thing Great Britain could bring against them. You are
entirely right in saying, that the House of Bourbon are the allies we
should first and principally court. France is at the head of this
House, and therefore what is done here is sure to be done by the
whole. This, therefore, requires my whole attention, and I can only
say to you, my prospects are nowise discouraging.

As to the King of Prussia, I will in my next explain more fully my
meaning, and at the same time send to you a state of the United
Colonies, of their commerce, of their present contest, with some
thoughts or observations on the manner in which Europe must be
affected, and what part they ought to take in the present important
crisis. My name and business have long since been known to the British
Ambassador here, and to the Court of London; and they have
remonstrated, but finding remonstrances to no purpose, they have
wisely determined to take no notice of me, as I do not appear as yet
in a public character.

Let me ask of you, if a workman skilful in the founding of brass and
iron cannon can be engaged in Holland to go to America? Also, if I can
engage two or three persons of approved skill in lead mines, to go to
America on good engagement. Your answer will oblige me, and by the
next post I will write you more particularly. The British arms will
not, probably, effect anything in America this season, as they had not
begun to act the 8th of August, and that brings winter to the very
door, as I may say, and an indecisive campaign must prove to Great
Britain a fatal one.

I am, &c.

SILAS DEANE.

* * * * *

ARTHUR LEE TO C. W. F. DUMAS.

London, September 23d, 1776.

Dear Sir,

My absence from town till now prevented my answering your two last
favors of September 3d.

By our latest and best accounts from America the die is now cast, and
we may every day expect to hear of a decisive action at New York;
decisive I mean as to the fate of General Howe and New York, but not
of America, which depends very little upon the event of New York being
taken or saved.

There is a public torpor here, which, without being superstitious, one
may regard as a visitation from heaven. The people in general think
the declaration of independence as a thing of course, and do not seem
to feel themselves at all intere