That same baron de Wulffen has not pleased me, having left little debts behind him unpaid, though I furnished him with twenty guineas. As he had been with his brother at Venloo, before he saw you, where he might get money. I wonder at his borrowing of you. I thank you for the vote of congress you sent me, dated the 23d March.-I imagine 484 went in that vessel to 533, and may have been detained there for convoy. Your dispatches by M. Gillon, are in the Alliance, which sailed the 7th or 9th instant. This will be delivered to you by his excellency John. Adams, Esq. whom I earnestly recommend to your best civilities. He has never been in Holland, and your counsels will be of use to him. My best wishes attend you, being ever, &c. To the same. DEAR SIR, Passy, October 2, 1780. I RECEIVED duly your several letters of the 12th, 15th, 17th, 19th, and 21st, of September. I am much pleased with the intelligence you sent me, and with the papers you have had printed. Mr. Searle is a military officer in the Pennsylvania troops, and a member of congress. He has some commission to execute for that province, but none that I know of from congress. He has an open letter for you from Mr. Lovel, which he has shewn me. It is full of expressions of his esteem; and I understand from Mr. Searle, that you stand exceeding well with the committee and with the congress in general. I am sorry to see any marks of uneasiness and apprehension in your letters. Mr. Chaumont tells me that you want some assurance of being continued. The congress itself is changeable at the pleasure of their electors, and none of their servants have, or can have any such as-. surance. If, therefore, any thing better for you, and more substantial should offer, no body can blame you for accept ing it, however satisfied they may be with your services. But as to the continuance of what you may enjoy, or of something as valuable in the service of the congress, I think you may make yourself easy, for that your appointment seems more likely to be increased than diminished, though it does not belong to me to promise any thing. Mr. Laurens was to sail three days after Mr. Searle, who begins to fear he must be lost, as it was a small vessel he intended to embark in.—He was bound directly to Holland. I enclose some extracts of letters from two French officers of distinction in the army of M. de Rochambeau, which are pleasing, as they mark the good intelligence that subsists between the troops, contrary to the reports circulated by the English. They will do perhaps for your Leyden Gazette. With great esteem and affection I am ever, &c. To the same. Passy, October 9, 1780. DEAR SIR, I RECEIVED yours of 29th September, and 3d October. It is a very good addition you made to your memoir for the ministers of Russia and Sweden. I am glad to find you are again on such good terms with the ambassador, as to be invited to his comedy. I doubt not of your continuing to cultivate that good understanding.-I like much your insertions in the Gazettes. Such things have good effects. Your information relative to the transactions at Petersburg, and in Denmark, are very interesting, and afforded me a good deal of satisfaction; particularly the former.—Mr. Searle will have the pleasure of seeing you. I recommend him warmly to your civilities. He is much your friend, and will advise Mr. Laurens to make you his secretary, which I hope you will accept. I have given it as my opinion, that Mr. L. can no where find one better qualified, or more deserving. The choice is left to that minister, and he is empowered to give a salary of £.500 sterling a year. I am in pain on account of his not being yet arrived; but hope you will see him soon.-I request you would find means to introduce Mr. Searle to the Portuguese ambassador.-Pray consider the enclosed papers, and after advising with your friend, give me your opinion as to the manner of the application, to the states general, whether I should make it through their ambassador, or directly with a letter to the Grand Pensionary, or in what other manner. You know we wrote to him formerly and received no answer. With great esteem, I am, &c. B. FRANKLIN. You say nothing of Mr. Adams? How do you stand with him? What is he doing? DEAR SIR, To the same. Passy, 6th November, 1780, My grand-father has been for a long time past laid up with the gout, and is so still. He directs me to inform you, that he has received several of your letters, which he has not as yet been able to answer; he hopes however that in a few days he shall be able to do it, as his sufferings are much diminished. You have heard I suppose of the arrival at Brest of M. de Guichen. I am, as ever, my dear Sir, &c. W. T. FRANKLIN. To Dr. Franklin. Extract of a letter from Newport, Rhode Island, dated October 10, 1780. BY this ship you will receive an account of the treason and apostacy of one of our greatest generals (who went over from us to the enemy 25th September last) and the happy detection of it before the treason was carried into execution. General Arnold has buried all his military glory, and sent his name down in history execrated with contempt and infamy. He will be despised not only by us in the United States, but by all the nations of Europe and in all future ages. There is reason to believe that he me ditated with the reduction of West-Point on the 27th September, the betraying at the same time of general Washington and the minister of France into the hands of the enemy; for his excellency the chevalier de la Luzerne told me that passing through West-Point on his way hither on the 24th, the day before the detection, general Arnold importuned him even to indecency to tarry and rest there four or five days. And Arnold also knew that general Washington would meet there about the same time on his return from an interview with the French officers at Hartford. General Arnold is a loss. But America is so fertile in patriots, that we can afford to lose a capital patriot or two every year without any essential injury to the glorious cause of liberty and independence. The greatest injury he can do us will be in information. However the present state of the American army is now so good, as that the most thorough knowledge of it will rather do us benefit that an injury. The seasonable execution of major Andre (the seducer) adjutant-general of the British army, on the 2d instant, will probably deter such adventurers for the future. Congress and the assemblies through the states continue firm and unshaken; and they have a cordial support in the union of the main body of the people at large, notwithstanding the efforts of tories and governmental connexions intermixt in all parts, whose Sysiphean labors only pull ruin upon themselves. The storm still blows heavy. But our ship will ride it through. With joy we look forward, and with undoubting assurance anticipate the sweets and the final triumph of American liberty. Dr. Jebb to Dr. Franklin. London, October 11, 1780. THE consciousness of a sincere desire to promote the interests of human kind, as far as my confined abilities and humble station will permit, induce me to give you my sentiments upon a subject, which, I have no doubt, is ever present to your thoughts. Excuse the presumption; the intention is honest; let this consideration compensate for the want of every other qualification. Independent in my principles and unconnected with party, I speak those sentiments, which circumstances appear to me to dictate, and I speak them without reserve. 2 A federal union between America and England, upon the broad basis of mutual convenience, appears to me a point of so much consequence, that I cannot conceive, in the present circumstances, how either country can fully enjoy the means of happiness, which indulgent Providence has poured forth on each with so much profusion, unless such union immediately take place. I also am persuaded, that the present war, between this country and the house of Bourbon, is of so peculiar a kind, that no solid reason can be assigned for its continuance, a moment after America and England shall cordially agree upon a termination of their dispute. It is obviously for the advantage of England, that America should employ her mannfacturers, and that her fleets should have free access to the shores, from whence she derived those various sources of strength, which enabled her so long to reign the unrivalled mistress of the deep. On the other hand, the rising states of America, wisely intent upon such measures, as tend to increase their popu lation, and perfect those forms of civil polity, which, at the same time that they promise internal security and happiness, will probably establish an asylum for the rest of mankind, must derive considerable advantage from the free importation of those articles, which, in their present circumstances, they cannot with convenience manufacture themselves. And why should England envy to France and Spain, nay, to all the world, that portion of trade, whatever that be, which suits the circumstances of each power; and from which all deriving the sources of rational enjoyment would, perhaps, remain in the same ratio as at present, with respect to relative strength? How strange therefore to persevere in an appeal to arms, Rr |