Thoughts of the French about being made free (13)
I believe the answer is:
deliberations
'thoughts' is the definition.
(deliberation is a kind of thought)
'french about being made free' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'about' could be 'on' (as in a book 'on' a certain topic) and 'on' is present in the answer.
'being' could be 'rat' (rat is a kind of being) and 'rat' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'of the' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for deliberations that I've seen is " Formal discussions".)