Reciprocity and equality being the principles of the treaties, and duration the object, your Excellency will, in my judgment, have an opportunity of strengthening the confidence and ties between us, by offering to remove words of a latitude not intended, and of an inequality, which must be seen and create dissatisfaction. I have the honor to be, &c. ARTHUR LEE. COUNT DE VERGENNES TO ARTHUR LEE. Translation. Versailles, June 15th, 1778. Sir, I received with pleasure the letter you did me the honor of writing to me yesterday. We shall not be long probably before we receive news from your constituents, and their judgment of the act which you signed here in conjunction with your colleagues. Should they demand any eclaircissements, we shall not refuse to make them. You know our principles, and I think we have given proofs of our disinterestedness. I see with pleasure, Sir, that you are satisfied with the proofs of the Prince de Montbaray’s zeal in procuring you the articles you requested from him.[36] You will always find us disposed to do everything, that may concern the welfare of the United States of America. I have the honor to be, &c. DE VERGENNES. [36] This relates to military articles for the State of Virginia, which Mr Lee was authorised to procure. The correspondence concerning this subject will be found in the first volume of the _Life of Arthur Lee_. TO THE COMMITTEE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS. Paris, June 15th, 1778. Gentlemen, I find I was mistaken in saying in my last, of the 9th, that twenty thousand fusils had been shipped from Nantes and Bordeaux; upwards of ten thousand remain unshipped, at Nantes. Upon the strength of the promised remittance from our friends in Spain, and near one hundred thousand remaining in my hands, I have desired the Gardoquis to continue shipping blankets and strong shoes from Bilboa; twenty thousand livres worth of drugs, and salt to be shipped by Mr Cathatan of Marseilles; a thousand suits of soldiers’ clothes from Bordeaux, by Mr Bonfield; and six hundred fusils, of the Prussian make, from Berlin, that you may judge on arming a corps with them whether they are preferable to others.