I had the honor of receiving your Excellency’s favor of the 1st. I am extremely sorry for having troubled you with a representation, which seems to have given offence, instead of obtaining redress. Neither the character of a merchant, nor that of all the merchants of Europe, can weigh against the evidence of one’s senses. I do assure your Excellency upon my honor, that the musket, which is the specimen of those sent for the best Prussian arms, and which have cost me five livres a piece more than the best arms in France, is one of the worst that I ever beheld. I have seen most of the troops in Europe, and I never saw such a musket in a soldier’s hand. It has this remarkable in it, that it is neither of the old nor the new model; but seems to have been a barrel spoiled in attempting to new model it, and this put into a stock of such wood, and of such fashion, that nothing can be imagined worse. There is no mark upon it of its having been examined. In short, a mistake between the new and the old model is out of the question. But your Excellency will give me leave to observe, that if my demand was not explicit, it is a little surprising, that the house of Splittberger, in the correspondence that passed between them and Mr Grand, before the order was executed, did not ask an explanation, whether the old or the new model was meant. They knew, though we did not, that there were different kinds of arms of the Prussian make, and therefore that a mistake might happen. As to myself, I had seen the troops at Berlin, and the arsenal furnished with arms of the new model. I had conversed with sundry officers upon the preference due to arms of the Prussian make, and never found any one who by that term did not understand those of the new model. Not knowing, therefore, that there was any possibility of mistake, I did not conceive I could be more explicit. Upon the whole, instead of the best arms in Europe, which I promised, I sent the worst, if the rest are like the specimen sent me. I hope your Excellency will pardon me for having given you the pain of reading one letter on this subject, and I should not have added a second, but that there was a sort of censure thrown upon me, which I most assuredly did not deserve. I should have thought myself censurable, if I had concealed from your Excellency a proceeding on the part of those gentlemen, which appeared so flagrant to me. You thought I was alone to blame, in which I cannot in any degree whatsoever concur.