* * * * * TO WILLIAM CARMICHAEL. Cadiz, February 25th, 1780. Dear Sir, Your favor of the 15th instant was delivered to me last evening. I congratulate you on your safe arrival, and hope the agreeable circumstances of your present situation will compensate for the fatigue and trouble you experienced on the way to it. It gives me pleasure to hear the French Ambassador has been so obliging, and I am glad to find from your letter, that your attentions to him at least keep pace with his civilities, especially as you are no stranger to the distinction between the candor and politeness of a gentleman, and that unbounded confidence which is seldom necessary. The intelligence you received from him is so agreeable and so interesting, that although the nature of it leaves me no room to doubt of this having been signified by the Court of France to Congress, either through Dr Franklin or the Count de la Luzerne, yet as unexpected accidents may have retarded its arrival, I shall also transmit it by a vessel, which will sail in a few days for Boston. I regret your not having been more particular on the subject of the mistake you have been led to suppose in the direction of my letter, as I wish to have the means of determining whether it was from decisive authority that M. Gerard, whose opinion I requested on that subject, without hesitation told me, that M. Galvez was the Minister with whom all business with the United States was to be transacted, and urged several reasons for his being of that opinion. From that gentleman's knowledge of the Courts of Europe, and the departments established for the despatch of business in each, particularly with that of Madrid, with which his Court had been so long and so intimately acquainted, I was induced to desire and confide in his information on that point. Very conclusive reasons, therefore, are necessary to induce a belief of his having been mistaken. But as it is of importance that all errors of this kind be known, and, if possible, corrected, I must request your attention to this matter in your next.