ey were in fact concealed from
me with the utmost care, as was every other means of my knowing how
these affairs were conducted." I have in reply to relate the following
facts, which are easy to be ascertained. Mr Lee, on his return from
Berlin, was made acquainted with the contracts; Messrs _Holker_, (now
in Boston) _Sabbatier and Desprez_ repeatedly conferred with Mr Lee on
the subject in my presence, and when they brought in their accounts Mr
Lee assisted in adjusting them, and signed with us the orders for the
payment, as Mr Grand's account and the orders and accounts themselves
will show. It is true, the execution of M. Monthieu's contract was not
completed, when I left Paris, and therefore his accounts could not be
settled. Mr Williams had the oversight of repairing the arms in the
magazine at Nantes; he settled his accounts with his workmen monthly;
he had a frigate fitting out for the commissioners, 10,000 suits of
clothes making up, a number of shirts, shoes, &c. together with the
charge of all the stores the commissioners were sending to Nantes to
be shipped. Monthly accounts were not to be expected in reason from a
man in such a situation; it could not be done if promised, and Mr
Williams is a gentleman of too much probity as well as knowledge in
business, to promise what he cannot perform. It is not enough to say,
that no man in France enjoys a better character for strict honor and
probity, both at Court and in the city, than Mons. Chaumont. Justice
must add, there is no man enjoys it perhaps so universally through the
kingdom, among the merchants, the farmers or husbandmen, and
mechanics, in all which branches of business he is constantly
speculating. This man is the friend of Dr Franklin; I have the
pleasure of knowing him to be mine, and what is more, the friend of my
country, on all and in the most trying occasions. I do not wonder that
Mr Lee should appear jealous of this gentleman, as well as of every
body else, a select few excepted, and very few indeed are those, who
escape his jealous suspicions, either in Europe or America. It is a
melancholy truth, but justice to the public requires my declaring it,
that I never knew Mr Lee, from his first coming to Paris, satisfied
with any one person he did business with, whether of a public or
private nature, and his dealings, whether for trifles or for things of
importance, almost constantly ended in a dispute, sometimes in
litigious quarrels.

Mr Lee lived s