Deane’s Recall—Beaumarchais’s Activity in Obtaining for Him Honorable Escort—Letters to Congress—Reception of Deane—Preoccupation of Congress at the Moment of His Return—Arnold and Deane in Philadelphia the Summer of 1778—Deane’s Subsequent Conduct—Letters of Carmichaël and Beaumarchais—Le Fier Roderigue—Silas Deane Returns to Settle Accounts—Debate Over the “Lost Million”—True Story of the “Lost Million”—Mr. Tucker’s Speech—Final Settlement of the Claim of the Heirs of Beaumarchais. In accounting for the recall of Deane, Wharton, in the beginning of his Diplomatic Correspondence, Vol. I, p. 560, says: “Deane had, or was supposed to have had, a considerable amount of business patronage which to Arthur Lee’s eye gave too much opportunity for speculation, and not only did he suppose that Deane made use of this opportunity for his own benefit, but he himself desired to have the entire control of the business side of the mission placed in the hands of his brother William Lee, then, through the influence of Wilkes, alderman of London. The close connection which existed between Lee in Paris and the center of the opposition in London was not unknown to the French Ministry.” From the first, Vergennes had distrusted Lee, and held him at a distance. “Having had occasion,” says Loménie (Vol. I, p. 115), “to study closely the work of the deputation at Passy, I am able to affirm that Lee never had any credit with the French Government, who, rightly or wrongly, suspected him of having secret relations with the English Cabinet.... It is this which perfectly explains his permanent irritation against his two colleagues.” Doniol (Vol. I, p. 368) affirms positively, “spies of the foreign office were in communication with him and he aided them to arrive even to M. de Vergennes.” “In his heart,” continues Doniol, “he had an antipathy for France, which was shared by the majority of his countrymen. He was willing to accept everything from us, but on condition that no obligation be incurred.” “It is certainly not too much to say,” says Jared Sparks in his _Life of Franklin_ (Vol. I, p. 450), “that the divisions and feuds which reigned for a long time in Congress with respect to the foreign affairs of the United States are to be ascribed more to Lee’s malign influence than to all others.” It was the same that at the most perilous moment of the war, which was precisely this same winter of 1778, was exerting itself to the utmost of its power to place a creature of its own at the head of the American forces. So bitter had party spirit become, that a member from New England, whose patriotism was undisputed, had allowed himself to write in a letter which has been preserved: “I would rather that the whole cause should come to ruin, than that Mr. Washington should triumph.”