The bearer of this, who is going to America, presses me to give
him a letter of recommendation, though I know nothing of him,
not even his name. This may seem extraordinary, but I assure you
it is not uncommon here. Sometimes, indeed, one unknown person
brings another equally unknown, to recommend him; and sometimes
they recommend one another! As to this gentleman, I must refer
you to himself for his character and merits, with which he is
certainly better acquainted than I can possibly be. I recommend
him, however, to those civilities which every stranger, of whom
one knows no harm, has a right to; and I request you will do him
all the good offices and show him all the favour that, on
further acquaintance, you shall find him to deserve.
"I have the honour to be," etc.
Captain Wickes, of the _Refusal_, having taken about a hundred British
seamen prisoners, Franklin and Silas Deane, one of the other
Commissioners, wrote to Lord Stormont, the British ambassador,
respecting an exchange. Receiving no answer, they wrote again, and
ventured to complain of the treatment which the American prisoners
were receiving in the English prisons, and in being compelled to fight
against their own countrymen. To this communication Lord Stormont
replied:--
The king's ambassador receives no applications from rebels,
unless they come to implore his Majesty's mercy.