and English fleet. About this Osterman said it should not serve against Sweden alone, but against neighbours Poland and Prussia if need be. There were only land troops who could be useful to Russia. I asked him to consider that in the following article there was a sum of money to provide aid on one part, and even if not asked for on the other. For if in this case it could be given that the Russians had no need of our fleet or in another case it could be given equally that England had no need of their troops I represented even more to Osterman that if England had wanted more help from Russia by sea than land and would not want to return help except by sea, that would be unequal, which I would be the first to admit. Dated St Petersburg 1 Nov 1740. French.