of an American hostage, confined in the prisons of Dunkirk. His
continuance there seems to be useless, and yet endless. Not knowing how
far the government can interfere for his relief, as it is a case wherein
private property is concerned, I do not presume to ask his liberation
absolutely: but I will solicit from your Excellency such measures in his
behalf, as the laws and usages of the country may permit.

The Comptroller General having been so good as to explain to me in a
conversation, that he wished to know what duties were levied in England
on American whale-oil, I have had the honor of informing him by letter,
that the ancient duties on that article are seventeen pounds, six
shillings, and six pence, sterling, the ton, and that some late
additional duties make them amount to about eighteen pounds sterling.
That the common whale-oil sells there but for about twenty pounds
sterling, the ton, and of course the duty amounts to a prohibition. This
duty was originally laid on all foreign fish-oil, with a view to favor
the British and American fisheries. When we became independent, and of
course foreign to Great Britain, we became subject to the foreign
duty. No duty, therefore, which France may think proper to lay on this
article, can drive it to the English market. It could only oblige the
inhabitants of Nantucket to abandon their fishery. But the poverty
of their soil offering them no other resource, they must quit their
country, and either establish themselves in Nova Scotia, where, as
British fishermen, they may participate of the British premium, in
addition to the ordinary price of their whale-oil, or they must accept
the conditions which this government offers, for the establishment they
have proposed at Dunkirk. Your Excellency will judge, what conditions
may counterbalance, in their minds, the circumstances of the vicinity
of Nova Scotia, sameness of langague,[sp.] laws, religion, customs,
and kindred. Remaining in their native country, to which they are most
singularly attached, excluded from commerce with England, taught to look
to France as the only country from which they can derive sustenance,
they will, in case of war, become useful rovers against its enemies.
Their position, their poverty, their courage, their address, and their
hatred, will render them formidable scourges on the British commerce.
It is to be considered then, on the one hand, that the duty which M. de
Calonne had proposed to retain on th