Mr Izard says, in his letter of the first of April, "_That if the whole world had been searched_, it would have been impossible to have found a person more unfit than I was for the trust, with which Congress had honored me." It does not become me, and possibly not even Mr Izard himself, to determine on my competency to that trust, and I have only to observe, that both of us were appointed by the authority of Congress, with this only difference, that I had the honor of being personally known to the members who composed that body, and I can add with pleasure, that I always paid respect to Mr Izard from the choice they had made of him, which I doubt not was on good information. I shall feel no uneasiness on my own account, that Mr Izard's opinions of me remain on the journals of Congress, whilst on the same records there will be found that of his Most Christian Majesty, of his Minister, and Secretary of State, and of my venerable colleague, revered through Europe as the first of patriots, as well as philosophers, whom this age has produced. I find but two charges which respect me personally; the first is, the exercising such a degree of hauteur and presumption as to give offence to every gentleman with whom I transacted business. I transacted none with Mr Izard, and therefore must appeal from his opinion to the business I transacted, and the worthy and honorable persons with whom I transacted it, and who, from the first of my acquaintance with them to my leaving the kingdom, honored me with their friendship and their confidence. I desire it may be remembered, that, when I went abroad, charged with the transaction of political and commercial business for Congress, in the year 1776, I arrived at Paris as late in the season as the month of July, without funds, uncertain of remittances, without credit, ignorant of the language and manners of France, and an utter stranger to the persons in power and influence at Court; that I had not the patronage of any person of importance, and had no correspondence or connexions established in any part of Europe. The news of our misfortunes in Canada arrived in France with me, and that of our subsequent misfortunes immediately after, and was, as usual, exaggerated by the British Ambassador and his emissaries. In a word, without remittances, or even intelligence from Congress, and under all these disagreeable circumstances, I had to oppose the artifice, the influence, and the power of Great Britain; yet I have the pleasing reflection that before the first of December following, I procured thirty thousand stand of arms, thirty thousand suits of clothes, more than two hundred and fifty pieces of brass artillery, tents, and other stores to a large amount, provided the ships to transport them, and shipped a great part of them for America. Many of these supplies fortunately arrived at the commencement of the last year's operations, and enabled my brave countrymen, in some parts of America, to make a