What upon earth can Howe mean by the manœuvre he is now practicing? There seems to me no object in this country which can be either of utility or reputation to his cause. I hope it will prove of a piece with all the other follies they have committed. The forming a junction with the northern army up the Hudson river, or taking possession of Philadelphia, might have been a feather in his cap, and given them a little reputation in Europe--the former as being the design with which they came, the latter as being a place of the first reputation abroad, and the residence of Congress. Here he may destroy the little hamlet of Williamsburg, steal a few slaves, and lose half his army among the fens and marshes of our lower country, or by the heat of the climate. I am, dear sir, yours, &c. TO ----.[82] WILLIAMSBURG, VIRGINIA, June 8th, 1778. SIR,--Your letter of September 15th, 1777, from Paris, comes safe to hand. We have not, however, had the pleasure of seeing Mr. De Crenis, the bearer of it, in this country, as he joined the army in Pennsylvania as soon as he arrived. I should have taken particular pleasure in serving him on your recommendation. From the kind anxiety expressed in your letter, as well as from other sources of information, we discover that our enemies have filled Europe with Thrasonic accounts of victories they had never won and conquests they were fated never to make. While these accounts alarmed our friends in Europe, they afforded us diversions. We have long been out of all fear for the event of the war. I enclose you a list of the killed, wounded, and captives of the enemy from the commencement of hostilities at Lexington, in April, 1775, until November, 1777, since which time there has been no event of any consequence. This is the best history of the war which can be brought within the compass of a letter. I believe the account to be near the truth, though it is difficult to get at the numbers lost by an enemy with absolute precision. Many of the articles have been communicated to us from England as taken from the official returns made by their General. I wish it were in my power to send you as just an account of our loss. But this cannot be done without an application to the war office, which, being in another county, is at this time out of my reach. I think that upon the whole it has been about one-half the number lost by them; in some instances more, but in others less. This difference is ascribed to our superiority in taking aim when we fire; every soldier in our army having been intimate with his gun from his infancy. If there could have been a doubt before as to the event of the war, it is now totally removed by the interposition of France, and the generous alliance she has entered into with us. Though much of my time is employed in the councils of America, I have yet a little leisure to indulge my fondness for philosophical studies.