The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. 01
History
The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. 01
United States -- Foreign relations -- 1775-1783; United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Sources
In the course of my narrative I mentioned Mr Williams's accounts as
being finally settled. I drew my conclusion from his letter to me of
the 22d of July last read in Congress. I find the accounts are not
finally closed, though Doctor Franklin and Mr Adams have ordered him
the payment. Mr Williams informs me he has written to Congress and
sent his accounts; the accounts themselves will show that I have not,
nor ever had, any private or personal interest in his transactions; at
the same time I beg leave to interest myself in what affects this
gentleman, because I think I know him to have been a most faithful and
useful servant of the public, and every way deserving of the character
given him by Dr Franklin and Mr Adams; and as Dr Franklin, from being
his uncle, feels a delicacy in writing so fully about him, I therefore
pray that this gentleman's accounts may be put into a train for being
closed.
I recollect that Mr Lee has mentioned Count Lauragais in his
correspondence with Mons. Beaumarchais, and am informed that this
gentleman has in his letters been referred to. Count Lauragais is a
nobleman, who was born to an immense fortune, the chief of which he
has long since dissipated in a wild and I may say in such an eccentric
course of life, as hardly has a parallel in France. He has set up at
times for a philosopher, a wit, a poet; then as suddenly flew off, and
engaged in building, planting, or politics; he was one month for
engaging in trade, the next a country gentleman on his farm, the third
blazing in the beau monde at Paris; and France being insufficient to
afford a variety of scenes suited to equal the restlessness of his
genius, he has constantly been shifting them, from Paris to London and
from London to Paris. In London he set up for a patriot, and engaged
seriously in the disputes and parties of the day, and what was very
diverting, sat down for a few weeks to study the laws of England in
order to confute Blackstone. His rank, to which his birth entitles
him, gives him admittance to court, and the extravagancy of his wit
and humor serves to divert and please men in high office, and he
consequently at times fancies himself in their secrets. This gentleman
knew Mr Lee in London before I arrived in France, and was afterwards
often with him at Paris. His character was given me soon after my
arrival, and I was put on my guard and warned by the minister, not
that he supposed him to have designs unfriendly, either to France or
America, but on account of his imprudence, and of his being frequently
in London, and with those in the opposition in England, of whom the
Court of France were more jealous, and against whom they were equally
on their guard, as with the British ministry themselves. As this
nobleman's name may be made use of, I cannot dispense with touching
lightly on the outlines of a character extremely well known in France
and England, and to which some gentlemen in America are no strangers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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