[Extract]

I beg you to recall, Monseigneur, Lord Sandwich's remark of a few months ago to the Naval Commissioner of Portsmouth concerning a commissioning during the summer: that it was to show the neighboring Powers that despite all the forces being employed in America, England still had enough left to defend herself at home.

I had the honor of informing you earlier about a large ship called the Elephant which the government has purchased for commissioning as a warship. She is now receiving her guns and will come down the Thames within a few days. The Admiralty has just purchased another ship of 300 tons called the Brilliant which it is also going to commission. All this is for lack of frigates, of which there are scarcely any left here, so many of them being used up by the war in America. However large the number of such ships employed as escorts may be, it is far from sufficient, as you can judge, Monseigneur, from the daily losses being suffered by the West Indies trade. Insurance on the safe return of ships in this trade, which never went above six percent during the last war, stands at eighteen today. The British Isles are short of foodstuffs, timber, &c., and colonists are losing about thirty percent because of rising costs of operation.

...So there we have it: preparations for continuing the war in America, and a large fleet in Europe to restrain us. Seen in this light everything becomes clear. From any viewpoint whatsoever, the only possible conclusion seems to be that the situation calls for the greatest precautions on our part ....

We have no news from Staten Island except that on the 17th of July last, Lord Howe had not yet arrived there.² You will recall, Monseigneur, that he sailed from Halifax on June 23d.

With the Court's consent, I have established over the past few years the practice of reclaiming French seamen from aboard English warships; and just now I have requested and obtained from Lord Sandwich the freedom of one Tabey, a Breton sailor who was on board the Royal Oak at Portsmouth. As soon as he arrives here, I shall provide him with what he needs to return to France.