I suppose that the papers Mr Deane mentions to have taken and secured were those only, that related to his separate commercial transactions for the public, before his appointment with us in the political commission. If he took away any of the papers we were jointly concerned in, I conceive he was wrong in doing so, and that his doing wrong would not justify the rest of us in following his example. I can have no desire to deprive you of any paper, that may be of use to you in answering Mr Deane’s accusations, having no concern in them, nor interest in supporting them. On the contrary, if any papers remaining in my hands can be of such use to you, you are welcome to have authenticated copies of them (which shall on request be made out for you) as well as of any others “evidencing our joint transactions,” which you may desire. On the whole, it seems to me that this matter may be reasonably settled by your keeping, if you please, all those originals of which there are duplicates at Passy, retaining for a time such of the rest as you desire to copy, which copies being compared by us with the originals, may be authenticated by our joint signatures, and returning immediately all the others docketed and catalogued as you please, so as that you may know what and where they are, and call for a copy of any of them you may hereafter have occasion for, which shall always be given you. If these propositions are agreed to, the affair may soon be settled; if not, I must wait the orders of Congress, and in the mean time do as well as I can with their business, which I think must often suffer by my want of the knowledge these papers might occasionally furnish me with. I have the honor to be, &c. B. FRANKLIN. ARTHUR LEE TO BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. Paris, March 19th, 1779. Sir, I received the letter you did me the honor to write me on the 13th, relative to the few papers of our late joint commission remaining in my hands; they are confounded among a multitude of other papers. I will examine them soon, and if I find any that relate to public accounts remaining unpaid (which I do not believe I shall find) I will inform you of it, that copies may be taken of them.