me fashionable with the
minority as well as the majority and administration, to reproach us
both in and out of Parliament; that all parties join in speaking of us
in the bitterest terms, and in heartily wishing our destruction; that
great clamors are raised about our alliance with France, as an
unnatural combination to ruin them; that the cry is for a speedy and
powerful reinforcement of their army, and for the activity of their
fleet in making descents on the sea coast, while murdering and
desolating parties are let loose upon the frontiers of the Carolinas,
Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and New England, and,
that very early in the year, they will carry all these projects into
execution. This whole system may, as we conceive, be defeated and the
power of Great Britain now in America totally subdued (and if their
power is subdued there, it is reduced every where,) by the measure we
have the honor to propose.

We submit the whole merely as our opinion to your Excellency's
superior wisdom, and have the honor to be, &c.

B. FRANKLIN,
ARTHUR LEE,
JOHN ADAMS.

* * * * *

TO M. DE SARTINE.

Passy, January 2d, 1779.

Sir,

We had the honor of receiving your Excellency's letter of the 22d, and
are much obliged to you for the interest you take in what concerns the
unhappy prisoners, who may escape from England. We have not been
inattentive to that subject. There are persons who supply them at
Bordeaux, Brest, L'Orient, Nantes, and Dunkirk. A gentleman at Calais
has voluntarily done this service, for which we have directed him to
draw on us for his disbursements; and we shall as readily discharge
what may have been disbursed by your commissaries, when we have their
accounts.

As there is very little probability of prisoners coming to other
ports, we will not give your Excellency the trouble you are so good as
to offer to take.

The regulation your Excellency proposes, relative to the prisoners we
may take from the enemy and bring into the ports of France, is
entirely agreeable to us; and we shall direct our agents accordingly,
who will readily deliver such prisoners to the persons your Excellency
may appoint to receive them, hav