"The States of the Province of Holland have assembled here this morning. It is only an ordinary session; and our friend said to me pleasantly, 'We have only come to hold the fair.' He foresees also that the resolution of the States-General, as to convoy, will not be such as to engage France to revoke or mitigate her last edict of navigation. One of the first Houses of Amsterdam, and whose predilection for England is known, has sold £60,000 of English funds. This has revived the idea of a declaration from Spain, and has depressed the English funds at Amsterdam from three to four per cent. There is a shower of pamphlets here, both in French and Dutch, against the last Memoir of Sir Joseph Yorke."
For a long time, Gentlemen, we have heard nothing here of American affairs, but through the wicked channel of your enemies, who do not cease to paint the Americans as a people disunited and discordant. These eternal repetitions, and their pretended success in Georgia, do not fail to disquiet your friends and to embarrass all my endeavors.
I have the honor to be, &c.
DUMAS.
TO THE COMMITTEE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.
The Hague, May 15th, 1779.
Gentlemen,
I have already had the honor of informing you many times, that some of my frequent letters to Passy are of a nature not to be communicated to you, even in abridgement, through the risk that my packets run of being intercepted; such are, particularly, divers letters written to Dr Franklin, from the 25th of January to the 29th of April. There is a cabal of Genevan and Swiss bankers, as well in France as at Amsterdam, friendly to your enemies, which does as much injury as it can under the mask of friendship. It was my duty to unmask some of them to Dr Franklin, and to make known to him a safe Anti-English patriotic House, having the confidence of the magistracy of Amsterdam. The Ministry in France know it.
Upon the last petitions of the merchants of Dort, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Friesland, the States-General, after having previously deliberated and advised, and then reconsidered the affair, adopted on Monday, the 26th of April, the resolution to equip for the service of the current year, 1779, thirtytwo vessels of war, as follows;