Were I to acknowledge the receipt of all the letters you mention having written, it would be necessary to apologise for my silence; this I fear would require a detail long enough to need still another apology, which would be making it a labor _ad infinitum_. I shall, therefore, only say, that from the heart of Germany, I am now on the borders of the Atlantic, and that I have been on the gallop ever since I parted with you at Leyden. No Saint in the calendar ever ran through countries with more zeal to gain inhabitants for heaven, than I have to do miracles on earth. But unfortunately it is not an age for miracles. I am at present here to botch up a piece of work, which was originally well imagined but badly executed. You will no doubt have our Paris news from the prophet, who draws down fire from heaven. I shall, therefore, only give you my comment on the text, which is, that France has done too much and much too little. Too much, since she alarmed England, and made that country put itself in a better posture of defence than before; or at least, strengthened the hands of her Ministers for that purpose; much too little, because, depending even on that little, we looked not out elsewhere in time. I am, &c. WILLIAM CARMICHAEL. * * * * * ARTHUR LEE TO C. W. F. DUMAS. Paris, January 26th, 1777. Dear Sir, My having quitted London some time since to join my colleagues here, is the reason you did not hear from me, as you complain in your last letter to Mr Deane. As I am soon to leave this place for one very remote,[26] I am afraid this will be the last letter I shall have the honor of writing to you. There are so many and more immediate calls for the attention of the Congress, that we are not surprised at not receiving any intelligence from them. We learn too, from Havre, that despatches for us have been intercepted at sea, so that we remain totally uninformed by authority relative to the state of things in America. We hope the best, and if the powers of Europe are not so totally blind to their own interest as to refuse maintaining that freedom and enjoyment of our commerce, which our declaration of Independence offers them, their support will save us much distress and blood. The liberties, however, and redemption which we work out through labor and endurance will be more precious. By accounts from London, the press for seamen produces little, though their merchant ships are stopped in their ports, and insurance from Jamaica, with convoy, is risen to twentyfive per cent. During the last war it never amounted to more than seven. Our cruisers, therefore, appear to do their duty. Had we anything of a fleet to assist them, England would soon repent of a war, they have so unjustly engaged in, and from which they have not wisdom to retreat.