ARTHUR LEE.
TO THE COMMITTEE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
Paris, December 5th, 1778.
Gentlemen,
I had the honor of writing you on the 14th of April, May the 9th, 20th, and 23d, June the 1st, 9th, 15th, and 17th, July the 6th, 16th, 20th, 28th, and 29th, August the 21st, and 31st, September the 9th and 30th, October the 5th and 19th, November the 4th, 18th and 20th, with various enclosures, among which were triplicates of Mr Williams’s accounts, and quadruplicates of the state of the Swiss militia.
From Lord Suffolk’s speech on the address, it appears, that they have adopted a dernier plan for conducting the war against you, which, I am informed, is to burn and destroy every thing they approach. The example of Colonel Butler is to be pursued on all the frontiers accessible to the Indians, to whom small bodies of regulars are to be joined. The fleet and armies are to lay waste the sea coast and its vicinities. Lord Suffolk is the mouth of the king of Great Britain, and his advisers, Lords Bute and Mansfield, and Mr Wedderburne. What he says may therefore be depended on as their resolution.
From the enclosed piece (copies of which have been sent from Holland) you will be able to judge of the nature and situation of the dispute in Holland. The friends to themselves and us are for augmenting their marine, the purchased advocates of England, and the dependants of the Stadtholder, are for increasing their army.
To make them and other neutral nations feel the necessity of supporting the privileges of their flags against the English, this Court has declared its determination to make prize of all goods belonging to the enemy, found in neutral ships, as long as the same is permitted to be done by the British cruisers, with regard to the effects of France in the same situation. This is such a blow to their interests as, it is imagined, must rouse the Dutch to vigorous exertions against Great Britain, in support of their privileges as common cruisers.
The Court of Spain has published its intention of admitting the sale of prizes, made by the French, and the entrance of all American vessels upon the footing of all other neutral nations.