ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON TO M. DE LA LUZERNE.
Office of Foreign Affairs, January 19th, 1782.
I do myself the honor to enclose two letters from Mr Deane, which were delivered with his own hand to a Mr Marshal, who has sworn to their identity. These add so much weight to the suspicions already entertained against him, that they may probably be of use to your Court in justifying any measure, which they may deem it proper to adopt, to prevent the ill effects of the principles he endeavors to disseminate, and to invalidate the ill-founded assertions he makes.
I beg to be informed whether you think it probable that the Hermione has sailed yet, and if not, whether you have any express going down to her.
I thank you for communicating to me Mr Deane's two letters. I shall transmit them to my Court. I am not at present, sending any express to the Chesapeake, but I shall probably send one as soon as I shall have received the letters, which should have been brought by the Sybil. It is still possible that the Hermione may be charged with them.
I proposed to have the honor, at the first opportunity, of conversing with you upon a circumstance, which it is desirable that Congress should alter. In the State of Massachusetts there is no Marshal of the Court of Admiralty. The custom in that State is, to put into the hands of the agent of the _libellant_ the effects _libelled_, and the proceeds of their sale, if it has taken place. This practice has already been attended with great inconveniences, as it respects French merchants, and particularly as it respects a Spanish vessel, the owners of which, it is thought, have lost from twentyfive to thirty thousand pounds sterling, merely because the contested property had not been put into the hands of a responsible public officer. You will be better able, Sir, than I am, to judge by what means these inconveniences may be remedied.
ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON TO M. DE LA LUZERNE.
Office of Foreign Affairs, January 24th, 1782.
Reflecting that our not communicating the resolutions of the 22d to you, when we send them to Dr Franklin, might appear to the Count de Vergennes to betray a want of confidence in you, which I am persuaded Congress do not entertain, I am led to consider my not having received instructions to communicate them as a mere accidental omission, and accordingly take upon me to enclose a copy of them. You will, I presume, put them in cypher before they are sent off. To give you leisure to do it, I have not sent them to your house, but have ordered my servant to find you at the Assembly.