FROM THE COMMITTEE OF SECRET CORRESPONDENCE TO ARTHUR LEE. Philadelphia, October 23d, 1776. Sir, By this conveyance we transmit to Silas Deane, a resolve of the Honorable the Continental Congress of Delegates from the thirteen United States of America, whereby you are appointed one of their Commissioners for negotiating a treaty of alliance, amity, and commerce with the Court of France, and also for negotiating treaties with other nations, agreeably to certain plans and instructions of Congress, which we have transmitted by various conveyances to Mr Deane, another of the Commissioners. We flatter ourselves, from the assurances of your friends here, that you will cheerfully undertake this important business, and that our country will greatly benefit of those abilities and that attachment, which you have already manifested in sundry important services, which at a proper period shall be made known to those you would wish. ROBERT MORRIS, B. FRANKLIN. TO LORD SHELBURNE. Paris, December 23d, 1776. My Lord, A very few hours after my last letter to your Lordship, brought me the desire of my country to serve her in a public character. Your Lordship, I hope, thinks too well of me to suppose I could hesitate a moment. In fact, almost the same minute saw me bid adieu, perhaps forever, to a country where from choice I had fixed my fortunes, and to a people whom I most respected and could have loved. But the first object of my life is my country; the first wish of my heart is public liberty. I must see, therefore, the liberties of my country established or perish in her last struggle. In truth, I have long despaired even of a struggle for liberty in England; I will not insult Scotland with the idea. It is not the subtle Weddeburne, poisoning the fountain of public security, nor the ruthless Thurloe, deliberately butchering the liberties of his country, that make me despair; but yet, perhaps, the people are only not virtuous, and America may yet, with a sort of filial piety, reanimate her expiring constitution. Our _Pater Patriae_, with whom and Mr Deane I am joined in power, is in good health and spirits. If fate will have it, that America, as she has reared her temples and her altars to liberty, must furnish her victims too, I know not where she can find a sacrifice more respectable. Should the event of this measure be found fatal to England, it is the perfidy of her Ministers which compels it, and to which the consequences are justly imputable. I beg your Lordship to remember me as one, who can never cease to have the most perfect esteem for you. I have communicated to the Abbé Raynal all the facts I could collect, in answer to his questions. He will write to you soon.