I had the honor to address you on the 8th instant, since which we have advice of the disastrous issue of the enterprise with the floating batteries against Gibraltar, but although we have had notice of this misfortune some days past, I have delayed writing until I could procure authentic information of the particular circumstances of this event. The enclosed copies of letters and papers, written or sent me by a person in the General's family, will, I hope, prove more satisfactory than any which you will receive from other quarters. The projector, M. d'Arcon, is generally blamed. Enclosed you have a plan of the attack as it was made, and as it was intended to have been made, accompanied by a Memorial, which M. d'Arcon sent hither to exonerate himself from part of the blame. I saw a letter he wrote an hour after the affair, in which he avows he had deservedly forfeited the confidence reposed in him by two Sovereigns. This news dejected exceedingly the King, the Court, and the nation. Their chagrin from the disappointment is, in some measure, proportionate to their confidence of success. It is said, however, that the King is determined to continue the siege, and, I believe, that this will be the case. At present, an expedition in force to the West Indies is in agitation. I am informed from a very good quarter, that the command is offered to the Count d'Estaing. The party which opposed him at Versailles, at the head of which is the Duchess de Polignac, the Queen's favorite, the present Minister of Marine and the former one, have made advances to him, and seem convinced that he alone can repair the disasters of the present campaign. I hear that he is unwilling to accept the command at this critical conjuncture, but as he is the only French Admiral, who unites the suffrage of this Court and nation in his favor, it is to be hoped he will comply with the general wish of France and Spain. This affair is yet a secret. From all accounts I have of the Spanish marine, I fear that Gibraltar will be relieved. The expense of this siege has been enormous. I have been assured, that during the present campaign it has cost thirtytwo millions of piastres of fifteen reals each. This information comes from one of the first clerks of the treasury. The great demand for specie occasioned thereby has depreciated the paper money; it fluctuates between twelve and sixteen per cent. To prevent its further depreciation, the Court is endeavoring to procure gold from Portugal, and negotiates, as I mentioned in former letters, a loan of three millions of florins in Holland, to be augmented in case the subscriptions fill readily. I am assured from thence, they do not, and I am told here by a man in the secret, that the three millions will be delivered in Spain in the month of December. Messrs Hope, the negotiators of it, subscribe seven hundred and fifty thousand florins.