The quarrel you mention, between Mr Deane and Mr Lee, I have never meddled with, and have no intention to take any part in it whatever. I had and have still a very good opinion of Mr Deane, for his zeal and activity in the service of his country; I also thought him a man of integrity. But if he has embezzled public money, or traded with it on his private account, or employed it in stockjobbing, all which I understand he is charged with, I give him up. As yet, I think him innocent. But he and his accusers are able to plead their own causes, and time will show what we ought to think of them.

I send you with this, a piece written by a learned friend of mine on the taxation of free States, which I imagine

Also a late royal edict,"

may give you some pleasure. for abolishing the remains of slavery in this kingdom. Who would have thought, a few years since, that we should live to see a king of France giving freedom to slaves, while a king of England is endeavoring to make slaves of freemen.

There is much talk all over Europe of an approaching peace by the mediation of Russia and Holland. I have no information of it to be depended on, and believe we ought to lay our account on another campaign, for which I hope you will receive in time the supplies demanded. Nothing is wanting on my part to forward them; and I have the satisfaction to assure you, that I do not find the regard of this Court for the Congress and its servants in any respect diminished. We have just heard from Norway, that two of the most valuable prizes taken by the' Alliance, Captain Landais, in the squadron of Commodore Jones, are safe arrived at Bergen, viz. the ship from London to Quebec, laden with naval stores, and that from Liv

erpool to New York and Jamaica. They were letters of marque, of twentytwo guns and eightyfour men each; I wish we may get them safe to America. The squadron itself is got into Holland, with the two prize men of war, where they are all refitting. Great damage has been done to the English coal trade, and four hundred prisoners have been taken, which will more than redeem the rest of our people from their captivity in England, if we can get them safe from Holland to France; but I suppose the English will endeavor to intercept us, and recover their ships, if possible.

With great esteem for yourself and the Committee, I have the honor to be, &c.

B. FRANKLIN.

TO R. BERNSTORF, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS IN

DENMARK.

Sir,

Passy, December 22d, 1779.

I have received a letter from M. de Chezaulx, Consul of France at Bergen in Norway, acquainting me that two ships, viz. the Betsey and the Union, prizes taken from the English on their coasts by Captain Landais, Commander of the Alliance frigate, appertaining to the United States of North America, which prizes having met with bad weather at sea, that had damaged their rigging, and had occasioned leaks, and been weakly manned, had taken shelter in the supposed neutral port of Bergen, in order to repair their damages, procure an additional number of sailors, and the necessary refreshments; that they were in the said port enjoying, as they conceived, the common rights of hospi

tality, established and practised by civilized nations under the care of the above said Consul, when, on the 28th of October last, the said ships, with their cargoes and papers, were suddenly seized by officers of his Majesty, the King of Denmark, to whom the said port belongs; the American officers and seamen turned out of their possession, and the whole delivered to the English Consul.

M. de Chezaulx has also sent me the following as a translation of his Majesty's order, by which the above proceedings are said to be authorised, viz. "The English Minister having insisted on the restitution of two vessels, which had been taken by the American privateer called the Alliance, commanded by Captain Landais, and which were brought into Bergen, viz. the Betsey of Liverpool, and the Union of London, his Majesty has granted this demand on this account, because he has not as yet acknowledged the independence of the Colonies associated against England, and because that these vessels for this reason cannot be considered as good and lawful prizes. Therefore, the said two ships shall be immediately liberated and allowed to depart with their cargoes." By a subsequent letter from the same Consul, I am informed, that a third prize belonging to the United States, viz. the Charming Polly, which arrived at Bergen after the others, has also been seized and delivered up in the same manner; and that all the people of the three vessels, after being thus stripped of their property, (for every one had an interest in the prizes) were turned on shore to shift for themselves, without money, in a strange place, no provision being made for their subsistence, or for sending them back to their country.

Permit me, Sir, to observe on this occasion, that the United States of America have no war but with the English;

they have never done any injury to other nations, particularly none to the Danish nation;' on the contrary, they are in some degree its benefactors, as they have opened a trade of which the English made a monopoly, and of which the Danes may now have their share, and by dividing the British Empire, have made it less dangerous to its neighbors. They conceived, that every nation whom they had not offended was by the rights of humanity their friend; they confided in the hospitality of Denmark, and thought themselves and their property safe when under the roof of his Danish Majesty. But they find themselves stripped of that property, and the same given up to their enemies, on this principle only, that no acknowledgment had yet been formally made by Denmark of the independence of the United States; which is to say, that there is no obligation of justice towards any nation with whom a treaty, promising the same, has not been previously made. This was indeed the doctrine of ancient barbarians, a doctrine long since exploded, and which it would not be for the honor of the present age to revive, and it is hoped, that Denmark will not, by supporting and persisting in this decision, obtained of his Majesty apparently by surprise, be the first modern nation, that shall attempt to revive it.*

* "The ancients," says Vattel, "did not conceive themselves bound under any obligation towards a people with whom they were not connected by a treaty of friendship. At length the voice of nature was heard by civilized nations; they acknowledged all mankind as brothers." An injustice of the same kind, done a century or two since by some English in the East Indies, Grotius tells us "was not without its partisans, who maintained, that by the ancient laws of England, no one was liable to punishment in that kingdom for outrages committed against foreigners, when no treaty of alliance had been contracted with them." But this principle he condemns in the strongest terms.—History of the Troubles in the Netherlands, Book 16th.

The United States oppressed by, and at war with one of the most powerful nations of Europe, may well be supposed incapable in their present infant state of exacting justice from other nations not disposed to grant it; but it is in human nature, that injuries as well as benefits received in times of weakness and distress, national as well as personal, make deep and lasting impressions; and those Ministers are wise, who look into futurity and quench the first sparks of misunderstanding between two nations, which, neglected, may in time grow into a flame, all the consequences whereof, no human prudence can foresee, which may produce much mischief to both, and cannot possibly produce any good to either. I beg leave, through your Excellency, to submit these considerations to the wisdom and justice of his Danish Majesty, who I infinitely respect, and who, I hope, will reconsider and repeal the orders above recited, and that, if the prizes which I hereby reclaim in behalf of the United States of America, are not actually gone to England, they may be stopped and re-delivered to M. de Chezaulx, the Consul of France at Bergen, in whose care they before were, with liberty to depart for America when the season shall permit. But if they should be already gone to England, I must then claim from his Majesty's equity the value of the said prizes, which is estimated at fifty thousand pounds sterling, but which may be regulated by the best information that can by any means be obtained.

With the greatest respect, I am, Sir, &c.

B. FRANKLIN.