The French government, on the eve of the French Revolution, was in dreadful financial trouble, and saw its position weakened even more with the outbreak of civil war in Holland. French enthusiasm for Pigneau's plan was severely dampened. A few days after the treaty was signed, the foreign minister sent instructions on 2 December 1787 to the Governor of Pondicherry Thomas Conway, which left the execution of the treaty to his own appreciation of the situation in Asia, stating that he was "free not to accomplish the expedition, or to delay it, according to his own opinion" Louis XVI himself told Pigneau that Conway was appointed Governor of Pondicherry simply to remove him from Europe.