not so much as a means of
subsistence, as of commerce. That the fishery failing, those formerly
employed in them turned part to agriculture, and part to the army and
navy. That our commerce must for sometime be in a great measure
suspended, but that the greater part of our importations were far from
being necessaries of life, consequently we should not suffer under the
want of them, whilst it was not wealth or luxuries that we were
contending for. That our commerce ceasing, it would be out of the
power of our enemies to support themselves on our plunder, and on the
other hand, our ships, as privateers, might harrass their commerce,
without a possibility of their retaliating. That I hoped to see a
considerable marine force in the Colonies, and that, joined to the
impossibility of Britain's guarding so extensive a coast, would
preserve some of our commerce, until it should be thought an object
deserving the protection of other powers.

After many questions on this subject, he put this, in which I thought
he seemed interested,--whether, if the Colonies declare an
independency, they would not differ among themselves? To this I
replied, that the greatest harmony had as yet subsisted, and I had no
grounds to doubt it in future; that the common danger, which first
drove them into measures, which must end in such a declaration, would
subsist, and that alone was sufficient to ensure their union.

He then desired me to give his secretary my address, and said, though
he should be glad to see me often, yet as matters were circumstanced,
his house was too public a place, but that I might put the same
confidence in his secretary as himself, to whom I might apply for
advice and direction, but that whenever anything of importance
occurred, I need but inform him, and he would see me; but on common
occasions, I must address the secretary, which would be every way more
convenient as he understood the English language well, and was a
person in whom the greatest confidence could be placed. Having settled
the mode of intercourse, I expressed the sense I had of his
excellency's politeness, and the generous protection he had given me,
and on parting said, if my commission or the mode of introducing the
subject were out of the usual course, I must rely on his goodness to
make allowances for a new formed people, in circumstances altogether
unprecedented, and for their agent wholly unacquainted with courts. To
which he replied, that the people