I may conclude this letter by observing, that I am informed, they talk in Holland of laying an embargo, to prevent the English from making many prizes, and that there is another rumor of opening the harbor of Antwerp. If there is any serious thought of this, it must be the fruit of English intrigue with Austria. I have the honor to be, &c. JOHN ADAMS. * * * * * TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. Paris, May 8th, 1780. Sir, At the same time that the conduct of Great Britain towards the neutral powers is marked by a severity, that is without example, that of France and Spain is distinguished by a moderation and liberality, that deserves to be imitated. I have before transmitted to Congress the declaration of the King of France, and the decree of his Council, abolishing the restrictions on the Holland trade. In this letter I shall give an account of the conduct of Spain. On the 13th of March, the Count de Florida Blanca wrote a letter to the Marquis Gonzalez de Castigon, the Minister of the Marine, to serve as a regulation for the navigation of neuters, as follows; "Most Excellent Lord, "From the commencement of the present war with Great Britain, the King declared sincerely, and even in a manner that is unexampled, his intentions of blockading Gibraltar, and his Majesty gave by me a formal notification of it to all the foreign Ministers and Ambassadors, to the end that they might be in a capacity to inform their respective nations of it, and that these might avoid in their navigation and in their conduct the consequences and procedures authorised by the right of nations and the general laws of war. The King declared at the same time by his ordinances concerning privateering, published in the sight of all the world, 'that with regard to the merchandises, productions, and effects of the English, loaded on board of vessels bearing the flag of a friend or a neuter, his Majesty would conduct himself according to the procedure, which the English should adopt towards cargoes of the same kind, to the end to avoid by this reciprocity of conduct, the enormous inequality, the prejudice, and even the ruin to which the commerce and the subjects of his Majesty would be otherwise exposed.' In spite of these dispositions so full of equity, of frankness and good faith, the captains and masters of neutral vessels have not ceased to abuse without shame the impunity of their flags, whether by sliding clandestinely into Gibraltar, with cargoes of provisions, even with those which were destined for the fleets and armies of the King, whether by concealing a great part of their loading, consisting in powder and other merchandises of contraband, or by disguising (by double and fictitious papers, which they cast into the sea, when they saw themselves pursued) the property of their vessels and effects, as well as their destination for persons and places different from those