The underwritten flatters himself, therefore, that his Majesty will find no inconvenience in ordering the immediate advance of ten millions to be delivered at the disposal of the United States, which will be returned to his Royal Treasury by means of the loan in question.

Events of the greatest importance depend upon this disposition equally good and indispensable. The underwritten would think himself deficient in his duty if he did not persevere in entreating his Majesty to adopt and order it.

The arrival of this sum is necessary to give a vigorous impulse to the organization of administration in the present state of things, renew the tone of parts which have lost their energy, and revive public credit by making the resources of the country concur in the expenses of the war, which resources cannot be turned to account without coin to determine them.

If it is impossible to make it a part of the general arrangement to grant safe means of conveyance for the whole of this sum, the underwritten entreats his Majesty to cause as considerable a portion as possible to be remitted immediately, and to fix a very early date for the departure of the remainder.

The underwritten further earnestly solicits that a naval superiority be permanently maintained on the American coast. The practicability and success of all military operations and the event of the war, depend directly and even exclusively on the state of the maritime force in America.

The British, by preserving this advantage, will be able to accomplish all their plans by the rapidity of their movements. The facility of transporting themselves every where secures them a series of successes, which are rendered still more decisive by the certainty of finding no opposition in defenceless points.

It is by these means that they have been able lately to possess themselves of a very important maritime point in North Carolina, and, by effecting a sudden junction between two divisions of their army, have been able to penetrate to the granary of that State. This position is the more favorable to the enemy as he encloses between his army and the port of Wilmington, of which he is master, a considerable number of Scotch Colonists attached to the interests of England, and who will be determined, perhaps, by his successes to declare themselves openly. Such consequences are to be expected

from great successes in all civil wars. If his Majesty thinks proper to oppose a naval superiority to the British, they will be obliged to recall their troops from the interior country to reunite for the defence of the most important maritime points, the communication between which will be cut off, and the choice of attacks left to the allies.

The abasement of Great Britain, the dismemberment of its empire, the inestimable commercial advantages arising to France, present great interests, and merit powerful efforts. If this opportunity be neglected, if too much be left to chance, if time be lost, and the means employed be insufficient, the British pride will know neither bounds nor restraint; our object will be missed perhaps forever; it is easy to foresee how fatal the consequences would be to the French Islands.

The underwritten renews the assurances of the most inviolable attachment on the part of the United States. Whatever may be the decision of his Majesty on these representations, his goodness towards his allies will never be effaced from their hearts; they will support the common cause with the same devotion to the last extremity, but their success must necessarily depend upon their

I had the honor of addressing to your Excellency a letter on the 9th instant, conformably to which I presented the memorial now sent, after preparing the way for it by as many conferences as an intervening vacation would permit. In the course of these I discovered that it was impossible to obtain any further detachment of ships of force from hence; consequently, that the sum of specie to be sent immediately to America would be limited by the means of conveyance, and that successive epochs must divide a risk which would be too considerable if simultaneous.

In pursuance of these ideas Count de Vergennes declared to me, that it had been solemnly determined to send no more than two millions in a frigate with me, and to have the remainder transmitted afterwards at different periods; this sum appeared to me so incon

siderable, compared with our necessities, that I thought it my duty to make the warmest remonstrances on the subject, and the succeeding day I delivered the memorial abovementioned. In the mean time I have been employed in engaging a conveyance from Holland, which is so unexceptionable as to enable me to demand with confidence an additional sum for the first remittance of specie. The conveyance alluded to is the Indian, a vessel having the dimensions of a seventy-four gun ship, mounting twenty-eight French thirty-six pounders on her main deck, and twelve twelves on her quarter deck and forecastle, sold by the Chevalier de Luxembourg to the State of South Carolina for the term of three years, loaded in part with articles of clothing, &c., on said State's account, nearly ready for sea, but reduced to the impossibility of sailing for want of ten thousand pounds sterling to discharge an accumulation of debts contracted in port. In these circumstances Captain Gillon, her present commander, has applied to me in the most pressing terms for assistance, and has offered to cede me the cargo which he has on board, on condition of furnishing the means of extricating himself from his present difficulties. As there appeared to me a happy

coincidence in this matter of the interests of the State and the continent, I determined to accept his offer, annexing certain conditions, as will be seen in the enclosure.*

The advantages in favor of the continent are, in the first place, a very important and considerable gain of time in forwarding supplies of clothing, as no considerable quantity could have been obtained at the proper sea-port of France at an earlier date than the 10th of June. Secondly, the excellence of the conveyance removes a powerful objection on the part of the Ministry against augmenting the first remittance of specie.

The advantages on the part of the State are, that she will be able to avail herself of the services of her ship, of which, without the present interposition, there would not be the least prospect, and besides, she will derive her share in common with the other members of the Union from the general advantages.

I have not yet received a definitive answer from the Count de Vergennes to my last memorial and subsequent applications, but I learn from M. Necker that the following will be the distribution of

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what relates to his department, viz., that two millions will be sent in the frigate with me, one million on board the Indian, and that it is besides in agitation to make an arrangement with Spain for assigning a sum of specie at Vera Cruz, to be transported from thence by a frigate to be ordered on that service from one of the West India Islands.

I have reason to apprehend an unfavorable answer to my request that the military effects from the public arsenals should be granted on credit. The expense of these articles will make a considerable deduction from our pecuniary resources. Your Excellency will observe that the same difficulties exist with respect to these objects as with regard to the manufactures of cloth, the great deposits of them all being situated in the interior country, remote from the sea. The cargo of the Marquis de la Fayette, that of the Indian, (including the additional purchases which I have directed to be made in order to complete her tonnage,) and the supplies collected at Brest, or on their way thither, will nearly include the most essential articles of the Board of War's estimate. The purchases in France are made under the direction of an Intendant in the War Department; those in Holland are made by M. de Neufville & Son, whom I employed because they appeared to possess the confidence of our Minister Plenipotentiary in that country.

I found great difficulties and delays likely to attend the plan of casting howitzers of English calibre in France. The scarcity of materials, the great danger of a want of precision in the proportions, and the facility with which we cast shells in America, induced me to substitute six inch howitzers of French calibre to those demanded by the Board of War. This size, in the opinion of the most experienced artillerists, is preferable to the larger, their effects being the same, and their inferior size rendering them much more manageable, as well as less expensive of ammunition. A certain number of shells will accompany the howitzers, but it will be necessary that the Board of War should give immediate orders for making a larger provision of them. Their dimensions may be taken from those with the French artillery under General Rochambeau.

The same reasons as those abovementioned determined me to substitute the French twelve-inch mortar to the thirteen-inch of English calibre, as there was no other way of procuring them but by having them cast, and the same observation is to be made with

respect to their shells as with respect to those of the howitzers. A store-ship, freighted by Government, is to proceed under convoy of the frigate on board which I shall sail, and will be charged with such supplies as can be collected in time at Brest.

As soon as I shall have accomplished all that requires my presence here, which I flatter myself will be in a few days, I shall proceed to Brest, to do everything that can depend on me for hastening the departure of the frigate. I shall, in the meantime, despatch Captain Jackson, an officer of great intelligence and activity, who accompanied me from America, with instructions to exert his utmost efforts to get the Indian to sea without loss of time.* I have the honor to be, with the greatest veneration, &c., JOHN LAURENS.

Memorial from John Laurens to the Director-General of Finance.

The underwritten, special Minister of the United States of North America, renews his representations to the Director-General of Finance, upon the necessity of augmenting the present remittance of pecuniary succors destined for America. He cannot repeat too often that, upon the quantity and seasonableness of these succors, the fate of his Majesty's allies must necessarily depend.

He entreats him to recollect that, in the first discussion with' regard to the sum, the difficulties which opposed an immediate remittance more proportionate to the urgent necessities of the United States were unconnected with reasons of finance. With respect to

the apprehension of exposing ourselves to simultaneous risks that would be too considerable, which was the principal reason alleged, he thinks himself warranted in saying that, comparing the sum with the risk, the strictest laws of prudence would not be violated in shipping the amount of six millions on board of two frigates, well armed and good sailers, despatched from ports distant from each other.

The plan of procuring money from Vera Cruz or the Havana, the success and speedy execution of which were regarded as certain, would have dispensed Government from making any considerable

* For a correspondence on this subject between Dr. Franklin and Captain Jackson, see Franklin's Correspondence, Vol. II, pp. 160-168.