By accounts from Jamaica, we learn that the British have recovered most of their settlements on the Bay. Some attention will, I hope, be paid in the treaty of peace to secure to us the share we formerly had in the logwood trade; it was a valuable remittance to us, and the low price at which we were enabled to sell renders it important to other nations, that we should not be excluded from furnishing it as usual. You will find by the enclosed paper, that Mr Burgess, an English merchant, was not permitted to settle at Boston and obtain the rights of citizenship, upon principles which must be alarming to England. It shows at the same time the respect that is paid to the resolutions of Congress, notwithstanding all that has been said and written to prove the contrary. I am, Sir, &c. ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON. _P. S._ I forgot to mention, that I am solicited by Mr Barlow to transmit to you proposals for printing a work of his, which you will find described in the enclosed proposals, as they are accompanied with a specimen of his poetry, which is as much as I have seen of it. You will judge yourself how far it deserves the patronage he wishes you to give it. * * * * * TO RICHARD OSWALD. Passy, November 26th, 1782. Sir, You may well remember, that in the beginning of our conferences, before the other Commissioners arrived, on your mentioning to me a retribution for the royalists, whose estates had been confiscated, I acquainted you that nothing of that kind could be stipulated by us, the confiscation being made by virtue of laws of particular States, which the Congress had no power to contravene or dispense with, and therefore could give us no such authority in our commission. And I gave it as my opinion and advice, honestly and cordially, that if a reconciliation was intended, no mention should be made in our negotiations of those people; for they having done infinite mischief to our properties, by wantonly burning and destroying farm-houses, villages, and towns, if compensation for their losses were insisted on, we should certainly exhibit again such an account of all the ravages they had committed, which would necessarily recall to view scenes of barbarity that must inflame, instead of conciliating, and tend to perpetuate an enmity that we all profess a desire of extinguishing. Understanding, however, from you, that this was a point your Ministry had at heart, I wrote concerning it to Congress, and I have lately received the following resolution, viz. "_By the United States, in Congress assembled._" September 10th, 1782.