I beg leave once more to trespass upon your Time by calling your attention to my Friend Captn Landais.  You and I patronized him when he first came into this Country:  and I have never for a Moment repented of the small share I had in his Promotion in the American Navy, although he has met with the Fate which sometimes has been the Lot of honest Men, through the errors, to say the least, of Courts.  He had long suffered as other virtuous Men had, by a Faction on the other side of the Atlantick, which found means to extend itself to this Country, and as you well remember, to the very Doors of Congress!—­But enough of this—­Your kind Assistance was greatly beneficial to him in his late Application to Congress, and he and I gratefully acknowledged it.  But he remains still embarrassed, and as I conceive, not without Reason—­His Pay as Commander of the Alliance is offered to him in a Certificate.  But what is such a Piece of Paper worth.  If it be said, all our brave Sea Officers & Men are thus to be paid, should it not be remembered, that those who continued in the service to the end of the War are allowed a Gratuity.  This Allowance was Established several years after he left the Service, and cannot include him, nor does he desire it—­But he was broke by a Court Martial—­True.  And if a private Gentleman discharges his domestick servant even for a Fault, does he not in Justice pay him his due wages?  And are not States bound by the Rules of Justice?  Captain Landais has been obliged to pay an interest on money he has borrowed for his support and other necessary expenses, more than the Value of his Pay, and the want of his just Dues has kept him out of Business—­He also suffers by a short Allowance of Interest on the Gratuity granted to him for an important service.  Congress ordered 12,000 Livres to be paid him for that service, in France.  The Payment there would have been and it was intended to be an advantage to him.  It was paid to him in America, and not till the last year—­Should not the interest on that sum have commenced in 1777 when the service was performed instead of 79 as it is now settled?  But his greatest Grievance, in which indeed he is a sufferer in common with others is the Detention of Prize Money —­You recollect this mysterious Business and how often we were written to, and very pressingly by my worthy Friend your Brother.  We have been lately told that Capt.  Paul Jones has received a large sum on that account.  This Jones Captn.  Landais looks upon as his inveterate Enemy & he has not the least Confidence in him—­If you think as I do that he has a Right to authentick copies of Letters written by Jones to Congress or any of the Boards on an affair so interesting to him, on his proper application, your Advice to him on this as well as his other concerns will add to the obligations I am already under to you.

Will you be so kind as to transmit me the names of the present Members of Congress and the States they severally represent,—­