endered me hitherto,
yearly, three hundred pounds sterling. However, I did not apply to the
Commissioners for the above sum; and after having received for the
course of the whole year, 1777, only one hundred pounds sterling, I
obtained two hundred pieces a year for 1778, and twenty five pieces
more for the ordinary charges and expenses of the following years.
With this small sum of two hundred and twenty five pieces to live on
in a country like this, I have been obliged, not only to dismiss my
servant, but to make other reductions in my house, which makes my
little family, as well as myself, unhappy, because they apprehend I
have undone them. I keep them up, however, with the confidence I have
in the justice and magnanimity of Congress, who, when affairs become
more prosperous, will not forget me, nor my daughter, a good child of
thirteen years old, who, from the beginning of this war, has been
taught to pray fervently for the United States.

This State, by its constitution, can make no war, nor any treaty with
a sovereign power, without a unanimity of all its provinces and
cities. And as there is a very strong party in favor of England, there
is not the least probability that they will conclude a treaty with the
United States, before England permits them to do so by setting them
the example. The only, but very necessary thing, therefore, which
remained to be done here, was to hinder the English from drawing this
Republic into their quarrel, which, by her immense wealth and public
credit would have had very bad consequences against America. And to
this your humble servant has greatly and daily co-operated these three
years past. We found a very weak opposition, which is now strong
enough to resist the torrent.

Besides the Commissioners at Paris, to whom I constantly communicate
all that passes, Mr William Lee, who, from September, 1776, to May,
1779, was my correspondent, knew my exertions. He wrote to me so early
as December 26, 1777, in these terms. "Though I have not for some time
past, had the pleasure of your correspondence, yet I have not been a
stranger to your continued exertions in the cause of humanity and
liberty, for which thousands yet unborn will bless your memory." Even
with respect to a treaty, I left the matter not untried. For
immediately after the conclusion of the treaty between the United
States and France, I concerted with the city of Amsterdam and the
Commissioners at Paris to communicate the s