But this, Sir, is an inconsiderable evil, compared with those which may result from its having been concealed from the Court of Versailles. Mr Laurens informs Congress (and that too from letters of a late date from London,) "that the people of England still retain the idea of _our late Colonies_ and of _reconciliation_; _that Government gives every possible encouragement to this humor_; that it has been their incessant endeavor to detach us from our ally, and that it is given out in London, that, _by signing the late preliminaries, they have out-manoeuvred the Court of France_; that every engine had been set at work; that every degree of craft, under the mask of returning affection, will be practised for creating jealousies between the States and their good and great ally." Mr Adams's letters of November, speak the same language. If, Sir, we suppose these gentlemen to have been well informed, how much reason have we to apprehend that this secret article will prove in the hands of Britain a most dangerous engine. They may reveal to the Court of France the jealousies our Ministers entertain, the confidence they repose in them, with such falsehoods and additions as will best serve their purposes, and, by producing this secret article, gain credit for all they advance. This line they certainly pursued with respect to France, revealing all that they learnt from the Count de Vergennes, relative to his opinion of the first commission; nor is there room to doubt, that Marbois' letter was received through the same channel. And there is no reason to believe, if (as our Ministers suppose) the Court of France had put themselves more in their power, that they would neglect such promising means of increasing the suspicions our Plenipotentiaries already entertained. Add to this, that this article may be used in Parliament, and with the British nation at large, as a most powerful argument for continuing the war, adducing, from the resentment it discovers to Spain, and the distrusts it manifests of France, that the quadruple knot is untied. But suppose, what may possibly be the case, that the British administration are sincere, how is the honor and good faith of the United States to be justified to their allies, and to the world, if by any of those causes which daily operate, this secret, which is now known to sixty or seventy people, should be discovered? To tell the world that we suspected France, will not suffice, unless we can show probable grounds for such suspicion. Our Ministers inform us, that when they communicated the articles of the treaty to Count de Vergennes, "he appeared _surprised_, but not _displeased_ at their being so favorable to us." Mr Laurens declares expressly, "That he sees no cause for entertaining more particular jealousy, than ought to be kept up against every negotiating Court in the world, and not half so much as should at this moment be upon the watch against every motion arising from our new half friends."