If anything could astonish me, that comes from Mr Deane, surely here is abundant matter for astonishment. He had just before, from under his own hand, on the very same paper, acknowledged my having attempted to exercise that appointment, in the joint letter from Mr Thomas Morris and myself as commercial agents to himself and Dr Franklin, in August, 1777, which he calls _severe_, but which I aver is a very civil one, and that it does not contain a single harsh or offensive expression. He acknowledges, also, the conference I had with all the Commissioners in France in October, on the subject of the commercial business, when Mr Izard was present. He knew, also, that I had received a cargo publicly at Nantes, belonging to Congress, by the Abigail, Captain Jenne, which vessel was loaded again by me, and despatched back for America in three weeks, while other American vessels, of no greater size or importance, were detained at Nantes from two to three months. He knew, also, or ought to have known, that I had written a letter addressed to all the Commissioners, Dr Franklin, Mr Deane, and Mr Arthur Lee, on the 10th of November, 1777, which was delivered to Dr Franklin as eldest Commissioner the same day, wherein I requested a copy of the treaties, that had been proposed to the Courts of France and Spain, agreeably to my instructions from Congress, that I might not, as a Commissioner of Congress, propose anything repugnant thereto to the Courts of Vienna and Berlin. After these things, and a continued series of operations in the public service, (all of which Mr Deane was acquainted with) from the time I was permitted to act by himself and Dr Franklin, until the 4th of December, when the news of General Burgoyne’s defeat arrived at Paris, with what face could Mr Deane make such an assertion as he has done? Most of these things also being of public notoriety, and capable of being proved by a multitude of witnesses, can any one suppose Mr Deane so totally ignorant of the laws of England, as to imagine he could think I might return “to the exercise of my Aldermanship in London,” without being a madman desirous of hanging myself?