ng it into use is not a bad one. Besides I must again observe,
that by a union of management in the sale of bills drawn for the
service of his Most Christian Majesty's fleets and armies, and those
drawn for account of the United States, still better prices might be
obtained, nay, I should not despair of trying to raise the price of
exchange to par, by means of partial importations of money, and
passing bills before the expenditure thereof, so that necessity might
not have any influence in fixing the price.

What your Excellency has said to me respecting the advances made this
year by his Majesty to the United States, has left on my mind those
impressions you intended to make. You may depend, Sir; that it is my
wish, and shall be a part of my study, to render these States as
little troublesome to his Majesty as possible, and I shall probably
have many opportunities to convince you, that it is a fixed point with
me, that the United States, to become truly independent, must trust
more to their own exertions, and lean but lightly on their allies.
But, Sir, you must remember the situation, in which I found their
affairs; you are not ignorant, that although I have cut off entirely
many sources of expense, and curtailed others, yet that I have not
been able to obtain either supplies of money or permanent revenue from
the States, which however I attribute chiefly to the recess of the
several Legislatures during the greatest part of the time that I have
been in office, for I hope and expect that they will severally attend
to the calls upon them, when they shall come to know their real
situation.

But in the meanwhile, what am I to do if the means of supplying
indispensable wants are cut off? The important operations now carrying
on by General Washington depend so materially on the performance of my
engagements, that the most fatal consequences may ensue from any
breach of them. Your Excellency well remembers, that you thought
yourself justifiable, in giving me assurances, that Messrs Le Couteulx
& Co. should be supplied with one million five hundred thousand livres
tournois, to answer my drafts to that extent; the produce whereof to
be employed in the service of the present campaign. You will also
recollect, that previous to my journey in August to camp, I judged it
necessary to know, whether that sum was the whole on which I could
place dependence, because, as the General's operations would in a
great measure depend on the ai