Franklin and Silas Deane to Arthur Lee, 1 March 1778
Franklin and Silas Deane to Arthur Lee
L:2 Harvard University Library
Passy March 1st. 1778
Messrs. Franklin and Deane present their Compliments to Mr. Arthur Lee, it not being likely that the Dispatches can be ready at 12. O Clock beg Mr. Lee, would change the time of his coming to half past 5. at which time there is no doubt but that every thing will be ready.3
Mr. Franklin juniors respectful Compliments to Mr. A. Lee and reminds him of his Engagement to dine with Mrs. Chalut4 tomorrow.
2. In the hand, as might be expected from the postscript, of WTF.
3. The earlier time had been set the day before, for Lee’s visit to examine the finished treaties: above, XXV, 730–1.
4. This might be either Mme. Chalut de Vérin, wife of the farmer general, or Messrs. Chalut, in other words her husband and his brother, the abbé de Chalut. For the first see Yves Durand, Les Fermiers Généraux au XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1971), p. 67, and for the other two above, XXIV, 348 n and XXV, 382 respectively.