Whether this is true or not, he has done enough it seems to be in a fair way of paying his creditors some part of their demands for money, which he has gambled away, and which they had despaired of ever receiving. This run of good luck, however, could never have happened to the gambler, if the game had been played otherwise by the opposite party; if France and Spain, instead of keeping immense fleets in Europe with nothing to do, or employed in blocking up Gibraltar, which is a trifle, if taken in comparison of other objects in view, had but employed but a fourth part of them in the American seas, where they had, and still have, the enemies in their power, Rodney's creditors had still been in despair, together with the British government and nation. I would not desire a better proof, that the English are in the power of their enemies in the American world, than the list of the prizes printed in the _Courrier de l'Europe_, as condemned by N. Cushing, Judge of Admiralty for the middle district of Massachusetts Bay. I am very glad to see this method taken of publishing to the world the success of our privateers, because it will in time show our allies where our strength lies, and the weakness of our enemies. I have the honor to be, &c. JOHN ADAMS. * * * * * TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. Paris, March 12th, 1780. Sir, It is an observation made some years ago by a great writer of this nation, de Mably, that the project of being sole master of the sea, and of commanding all the commerce, is not less chimerical nor less ruinous, than that of universal monarchy on land, and it is to be wished, for the happiness of Europe, that the English may be convinced of this truth, before they shall learn it by their own experience. France has already repeated several times, that it was necessary to establish an equilibrium, a balance of power at sea, and she has not yet convinced anybody, because she is the dominant power, and because they suspect her to desire the abasement of the English, only that she may domineer the more surely on the Continent. But if England abuses her power, and would exercise a kind of tyranny over commerce, presently all the States that have vessels and sailors, astonished that they had not before believed France, will join themselves to her in avenging her injuries. The present conjuncture of affairs resembles so exactly the case here put, that it seems to be a literal fulfilment of a prophecy.