honor of
conversing with her in the character of a private gentleman. This
incident will be best improved by preparing yourself to answer all her
inquiries with respect to this country, without touching on the
politics of Europe, with which she is infinitely better acquainted
than we can be. The first settlement of the Colonies; their
population, agriculture, commerce, and revenues; their past and
present governments; the progress of the arts and sciences; the steps
which led to this revolution, and the present state of the war, will
probably be the objects of her inquiry. These you will answer with
candor, even though you should thereby expose some of our defects or
imperfections. For you will never cease to bear in mind, that the
celebrated sovereign of the country you are in is too well informed to
be deceived, could our politics ever stoop so low as to make the
attempt.

Since my last, conveying an account of Cornwallis's capture, nothing
very important has happened here, unless it be the evacuation of
Wilmington and Beaufort, by which means all the enemy's posts in the
southern States are reduced to Charleston and Savannah, and the trade
of that extensive country is again opened. The few friends to slavery
in the States the British marched over, are abandoned to our mercy.
For the rest the enemy keep close within their lines, and our troops
are cantoned about the country. In the meanwhile the British islands
and commerce are sacrificed to the possession of three posts, which
cost them millions to retain on this continent. I give you no account
of what is doing in the West Indies, presuming that you will have the
earliest and best intelligence on this subject from Paris. It may be
of some importance to you to learn, that our plan for calling in the
old paper and emitting new, was not attended with all the success that
was expected. The old paper was indeed redeemed, but the new beginning
to depreciate, most of the States thought it prudent to take it in by
taxation.

The only money now in general circulation is specie and notes from the
American banks, which have the same credit as silver. Our taxes are
collected in these, and by removing the restrictions on our commerce,
together with the small loans we have made in Europe, we find not the
least want of a circulating medium; and though there will probably be
some failure in the amount of the taxes from some of the States, which
are most impoverished, yet a cons