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tain Hodsheadson, all three armed in Philadelphia, committed a most grievous outrage on the 2d of December last on the coast of Norway, where they seized two English merchantmen and burnt them, after plundering them and sending away their crews. The circumstances are more particularly detailed in the protest enclosed, made on the spot. It has moreover been proved, by the report of his Danish Majesty's grand bailiff at Christiansand, that, the aforesaid American vessels having anchored in the port of Fleckeroe, before their meeting with the Englishmen, and displayed French colors, he had asked of the French consul information respecting their sea papers, and that the latter, on examining their contents, declared that they were not furnished with any letters of marque on the part of Congress. Their conduct proves this also in having burnt their prizes, notwithstanding the offers of ransom made them by the English captains. It therefore follows, that they can only be considered as pirates, whose crimes are greatly aggravated by a manifest infraction of his Danish Majesty's territorial rights.

The undersigned, his Envoy Extraordinary, has received precise orders to communicate these particulars to his Excellency, the Count de Vergennes, requesting, with every possible confidence, the intervention of his Most Christian Majesty with the United States of America, to effect not only the punishment of the guilty persons, but also to obtain an indemnification for the vessels and cargoes that were burnt, of which an exact statement shall be furnished; and this satisfaction is due, to repair the excesses committed on his Majesty's territory. DE BLOME.

TO JOHN BARRY.

Requesting him to take public Goods to America for the Use of the Troops.

SIR,

Passy, 10 February, 1782.

I have been honored by yours of the 31st past, and am glad to find you are willing to take over some of the public goods. I should not desire it of you, if certain circumstances unforeseen had not rendered it necessary. The goods are for the use of our troops and marine, and were collected at Brest, with an intention of sending them in certain transports, which were prepared for that purpose by the government. The loss of a number of transports, taken by Kempenfeld's squadron, which were carrying stores for the King's fleet and army, making it necessary to replace those stores and forward them immediately, it has been found, that there is no room for ours, and that sufficient new transports cannot readily be obtained.

It has therefore been proposed to me, to put into your ship what you can well receive, and to get freight if I can for the rest, to go under your convoy. Mr. Barclay, who is acquainted with such business, is not yet returned, but I expect him daily. In the mean time I wish you would proceed to Brest immediately, where you will find orders given to the commissary to deliver so much of the Congress stores to you as you shall think fit to receive. My despatches for America shall also meet you there; and, as the quantity of goods may possibly render your ship less fit for sailing or fighting, it would perhaps be well if you concluded to sail with the King's ships, which convoy the transports, and who will probably depart by the middle of

March. Though you have not, as you observe, any orders for this operation, I am persuaded that its utility and necessity, together with this letter, will be deemed a full justification. Endeavours are using to procure freight for the rest, to go under the same convoy, but perhaps it may not be possible to do it in time. If you can engage any from L'Orient, it will be doing great service. The goods in all will make about one thousand tons. With great esteem, I have the honor to be, &c.

B. FRANKLIN.

FROM ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON TO B. FRANKLIN.

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Suf

Pressing for further Assistance from France. ferings of American Prisoners in England. - Disturbances in Vermont and New Hampshire.

DEAR SIR,

Philadelphia, 13 February, 1782.

We have been extremely alarmed at some communications, which the minister of France made me from his last letters. They look extremely as if the Count de Vergennes imagined, that neither Spain nor Holland was anxious for our success. They discourage the idea of a loan from them, or even from France. Our letters from Holland confirm these conjectures, so far as they relate to that State. Mr. Adams seems almost to despair of doing any thing with respect to an alliance or loan, and from Mr. Jay we have heard nothing in a very long time, and are ignorant of any steps he may have taken since the appointment of M. del Campo to treat with him.

These mortifying disappointments oblige us, though reluctantly, to call upon France for further assistance.

Your solicitations will be infinitely useful to your country, if they procure for it what I will venture to pronounce essential to their safety. In this spirit, the instruction, which I do myself the honor to enclose, has passed Congress, and a second resolution, which I also enclose, which leads to such information as will enable you to convince the court of France, that their navy can nowhere be more effectually employed to distress the common enemy than in America. I own this consideration is a great relief to my feelings, when we make these importunate demands for money; and I hope it will enable you to press them with some degree of dignity.

That France can aid us is not to be doubted, for it is certain she never carried on a war that distressed her finances less. She has no expensive sub sidies to pay; her money is expended either at home, or in a country from whence it returns. Her army is not greatly increased, and her commerce under the protection of her fleets enjoys a security, that it seldom has experienced before. I would not, however, have you suppose, that this is the language I hold here. I know too well the necessity of making every exertion, which in our present impoverished situation we are capable of; and I neglect no means, which my present station puts it in my power to call forth.

Congress have taken every wise measure for that purpose, and I firmly persuade myself, that we shall be able to form the most vigorous coöperation with such force as his Majesty may please to send out. I am confident that the peace must be made in America. Every blow here is fatal to the grand object of the present war; to the hopes, to the wishes, and to the pride of Great Britain. Other conquests she ex

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pects to have restored upon a peace; what is lost here she knows to be lost for ever.

The daily complaints that we receive from seamen confined in England concur with humanity and the national honor, to render some expedient for their relief necessary. I need not, I am persuaded, recommend this to your particular care. We have not yet obtained, at least as far as I can learn, a compensation for the prisoners taken by Paul Jones and returned to England. Is it impossible, either to settle a cartel in Europe, or to have the Americans confined there sent to New York for exchange? The last proposition is so much in favor of England, that it would probably be acceded to; and yet, such is the distress of the people who have been long confined, that it would be desirable to have the offer made. I am just now applied to by a Mrs. Simmonds, whose hus band is the mate of a vessel, and has been two years confined in Mill Prison; it would be an act of charity to attempt to procure his relief. You will do me the favor to collect and transmit a list of the numbers confined in England, and, as far as possible, for the satisfaction of their friends, of the names.

We have not a word of intelligence to communicate, unless it be some little disturbances in the country, which has been distinguished by the names of New Hampshire Grants, and Vermont; and which it may be proper to mention to you, since the facility with which the British deceive themselves, and the address with which they deceive others, may render it a matter of moment in Europe, though in fact it is of none in America. The bulk of the people of that country are "New England Presbyterian Whigs." Some of those, in possession of the powers of government, have more address than principle. Finding

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