them, & supply the Men with Necessaries. The Prisoners too who escape from England, claim a very expensive Assistance from us, and are much dissatisfied with the scanty Allowance we are able to afford them. The Interest Bills above mentioned, of the Drawing of which we have receiv'd Notice, amount to two Millions & an half, and we have not a fifth part of the Sum in our Banker's hands to answer them. And large Orders to us from Congress for Supplies of Cloathing, Arms & Ammunition, remain uncomply'd with for want of Money.

In this Situation of our Affairs, we hope you will not insist on our giving you a farther Credit with our Banker, with whom we are daily in danger of having no farther Credit ourselves. It is not a Year since you received from us the sum of Two Thousand Guineas, which you thought necessary on Acct of your being to set out immediately for Florence. You have not incurr'd the Expence of that Journey. You are a Gentleman of Fortune. You did not come to France with any Dependence on being maintain'd here with your Family at the Expence of the United States, in the Time of their Distress, and without rendring them the equivalent Service they expected.

On all these Considerations we should rather hope that you would be willing to reimburse us the Sum we have advanc'd to you, if it may be done with any possible Convenience to your Affairs. Such a Supply would at least enable us to relieve more liberally our unfortunate Countrymen, who have long been Prisoners, stript of every thing, of whom we daily expect to have near three hundred upon our hands by the Exchange. We have the honour to be, &c.

943. TO THE COMMITTEE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS (A. P. S.)

GENTLEMEN,

Passy, Jan. 15. 1779.

It being undoubtedly our Duty to give the clearest Account to Congress of the Disbursement of their Money intrusted to us; and as I apprehend our advancing to William Lee and Ralph Izard Esquires so large a Sum as Four Thousand Guineas at once, in Feb., 1778, without any Order of Congress for so doing, and at a time when Money was much Wanted to fulfil their actual Orders in the Purchase of Arms, &c., may subject the Commissioners to censure, I think it right & necessary to relate the Circumstances, that they may be communicated to our Constituents.

Those Gentlemen, then, having represented to Mr. Deane, Mr. Lee & myself, that tho' they had received Commissions to go & reside at the Courts of Berlin, Vienna, & Florence, no Provision had arrived for their Subsistence; that they were nearly ready to set out for their respective Destinations, but wanted Money to defray the Expence of their Journeys; for which, they therefore requested us to furnish them with a Credit on our Banker; the Commissioners, fearing that the Public Interests might possibly suffer, if those Journeys were delay'd till the necessary Provision or Orders should arrive from America, thought they might be justified in giving such a Credit, for the Expence of those Journeys; and Mr. Lee, being ask'd what sum he imagin'd would be necessary, said justly that the Expence of his Journey could not be exactly ascertain'd beforehand; but, if he were empower'd to draw on our Banker, he should certainly only

take from time to time what was absolutely necessary, and therefore it was of little Importance for what Sum the Credit should be order'd; it would however look handsome & confidential, if the sum were two Thousand Louis. We thereupon confiding that no more of this Money would be taken out of our Disposition, than the Expences of the Journeys as they should accrue, did frankly but unwarily give the Orders.

Mr. Deane and myself were, however, soon surpriz'd with the Intelligence, that the Gentlemen had gone directly to the Banker, & by Virtue of these Orders had taken out of our Account the whole Sum mentioned, & carried it to their own; leaving the Money indeed in his Hands, but requiring his Receipt for it as their Money, for which he was to be accountable to them only.

This enormous Sum having been received by those Gentlemen not above ten months, I was still more surpriz'd, when the following Letters were communicated to me by my present Colleagues, requiring more Money. My colleague, Mr. Adams, was at first as much surpriz'd as myself.

944. TO DAVID HARTLEY

(D. S. W.)

Passy, January 25, 1779

DEAR SIR: -I a long time believed that your government were in earnest in agreeing to an exchange of prisoners.

1 Here the manuscript breaks off, apparently in an unfinished state, and it is uncertain whether this letter was sent. The substance of it, however, is contained in a letter to the Committee of Foreign Affairs dated May 26, 1779.-ED.

I begin now to think I was mistaken. It seems they cannot give up the pleasing idea of having at the end of the war one thousand Americans to hang for high treason. You were also long of opinion that the animosity against America was not national or general; but having seen the exterminating proclamation of the Commissioners approved by kings, lords, and commons, and that not attended by any marks of popular disapprobation, perhaps you too begin to think you are mistaken. I thank you for writing those excellent letters to your constituents. I like all but your reflections against the king of France for assisting us. In my mind, the coming to the relief of an innocent people under the bloody oppressions your ministers were exercising over them, and exposing himself and nation to a war on their account, was not only what any prince had a right to do for the sake of common humanity, but was a magnanimous and heroic action that is admired at present by the wise and good through all Europe, and will hand his name down with glory to posterity. Our different ways of thinking in this particular will not, however, diminish our private friendship, nor impair the sentiments of sincere esteem and respect with which I am ever, dear sir,

945.

Yours,

B. FRANKLIN.

TO MRS. MARGARET STEVENSON' (P. C.)
Jan 25, 1779.

It is always with great Pleasure, when I think of our long continu'd Friendship, which had not the least Interruption 1 From the original in the possession of T. Hewson Bradford, M.D. ED.

in the Course of Twenty Years (some of the happiest of my Life), that I spent under your Roof and in your Company. If I do not write to you as often as I us'd to do, when I happen'd to be absent from you, it is owing partly to the present Difficulty of sure Communication, and partly to an Apprehension of some possible Inconvenience, that my Correspondence might occasion you. Be assured, my dear Friend, that my Regard, Esteem, and Affection for you, are not in the least impair'd or diminish'd; and that, if Circumstances would permit, nothing would afford me so much Satisfaction, as to be with you in the same House, and to experience again your faithful, tender Care, and Attention to my Interests, Health, and Comfortable Living, which so long and steadily attach'd me to you, and which I shall ever remember with Gratitude.

I thought I had mention'd to you before, (and I believe I did, tho' my Letter may have miscarried,) that I had received the white Cloth Suit, the Sword, and the Saddle for Temple, all in good Order. I mention them now again, because Polly tells me you had not heard of their Arrival. And I repeat my Thanks for your Care in sending them. I wore the Clothes a good deal last Summer. There is one thing more, that I wish to have, if you should meet with an Opportunity of sending it. I mean the Copper Pot, lin'd with Silver, to roast Fowls in by means of a Heater.1 I should also be glad of the Piece of Elephant's Tooth. It is old Ivory, perhaps of the time before the Flood, and

1 Franklin when at Sheffield with Dr. Ingenhousz purchased a copper pot for roasting chickens by a bolt of iron. He erred in supposing that it was in the possession of Mrs. Stevenson in London, for it had really been carried to Vienna by Ingenhousz who in a letter dated May 25, 1779, promised to return the "roasting vessel."-ED.