s very little boat took on her
passage another brig of two hundred tons from Alicant, and sent her
into America; she also took four or five vessels in the Channel,
chiefly smugglers, and plundered them of their cash, and the Captain
being a good natured fellow let them go, as he did a transport, which
he took in sight of a man-of-war, and was obliged to give her up,
bringing off, however, with him his people. He has promised for the
future to burn those he cannot send in, and I believe will be as good
as his word. This is the way the English serve not only ours, but the
French vessels, which they take on our coast. The Captain tells me, he
was told this last circumstance by several French Captains, whom he
saw prisoners, (himself a prisoner) at New York. The eyes of this
Court will be opened, it is to be hoped, before it is too late, a war
being inevitable, in my opinion, to force an accommodation. They will
unite with us on our own terms, and discerning from the past how
little effective assistance we have to hope from France for the
future, will make a war with this nation one article of the Federal
Union. Whichever strikes first will probably succeed. Our valuable
commerce is more hurt on the French coast than on our own. We have
lost above L60,000 sterling, from South Carolina only, all which was
coming to be laid out for French manufactures. It is a fact at
present, that the manufacturers of this country cannot execute so fast
as they receive orders.

The English papers published by the authority of General Howe, at New
York, tell with triumph, that one of their cruisers has sunk a twenty
gun French ship at some distance from the Delaware, and every soul
perished. We have some fears that this is the Amphitrite. Another ship
was taken, French property, a few leagues from the harbor of St
Pierre, which she had just quitted. If they dare do this in their
present critical situation, what will they not dare if successful, or
at peace and united with us?

I wrote you before what I repeat again, that had General Howe got
possession of Philadelphia last winter, as insolent a Memorial as that
presented by Sir Joseph York, would have been presented by Lord
Stormont here, and had not their demands been instantly complied with,
the immediate destruction of the French commerce would have been the
consequence. All the navy, all the army contracts are made, for five
years, in England. Letters of marque were given to contractors