Golden Square [London] Aug 14 1778
[Extract] Dear Sir
I writ to you as long ago as the 14th of the last month to tell you that the administration here had given their consent to the exchange of prisoners at Calais, and that they wd agree to give any ship on your part a free passport from Brest to Calais upon your sending me a similar assurance that any British ship going to Calais for the purpose of the Exchange shd have free entrance without molestation, and free egress with the prisoners in Exchange. I have again received a confirmation of these assurances from the board of admiralty here, and we are now waiting for your answer, after the receipt of wch the exchange will be forwarded with all expedition1. . . . Believe me ever yours most affectely
DH
L, PPAmP, Benjamin Franklin Papers, vol. 11, no. 45. Addressed below close: “To Dr Franklin—.”
1. Franklin replied on 3 Sept., Benjamin Franklin Papers, 27: 342, but despite his and Hartley’s efforts the exchange of the first group of one hundred prisoners did not take place until May 1779.
