My account as stated by you appears to be correct. With much esteem, I have the honor to be, &c. B. FRANKLIN. FOOTNOTE: [29] Mr Morris was a Secretary in the Department of Foreign Affairs. * * * * * DAVID HARTLEY TO B. FRANKLIN. Bath, September 24th, 1783. My Dear Friend, I am at present at Bath with my dearest sister, whom I have found as well as I could have expected, and I hope with reasonable prospect of recovery in time. I have seen my friends in the ministry, and hope things will go on well; with them I am sure all is right and firm. The chief part of the Cabinet Ministers are out of town, but there will be a full cabinet held in a few days, in which a specific proposition, in the nature of a temporary convention, will be given in instructions to me. I imagine nearly upon the ground of my memorial of May 19th, 1783, which I delivered to the American Ministers, viz. "American ships not to bring foreign manufactures into Great Britain, nor to trade directly between the British West Indies and Great Britain;" all the rest to be as before the war. I expect that something to this effect will be their determination in the affair, and if it should be so, I shall hope not to meet with difficulty on your parts. I want to see some specific beginning. As to any further proposition respecting the trade between Great Britain and the British West Indies, I doubt whether any such can be discussed before the meeting of Parliament. I wish to look forward not only to the continuation of peace between our two countries, but to the improvement of reconciliation into alliance, and therefore I wish the two parties to be disposed to accommodate each other, without the strict account by weights and scales, as between aliens and strangers, actuated towards each other by no other principle than cold and equalizing indifference. Friendly dispositions presumed have their fairest chance of being realized, but if we should set out presuming against them, the good which might have happened may be prevented. Pray remember me to your three colleagues, and to all friends. Yours, ever most affectionately, D. HARTLEY. _P. S._ I have put in a word for our Quaker article, and I hope with some impression. * * * * * TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. Passy, September 27th, 1783. Sir,