I have not yet answerd your Letters of the 26th and 28th of June.  I am in Pain about the Ship in your Harbour.  Her Owners neglect to put her into Repair, and I fear a great Number of her Officers and Crew for Want of Skill or Experience will be at a loss what to do with her if she meets with a Storm.  What a Pity is it, that an honest old Pilot has lately been dischargd, who used to steer successfully through Rocks & Quick sands!  And that he should suffer this hard Usage, only because, unknown to him one who was a hearty Well wisher to the Voyage, and was anxious that Capacity & Merit might always govern Promotions, had venturd to declare him the fittest Man to take the Command.  Ambition, or rather Vanity, and Avarice—­an insatiable Thirst for Places and Preferment, without Ability or Intention to fulfil the Duties of them, tends to the Ruin of any Country, and if not eradicated, will soon effect it.  It would be the Glory of this Age, to find Men having no ruling Passion but the Love of their Country, and ready to render her the most arduous and important Services with the Hope of no other Reward in this Life than the Esteem of their virtuous Fellow Citizens.  But this, some tell us, is expecting more than it is in the Power of human Nature to give.  Be it as it may.  There are some Men to whom the publick Confidence most certainly ought to be refused.  I mean those who in perilous Times have never dared to avow the publick Sentiments.

Last Saturday1 Congress recd another Letter from the British Commissioners.  You have it inclosd with a short Resolution2 in Consequence of it.  This shuts the Door until they will be pleased to open it.  Governor Johnstone has acted so base a part as to hint the offer of Bribes not only to the President but every other Member of Congress, as you will see by the Inclosd Letter to Mr R. Morris.  By this he has in my opinion forfeited the Character of an honest Man & justly exposd himself to Contempt.  I hope some Strictures will be made in the Newspapers on this as well as the disrespectful & even insolent Language in the Commissioners Letter, not so proper to be noticed by Congress.  I am assured that a Bribe of 10,000 Guineas has been offerd to a Gentleman of Station & Character here.  He refusd it as you might suppose with suitable Resentment, telling the Lady who negociated this dirty Business, that the British King was not rich enough to purchase him.

Mr D3 of whom I may perhaps hereafter have much to say to you is arrivd with the Sieur Gerard.  I have long ago formed my opinion of the American Commissioner & have not yet alterd it.  That of the french Minister is, a sensible prudent Man, not wanting in political Finesse & therefore not to be listned to too implicitly.  The french Squadron lies off Sandy Hook.  I have inclosd the Names & Rates of the ships together with the Spanish Ships in N York as deliverd to us by a Prisoner lately escaped from thence.  Their Force bears no proportion to each