I shall not trouble you with observations upon any of them, except the letter of Dr Franklin, and merely to correct one or two mistakes in his account of my conference with the Count de Vergennes. The Doctor says, "when I mentioned that I might appear to have _views of commerce, as a merchant_, or of curiosity as a traveller," &c.--"that there was a gentleman in Petersburg with whom some _in America_ had a correspondence, who had given hints of the utility," &c.--"and that I could _perhaps by means of that gentleman_ make acquaintance," &c. Persuaded as I was from the beginning, that it could not be for the interest of our country, that I should be stopped short of my destination, and determined to endeavor to obviate every objection, which might be made to my going on, I told the Count, when he seemed to be stating a difficulty arising from my public character, that I could appear as a private gentleman, travelling with a view of obtaining some knowledge of that country. I added, indeed, of its laws, customs, manners, _commerce_, manufactures, &c. The character of a merchant in those countries is not so respectable as to recommend itself to my choice, when I wished to form connexions with a different order of men. As I did not know of any gentleman at Petersburg, with whom some _in America_ had a correspondence, I could never inform his Excellency of such a circumstance. The fact was quite otherwise, and that part of our conversation was introduced in the manner, and was exactly of the tenor mentioned in my account of the conference. I have a personal knowledge of the gentleman I alluded to; he named the persons of rank, but I did not think it prudent to give their names to the Count. Perhaps I may have the honor to form an acquaintance with persons of some consideration in the country to which I am going, without laying myself under obligations to that gentleman.