. The Howes
are at this time in possession of, or are able to awe, the whole middle
coast of America, from Delaware to the western boundary of Massachusetts
Bay; the naval barrier on the side of Canada is broken; a great tract of
country is open for the supply of the troops; the river Hudson opens a
way into the heart of the provinces; and nothing can, in all
probability, prevent an early and offensive campaign. What the Americans
_have_ done is, in their circumstances, truly astonishing; it is,
indeed, infinitely more than I expected from them. But having done so
much, for some short time I began to entertain an opinion that they
might do more. It is now, however, evident that they cannot look
standing armies in the face. They are inferior in everything, even in
numbers,--I mean, in the number of those whom they keep in constant duty
and in regular pay. There seem, by the best accounts, not to be above
ten or twelve thousand men, at most, in their grand army. The rest are
militia, and not wonderfully well composed or disciplined. They decline
a general engagement,--prudently enough, if their object had been to
make the war attend upon a treaty of good terms of subjection; but when
they look further, this will not do. An army that is obliged at all
times and in all situations to decline an engagement may delay their
ruin, but can never defend their country. Foreign assistance they have
little or none, nor are likely soon to have more. France, in effect, has
no king, nor any minister accredited enough either with the court or
nation to undertake a design of great magnitude.

In this state of things, I persuade myself Franklin is come to Paris to
draw from that court a definitive and satisfactory answer concerning the
support of the colonies. If he cannot get such an answer, (and I am of
opinion that at present he cannot,) then it is to be presumed he is
authorized to negotiate with Lord Stormont on the basis of dependence on
the crown. This I take to be his errand: for I never can believe that he
is come thither as a fugitive from his cause in the hour of its
distress, or that he is going to conclude a long life, which has
brightened every hour it has continued, with so foul and dishonorable a
flight. On this supposition, I thought it not wholly impossible that the
Whig party might be made a sort of mediators of the peace. It is
unnatural to suppose, that, in making an accommodation, the Americans
should not choose rathe