most humble servant.

TO THE COUNT DE MONTMORIN.

PARIS, November 6, 1787.

SIR,--I take the liberty of asking your Excellency's perusal of the
enclosed case of an American hostage, confined in the prisons of
Dunkirk. His continuance 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 language, 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 t