desired Mr. Grand, some time since, to order two hundred pounds to be paid you in London. If that is not done, draw on him for the sum of two hundred and fifty pounds, payable at thirty days' sight, and your bill shall be duly honored,

To Mr. Jay, Digges, a Maryland merchant, residing in dated Passy,

London, who pretended to be a zealous AmeriAug. 20, 1781.

can, and to have much concern for our poor people in the English prisons, drew upon me for their relief at different times last winter to the amount of four hundred and ninety-five pounds sterling, which he said had been drawn for upon him by the gentlemen at Portsmouth and Plymouth, who had the care of the distribution. utter astonishment I have since learned, that the villain had not applied above thirty pounds of the money to that use, and that he has failed and absconded.

To my

William

, if

Το

I thank you much for your friendly hints of Carmichael, dated Passy,

the operations of my enemies, and of the means 12 April, 1781. I might use to defeat them. Having in view at present no other point to gain but that of rest, I do not take their malice so much amiss, as it may farther my project, and perhaps be some advantage to you. and

are open, and, so far, honorable enemies; the enemies, are more covered. I never did any of them the least injury, and can conceive no other source of their malice but envy.

To be sure, the excessive respect shown me here by all ranks of people, and the little notice taken of them, was a mortifying circumstance; but it was what I could neither prevent or remedy. Those who feel pain at seeing others enjoy pleasure, and are unhappy, must meet daily with so many causes of torment, that I conceive them

to be already in a state of damnation; and on that account I ought to drop all resentment with regard to those two gentlemen. But I cannot help being concerned at the mischief their ill tempers will be continually doing in our public affairs, whenever they have any concern in them.

I remember the maxim you mention of Charles the Fifth, Yo y el Tiempo; and have somewhere met with an answer to it in this distich.

“I and Time 'gainst any two;
Chance and I 'gainst Time and you."

And I think the gentlemen you have at present to deal with, would do wisely to guard a little more against certain chances.

The prince of Maceran, with several persons of his nation, did me the honor of breakfasting with me on Monday last, when I presented the compliments you charged me with. Mr. Cumberland has not yet arrived in Paris, as far as I have heard.

The discontents in our army have been quieted. There was in them not the least disposition of revolting to the enemy.

I thank you for the Maryland captain's news, which I hope will be confirmed. They have heard something of it in England, as you will see by the papers, and are very uneasy about it, as well as about their news from the East Indies.

To Lafayette, You are a very good correspondent, which dated Passy, I do not deserve, as I am a bad one.

The 14 May, 1781.

truth is, I have too much business upon my hands, a great deal of it foreign to my function as a minister, which interferes with my writing regularly to my friends. But I am nevertheless extremely sensible of your kindness in sending me such frequent and full intelligence of the state of affairs on your side of the water, and in letting me see by your letters, that your health continues, as well as your zeal for our cause and country. You mention my having enemies in America.

You are luckier, for I think you have none here, nor anywhere. Your friends have heard of your being gone against the traitor Arnold, and are anxious to hear of your success, and that you have brought him to punishment. Enclosed is a copy of a letter from his agent in England, captured by one of our cruisers, and by which the price or reward he received for his treachery may be guessed at. Judas sold only one man, Arnold three millions. Judas got for his one man thirty pieces of silver, Arnold not a halfpenny a head. A miserable bargain ! especially when one considers the quantity of infamy he has acquired to himself, and entailed on his family. *

The English are in a fair way of gaining still more enemies; they play a desperate game. Fortune may favor them, as it sometimes does a drunken dicer; but by their tyranny in the East, they have at length roused the powers there against them, and I do not know that they have in the West a single friend. If they lose their India commerce (which is one of their present great supports), and one battle at sea, their credit is gone, and their power

Thus empires, by pride, folly, and extravagance, ruin themselves like individuals. M. de la Motte Piquet has snatched from between their teeth a good deal of their West India prey, having taken twenty-two sail of their homeward bound prizes. One of our American privateers has taken two more, and brought them into Brest, and two were burnt; there were thirty-four in company, with two men-of-war of the line and two frigates, who saved themselves by flight, but we do not hear of their being yet got in.

I think it was a wise measure to send Colonel Laurens here, who could speak knowingly of the state of the army. It has been attended with all the success that perhaps could reasonably be expected, though not with all that was wished. He has fully justified your character of him, and returns thoroughly possessed of my esteem ; but that cannot and ought not to please him so much, as a little more money would have done for his beloved army. This court continues firm and steady in its friendship, and does every thing it can for us. Can we not do a little more for ourselves ? My successor (for I have desired the Congress to send me one) will find it in the best disposition towards us, and I hope he will take care to cultivate that disposition. You, who know the leading people of both countries, can perhaps judge better than any member of Congress of a person suitable for this station.

I wish you may be in a way to give your advice, when the matter is agitated in that assembly. I have been long tired of the trade of minister, and wished for a little repose before I went to sleep for good and all. I thought I might have held out till the peace; but, as that seems at a greater distance than the end of my days, I grow impatient. I would not, however, quit the service of the public, if I did not sincerely think that it would be easy for the Congress, with your counsel, to find a fitter man.

God bless you, and crown all your labors with success.

To John I have with you, no doubt that America wil Adams, dated

be easily able to pay off not only the interest, Passy, 19 May, 2781, but the principal, of all the debt she may contant in this war. But whether duties upon her exports will be the best method of doing it, is a question I am not so

а ckar in England raised indeed a great revenue by duties on lubatud. But it was by virtue of a prohibition of forkield tuhands, and thereby obliging the internal consumer iu pray thuse duties, li America were to lay a duty of five pedesteiling a pound on the exportation of her tobacco, Would any Eunpean nation buy it? Would not the colonics of Swin and Portugal, and the Ukraine of Russia, furnish it much cheaper? Was not England herself obliged, for such reasons, in drop the duty on tobacco she furnished to France? Would it not cost an immense sum in officers, &c., to guard our long coast against smuggling of tobacco, and running it out io avoid a duty? And would not many even of those ottiers be corrupted and connive at it? It is possibly an erroneous opinion, but I find myself rather inclined to adopt that modern one, which supposes it best for every country to leave its trade entirely free from all incumbrances. Perhaps no country does this at present. Holland comes the nearest to it; and her commercial wealth seems to have increased in proportion,

Your Excellency has done me the honor of announcing to me your appointment. I hope soon to return the compliment by informing you of my demission. I find the various employments of merchant, banker, judge of admi