the General Congress are endeavoring to obtain a loan, these separate attempts interfere, and are extremely inconvenient, especially where some of the agents are empowered to offer a higher interest; and some have powers in that respect unlimited. We have likewise lately had applications from three several States to this Court to be furnished with great quantities of arms, ammunition, and clothing, or with money upon credit to buy them; and from one State to be supplied with naval stores and ships of war. These agents, finding that they had not interest to obtain such grants, have severally applied to me, and seem to think it my duty, as Minister for the United States, to support and enforce their particular demands. I have endeavored to do so; but I find the Ministers do not like these separate applications, and seem to think that they should properly come only through Congress, to whom the several States in such cases ought first to make known their wants, and then the Congress could instruct their Minister accordingly. This would save the King's Ministers a good deal of trouble, and the several States the expense of these particular agents; concerning whom I would add a little remark, that we have in America too readily, in various instances, given faith to the pretensions of strangers from Europe, and who offer their services as persons who have powerful friends and great interest in their own country, and by that means obtain contracts, orders, or commissions, to procure what we want, and who, when they come here, are totally unknown, and have no other credit but what such commissions give them; or, if known, the commissions do not add so much to their credit as they diminish that of their employers.

I have received two letters from a Frenchman, settled in one of the ports of Barbary, offering himself to act as our Minister with the Emperor, with whom he pretended to be intimate, and acquainting me that his Imperial Majesty wondered we had never sent to thank him for being the first Power on this side of the Atlantic that had acknowledged our independence, and opened his ports to us; advising that we should send the Emperor a present. On inquiry at the office in whose department Africa is included, I learned the character of this man to be such that it was not safe to have any correspondence with him, and therefore I did not answer his letters. I suppose Congress has received the memorial we presented to this Court respecting the Barbary States, and requesting the King's good

.*

offices with them, agreeable to the treaty; and also the answer, expressing the King's readiness to perform those good offices whenever the Congress should send us instructions, and make provision for the necessary presents ;* or, if those papers have not yet got to hand, they will be found among the copies carried over by Mr. Adams, and therefore I only mention them by way of remembrance. Whenever a treaty with the Emperor is intended, I suppose some of our naval stores will be an acceptable present, and the expectation of continued supplies of such stores a powerful motive for entering into, and continuing, a friendship.

I should send you copies of several other memorials and public papers; but as Mr. Adams goes in the same ship, and has the whole of our transactions during his time, it is not so necessary by this vessel. The disposition of this nation, in general, continues friendly towards us and our cause; and I do not see the least diminution of it, except among the West India merchants and planters, whose losses have rendered them a little discontented. Spain has been long acting as a mediator, but arming all the time most vigorously. Her naval force is now very great indeed, and as her last proposition of a long truce-in which America should be included and treated as independent in fact, though not expressly acknowledged as such— has been lately rejected by England, it is now thought that her open junction with France in the war is not far distant.

The Commissioners here have a power in general terms to treat of peace, friendship, and commerce, with European States; but I apprehend this is scarce explicit enough to authorise me to treat of such a truce, if the proposition should again come upon the tapis. I therefore wish the Congress to consider of it, and give such powers as may be necessary to whom they may think proper, that, if a favorable opportunity of making an advantageous treaty should offer, it may not be missed.

Admiral Arbuthnot, who was going to America with a large convoy and some troops, has been detained by a little attempt upon Jersey; and contrary winds, since that affair was over, have detained him further, till within these few days.

Since I began writing this letter, I have received a packet from

Correspondence of the Commissioners at the Court of France, Vol. I, pp. 314, 330, 331, 337.

the Committee, by way of Eustatia and Holland, sent by Mr. Lovell, containing his letters of December the 8th, January the 29th, and February the 8th, with one from the President, dated January the 3d. Several papers are mentioned as sent with them, and by other opportunities; but none are come to hand, except the resolution to postpone the attempt on Canada, and these are the first despatches received here since the date of those sent by the Marquis de la Fayette. I have just received a letter from Mr. Bingham, acquainting me that the ship Deane, and the General Gates, are just arrived at Martinique, and apply to him to be careened, refitted, and procure a fresh supply of provisions; and that, though he has no orders, he must draw upon me for the expense. I think it right to acquaint you thus early, that I shall be obliged to protest his bills.

I have just obtained from his Majesty orders to the Government of Gaudaloupe to make reasonable reparation to Captain Giddens, of Newbury, for the loss of his vessel, sunk in mistake by a battery of that island.. Great preparations are making here, with much activity in all the sea-ports, taking up transports, and building small vessels proper for the landing of troops, &c., so that many think an invasion of England or Ireland is intended. The intention, whatever it is, may change; but the opinion of such an intention, which seems to prevail in England, may tend to keep their troops and ships at home.

General and Lord Howe, Generals Cornwallis and Grey, Colonel Montresor, and Captain Hammond, and others, have formally given it as their opinion, in Parliament, that the conquest of America is impracticable. This week, as we hear, John Maxwell, Joseph Galloway, Andrew Allen, John Patterson, Theophilus Morris, Enoch Story, and Jabez Fisher, are to be examined to prove the contrary. One would think the first set were likely to be the best judges.

Be pleased to present my dutiful respects to the Congress, and assure them of my most faithful services.

I have the honor to be, &c.,

B. FRANKLIN.

Sir,

TO JAMES LOVELL.

Passy, June 2d, 1779.

I received a few days since, via Eustatia and Holland, the triplicates of your several favors of December the 8th, January the 29th, and

February the 8th. The preceding copies of the same dates never came to hand. I thank you very much for the newspapers, though the disputes I see in them give me pain. You observe rightly that the want of good conveyances obstructs much the punctuality of your correspondence. The number of long letters I have written to America has almost discouraged me from writing, except by such an opportunity as this. You may judge of the uncertainty of letters getting to hand, when I tell you that, though you mention the having sent me quadruplicates of my credentials, only those by the Marquis de la Fayette have yet appeared.

I am glad to understand that you are taking measures to restore the value of your money, by taxing largely to reduce the quantity. I believe no financier in the world can put you upon a more effectual method. The English have had a little flow of spirits lately, from their success against the trade of France, and the news of the imagined conquest of Georgia; but the growing apprehension of a war with Spain also, begins to sober them, and, like people who have been drunk with drams, they now seem to have both the head and heart ache. The late letters from thence are in a more humble style, and some printed papers by the last post, known to be Ministerial, appear intended to prepare the minds of the people for propositions of peace. But these ebbs and flows are common with them, and the duration of neither is to be relied on.

As I do not find, by any of yours, that a long letter of mine to you in July last, has come to hand, I send you herewith a copy of it, (though now a little stale,) as it serves to show my continued good opinion of a gentleman who, by the papers you have sent me, seems to be hardly used. I have never meddled with the dispute between him and Mr. Lee, but the suspicion of having a good will to him has drawn upon me a great deal of ill will from his antagonist. The Congress have wisely enjoined the Ministers in Europe to agree with one another. I had always resolved to have no quarrel, and have, therefore, made it a constant rule to answer no angry, affronting, or abusive letters, of which I have received many, and long ones, from Mr. Lee and Mr. Izard, who, I understand, and see, indeed, by the papers, have been writing liberally, or rather illiberally, against me, to prevent, as one of them says here, any impressions my writings against them might occasion to their prejudice, but I have never before mentioned them in any of my letters.

Our scheme here for packet boats did not continue.* I wish Congress could fall on some method of sending some little light vessels once a month, to keep up a correspondence more regular. Even the receiving of letters of a certain date, though otherwise of no importance, might serve to refute the false news of our adversaries on both sides of the water, which have sometimes too long their intended effect before the truth arrives. I see that frequently little pilot boats, of twenty-five or thirty tons burthen, arrive safe from Virginia; the expense of such would not be great.

I beg leave to recommend earnestly to your civilities M. le Chevalier de la Luzerne, who goes over to succeed M. Gerard, as the King's Minister to the Congress. He bears here a most amiable character, has great connexions, and is a hearty friend to the American cause.

With great esteem, I am, sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, B. FRANKLIN.

JAMES LOVELL TO B. FRANKLIN.

Philadelphia, June 13th, 1779.

Sir,

By way of Martinique I forward to you gazettes, journals, and one or two pamphlets. The situation of things in Congress has been such for some time past, that the Committee of Foreign Affairs have been drawn on to look daily for some interesting decisions to communicate to you, which must account for their silence many weeks. I am once again left alone, and therefore in too delicate circumstances to give you any detail of matters agitated, but not concluded, respecting your commission. I enclose a late resolve,†

* This scheme may be found in the Correspondence of the Commissioners, Vol. I, p. 208.

† In Congress, June 5th, 1779.—" Resolved, That the Committee for Foreign Affairs be directed to write immediately to the Commissioners at the Court of France, and desire them to transmit an account of their proceedings in Mr. Beaumarchais's accounts, pursuant to the order of Congress of the 13th day of April, 1778."