Congress forced Us, into a situation, which obliged Us to venture upon a Piece of Indiscipline, in order to Secure a tollerable Peace, So that you may well Suppose We are anxious to know how it is 398received among you, and what is to be our Fate. Whether We are to be approved, excused, justified or censured. The most curious and inexplicable Part of the History is Franklins joining in the Mutiny.—You who know him will not be at a Loss to account for it.— in Truth the Necessity was too obvious and glaring, and the Cod and Bucks and Beavers, were annimals too dearly beloved, in our Country for a Man to take upon himself to be responsible for the Loss of them.

We have had a very dull Pause Since the Peace. no News from America, and a stagnation in England, which has left Us in a painful State of Uncertainty. Now indeed the Ministry is arranged, for a little while and Mr Hartley is expected over to finish the Negotiation. You know him, he is talkative and disputacious and not always intelligible so that I expect We shall be longer about the Business than is necessary.

I am not able to conceive, how a Ministry composed of Parts so heterogeneous can go on with Business. it cannot be expected to be solid and durable. Mr Fox professes to mean to finish soon and liberally, but I know not what opposition and Contradiction he may meet in the Cabinet.— I confess I dont like the Change at all. Shelburne and his sett would have gone thro well. Mr Laurens who is in London Seems pleased with the Change, at least he was with the prospect, a few days before it took place, and he Seems to think that the Tories are not so much regarded as We feared.—

Shelburne did the best thing of his whole Life, when he made Peace, and the Vote against him does no honour to his Opponents. The Peace is really much better for England than she had a right to expect, and the continuance of the War, would have been ruin. This the present sett are sensible of, but Truth is a Small Sacrifice to Faction. The Vote of dissatisfaction with the Peace is a disagreable Event, and one knows not what Effects it may have. I dont believe it could ever have been carried if a Treaty of Commerce had been Signed, on the 30 of Nov. Why the Commission for making such a Treaty was revoked with out issuing another, you must ask Mr Marbois. I know not:— I think however you cannot too soon Send a Minister to London, to arrange finally a System of Commerce and to watch over all your Intests in that Country. French Politicks are now incessantly at Work in England, and We may depend upon it, they labour less for our good than their own.— if our Interests were the Same with theirs We might better trust them, Yet not entirely for they do not understand their own Interests, so well as We do ours.

Congress will never adopt a right System of foreign Affairs untill they consider their Interests as distinct and keep them seperate from those of all other Nations. One essential Part of the Business and Duty of their Ministers is to watch French Politicians as well as English, to cooperate with them where they coincide with our system, and to counteract them where they interfere with it. At least this has ever been my opinion. it was so when I was in Congress in 1775 & 1776 & 1777 and every days Experience in Europe, in every Country in every department, has afforded something in Confirmation of it. I have acted in Conformity to it, at every Risque, and, considering the furious Wrath it has occasioned, And the violent Efforts to demolish me, with wonderfull success. But the Success would have been much more compleat, if Congress had adhered to the system as Steadily as I did.

With great Esteem and Respect, sir your / most obedient & most humb servnt

Recollecting the Correspondence, which passed between you & me in the Year 1775, I have been sometimes in hopes you would have revived it, since you have been in Congress.—1 A Multitude of things have been transacted in Congress, the Grounds, Motives & Objects of which have never been explained to me; so that I have been frequently at a loss to regulate my own Conduct— I have been somewhat cautious too of writing to particular Members of Congress upon public Subjects, because of the critical & dangerous 400Situations in which our Affairs have been—least Occasion should have been given to Misrepresentation— The Times however are past, which required such Cautions, and I should advise the Members of Congress & their foreign Ministers to correspond freely with each other in future.— There will no longer be so much to be apprehended from the Capture of Letters at Sea, or their Stoppage in a Post Office. The unavoidable Difficulties of Correspondence have been heretofore very great, but they have been made much greater by Art.

I hope by this Time Gentlemen are cured of their implicit Confidence, and convinced, that they must see with their own Eyes, hear with their own Ears and judge with their own Understandings, or be cheated— There is but one Maxim, which is universal, and that is, that “We ought to trust Nobody in Europe”—Absolutely Nobody. All American Offices in Europe should be filled with Americans— And nothing should be done but upon American Intelligence—otherwise you will be carried to Market every day, and sold sometimes for Cash, sometimes for Offices and sometimes for Glory, and not seldom even for Caprice.

Indiscreet Confidence has gone very near ruining our Country heretofore, and it has been saved by such hazardous Resolutions as very few will ever venture upon, and indeed by such as ought never to be drawn into Precedent— I hope no Case will ever occur, in which they may be imitated.

The Shackles which have been fastened upon American Ministers have obstructed and injured our Cause in a great degree— And for what? For no other Reason under Heaven, than to give to one French Minister and one American Minister the Reputation of doing every thing— That one Soul burning in the Flames of Ambition may be cooled with the proud Title of “Pacificateur de l’Europe,” and another with that of “Pacificateur de l’Amerique.”— Gentlemen must search the human Heart a little more profoundly, than they seem to have done on some Occasions, or our Country will be made the Sport of Passions, in which She has no Interest.—

I wish You, Sir, a long Career in the Service of your Country, and more pleasure & better Success in it, than has fallen to the Lot of your / Friend & Hble Servt.