I have this day received by the hands of Mr. Du Calvet the favour of your Letter, which gave me a very singular pleasure after so long and so unfortunate an interruption of our Correspondence. The event of the late contest has brought great misfortunes upon both Countries, or, at least, upon Great-Britain, by increasing the National debt to at least double its former quantity as well as very much reducing the extent of its dominions. But, melancholy as this event is, it is less displeasing to me than the contrary event of a total subjugation of the revolted colonies by force of arms, and a consequent Government of them by military power, by erecting forts and citadels, and altering their charters and governing them by Governours and other Officers depending intirely on the pleasure of the Crown, and in a manner disagreeable to the People; which I conjecture from the Archbishop of York’s Sermon of Feb: 21, 1777, (of which I sent you a paraphrase with the book of annuities) would have been the government established over them if they had been thoroughly subdued in the year 1776. But, if they could have been reconciled to Great-Britain by fair means, and governed, as formerly, without force or soldiers, and with their own consent and good will, I own I think it would have been for the benefit of all parties. But these views are now at an end, and the new states are, I presume, likely to continue for ever independent of, and consequently foreign to, Great-Britain. And I am amongst those who wish them happy in their new condition, and feel no satisfaction from the reports that prevail here, that, from the anarchy and confusion that prevails among them, they have still more reason than We to lament the separation. On the contrary I sincerely wish that, as they have been founded on the purest principles of Liberty they may enjoy all the blessings that should result from those principles, and prove a refuge to mankind from the slavery that prevails almost in every part of Europe. They seem, however, at present to be too much actuated by a spirit of revenge against those of their Countrymen who adhere to their first Allegiance, whom they call Tories and we call Loyalists. After the compleat obtainment of their desired independance, it would surely have been more agreeable to Policy as well as Justice to have restored to those persons their estates upon their taking the new oaths of Allegiance to the Several new Governments, which   would have no longer scrupled to do    the king had absolved them from their Allegiance to him by consenting to [the] Independence of the New States. W[hen] the Commonwealth Parliament of England had cut off king Charles’s head in [the] year 1649, and set up a republic government, they did not confiscate the estates of the Cavaliers, but left those who had not been in arms for the ki[ng] in the full and quiet possession of all property, and restored the estates of t[hose] who had been in arms for the king the payment of a composition of years rent, with the exception of a few persons whom they considered as deep malignants (as they called them,) or very great Offenders, such as the Marquis of Worcester and the Earl of Derby and four or five persons more, whose estates they did confiscate. Nothing, I apprehend, would tend more to introduce settlement and good order in the new States than the imitation of this gentle and moderate conduct: and I suppose it would produce likewise the surrender of the posts on the lakes Ontario and Erie to the new States agreeably to the treaty of Peace, till which    the peace can hardly be considered as firmly established. And God forbid we should have any more war about those posts, or, indeed, any thing else!

I hope that by your assistance poor Mr. Du Calvet will obtain the money due to him from the Congress. He stands much in need of it after all the injuries and misfortunes he has undeservedly Suffered; and the endeavours he had used to obtain a compensation for them here have not hitherto been very Successful. I shall be very happy to see your scheme for diminishing a great National debt, which I dare say, will be a very good one.

My view in the observations on the National Debt was not So much to recommend any particular method of diminishing it, in preference to other methods, as to shew that most methods were nearly equally useful for this purpose, provided the same sume of money was applied every year to that purpose for the same number of y[ears] without any interruption, and that those methods were the fittest to be adopted which were least likely to be interrupted. Your old friend Mr. Jackson is pretty well in health [but] is not in parliament. And Lord John Cavendish and Mr. John Yorke, and many other Gentlemen of reputable character and condition, that used to be in Parliament, are not so now. I should h[ave] been very happy to have seen you again in England and so, I am persuaded, would have been many of your friends, notwithstanding the late unfortunate contentions. But, since that cannot be, and you are returning to America, I heartily wish you health and Strength to bear the Journey with ease, and to enjoy your friends and your situation in that part of the world; and I hope that you will have the satisfaction of contributing, by your wisdom and moderation, to soften the animosities that now prevail there and to introduce a spirit of peace, settlement and good order in their stead, and thereby crown the great work, to which you have so much contributed, of establishing those new states in Liberty and Independance. I remain, with great regard, your most Obedient and humble Servant,