The Minister Plenipotentiary of France is fully confident, that the Congress of the United States, knowing the laws of proceedings, and the respect which Sovereigns mutually owe to each other, will observe them in their conduct towards his Most Christian Majesty; but the important, critical, and pressing juncture, in which the affairs of the alliance stand at the present moment, imposes on the undersigned Minister the sacred duty of contributing, as much as lies in his power, to hasten the resolutions of Congress, to prevent all mistakes and every subject of misunderstanding, to preserve the most perfect harmony and uniformity of views and sentiments, concerning the accomplishment of the advantageous stipulations of the alliance, and thus to deceive the expectation of the common enemy, who henceforth founds his principal hopes on the divisions, which he is intent upon fomenting. In fine, one of the objects of this Memorial is, to prove, solemnly, the faithful and friendly conduct of the King in this juncture, his Majesty hoping, that the knowledge of this conduct will confirm the governments and people of America in the sentiments of confidence, which the proceedings of his said Majesty have already inspired. It is only by thus placing before the eyes of Congress the indubitable principles expressed above, that the Minister Plenipotentiary of France thought that he could fulfil his duties to the King, his master, and to the alliance, and protect from all reproach his zeal for the common cause between France and America. If he has deceived himself in his conjectures, as to the immediate and apparent utility of his mode of proceeding, he begs Congress to accept his excuses for having consumed time of so much value, and he flatters himself, that knowing his attachment to the alliance, and to the United States, it will attribute his conduct to these sentiments alone. GERARD. * * * * * TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. Translation. Philadelphia, May 24th, 1779. Sir,