The King has complied with the request of Lord Stormount and committed Mr. Hodge to the Bastile. Mr. Hodge and Mr. Allan were sureties of captain Gustavus Conyngham. Mr. Hodge will not experience any inconvenience except a temporary deprivation of liberty.

I have advised Mr. Hayfield Conyngham to leave France for a short time. He acts as agent for his father’s Commercial House in Europe, also for that of Robert Morris and several others who have pledged their lives and fortunes in the good cause.

I think Lord Stormount will derive no advantage by the procedure in relation to Mr. Hodge. The ground of his application to the king was the open and avowed purpose of fitting out Conyngham to cruise against the English. “The notoriety of which act called” he said “all the energy of the French Government to suppress every such violation of the rights of nations by punishing in an exemplary manner each and every offender.”