To the Right Honorable Charles Wolfran Cornwall, Speaker, and the Honorable the House of Com

mons:

The representation and prayer of Henry Laurens, a native of South Carolina, some time recognised by the British commissioners in America, by the style and title of His Excellency Henry Laurens, President of Congress, now a close prisoner in the Tower of London, most respectfully showeth :

That your representer, for many years, at the peril of his life and fortune, evidently labored to preserve and strengthen the ancient friendship between Great Britain and the Colonies, and that in no instance he ever excited, on either side, the dissensions which separated them.

That the commencement of the present war was a subject of great grief to him, insomuch as he foresaw and foretold, in letters now extant, the distresses which both countries experience at this day.

That in the rise and progress of the war he extended every act of kindness in his power to persons called loyalists and quietists, as well as to British prisoners of war; very ample proofs of which he can produce.

That he was captured on the American coast, first landed upon American ground, where he saw exchanges of British and American prisoners in a course of negotiation; and that such exchanges and enlargements upon parole are mutually and daily practised in America.

That he was committed to the Tower of London on the sixth of October, 1780, being then danger

ously ill; that in the mean time he has, in many respects, particularly by being deprived (with very little exception) of the visits and consolations of his children, and other relations and friends, suffered under a degree of rigor almost, if not altogether, unexampled in modern British history.

That from long confinement, and the want of proper exercise, and other obvious causes, his bodily health is greatly impaired, and that he now is in a languishing state; and,

Therefore, your representer humbly prays your Honors will condescend to take his case into consideration, and, under proper conditions and restrictions, grant him enlargement, or such other relief as to the wisdom and benignity of your Honors shall seem fitting.

HENRY LAURENS.*

DEAR SIR,

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Philadelphia, September 30, 1782.

The remittance to Colonel Bland is a source of hope to his brethren. I am almost ashamed to reiterate my wants so incessantly to you, but they begin to be so urgent that it is impossible to suppress them.

* The debilitating and protracted sufferings of Mr. Laurens in the Tower require every allowance for the tenor and tone of his representation to Parliament; especially as after his liberation, and whilst the definitive arrangements for it were on foot, it appears that he gave the most active proofs of his devoted patriotism, and vigilant zeal, in guarding against the insidious policy of the British Cabinet. It is known that this was the view taken of it by Mr. Madison.

The kindness of our little friend in Front street, near the coffee-house, is a fund which will preserve me from extremities, but I never resort to it without great mortification, as he obstinately rejects all recompense. The price of money is so usurious, that he thinks it ought to be extorted from none but those who aim at profitable speculations. To a necessitous Delegate he gratuitously spares a supply out of his private stock.

No addition has been made to our stock of intelligence from Europe since the arrival of the French frigates. Some letters from the Marquis de la Fayette and others have since come to hand, but they are all of the same date with the despatches then received. One of the Marquis's paragraphs, indeed, signifies the tergiversation of Mr. Grenville, which had been only in general mentioned to us before. On the communication made by this gentleman to the Count de Vergennes of the object of his mission, he proposed verbally the unconditional acknowledgment of American Independence as a point to which the King had agreed. The Count de Vergennes immediately wrote it down, and requested him to put his name to the declaration. Mr. Grenville drew back, and refused to abide by any thing more than that the King was disposed to grant American Independence. This illustrates the shade of difference between Shelburne and Fox.

DEAR SIR,

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Philadelphia, October 8, 1782.

Your favor of the twenty-seventh of September came to hand yesterday, and is a fresh instance of the friendly part you take in my necessities. In consequence of the hint in your last of a pressing representation to the Executive, our public letter of last week touched on that subject, but the letter received yesterday from the Governor, which seems to chide our urgency, forbids much expectation from such an expedient. The letter from Mr. Ambler enclosed for me a second bill on Mr. Holker for two hundred dollars, which very seasonably enabled me to replace a loan by which I had anticipated it. About three hundred and fifty more (and not less) would redeem me completely from the class of debtors.

I omitted, in my last, to inform you that the Swedish Minister at Versailles had announced to Dr. Franklin the wish of his King to become an ally of the United States, and that the treaty might be negotiated with the Doctor in particular. A plenipotentiary commission has, in consequence, issued for that purpose. The model transmitted by Congress is pretty analogous to the treaty with France, but is limited in duration to fifteen years.

DEAR SIR,

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.

Philadelphia, October 15, 1782.

The offensive paragraph in the correspondence of Mr. L. with Mr. P., spoken of in your favor of the fifth, was, as you supposed, communicated to me by Mr. Jones. I am, however, but very imperfectly informed of it.

We have not yet received a second volume of the negotiations at Versailles; nor any other intelligence from Europe, except a letter from Mr. Carmichael, dated about the middle of June, which is chiefly confined to the great exertions and expectations with respect to Gibraltar. Whilst the siege is depending, it is much to be apprehended that the Court of Madrid will not accelerate a pacification.

Extract of a letter from Sir Guy Carleton to General Washington, dated New York, September twelfth, 1782.

"Partial though our suspension of hostilities may be called, I thought it sufficient to have prevented those cruelties in the Jerseys (avowed) which I have had occasion to mention more than once; but if war was the choice, I never expected this suspension should operate further than to induce them to carry it on as is practised by men of liberal minds. I am clearly of opinion with Your Excellency, that mutual agreement is necessary for a suspension of hostility, and, without this mutual agreement, either is free to act as each may judge expedient; yet I must, at the same time, frankly declare to you, that being no longer able to discern the object we contend for, I