I have the pleasure to write to Congress news, which I hope they will receive many other ways before this letter can arrive, viz.; that the outward bound British West India fleet of fiftytwo sail and five East Indiamen, on the 9th of August, fell in with the combined French and Spanish fleets, about sixty leagues from Cape St Vincents, and were most of them taken; the frigates which composed the convoy and four of the West Indiamen alone having escaped. This is the account. We may possibly hear of some deductions, but the account in general is authentic, and of very great importance, as the value of the property is large, the number of soldiers and seamen considerable, and the disappointment to the fleets and armies of our enemies in the East and West Indies and in North America, not to be repaired. This news has been from the 22d of August to the 3d of September in travelling from London to Amsterdam, where it makes a very great sensation indeed. We had, at the same time, news of the capture of most of the Quebec fleet by an American frigate and two brigantines. I have the honor to be, &c. JOHN ADAMS. * * * * * TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. Amsterdam, September 5th, 1780. Sir, As eloquence is cultivated with more care in free Republics than in other governments, it has been found by constant experience that such Republics have produced the greatest purity, copiousness and perfection of language. It is not to be disputed, that the form of government has an influence upon language, and language in its turn influences not only the form of government, but the temper, the sentiments, and manners of the people. The admirable models which have been transmitted through the world, and continued down to these days, so as to form an essential part of the education of mankind from generation to generation, by those two ancient towns, Athens and Rome, would be sufficient without any other argument to show the United States the importance to their liberty, prosperity, and glory, of an early attention to the subject of eloquence and language. Most of the nations of Europe have thought it necessary to establish by public authority, institutions for fixing and improving their proper languages. I need not mention the academies in France, Spain, and Italy, their learned labors, nor their great success. But it is very remarkable, that although many learned and ingenious men in England have from age to age projected similar institutions for correcting and improving the English tongue, yet the government have never found time to interpose in any manner; so that to this day there is no grammar nor dictionary extant of the English language, which has the least public authority, and it is only very lately, that a tolerable dictionary has been published, even by a private person, and there is not yet a passable grammar enterprised by any individual.