_P. S._ I see by the English papers, that a motion by Lord Chatham for an address of the House of Lords to the king, to begin an accommodation by a cessation of hostilities, and an offer of a full redress of grievances, supported by Lords Shelburne and Camden, was rejected by 100 to 28. This motion was made on the 30th of last month, and the chief objection on the ministerial part was, that it would stop the career of their success that must soon reduce you. TO THE COMMISSIONERS AT PARIS. Berlin, June 15th, 1777. Dear Sirs, I had the honor of writing to you from Munich and Vienna, from the last of which I arrived here the 4th of this month. The letters you have received from hence will show you how the wind blows here; I have tried all in my power to make it change, hitherto in vain. In ten days I shall set out on my return. There cannot be a state of more perfect quiescence than prevails in this place; what is merely commercial is planned, but whether it will be adopted remains to be determined. I have the honor of being, &c. ARTHUR LEE. TO GEORGE WASHINGTON. Berlin, June 15th, 1777. Dear Sir, It has been with uncommon satisfaction, that I have seen you in a situation in which I long ago hoped you would be, if we were forced to dispute the great question, which in my own judgment I was satisfied would happen. I never forgot your declaration, when I had last the pleasure of being at your house in 1768, that you were ready to take your musket upon your shoulder whenever your country called upon you. I heard that declaration with great satisfaction. I recollect it with the same, and have seen it verified to your immortal honor, and the eminent advantage of the illustrious cause in which we are contending. I have the pleasure of assuring you, that your conduct against General Howe has been highly approved by the principal military men here and in France. That approbation has been increased in those, to whom I have had an opportunity of stating the great inferiority of the troops you commanded to those of the enemy, in number and in every necessary provision for war. The Prussian army, which amounts to 228,000 horse and foot, are disciplined, by force of hourly exercise and caning, to move with a rapidity and order so as certainly to exceed any troops in Europe. When the king reviews an army of 40,000 men, not a man or horse, though the former in full march and the latter in full gallop, is discernibly out of the line. The regiments here are in the field every day, where, besides the general exercise, every man is filed off singly and passes in review before different officers, who beat his limbs into the position they think proper, so that the man appears to be purely a machine in the hand of a workman.