Among the causes, which have operated to this effect, may be reckoned the late ordinance of Congress against British manufactures, and the prospect which has been opened to them, in Holland, of a sudden revival of the Dutch manufactures of Delft, Leyden, Utrecht, and indeed all the other cities of the Republic. The English have found all their artifices to raise mobs in their favor, in the Republic, to be vain; they found that there began to be an appearance of danger of popular tumults against them; they have seen their friends in this country driven out of all their strong holds, and forced to combat on the retreat; they have found that the American cause gained ground upon them every day, and that serious indications were given of a disposition to acknowledge our independence, for the sake of reviving their manufactures and extending their commerce, all which together has raised a kind of panic in the nation, and such a fermentation in Parliament, as has produced a formal renunciation of the principles of the American war. The question now arises, what measures will the Cabinet of St James pursue? Will they agree to the Congress at Vienna? I believe not. Will they treat with the American peace Ministers now in Europe? I fancy not. They will more probably send agents to America, to propose some bad plan of American viceroys, and American nobility, and what not, except common sense and common utility. I presume, with submission, however, that Congress will enter into no treaty or conference with them, but refer them to their Ministers in Europe. France and Spain, I think, cannot mistake their interest and duty upon this occasion, which is, to strike the most decided strokes, to take the British armies in New York and Charleston prisoners. Without this, in all probability, before another revolution of the seasons, all the United States will be evacuated, the British forces sent to Quebec, Halifax and the West India Islands, where it will cost France and Spain more time, blood, and treasure to dispose of them than it will this campaign to capture them in New York and Charleston. With the greatest respect and esteem, I have the honor to be, &c. JOHN ADAMS. * * * * * TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON. Amsterdam, March 11th, 1782. Sir, The promise, which was made me by M. Bergsma, that I should have an answer from the Province of Friesland in three weeks, has been literally fulfilled. This gentleman, who, as well as his Province, deserves to be remembered in America, sent me a copy of the resolution in Dutch as soon as it passed. It is now public in all the gazettes, and is conceived in these terms;