will be possible to obtain them
so cheap as they might otherwise be had. The ration consisting of one
pound of bread, one pound of beef, or three quarters of a pound of
pork, one gill of country made rum; and to every hundred rations one
quart of salt, two quarts of vinegar; also to every seven hundred
rations eight pounds of soap, and three pounds of candles, is now
furnished to the United States in this city, at nine pence, with a
half penny allowed over for issuing. It may perhaps cost more to
furnish rations to the army, perhaps as high as ten pence or eleven
pence, Pennsylvania currency.

You I suppose, Sir, can command the necessary accounts to determine
what the King now pays for the subsistence of his troops; but as the
French and American rations differ, I take the liberty for your
further information to mention, that the parts of the ration are
estimated as follows; for one pound of bread, two ninetieths of a
dollar; for one pound of beef, or three quarters of a pound of pork,
four and a quarter ninetieths; for one gill of rum, two ninetieths;
for soap, candles, vinegar, and salt, one and a quarter ninetieths for
each ration. You will also observe, Sir, that when exchange is at four
fifths, one livre tournois is equal to fourteen pence and two fifths
of a penny, Pennsylvania money.

I go into these details to enable your Excellency exactly to determine
what is most for the interest of France, for I conceive it my duty to
give you a confidential state of our affairs, whenever it can promote
his Majesty's service, which I beg leave to assure you, I have every
possible desire to assist; being convinced, that I can by no other
means more fully comply with the wishes of the United States in
Congress assembled.

I beg leave further to observe, that I have no personal wish to
negotiate your bills, or to supply your fleets and armies. You must be
very sensible that I have already before me a field of business
sufficiently large. To extend it, will give me labor and pain, I can
derive no advantage from it, nor will anything induce me to engage in
it, except it be the prospect of rendering effectual service to the
common cause. I make this declaration, not because I conceive it
necessary to you, or from an ostentatious display of those motives,
which actuate my conduct, but there may be persons to whom I am not so
well known as I have the honor of being to your Excellency, and who
from ignorance or interest might g