ARTHUR LEE. TO THE COMMITTEE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS. Paris, June 9th, 1778. Gentlemen, My last of the 1st, informed you of Admiral Byron, with thirteen sail, being ordered against you, of which we sent notice by every way most likely to warn the States of their danger. We have now certain advice, that this fleet having put into Plymouth is there stopped, their remaining fleet being found too weak to protect them at home. I enclose you a late account of their force and the disposal of it; and nothing seems more certain, than that the naval and land force now employed against you will be diminished, not augmented. However, I have now settled such means of intelligence, that you will be apprized if any alteration should happen. All our intelligence announces the utmost confusion in Great Britain and Ireland; such as will infallibly find them employment at home, independent of France and Spain. Their councils are so fluctuating in consequence of the variety of their distress, that advices of them cannot be given with certainty; that is, without being frequently subject to appear premature. The British Ministry have agreed to an exchange of prisoners with us, by which we shall immediately release upwards of 200. War is not commenced in Germany, but is talked of as inevitable. The deputy of Congress for Vienna is at his destination to feel the disposition of that Court. But I understand, that their attention is so engaged with the approaching war, that other propositions proceed slowly. As the King of Prussia contends against the Empress and the House of Austria, in maintenance of the treaty of Westphalia, which is the great bulwark of German rights, it is therefore necessary, that he should league himself with the German Princes, among whom the King of Great Britain, as elector of Hanover, bears so much sway, that he could not hazard the turning his influence against him by entering into an alliance with us. To cultivate and encourage the favorable disposition towards us in Holland, we have sent them the treaty concluded here, and we shall follow it by proposals for a loan, as soon as Dr Franklin (to whom the digesting of the plan, and having the proposed bills printed, is left) has prepared the business for execution.