a Versailles le 3. 8bre. 1777
[Extract]
...je debatterai comme de raison LEtat qui est annexé a la Suite de leur memoire1 et qui me paroit prodigiousement enflé; Larte. des 8 vaisseaux de Ligne quils voudroient se procurer en Europe est une chimere que nous ne pouvons et ne devons pas admettre et sil y avoit possibilité al effectuér et que nous Eunions Les moyens d'y fournir, nous nous assurerions de Ces memes vaisseaux pour Augmenter notre marine....
[Translation]
Versailles 3rd. October 1777.
... I will, of course, contest the statement annexed to their memorial,1 and which appears to me to be prodigiously inflated. The item of the 8 vessels of the line which they would like to procure in Europe is a chimera which we cannot and should not admit, and if there were any possibility of doing so, and we had the means to furnish them, we would secure these same vessels to increase our navy....
Df, Stevens's Facsimiles, vol. 19, no. 1711. The full letter concerns reasons why France and Spain should continue aid to the Americans.
1. Enclosure to American Commissioners in France to Vergennes and Conde de Aranda, 30 Sept. 1777, in NDAR 9: 675–77.
