I thank you for your kind wishes respecting my health. I return them most cordially fourfold into your own bosom. Adieu. B. FRANKLIN. TO JOHN JAY, PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. Beaumarchais's Accounts. Neufville's proposed Loan. - Inactivity of the Combined Fleets. Holland, England, and Portugal. — Prisoners. — Paul Jones's Cruise. Complaints of French Officers. Monument to General Montgomery. - Spain. SIR, I received the letter your honor to write to me of the - Passy, 4 October, 1779. Excellency did me the of June last, enclos ing acts of Congress respecting bills of exchange for two millions four hundred thousand livres tournois, drawn on me in favor of M. de Beaumarchais. The bills have not yet appeared, but I shall accept them when they do, relying on the care of Congress to enable me to pay them. As to the accounts of that gentleman, neither the Commissioners, when we were all together, nor myself since, have ever been able to obtain a sight of them, though repeatedly promised; and I begin to give over all expectation of them. Indeed, if I had them, I should not be able to do much with them, or to controvert any thing I might doubt in them, being unacquainted with the transactions and agreements on which they must be founded, and having small skill in accounts. Mr. Ross and Mr. Williams, pressing me to examine and settle theirs, I have been obliged to request indifferent persons, expert in such business, to do it for me, subject to the revision VOL. VIII. 49 GG of Congress; and I could wish that my time and attention were not taken up by any concerns in mercantile affairs, and thereby diverted from others more important. The letters of Congress to the King were very graciously received. I have earnestly pressed the supplies desired, and the ministers (who are extremely well disposed towards us) are now actually studying the means of furnishing them. The assistance of Spain is hoped for. We expect to hear from thence in a few days. The quantity is great, and will cost a vast sum. I have this day accepted three of your drafts, part of the three hundred and sixty thousand livres, drawn for on the 9th of June; but, when I ask for money to pay them, I must mention, that, as they were drawn to purchase military stores, an abatement, equal to the value, may be made of the quantity demanded from hence; for I am really ashamed to be always worrying the ministers for more money. And, as to the private loans expected, I wrote in a former letter, that our public credit was not yet sufficiently established, and that the loan in Holland had not exceeded eighty thousand florins, to which there has since been no addition. A Mr. Neufville came from thence to me last spring, proposing to procure great sums, if he might be employed for that purpose, and the business taken away from the house that had commenced it. His terms at first were very extravagant, such as that all the estates real and personal in the Thirteen Provinces should be mortgaged to him; that a fifth part of the capital sum borrowed should every year, for five years, be laid out in commodities, and sent to Holland, consigned to him, to remain in his hands till the term (ten years) stipulated for final payment was completed, as a security for the punctuality of it, when he was to draw the usual commissions; that all vessels or merchandise coming from America to Europe should be consigned to him or his correspondents, &c. &c. As I rejected these with some indignation, he came down to the more reasonable one of doing the business as it was done by the other house, who, he said, could do no more, being destitute of the interest which he possessed. I did not care abruptly to change a house, that had in other respects been very friendly and serviceable to us, and thereby throw a slur upon their credit, without a certainty of mending our affairs by it, and therefore told Mr. Neufville, that, if he could procure and show me a list of subscribers, amounting to the sum he mentioned, or near it, I would comply with his proposition. This he readily and confidently undertook to do. But, after three months, during which he acquainted me from time to time, that the favorable moment was not yet come, I received, instead of the subscription, a new set of propositions, among the terms of which were an additional one per cent, and a patent from Congress, appointing him and his sons "Commissioners for Trade and Navigation, and Treasurers of the General Congress and of every private State of the Thirteen United States of North America, through the Seven United Provinces," with other extravagancies; which I mention, that it may be understood why I have dropped a correspondence on this subject with a man, who seemed to me a vain promiser, extremely self-interested, and aiming chiefly to make an appear ance without solidity, and who I understand intends applying directly to Congress, some of his friends censuring me as neglecting the public interest in not coming into his measures. The truth is, I have no expectations from Holland, while interest received there from other nations is so high, and our credit there so low; while particular American States offer higher interest than the Congress, and even our offering to raise our interest tends to sink our credit. My sole dependence now is upon this court. I think reasonable assistance may be obtained here, but I wish I may not be obliged to fatigue it too much with my applications, lest it should grow tired of the connexion. Mr. Ross has lately demanded of me near twenty thousand pounds sterling, due to him from the Committee of Commerce, but I have been obliged to refuse him, as well as an application made last week by Mr. Izard for more money, though he has already had two thousand five hundred guineas, and another from Mr. Arthur Lee, though he has had five hundred guineas since the news of his being out of this commission.* He writes me, that he will return to America forthwith, if I do not undertake to supply his expenses. As I see no likelihood of his being received at Madrid, I could not but approve his resolution. We had reason to expect some great events from the action of the fleets this summer in the Channel; but they are all now in port, without having effected any thing. The junction was late; and the length of time the Brest fleet was at sea, equal to an East India voyage, partly on the hot Spanish coast, occasioned a sickness among the people, that made their return necessary; they had chased the English fleet, which refused combat. The sick men are recovering fast since they were landed; and the proposed descent on England does not yet seem to be quite given up, as the troops are not withdrawn from the ports. • See Diplomatic Correspondence, Vol. II. pp. 446, 262, 268, 272. Holland has not yet granted the succours required by the English, nor even given an answer to the requisition presented by Sir Joseph Yorke. The aids will be refused; and, as the refusal must be disagreeable, it will be postponed from time to time. The expectations of assistance from Russia and Prussia seem also to have failed the English; and they are as much at a loss to find effective friends in Europe, as they have been in America. Portugal seems to have a better disposition towards us than heretofore. About thirty of our people, taken and set ashore on one of her islands by the English, were maintained comfortably by the governor during their stay there, furnished with every necessary, and sent to Lisbon, where, on inquiry to whom payment was to be made for the expense they had occasioned, they were told, that no reimbursement was expected, that it was the Queen's bounty, who had a pleasure in showing hospitality to strangers in distress. I have presented thanks, by the Portuguese Ambassador here in behalf of Congress; and I am given to understand, that probably in a little time the ports of that nation will be open to us, as well as those of Spain. What relates to Spain, I suppose Mr. Lee informs you of. The sword ordered by Congress for the Marquis de Lafayette being at length finished, I sent it down to him at Havre, where he was with the troops intended for the invasion. I wrote a letter with it, and received an answer, copies of which I enclose, together with a description of the sword, and drawings of the work upon it, which was executed by the best artists in Paris, and cost altogether two hundred guineas. The present has given him great pleasure, and some of the circumstances have been agreeable to the nation. Our cartel goes on, a second cargo of American GG* |