"The reports you tell me prevail at Cadiz, that the Loan Office Bills, payable in France, have not been duly honored, are wicked falsehoods. Not one of them, duly endorsed by the original proprietor, was ever refused by me, or the payment delayed a moment. And the few not so endorsed have been also paid on the guarantee of the presenter, or some person of known credit. No reason whatever has been given for refusing payment of a bill, except this very good one that either the first, second, third or fourth of the same set had been already paid. The pretence that it was necessary for the whole set to arrive before the money could be paid, is too absurd and ridiculous for anyone to make use of, who knows anything of the nature of exchange. The unexpected large draughts made upon me by Congress and others, exclusive of these from the Loan Office, have indeed sometimes embarrassed me not a little, and put me to difficulties. But I have overcome those difficulties, so as never to have been obliged to make the smallest excuse, or desire the least delay of payment from any presenter of such bills. Those reports must therefore have been contrived by enemies to our country, or by persons who proposed an advantage to themselves by purchasing them at an under rate. Enclosed I send you a certificate of our banker in refutation of those calumnies." _Copy of the abovementioned Certificate._ Translation. "I, the subscriber, banker at Paris, and alone charged with the payment of the bills of the Loan Office, declare, that I have paid, without exception or delay, all such bills to this date, accepted by his Excellency Dr Franklin; that, to my knowledge, no such bill has been refused payment; but that several have been presented after they had been once paid. "I declare further, that whatever is contradictory to this present is false. "In testimony of which I have here signed my name at Paris, this 15th of March, 1780. GRAND." It appearing to me of importance that I should as soon as possible be informed of the measures, which Mr Arthur Lee might have taken leading to a treaty between the United States and Spain, I did, on the 26th of January, 1780, write him a letter, of which the following is a copy.[18] Mr Lee, in answer to this, wrote me a polite letter on the 17th of March, 1780. The following is a copy of it.[19] As, for reasons, which will appear in the course of the following papers, and which I hope will meet with the approbation of Congress, it became proper for me to remain in Spain, I apprised the Court of France of it by a letter to his Excellency the Count de Vergennes, on the 27th of January, 1780, of which the following is a copy.[20] The Count's answer to this is in the following words.