As his opinion is the rule by which I am to be governed in this case, nothing can be attempted till the period arrives when we shall not feel ourselves under strong obligations to any Sovereign in the world, who should even make advances to form political connexions with us, or acquire much eclat from any such connexions. I thought the opportunity favorable when the only power, which had any pretence of right, to contest our independence, had consented by so formal an act, to treat with us upon the footing of a sovereign and independent State. The consideration we should acquire by a political connexion with the illustrious Sovereign of this empire during the war, and the advantages we might reasonably expect to derive from it in our negotiation for a peace, (for I have never considered independence as our only object) have ever made me desirous, if possible, to effect it during the war. Scarce any political measure of great importance can be undertaken with "an absolute certainty of success." If, therefore, upon mature deliberation, the state of things is found to be such, that success is not improbable, and the benefits of it great and permanent, while the disadvantages of a failure, comparatively speaking, are small, and of a transient nature, in such a case it should seem that the measure should be hazarded. Though I do not believe this to be the very moment, in which her Imperial Majesty would wish to form any political connexion with the United States, but on the contrary, she would wish to postpone it till the conclusion of the war, and be well pleased that no advances should be made on our part till then; because this would afford her opportunity to claim much merit of the Court of London, in having withheld any encouragement to us, when at the same time not only any offence to the United States would be avoided, but she might allege, without a possibility of contradiction, that if an earlier application had been made by them, she would have been happy to have had an occasion to manifest her respect for them, and the early interests she took in their concerns.