Having heard that you have been told at Paris, that Lord Shelburne had used foul play about the instructions for removing the troops from New York, I have only to state as a fact, that Genl. Gray in a letter I have in my possession addressed to Lord Keppel, requests to know on what means he may depend for removing the troops from New york, which he says make the grand object of his instructions. He says that this was the grand object of Sr. Guy Carleton before him, and besides his instructions he names three separate dates when the order was sent him, (that is, Sr. Guy Carleton.) The chief embarrassments that prevented the evacuation were, at one time the want of transports, and at another the severity of the season, and at another the want of convoy, especially when the French were on the coast. Nay they were even ordered to go to Halifax at one time, rather than stay at New York which I suppose was during the unhealthy or the hurricane season in the West Indies. I think this is strong evidence. Savannah required 10,000 ton shipping for its evacuation; Charles Town &c 30,000, or three times that quantity; and New York three times that quantity again, (that is, some 300 ships probably as transports.) The whole of Genl. Gray’s letter, written after his appointment and before his intended departure, is in the strain of the evacuation being the great and primary object of his mission. Lord Keppels answer was a paltry one.

A second charge I hear of is, that Lord Shelburne put the Spaniards in possession of Florida, to put them in the way of quarrelling with you. I shall here only relate facts. The preliminaries were signed on a Monday. On the preceding Friday or saturday, Mr. Fitzherbert went to barter East Florida for Logwood cutting &c in the Bay. It was a prevailing opinion here, that Florida was a sand-bank; that with Spaniards and Americans for neighbors, it was never worth holding by itself; that its negroes would always be running away; that the Indians would probably be made troublesome; that the troops would die; and that after all, it would turn out at last American. Lord Shelburne in a peace where so much was given away, must be strangely framed to be supposed to give away by choice, and upon such an uncertainty as a quarrel To arise about boundaries. Lord Shelburne was not a minister for Frenchmen, well understanding him, to relish; nor was he a minister for ambi   English placemen to relish, or their weak minded adherent. And to say the truth for I love frankness, his method of speaking begets often more suspicion of his soundness than is well founded. Of this gentleman I have known a great deal, angry and pleased, hoping and disappointed; and I think him still a real, fir-meaning, bold statesman.

I have been silent about his adversaries. I am not inclined to attempt persuading every American, that every other man in England, or at least every present