I have received the letter you did me the honor to write to me, as also the packets you send by me. I shall carry them with a great deal of pleasure, and am much flattered with your confidence. I must inform you, Sir, that notwithstanding the public nature of my mission, I do not avow it, and the confidence I place in you in this respect will, I hope, be considered by you as a proof of the regard, with which I have the honor to be, &c. GERARD. TO BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. Chaillot, April 2d, 1778. Sir, It was with the utmost surprise, I learnt yesterday, that M. Gerard was to set out in the evening for America, in a public character; and that Mr Deane was to accompany him, without either you or Mr Deane having condescended to answer my letter of the preceding day. That a measure of such moment as M. Gerard’s mission should have been taken without any communication with the Commissioners, is hardly credible. That if it was communicated, you should do such violence to the authority which constituted us, together with so great an injury and injustice to me as to conceal it from me, and act or advise without me, is equally astonishing. If success to the mission and unanimity on the subject were your wish, with what propriety could you make it a party business, and not unite all the Commissioners in advising and approving a measure, in which you wished their friends and constituents might be unanimous? I do not live ten minutes distance from you. Within these few days, as usual, I have seen you frequently; particularly on Monday I was with you at your house for some time. I asked you about the sailing of the ships at Nantes, expressing my desire to know when we should have an opportunity of writing. You said you did not know when they sailed. I asked if there were no letters, none but one from M. Dumas having been shown to me for some time. You answered no. I had at a former meeting asked you whether it was not proper for us to send an express to give intelligence of such consequential events, as our being acknowledged here, and the treaty avowed. You told me it would be sufficient to write by the ship at Nantes, (for it was afterwards you mentioned there were two,) as the news being public would find its way fast enough.