I have the honor to enclose your Excellency a letter, which, after having read and sealed, I am to request you to forward with all possible despatch. I hope that the arrival of my despatches will enable me to be more particular. It will be necessary to recommend to the chain of expresses, to hold themselves in readiness to carry on the despatches, which I shall have to send by another Courier.
I this instant learn by an express arrived from the Capes, that the Danaë entered the day before yesterday, and in a thick fog had the misfortune to get aground; probably she will be got off; she is within the Capes. She left France the 8th of November; the express has not brought a single letter, and I do not expect them till tomorrow or the day after. If there are any for you, they shall be sent on with the greatest despatch, and if there are none, you shall have an express with the news. It is said, that there are many packets for the army, and one hundred and eighty thousand livres.
The only Frenchmen of our acquaintance on board are General Duportail and M. de Gouvion.
The whole of the force at Cadiz, as well land as naval, is destined for the West Indies.
The undersigned Minister Plenipotentiary of France has the honor of informing Congress, that his Majesty has received, with the most lively sensibility, the proofs of the measures taken by them on the birth of the Dauphin.[15] The King has ordered the Chevalier de la Luzerne to assure this Assembly, that they could not have manifested their attachment to him, on an occasion more dear to him, and that this circumstance will, if possible, add new force to his affection for the United States, as well as to his wish to establish their happiness upon a permanent foundation.
[15] See the proceedings of Congress here alluded to in the _Secret Journal_, Vol. III. p. 106.
SUBSTANCE OF A VERBAL COMMUNICATION FROM THE FRENCH MINISTER.
Office of Foreign Affairs, December 30th, 1782.
The substance of a verbal communication made to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs by the Minister of France, on the 30th and 31st of December, 1782, offered to the consideration of Congress on the 1st of January, 1783, by the said Secretary.
The Minister of France came this day agreeably to appointment, to the Office of Foreign Affairs, and read to Mr Livingston a letter from the Count de Vergennes to him, dated the 12th of August last, which contained in substance; that the negotiations begun by Mr Grenville and Mr Oswald were interrupted by the resignation of Mr Fox. That previous to that, the King of England appeared disposed to acknowledge the independency of America in express terms, without making it a condition of the peace; that Mr Grenville encouraged them to hope, that this object would be rendered complete by an act of Parliament; that they looked in vain for this act till they were apprised of the resignation of Mr Fox; that the difference which arose between him and Lord Shelburne led them to suppose, that the design of the first was to recognise the independency of America and treat for a general peace upon fair and honorable terms; that Lord Shelburne's was, on the contrary, to endeavor to excite distrusts, and particularly to endeavor to mislead the Americans; that in pursuance of this system in the month of June last, at the very time that they opened their treaty in Europe, he proposed to offer the most advantageous terms to America upon condition that the Americans laid down their arms and left France to settle the dispute alone. This insidious conduct was pursued during Mr Grenville's negotiation.