Sartine to the Commissioners: A Translation, 16 August 1778
Sartine to the Commissioners: A Translation
Versailles. 16th. August. 1778
Gentlemen
I take the earliest opportunity to answer the observations addressed to me in the letter which you did me the honor to write to me the 13th. instant on the project of a regulation for the prizes and prisonners of the respective U States.2 I Conceive that I have fulfilled the object by digesting anew the 2. and 14 Articles of which I annex another text with copies of the different Laws that have been lately published respecting Prizes. Moreover, I will at all times receive with pleasure your representations of the inconveniencies which May attend in your opinion the execution of the regulation and you may be assured that His Majesty will be always disposed to <procure> grant the inhabitants of the U States every facility compatible with the interest of his finances and the Commerce of his Subjects.
I have the honor to be with sincere attachment Gentn. Yr. m. h. & m. ob. st.
(signed) De Sartine
RC (MH-H: Lee Papers); docketed, not by JA: “Sartine on Prises” Translation (PCC, No. 83, II, f. 475)
1. For the changes made by Sartine in Articles 2 and 14, see his letter to the Commissioners of 29 July (calendared above) and references there. JA copied the enclosed articles into his Letterbook (Microfilms, Reel No. 94), but the enclosed copies of the prize laws have not been found.
2. The translator’s “U States” is clearly a misreading of “Etats respectifs,” that is, the United States and France.