Thought of French being set free (12)
I believe the answer is:
deliberation
'thought' is the definition.
(deliberation is a kind of thought)
'of french being set free' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'of' could be 'o' and 'o' is found within the answer.
'being' could be 'rat' (rat is a kind of being) and 'rat' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for deliberation that I've seen before include "discussion" , "circumspection?" , "Long and careful consideration" , "Careful thought" , "Thinking about" .)