soon as circumstances will permit, (two of us having been
for a fortnight very ill, and one of us continuing so) we shall apply
to the Ministry for an eclaircissement upon this head, which we will
endeavor to communicate to you as soon as we shall obtain it.

We have received an answer to our last application for a convoy, from
their Excellencies Count de Vergennes and M. de Sartine; but the
answers convinced us, that M. de Sartine was under some
misinformation, or misunderstanding relative to the business, which
obliged us to write again. As soon as we shall be honored with an
answer, we will communicate the result of it to you.

Meantime we have the honor to be, with great respect, Gentlemen, your
most obedient humble servants,

B. FRANKLIN,
ARTHUR LEE,
JOHN ADAMS.

* * * * *

TO COUNT DE VERGENNES.

Passy, February 9th, 1779.

Sir,

It is now six months since Captain M'Neil, of the Mifflin privateer
from America, has been embarrassed with a process on account of a
French ship, which he retook from the English, after she had been
three days in their possession. The laws of France are clear with
regard to the validity of this prize, and our Captains have orders,
contained in their commissions, to submit their prizes to the laws of
the country into which they carry them, and they ought undoubtedly to
regulate their own conduct by those laws, without any regard to the
laws of America relating to this matter, which may be different in
every one of the United States, and, therefore, too uncertain to be
made the rule for judgement in the courts here. But the persons
reclaiming this prize insist, among other reasons, that their cause
should be judged by the laws of Captain M'Neil's country, because more
favorable for them.

We believe that no Americans in France will ever think of claiming
here any advantage by virtue of the laws of their own country, and it
seems not just to put those laws in force against them in France, when
it may be done to their detriment. The vexation of these kinds of
processes, and the slowness and length of these expensive proceedings
before a decision can be obtained, discourage our armed vessels, and
have tended to