450 Letters to Benjamin Franklin 



From Sam[ue]l Cooper. 1778. July i. Boston. 



Proceedings of the British Commissioners; they stumbled at the very 

 threshold and in their first communication to Congress advanced a 

 palpable falsehood; if they have nothing further to offer, they have 

 come upon a fool's errand. The cry everywhere is " Independence and 

 fidelity to our treaties." News of the army; General Washington, 

 with 20,000 men, not far from Princeton; General Clinton, with 12 

 to 15,000, at Mt. Holly. No authentic report of Comte d'Estaing's 

 arrival on the American coast; Boston harbor alive with French vessels 

 and their prizes. Bright prospects for America. A. L. S. 2 p. 



X, 78. 



From Mme. Brillon. [1778?] July i. Passy. 



Witty and bantering reply to Franklin who had compared himself to 

 a beggar asking alms from a bishop. Declines to give Franklin the 

 kind of charity he asks for. Is willing to give him her friendship, 

 considers him as her father but cannot entertain his proposals of love. 

 A. L. 2 p. (In French.) XLIII, 26. 



Printed in Putnam's Monthly, Oct., 1906, 37. 



From [Edme Jacques] Genet. 1778. July 2. Versailles. 



Glad that Franklin approves of the use he has made of his letters ; 

 only waiting for the news from America promised him by Franklin, 

 to publish it to all Paris. Will do his best to send him the London 

 Evening Post and Chronicle but in the present state of affairs can- 

 not guarantee their arriving regularly. A. L. S. 3 p. X, 79. 



From Charles Epp. 1778. July 2. Altdorf. 



His opinion concerning the strength of the Americans to fight any 

 foreign power; the difficulties that overtake a commonw^ealth after 

 the enemy has been driven out ; the evils to be avoided in a repub- 

 lican government. A. L. S. 4 p. X, So. 



From The Navy Board of the Eastern Department to The American 

 Commissioners. 1778. July 2. Boston. 



Sends by the bearer. Captain Ayres, four packets from the Honorable 

 Committee for Foreign Affairs, and the Gazettes of Boston. Recom- 

 mends Captain Ayres to Franklin's notice as an officer ready upon all 

 occasions to render his best services to his country. L. S. J[ames] 

 Warren, i p. X, 81. 



