ve assembled here this
morning. It is only an ordinary session; and our friend said to me
pleasantly, '_We have only come to hold the fair._' He foresees also
that the resolution of the States-General, as to convoy, will not be
such as to engage France to revoke or mitigate her last edict of
navigation. One of the first Houses of Amsterdam, and whose
predilection for England is known, has sold L60,000 of English funds.
This has revived the idea of a declaration from Spain, and has
depressed the English funds at Amsterdam from three to four per cent.
There is a shower of pamphlets here, both in French and Dutch, against
the last Memoir of Sir Joseph Yorke."

For a long time, Gentlemen, we have heard nothing here of American
affairs, but through the wicked channel of your enemies, who do not
cease to paint the Americans as a people disunited and discordant.
These eternal repetitions, and their pretended success in Georgia, do
not fail to disquiet your friends and to embarrass all my endeavors.

I have the honor to be, &c.

DUMAS.

* * * * *

TO THE COMMITTEE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

The Hague, May 15th, 1779.

Gentlemen,

I have already had the honor of informing you many times, that some of
my frequent letters to Passy are of a nature not to be communicated to
you, even in abridgement, through the risk that my packets run of
being intercepted; such are, particularly, divers letters written to
Dr Franklin, from the 25th of January to the 29th of April. There is a
cabal of Genevan and Swiss bankers, as well in France as at Amsterdam,
friendly to your enemies, which does as much injury as it can under
the mask of friendship. It was my duty to unmask some of them to Dr
Franklin, and to make known to him a safe Anti-English patriotic
House, having the confidence of the magistracy of Amsterdam. The
Ministry in France know it.

Upon the last petitions of the merchants of Dort, Amsterdam,
Rotterdam, and Friesland, the States-General, after having previously
deliberated and advised, and then reconsidered the affair, adopted on
Monday, the 26th of April, the resolution to equip for the service of
the current year, 1779, thirtytwo vessels of war, as follows;

4 vessels of 60 guns, 350 men = 240 guns, 1400 men.
1 " 60 " 340 " = 60 " 340