The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution Volume IX Part 23

"Have you any news of the Doctor and his friends? I shall be obliged to you to follow my instructions in this respect. I will bear willingly the charge of an express, whom you may send to me when you shall judge proper; otherwise write uniformly by the post. Should I be on a journey, I shall have the honor to inform you of my residence and address. I do not know how to express to you sufficiently, Sir, the desire I have to serve you and to deserve a place in your thoughts."

About fifteen days after, I replied to this letter as follows.

"Sir,

"The letter with which you honored me, dated 23d of June, has given me the a.s.surance, which was needed to console me for the disappointments that have detained me here. Perhaps I shall be at the Hague on Sunday morning. Be a.s.sured, Sir, that if anything comes to my knowledge worthy of your attention, you shall be informed of it immediately. I have no reason to expect soon to receive news directly. I have written two letters by two different vessels, that have sailed from Amsterdam for St Eustatia; and I expect when another vessel departs to despatch a third. Before I have an answer much time will pa.s.s, and in this time many events. There is, however, a man charged with some commission on their part, to whom they have given my address at Leyden; and I have received two letters from that city, the one of the 21st of May, the other of the 11th of June, in which they pray me to render him service. This is all that I know of him, for the man has not yet appeared.

"The more I am favored with your letters, Sir, the more I wish to deserve your good opinion. In the meantime, I ought to be on my guard against too much presumption, and to think how natural it is to give a gracious reception to the servant for the love of the master. I own to you, Sir, that in giving an account to the Doctor and his friends of our correspondence, I have thought proper to forewarn them thereon.

They will be informed of the obliging interest with which you ask news of them. I hope that the time will come, when you will be able to permit me to reveal your name.

"After having thought long and much, it seems to me, that in order to answer completely their intention, I ought to present myself also to the _Hotel d'Espagne_, to be known there simply as charged with such a commission, to open to myself thereby ways of serving my const.i.tuents on diverse occasions, which may present themselves at one moment or another, and not incur the blame, which may be reflected even on these gentlemen, of having neglected a power so worthy of their efforts. For the rest, I shall not do or say anything in this respect till I have had the honor of seeing you, Sir, and I pray you to believe that I shall observe scrupulously, the conduct and the discretion that you have had the goodness to prescribe to me."

In consequence, I have again conferred with this gentleman. He went to dine at that same house, said that I had been with him, and that I told him I would go also to the other house the next day at eleven o'clock. I went in fact, and was received _tete a tete_ with great ceremony in the hall of audience. I opened briefly my business and drew out a memoir to read to him. He told me that he could not hear me without the order of his master. I read, notwithstanding, and he did not stop his ears. I prayed him to receive and keep the memoir. He refused, alleging continually that he could do nothing without orders.

I drew out then my originals and showed him my three signatures, which he looked at eagerly. In separating, I asked him to keep my name concealed at ----. He said to me that he would keep it secret everywhere. He asked me, however, if that was my true name. I a.s.sured him it was; he paid me some personal compliments, and we parted. I learnt on the next day by another channel, that he had, notwithstanding, given an account to his master of this visit; which suffices me, for I have need, as you know, of only one of these good houses. I am always very politely received, and as a friend. This is all that I ask. I do not multiply too much my visits, but to render them always desirable, I never appear there without having something interesting to say; and to this end, the letters of my worthy correspondent at London are very useful to me. This last has addressed to me lately a person, whose conversation, joined to the contents of the letter of which he was bearer, has served me in the composition of a memoir which they approve, and I have reason to think they have sent.

This person has induced me to write a letter to you, dated the 4th of August, by way of Bordeaux to St Domingo, under an envelope of Mr Caton, merchant at Port St Nicholas in that island, of which here is an extract.

"A gentleman belonging to Jamaica, a particular friend of Dr Franklin, and very well known to him, has charged me to write to him, to a.s.sure him on good authority, of the singular esteem that he has for him and his friends; that they ought to think, _and that he prays him to let them know it_, that the present voice of Parliament is the voice of the English people; that there exists, and gathers strength, _a great body_, which, in truth, is not the strongest, but which regards the cause of the Americans as its own, their safety and liberty as its own, which will prefer to see them independent rather than subjugated, and which will make, at the future meeting of Parliament, the greatest efforts in their favor; that the basis of this party is already forty Peers, and one hundred and sixty members of the Commons."

The letter which this gentleman brought me began thus; "This will be delivered to you by Mr Ellis, a friend of Dr Franklin, of liberty, and of America. He is a philosopher, very well instructed on the subject of America, and, I trust, will be both an agreeable and useful acquaintance while he remains near you." This a.s.suring me, I discovered to him that I was the man whom he was seeking, provided with credentials and orders from Congress sufficient to do all the good offices that his friends could wish to render. Thereupon I showed him my credentials; he was satisfied with them, and we exchanged addresses. He promised to write me; and we separated satisfied with each other.

I have the honor to be, &c.

DUMAS.

FOOTNOTES:

[23] Meaning the person with whom he had the interview, mentioned in the preceding letter, doubtless the French Amba.s.sador.

ARTHUR LEE TO C. W. F. DUMAS.

London, July 6th, 1776.

Dear Sir,

This will be delivered you by Mr Ellis, a friend of Dr Franklin, of liberty, and of America. He is a philosopher, very well instructed on the subject of America, and, I trust, will be both an agreeable and useful acquaintance while he remains near you.

I thank you for your favor of the 21st of last month. By the last advices from America, General Howe was prepared to sail for Halifax, and, it is imagined, to land at New York, where he will certainly be strongly opposed. He numbers ten thousand regulars, and it will be fortunate for us, if he makes his attempt before he is joined by the Germans, who sailed the 6th of May.

The Americans have taken post upon the river Richelieu and the lakes, so that Montreal, not being tenable, is evacuated. General Lee is in Virginia, with ten thousand men, expecting Lord Cornwallis and General Clinton. General Was.h.i.+ngton commands at New York, and General Ward in Boston.

The strange timidity _de la Cour Francaise_ requires great patience and management; but I think it will at last be brought to act an avowed and decided part. When that happens, _Angleterre_ must submit to whatever terms they please to impose, for she is totally incapable of sustaining a war with France.

Adieu,

ARTHUR LEE.

SILAS DEANE TO C. W. F. DUMAS.

Paris, July 26th, 1776.

Sir,

The enclosed letter from Dr Franklin will hint at my business in this city, where I arrived the 7th instant, and I should have sent forward this earlier, had I not had hopes of having the honor of presenting it to you in person. This I now find I cannot expect, without delaying it beyond all bounds. I therefore forward it by the common conveyance, and inform you that my address in this city is to Messrs Germany, Guardot & Co. bankers; that I shall tarry here till the last of August, when I propose going to Dunkirk, thence to Amsterdam and Hamburg, in which journey I hope for the pleasure of seeing you. In the meantime, I shall be happy in a correspondence with you on the subject of the dispute between the United Colonies and Great Britain, or any other that shall be agreeable to you; and I wish to be informed if I shall be in danger of any disagreeable treatment in my journey through Holland, in a private capacity, though it should be known that I was in the service of the United Colonies. It has been suggested to me, that I might meet with some interruption or difficulties from the friends of the British Ministry, which occasions my making this inquiry.

I have the honor to be, &c.

SILAS DEANE.

_P. S._ I read and understand the French language tolerably well, though I am unable to write it.

ARTHUR LEE TO C. W. F. DUMAS.

London, August 13th, 1776.

Dear Sir,

I answered your last letter immediately. I now enclose you several pamphlets, which contain such an authentic state of facts, and such arguments on the American question, as will enable its advocates with you to maintain their ground against the pensioner of this Court. I beg particularly, that you will send some of them to the gentleman who has answered Pinto, the pensioner of this Court.

The pamphlet ent.i.tled the _Rights of Great Britain_, &c. is full of the grossest falsehoods. A very material one is exposed by the enclosed extracts from the acts of Parliament, granting bounties upon American produce, which proves by their own words, that those bounties were given for their own interests only. Yet that pamphlet has given a long list of the amount of those bounties, and charged it to the Colonies. The fact is, as Dr Smith, a Scotchman, and an enemy to American rights, has stated it, in his late labored and long expected book on the Wealth of Nations. "Whatever expense," says he "Great Britain has. .h.i.therto laid out in maintaining this dependency, has really been laid out in order to support their monopoly." Speaking of the debt incurred last war, he says,--"This whole expense is, in reality, a bounty, which has been given in order to support a monopoly. The pretended purpose of it was to encourage the manufactures, and to increase the commerce of Great Britain." The operation of this monopoly against the Colony he states thus,--"The monopoly of the Colony trade, therefore, like all the other mean and malignant expedients of the mercantile system, depresses the industry of all other countries, but _chiefly that of the Colonies_."

When you write to the Congress it would be well, I think, to mention that as all the evils have been produced by Scotch counsel, and those people prosecute the business with more rancor and enmity, a distinction ought to be made between the treatment of them and other people, when made prisoners.

We expect every day some decisive news from New York. The last gazette gives us no reason to fear anything but the chance of war, against which no prudence can provide. We have certain intelligence from Canada, that it will be the last of August before the boats will be ready upon Lake Champlain for the Ministerial army; so that there is no possibility of their joining Howe. They are putting eleven s.h.i.+ps of the line in commission, here, which is kept very secret, or it would shake the stocks exceedingly.

Adieu,

ARTHUR LEE.

SILAS DEANE TO C. W. F. DUMAS.

Paris, August 18th, 1776.

Sir,