out money, there is some reason to surmise that it may be as difficult to disband an army as it has been to raise an army.

My last informed you that Mr. Laurens had declined serving in the commission for peace. His proceedings, during his captivity, as stated by himself, are far from unexceptionable. Congress, nevertheless, were prevailed on to assent to a resolution informing him that his services could not be dispensed with. A few days after this resolution had passed, several numbers of the Parliamentary Register were received at the Office of Foreign Affairs, in one of which was published the enclosed petition. The petition was introduced by Mr. Burke, was a subject of some debate, and finally ordered to lie on the table. The extreme impropriety of a Representative of the United States addressing that very authority against which they had made war, in the language of the address, determined Mr. Jones and myself to move that the resolution above referred to should not be transmitted until the further order of Congress. In support of the motion it was observed, that however venial the fault might be in a private view, it evidently rendered Mr. Laurens no longer a fit depository for the public dignity and rights, which he had so far degraded; and that if Congress should reinstate him against his own desire, and with this fact before their eyes, it would seem as if they meant to ratify, instead of disowning, the degradation. The motion was opposed on two grounds-first, that the character of Mr. Laurens, and the silence of his letter, overbalanced the testimony of the Register, and rendered the fact incredible; secondly, that the fact,

although faulty, ought to have no influence on the public arrangements. The first objection was the prevailing one. The second was abetted by but few. Several professed a readiness to renounce their friend, in case the authenticity of the paper should be verified. On the question there were five noes, three ayes, two divided, two half votes aye. The petition had been published some time ago at New York, and had made some noise in New Jersey, but was ultimately regarded as spurious. There are so many circumstances relating to this gentleman during his captivity, which speak a bias towards the British nation, and an undue cordiality with its new leaders, that I dread his participation in the work of peace.

Your favor of the seventh, which had not arrived last post-day, came a few days afterwards, the post having been detained by sickness. The subsequent one came to hand yesterday in due time. The expedient of drawing bills here on funds in Virginia, even the most unquestionable, has been often tried by us, but in vain. The balance is so much against Virginia that no one wants money there, and the evil will increase as the prospect of peace retires. Your credit with Mr. Cohen, which procured me fifty pounds, with two hundred dollars transmitted by Mr. Ambler, have been of much service to me, but I am relapsing fast into distress. The case of my brethren is equally alarming.

As some of Mr. Laurens's friends strenuously maintain that the petition enclosed is spurious, I would not wish it to be made public through me until the matter be ascertained, or he be present to explain it."

To the Right Honorable Charles Wolfran Cornwall, Speaker, and the Honorable the House of Com

mons:

The representation and prayer of Henry Laurens, a native of South Carolina, some time recognized by the British commissioners in America, by the style and title of His Excellency Henry Laurens, President of Congress, now a close prisoner in the Tower of London, most respectfully sheweth:

That your representer, for many years, at the peril of his life and fortune, evidently labored to preserve and strengthen the ancient friendship between Great Britain and the Colonies; and that in no instance he ever excited, on either side, the dissensions which separated them.

That the commencement of the present war was a subject of great grief to him, insomuch as he foresaw and foretold, in letters now extant, the distresses which both countries experience at this day.

That in the rise and progress of the war he extended every act of kindness in his power to persons called loyalists and quietists, as well as to British prisoners of war; very ample proofs of which he can produce.

That he was captured on the American coast, first landed upon American ground, where he saw exchanges of British and American prisoners in a course of negotiation; and that such exchanges and enlargements upon parole are mutually and daily practised in America.

That he was committed to the Tower of London on the sixth of October, 1780, being then dangerVOL. I.-12

ously ill; that in the mean time he has, in many respects, particularly by being deprived (with very little exception) of the visits and consolations of his children, and other relations and friends, suffered under a degree of rigor almost, if not altogether, unexampled in modern British history.

That from long confinement, and the want of proper exercise, and other obvious causes, his bodily health is greatly impaired, and that he is now in a languishing state; and,

Therefore, your representer humbly prays your Honors will condescend to take his case into consideration, and, under proper conditions and restrictions, grant him enlargement, or such other relief as to the wisdom and benignity of your Honors shall seem fitting.

HENRY LAURENS.*

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Philadelphia, September 30, 1782.

DEAR SIR,

The remittance to Colonel Bland is a source of hope to his brethren. I am almost ashamed to reiterate my wants so incessantly to you, but they begin to be so urgent that it is impossible to suppress them. The kindness of our little friend in Front street, near

* The debilitating and protracted sufferings of Mr. Laurens in the Tower require every allowance for the tenor and tone of his representation to Parliament; especially as after his liberation, and whilst the definitive arrangements for it were on foot, it appears that he gave the most active proofs of his devoted patriotism, and vigilant zeal, in guarding against the insidious policy of the British Cabinet. It is known that this was the view taken of it by Mr. Madison.

the coffee-house, is a fund which will preserve me from extremities, but I never resort to it without great mortification, as he obstinately rejects all recompense. The price of money is so usurious, that he thinks it ought to be extorted from none but those who aim at profitable speculations. To a necessitous Delegate he gratuitously spares a supply out of his private stock.

No addition has been made to our stock of intelligence from Europe since the arrival of the French frigates. Some letters from the Marquis de la Fayette and others have since come to hand, but they are all of the same date with the despatches then received. One of the Marquis's paragraphs, indeed, signifies the tergiversation of Mr. Grenville, which had been only in general mentioned to us before. On the communication made by this gentleman to the Count de Vergennes of the object of his mission, he proposed verbally the unconditional acknowledgment of American Independence as a point to which the King had agreed. The Count de Vergennes immediately wrote it down, and requested him to put his name to the declaration. Mr. Grenville drew back, and refused to abide by any thing more than that the King was disposed to grant American Independence. This illustrates the shade of difference between Shelburne and Fox.