Perhaps an oppy may offer of sendg you this before you leave aranjues. I wish it may. I assure you it was far from my Intention to give you Pain or Uneasiness by my Letter of the 27 Inst. It wd have given me less Trouble and more pleasure to have talked the Matter over with you after your Return, but a Letter was necessary to suspend the Conference wh. I understood was to have been held before yr Return.

Your speaking with Ct DMontmorin abt. my Letter on Money Matters as well as abt. conveying thro him to England certain Matters respectg Mr Cumberland was perfectly right—we havg so agd.—but your proposg to have a Conference with Ct DFloridaBlanca on the Objects & Influence of Mr Cumberlands Journey hither and consulting Ct Montmorin on that Subject as he told me I still think was not quite right—it not havg been agd to by or mentioned to me—1 Your declining to give Answers ^in my absence^ to Ct D FBs Queries had & has my Approbation.

as to your havg communicated to Chev. DBurgoyne as much Information as you had Reason to think he possessed already on Mr Cumberlands Affair was wise and I approve of it, but more was unnecessary: I mean the Names of the persons employed— Attention to our Allies is proper & I commend it.

I am pleased with the Correspondence of our Sentimts. relative to our Comns. I apprehended the contrary might be the Case— Yr. havg. urged your Comn. of Charge des Affaires as a Reason for countersigning my Letters, together with yr intended Conference led me principally to suspect you considered it as in some Degree inforce—but your Letter removes that Apprehension, and there is of Course and End of it. ^By marking our Lines of Action^ I had no Idea of impeachg your Understanding or Prudence, and I think you are mistaken in supposing it involves the Censure you think it does. I suspect ^that^ your pen has been a good guided on this occasion by your Feelings, wh. I would always much rather gratify than wound. Explanations are sometimes expedient tho often unpleasant. I shall always as a public Servt. prefer the former but it shall always be my Study not to give avoidable uneasiness to any Person especially those with whom it may be my Duty to cultivate Harmony & a Disposition to unite cordially in servg our Country—

I am obligd to you for the List of Delegates— There has it seems been little Change since we left Congress. I am Dr Sir Your most obedt Servt