h entitles
him, gives him admittance to court, and the extravagancy of his wit
and humor serves to divert and please men in high office, and he
consequently at times fancies himself in their secrets. This gentleman
knew Mr Lee in London before I arrived in France, and was afterwards
often with him at Paris. His character was given me soon after my
arrival, and I was put on my guard and warned by the minister, not
that he supposed him to have designs unfriendly, either to France or
America, but on account of his imprudence, and of his being frequently
in London, and with those in the opposition in England, of whom the
Court of France were more jealous, and against whom they were equally
on their guard, as with the British ministry themselves. As this
nobleman's name may be made use of, I cannot dispense with touching
lightly on the outlines of a character extremely well known in France
and England, and to which some gentlemen in America are no strangers.

I have mentioned the first and principal contract having been made for
clothing, with Mr Holker, now agent for France in America. This
gentleman was then one of the inspectors general of the manufactures
of France, and knowing perfectly well the price and quality of cloth
in every part of the kingdom, he undertook, at the request of our
mutual friend, Mons. Chaumont, to put us in the way of being supplied
at the cheapest rates, and, by joining himself in the written
contract, induced his friends, Messrs Sabbatier and Desprez, to
engage, which they did; they purchased the cloth at the manufactories,
at the first cost, procured it to be made up at the cheapest rate, and
the clothes to be transported to Nantes, charging only the prime cost
on every thing, and two per cent commissions for their trouble. Mr
Holker, after having engaged these men, whose house is a capital one
in Paris, and who, from their having for some time supplied a great
part of the clothes to the armies of France, were well acquainted with
business of that kind, took no farther part in the affair, but that of
examining the work and accounts, to see that every thing was performed
in the best and cheapest manner. In this I assisted him. I went with
him to the workmen, and examined the cloth, the fashion and the
economy practised in the work, from which I will venture to assert,
that clothes of equal goodness could not be made cheaper, if so cheap,
by any other method in France.

Mr Holker, and the other