now judge whether it is worth while to give yourself any farther trouble about that matter. I am, with great regard, dear Sir, Your most obedient humble servant, B. FRANKLIN. On the 1st of March, 1780, Jones wrote again to Lady Selkirk, as follows: L'Orient, March 1st, 1780. The Right Hon. the Countess of SELKIRK, &c. &c. St. Mary's Isle, Scotland. MADAM, It is now ten or eleven months since his Excellency Benjamin Franklin, Esq. Minister Plenipotentiary for the United States of America at the Court of France, communicated to me a message from the earl, your husband, in a letter to his friend, Mr. Alexander, at Paris, in substance as follows:-That he, the Earl of Selkirk, had written an answer to the letter that I had the honor to write to your ladyship in May, 1778, from Brest, respecting your plate; which answer, after being detained for several months at London, in the general post-office, had been returned to Scotland. He, therefore, wished Mr. Alexander to inform the concerned, that if the plate was to be restored by Congress, or by any public body, it would be accepted, &c. ; but if, through the generosity of an individual, his delicacy would scruple to receive it, &c. The true reason why I have not written to you since I received the above information, has been, because the plate is but now come into my possession from the public agents; and I have, besides, been, for the greatest part of the time, absent from this kingdom. I have now the satisfaction to inform you, that Congress has relinquished their real or supposed interest in the plate, and, for my own part, I scorn to add to my fortune by such an acquisition. As for the part claimed by the few men who landed with me on St. Mary's Isle, it is of little consequence, and they are already satisfied. Thus you see, Madam, that the earl's objection is removed. The plate is lodged here, in the hands of Messrs. Gourlade & Moylan, who hold it at your disposal, and will forward it agreeable to your orders, by land or by water to Holland, Östend, or any other port you think proper. I shall be happy, by my conduct through life, to merit the good opinion of the Earl and Countess of Selkirk; for I am, with great esteem and profound respect, Madam, your ladyship's most obedient and most humble servant. To Capt. PAUL JONES, Paris. SIR, PAUL JONES. Paris, Sept. 24th, 1784. M. the Count de Vergennes has delivered to me the letter which you had written to him, to ask his permission to transport by land from L'Orient to Calais, the plate of Lady Selkirk, which you had permitted to be taken by your people during the last war, and which you afterward purchased to return to her ladyship. That action, Sir, is worthy of the reputation which you acquired by your conduct, and proves that true valor perfectly agrees with humanity and generosity. It gives me pleasure to concur in the execution of this honorable proceeding. I have, therefore, given orders to the Farmer's General to permit the transportation of the plate from L'Orient to Calais, free of duty, and you may write to your correspondent at L'Orient to deliver it to the director of the posts, who will take upon himself the care of having it transported to Calais, and to fulfil all the necessary formalities. I have the honor to be, &c. The Right Hon. the Countess of SELKIRK. MADAM, DE CALONNE. Paris, Nov. 8th, 1784. Since the moment when I found myself under the necessity to permit my men to demand and carry off your family plate, it has been my constant intention to restore it to you, and I wrote to you to that effect from Brest, the moment I had arrived there from my expedition in the Irish Sea. By the letter which I had the honor to write to Lord Selkirk, the 12th of February last, which will accompany this, I have explained the difficulties that prevented the plate from being restored until that time. I had expectation, all the last summer, that opportunities would have offered to send it by sea from L'Orient to London; but being disappointed, I applied to government for leave to transport it through the kingdom by land, and the Duke of Dorset has been so obliging as to write to the custom-house at Dover, requesting them to let it pass to London, without being opened. It is now arrived here, and will be forwarded immediately to your sister in London, under the lead that has been affixed to the case that contains it, by the Farmer's General at L'Orient, and the seal of the Duke of Dorset, that has been affixed to it here. The charges to London are paid, and I have directed it to be delivered at the house of your sister. I could have wished to have ended this delicate business by delivering the plate to you at St. Mary's Isle, in Scotland; but I conform to the arrangement made between Lord Selkirk and Mr. Alexander, because I have no person in London whom I can charge with the transportation of the plate from thence. Enclosed is the inventory that I have just received from Mr. Nesbitt, from L'Orient, which I presume you will find to correspond with the one he sent last year to Lord Dare, and with the articles which you put into the hands of my men. I am, Madam, with sentiments of the highest respect, And most humble servant, PAUL JONES. From the Count D'ESTAING, Commander of the Fleet of His Most Christian Majesty. Paris, Dec. 18th, 1785. To Mr. PAUL JONES, Commodore in the Navy of the United States. SIR, } It is impossible not to take advantage of your kindness. Never lend me your Journal again, for I must warn you that I shall read it over and over, and always with renewed pleaIt is one of those things which one absolutely wants to know by heart. It is not only a lesson of naval and military heroism, but, by your conduct to Lord and Lady Selkirk, also one of generosity. sure. I am very far from regretting the homage which I have been obliged to render to the engagement between the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis; and although I did not suppose, while writing it,* that it might be of any other use than that of procuring an admission into the Society of the Cincinnati, I can but be flattered that you have thought it proper to insert it among the pieces which are annexed to your Journal. I have the honor to be, With the most perfect attachment, ESTAING. London, August 4th, 1789, Monsieur le Chevalier PAUL JONES, á Paris. SIR, I received the letter you wrote to me at the time you sent off my plate, in order for restoring it. Had I known where to direct a letter to you, at the time it arrived in Scotland, I would then have wrote to you; but not knowing it, nor finding that any of my acquaintance at Edinburg knew it, I was obliged to delay writing till I came here; when, by means of a gentleman connected with America, I was told M. le Grand was your banker at Paris, and would take proper care of a letter for you; therefore, I enclose this to him. Notwithstanding all the precautions you took for the easy and uninterrupted conveyance of the plate, yet it met with considerable delays: first at Calais, next at Dover, then at London; however, it at last arrived at Dumfries, and I dare say quite safe, though as yet I have not seen it, being then at Edinburg. I intended to have put an article in the newspapers about your having returned it; but before I was informed of its. being arrived, some of your friends, I suppose, had put it in the Dumfries newspaper, whence it was immediately copied into the Edinburg papers, and thence into the London ones. Since that time, I have mentioned it to many people of fashion; and, on all occasions, Sir, both now and formerly, I have done you the justice to tell, that you made an offer of returning the plate very soon after your return to Brest; and, although you yourself was not at my house, but remained at the shore with your boat, that yet you had your officers and * In his recommendation of Capt. Edward Stack for admission into the Society of Cincinnati. H men in such extraordinary good discipline, that your having given them the strictest orders to behave well, to do no injury of any kind, to make no search, but only to bring off what plate was given them; that in reality they did exactly as ordered, and that not one man offered to stir from his post on the outside of the house, nor entered the doors, nor said an uncivil word; that the two officers staid not a quarter of an hour in the parlour and butler's pantry, while the butler got the plate together, behaved politely, and asked for nothing but the plate, and instantly marched their men off in regular order, and that both officers and men behaved in all respects so well, that it would have done credit to the best disciplined troops whatever. Some of the English newspapers, at that time, having put in confused accounts of your expedition to Whitehaven and Scotland, I ordered a proper one of what happened in Scotland to be put in the London newspapers, by a gentleman who was then at my house, by which the good conduct and civil behaviour of your officers and men was done justice to, and attributed to your order, and the good discipline you maintained over your people. I am, Sir, your most humble servant, SELKIRK. So highly did Dr. Franklin, and John Adams, the American commissioners to the Court of France appreciate the descent upon Whitehaven, that they proposed to recommend the persons engaged in it to the Congress, and wrote a letter to Captain Jones to that effect, of which the subjoined is an extract: Extract of a letter from their excellencies, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams, to Captain John Paul Jones, dated Passy, August 10th, 1778. "We shall recommend the men who landed with you at Whitehaven, to the favor of Congress, because we think they merited it; but lest our recommendation should miscarry, we wish you to recommend them, and enclose in your letter an extract of this paragraph of ours. As they have done themselves so much honor in this expedition, perhaps Congress would approve of the deduction of the advance at the time of entry, which they all received from me, being made from their wages in America, that the men may have their prize money here." |