Last night I received your obliging Favour of the fifth of this Month.

Your Excellencys Sentiment, “that the Foundation of Credit abroad must be laid at Home” is perfectly just, and accords with the General Sentiment of the Money Lenders, Undertakers and Brokers in this Country, whose Universal Cry is “We Should choose to see Some certain Method agreed on and established, for the Payment of Interest before We adventure farther in the American Loan.[”]

I am glad to hear of Mr Jays Safe return, to Paris and hope his Health is confirmed.— As the Instructions may be executed by any one or more, of the Ministers for the Peace, residing at the Court of 26 Versailles, it Seems to me to be more for the Benefit of the publick Service, that I Should remain here for Sometime, rather than go to Paris. I have not given over all Endeavours to obtain the Money for the Bills, although the best Friends We have inform me, there is no hope at all from the Publick. We are endeavouring to discover if it is possible by any new Plan of a Loan, to obtain the Money of the Undertakers. Yet by all I can learn I despair of Obtaining it, without agreeing to Terms so disadvantageous as to be little better than the final Protest of the Bills.— indeed it is Still improbable that I can obtain it, upon any Terms at all.— Money is Scarce as well as our Credit feeble. The Loan of the East India Company, warranted by the States of Holland, does not fill, a Case unknown in this Country.

Your Excellency with Mr Jay, may proceed to execute those Instructions without me, and I hereby intreat that you would without waiting at all for me. It is not likely there will be any difference of Opinion between your Excellencies, concerning any of those Instructions, in which Case alone it would be necessary for me to attend, if Mr Laurens does not.

It is probable We may soon learn Something from Congress in Answer to our Letter with the definitive Treaty, which will determine whether it is necessary I should join you, at Paris or not.—1 It would be very inconvenient to me, in the present tender State of my Health to make a Journey to Paris without a necessity, at least untill this formidable Winter breaks up, although I should be ambitious enough of the Honour of joining in the Execution of those orders.

I wish your Excellencies an happy Year and much Pleasure in the Enjoyment of Peace, as well as Success in your Negotiations, whether joined or not by your / most obedient and most humble sert

Last night I received yours of the third of this Month, accompanied with the Packet, put into your Hands by Mr Reed, I have also 27 received, as I Suppose the two or three Letters which went to Bath and were returned to Mr stockdales, and am obliged to you for your Care of them.

Upon my Arrival at the Hague, from London, one of the first Things I did, was to look for the Letters you demand. I soon found them, and have waited Since, for an Opportunity by a Safe and private Hand to convey them to you. But no such opportunity has occurred.— perceiving at present your Anxiety about them I here enclose them, and shall send them by the Post.

Never untill I read Your Letter now before me, had I the least doubt or suspicion, that I had not done right in opening them, or that you disapproved of that act.

The List of them is this.2

A Letter from William Ch. Houston, then a Member of Congress and of the Committee of foreign affairs dated Philada. 9 Feb. 1780, inclosing a List of the Members of Congress3

A Letter from J. L. Sept. 7. 1780. another Member of Congress and of the Committee of foreign affairs, sent open to my Care.4

A letter from John Laurens Sept 5. 1780

A Letter from T. P. Sept. 7. 17805

A Letter from Willm Grayson. Sept. 8. 1780. inclosing an Extract of a Letter from Govr Nash of N. Carolina to the Delegates of Congress of that State.6

A Letter to The Honble Henry Laurens Esq, never opened.

The first of these Letters, which I opened, will shew, by the certificate upon it, that Mr Searle, then a Member of Congress and a publick Agent of Pensilvania was present. That Gentleman thought, that as Mr Laurens was in Captivity and I was put in his Place in the Agency to borrow Money in Holland, I had a Right and that it was my Duty to consider Letters to Mr Laurens as Letters to me, and consequently to open them and make Use, for the Public service of all advices they might contain. I confess I was then of the Same opinion.—7 The Distress I was in at that Time, for Want of Intelligence, not only of the political and military operations, but Intelligence relative to the Loan to be opened and the Bills of Exchange, drawing upon you which were presented to me for Acceptance is inexpressible.— I had the best Reasons to suppose that those Letters related wholly to public affairs. and therefore, it appeared to me, as well as to Mr Searle that I Should be criminally 28 negligent of the public Interest and my own Duty, if I did not avail myself of them. It was most certainly, no improper Curiosity, no disrespect for you no sinister design, no private View, but a publick Principle and Motive alone, which prompted me to open that or any other of the Letters. Had I been in your situation and You in mine I Should have wished you to have done the same and have thankd you for it.— if I had not a Right, if it was not necessary, if it was not my duty to do as I did, it was an Error of Judgment, with the purest Intentions in the World.

I absolutely know not Mr Laurens what you mean by “injurious Treatment.”— from our first Acquaintance to this Moment, I have most certainly never injured you to my Knowledge, in Thought Word or Deed.8

But your Letter is in a style [unbecoming?] you to write or me to read which upon Recollection, I am perswaded, you yourself cannot

I have the Honour to be, sir your most / obedient & most humble servant