of Nantucket to abandon their fishery.  But the poverty of their soil offering them no other resource, they must quit their country, and either establish themselves in Nova Scotia, where, as British fishermen, they may participate of the British premium, in addition to the ordinary price of their whale-oil, or they must accept the conditions which this government offers, for the establishment they have proposed at Dunkirk.  Your Excellency will judge, what conditions may counterbalance, in their minds, the circumstances of the vicinity of Nova Scotia, sameness of langague,[sp.] laws, religion, customs, and kindred.  Remaining in their native country, to which they are most singularly attached, excluded from commerce with England, taught to look to France as the only country from which they can derive sustenance, they will, in case of war, become useful rovers against its enemies.  Their position, their poverty, their courage, their address, and their hatred, will render them formidable scourges on the British commerce.  It is to be considered then, on the one hand, that the duty which M. de Calonne had proposed to retain on their oil, may endanger the shifting this useful body of seamen out of our joint scale into that of the British; and also may suppress a considerable subject of exchange for the productions of France:  on the other hand, that it may produce an addition to his Majesty’s revenue.  What I have thus far said, is on the supposition, that the duty may operate a diminution of the price received by the fishermen.  If it act in the contrary direction, and produce an augmentation of price to the consumer, it immediately brings into competition a variety of other oils, vegetable and animal, a good part of which France receives from abroad, and the fisherman, thus losing his market, is compelled equally to change either his calling or country.  When M. de Calonne first agreed to reduce the duties to what he has declared, I had great hopes the commodity could bear them, and that it would become a medium of commerce between France and the United States.  I must confess, however, that my expectations have not been fulfilled, and that but little has come here as yet.  This induces me to fear, that it is so poor an article, that any duty whatever will suppress it.  Should this take place, and the spirit of emigration once seize those people, perhaps an abolition of all duty might then come too late to stop, what it would now easily prevent.  I fear there is danger in the experiment; and it remains for the wisdom of his Majesty and his ministers to decide, whether the prospect of gain to the revenue, or establishing a national fishery, may compensate this danger.  If the government should decide to retain the duty, I shall acquiesce in it cheerfully, and do every thing in my power to encourage my countrymen still to continue their occupation.

The actual session of our several legislatures would render it interesting to forward immediately the regulations proposed on our commerce; and the expiration of the order of Bernis, at the close of this month, endangers a suspension and derangement in the commerce of tobacco, very embarrassing to the merchants of the two countries.  Pardon me therefore, Sir, if I appear solicitous to obtain the ultimate decision of his Majesty’s Council on these subjects, and to ask as early a communication of that decision, as shall be convenient.