I have now before me your Letters of the fourteenth and twenty third of December which are the last I have received. Enclosed you have a Letter from me to the Minister of France, with his Answer of the fourteenth of March on the Subject of the Delay which happened in transmitting his Dispatches. You will see by these that Lieutenant Barney was not to blame.

Your Bills in Favor of Monsr. de Lauzun have not yet appeared or they should have been duly honoured. That Gentleman has since left the Country and therefore it is possible that the Bill may not come.

The Reflections you make as well on the Nature of Public Credit as on the Inattention of the several States, are just and unanswerable but in what Country of the World shall we find a Nation willing to Tax themselves. The Language of Panegyric has held forth the English as such a Nation but certainly if our Legislatures were subject to like Influence with theirs we might preserve the Form, but we should already have lost the Substance of Freedom. Time, Reason, Argument and above all that kind of Conviction which arises from feeling are necessary to the Establishment of our Revenues and the Consolidation of our Union. Both of these appear to me essential to our public Happiness, but our Ideas (as you well know) are frequently the Result rather of habit than Reflection so that Numbers who might think justly upon these Subjects have been early estranged from the Modes and Means of considering them properly.

I am in the Hourly Wish and Expectation of hearing from You and sincerely hope that it may be soon. Believe me I pray with Esteem and Respect Your Excellency’s Most obedient and Humble Servant