N^o 157
My Lord

I Inclose a duplicate of my Letter by Mondays Post.¹ I may now venture to assure your Lordship that this very important Affair is upon the point of being concluded, and I hope to the satisfaction of the Proprietors.

M de Vergennes has just told me that an Order was dispatched to Nantes on, Monday last, directing the proper Officer who if I remember right is the Procureur Fiscal to deliver the two Ships and their Cargoes aux reclamateurs Anglois

The Confiscation of these Ships to the french Kings use does certainly appear a singular prelude to this Restitution but M de Vergennes in my last Saturdays Conversation with Him upon the subject, assured me that it was the only possible way of cutting the Knot, and getting rnd of various Formalities that must have occasioned great Delay. I know, from another Quarter, that the Admiralty of Nantes proposed this Method, which was adopted chiefly I believe with this View, to keep quite clear of the general Question of the Legality of Prizes made by the Americans.

M de Vergennes, from whom I am this Moment returned, spoke in the politest Terms of the Pleasure it gave Him, to see this Business terminated to our Satisfaction, and added, that He wished that every discussion between the two Courts might always have a similar issue

I must do M de Maurepas the Justice to say, that He has exerted Himself upon this occasion: Without His interposition the affair would probably have taken a different Turn, or would at least have been drawn out to great Length, as M de Sartines had contrived to throw various Obstacles in the Way, which M de Maurepas removed at once by speaking peremptorily in the King his Masters Name. I am [&c.]