To Benjamin Franklin from Peter Allaire, 31 January 1780
From Peter Allaire7
AL: American Philosophical Society
31 Janr: [1780] Hotel de Saxe Rue Colombier
Mr. Allaires respectfull Compl: to Dr. Franklin has sent him Edens Letters to Carlile.8
Begs his Acceptance of a Bottle of Old Madeira, wishes he had more, it should be his Service.9
7. On Feb. 4 Beaumarchais wrote to Vergennes that Allaire, “un Anglais plus que suspect,” had arrived in Paris the previous Saturday (Jan. 29). Beaumarchais had him followed for two days and advised police chief Lenoir to keep him under surveillance. Gunnar and Mavis von Proschwitz, eds., Beaumarchais et le Courier de l’Europe (2 vols., Oxford, 1990), I, 569–70.
8. William Eden, Four Letters to the Earl of Carlisle … (London, 1779). Eden and Carlisle had served on the unsuccessful 1778 British peace commission: XXVI, 108.
9. A gift heavy with consequences, since BF came to believe it was an attempt to poison him. See Claude-Anne Lopez, “The Man Who Frightened Franklin,” PMHB, CVI (1982), 515–26.