I am not at all disappointed at the manner in which the British administration have declared their wish for peace, or at the reluctance they show in parting with this country. To a proud nation the loss of 3,000,000 subjects is mortifying. Every journeyman weaver in every petty village in England conceived himself a sovereign, even while working for the slaves of his supposed subjects. It requires a degree of magnanimity, of which they are incapable, to surrender with dignity what they are no longer able to hold. But they must suppose the politics of the rest of the world to move upon weaker principles than their own, if they imagine the offers they propose to hold out to the belligerent powers will detach them from their alliance with each other, till all the objects of it are attained. Of what avail would the cessions they made in the West Indies be to France, if we were again connected with England. What security would she have for those cessions, or even for the rest of her islands? What she has offered to Spain I know not. To us she has offered nothing, as I have yet heard, but her friendship and the blessings of her government. A seven years' enmity has taught us to put very little value on the former; and the present happiness of the people of England and Ireland has enabled us to form a just estimate of the latter. I have told you, that we have nothing to apprehend here from the offers of Britain. I have had no reason since to change that opinion. The way, however, to put it out of doubt is to enable us to expel the enemy from this continent. The task is not difficult, and the object is sufficiently important not to let it depend upon other operations. I am instructed to prepare a memorial to the Court of Versailles, on the subject of the prize money due to Paul Jones, and the officers and men that sailed under his command. Continual complaints are made on that subject. Surely M. de Chaumont has had sufficient time to settle this business. I must beg the favor of you to press it, and to draw and present a memorial to the Court, if it cannot otherwise be accomplished. Mr Barclay will have orders to receive the money for them. I enclose an exstract of a letter from Captain Jones on the subject, together with the list of the ships and their force, agreeable to which the division should be made.