s at Yorktown, and has been renewed at different periods since.
You will undoubtedly avail yourself of this engagement if necessary.
Congress relying upon it, have made no alteration in their
instructions since the change in their affairs, by the blow the enemy
received at Yorktown.

This letter of Marbois, and the conduct of the Court of France, evince
the difference between a great politician and a little one. France
can, by prohibiting the importation of fish, supply herself; she
cannot do more. Our exclusion from the fishery, would only be
beneficial to England. The enmity it would excite, the disputes it
would give rise to, would, in the course of a few years, obliterate
the memory of the favors we have received. England, by sacrificing a
part of her fisheries, and protecting us in the enjoyment of them,
would render herself necessary to us, our friendship would be
transferred to her, and France would in the end be considered as a
natural enemy. I am persuaded, she has wisdom enough to see this in
its true light.

I know not how far the Marquis may deserve your confidence; you are
the best judge of his conduct. I ought, however, in justice to him to
mention, that he has steadily, in all his letters, recommended an
adherence to our claims, and assured us that both might be obtained if
insisted upon.

You see, Sir, I have purposely leaned to the opposite side from that
which you appear in some measure to have taken; not because I think
you _are_ wrong in the opinion you have adopted, but because you _may
possibly_ be so. Such essential injuries may flow from the slightest
jealousies, that I wish you to examine yours with all the coolness you
are master of. I am persuaded, the last hope of Britain is founded on
the distrusts they may sow among their enemies. I wish you had in a
private letter in cypher informed me how you got at the letter of
Marbois, and why it was copied in English. I more particularly wish to
know whether it passed through the hands of either of the British
Commissioners. If it has, it will be of some consequence to see the
original, not that I doubt its authenticity, but it may possibly have
undergone some alterations. That which follows what is said of the
great bank, is nonsense, or if it conveys any meaning, I think it is
not such as a man of common sense would speak.[11]

Count de Vergennes, in his letters dated a day later than yours, gives
no account of your propositions. I should concl