I have the satisfaction of being able to apprize you, that since the declaration of France, made here the 18th of March, affairs have taken in this country a most favorable turn. My last journey to Amsterdam has not been useless. But I cannot trust to paper, and to the vicissitudes of so long a voyage, the detail of my operations. I constantly give information to your honorable Commissioners, to whom I write almost every post. I will say only in general, that the cabal of your enemies fails in all the attempts it has made to engage this Republic to put herself in the breach for them. The Republic is firmly determined to the most perfect neutrality, if there be war; and I wait only the letters of the honorable Commissioners at Paris, whom I have requested to propose a friendship and commerce direct and avowed between your States and theirs.[28] We are preparing a third piece upon credit. I will add copies of it to my packet when it is printed. At the moment I am about to seal my packet, I learn for certain, "that Lord Chatham on the 7th of April in the House of Lords pleaded with so much warmth for not giving up the dependence of America, nor giving away the Americans, because he considered them a hereditament of the Prince of Wales, the Bishop of Osnaburgh, and the whole royal line of Brunswick, that he fainted away, but was soon recovered by the aid of two physicians. He confessed however that he did not know what the means were of preserving both." I have the honor, &c. DUMAS.[29] FOOTNOTES: [28] On this subject see a letter to M. Dumas in the Commissioners' Correspondence, Vol. I. p. 463. [29] For a letter from the Committee of Foreign Affairs to M. Dumas, dated May 14th, 1778, see the Correspondence of the Commissioners in France, Vol. I. p. 386. * * * * * TO M. VAN BERCKEL, PENSIONARY OF AMSTERDAM. July 27th, 1778. Sir, Directed by the Plenipotentiaries of the United States of America in Paris, to send you the annexed copy of a treaty of amity and commerce concluded between France and the said United States, with the testimony of the high esteem and consideration they have for you in particular, and for all the honorable members of the Regency of Amsterdam in general, I acquit myself of these orders with all the satisfaction and eagerness, which my respectful devotion to the interest of this Republic dictates. The Plenipotentiaries pray you, Sir, to communicate this treaty in such a manner that copies of it may not be multiplied, until they have written me that it may be published and in the hands of all the world. I have carried this morning to Mr ---- a like copy with the same request.