PARIS 1776-1785
                          by Benjamin Franklin

                                  _The Sale of the Hessians_

                 FROM THE COUNT DE SCHAUMBERGH TO THE BARON
                  HOHENDORF, COMMANDING THE HESSIAN TROOPS
                                 IN AMERICA

        Rome, February 18, 1777.
        MONSIEUR LE BARON: -- On my return from Naples, I received at
Rome your letter of the 27th December of last year.  I have learned
with unspeakable pleasure the courage our troops exhibited at
Trenton, and you cannot imagine my joy on being told that of the
1,950 Hessians engaged in the fight, but 345 escaped.  There were
just 1,605 men killed, and I cannot sufficiently commend your
prudence in sending an exact list of the dead to my minister in
London.  This precaution was the more necessary, as the report sent
to the English ministry does not give but 1,455 dead.  This would
make 483,450 florins instead of 643,500 which I am entitled to demand
under our convention.  You will comprehend the prejudice which such
an error would work in my finances, and I do not doubt you will take
the necessary pains to prove that Lord North's list is false and
yours correct.

        The court of London objects that there were a hundred wounded
who ought not to be included in the list, nor paid for as dead; but I
trust you will not overlook my instructions to you on quitting
Cassel, and that you will not have tried by human succor to recall
the life of the unfortunates whose days could not be lengthened but
by the loss of a leg or an arm.  That would be making them a
pernicious present, and I am sure they would rather die than live in
a condition no longer fit for my service.  I do not mean by this that
you should assassinate them; we should be humane, my dear Baron, but
you may insinuate to the surgeons with entire propriety that a
crippled man is a reproach to their profession, and that there is no
wiser course than to let every one of them die when he ceases to be
fit to fight.

        I am about to send to you some new recruits.  Don't economize
them.  Remember glory before all things.  Glory is true wealth.
There is nothing degrades the soldier like the love of money.  He
must care only for honour and reputation, but this reputation must be
acquired in the midst of dangers.  A battle gained without costing
the conqueror any blood is an inglorious success, while the conquered
cover themselves with glory by perishing with their arms in their
hands.  Do you remember that of the 300 Lacedaemonians who defended
the defile of Thermopyl;ae, not one returned?  How happy should I be
could I say the same of my brave Hessians!

        It is true that their king, Leonidas, perished with them: but
things have changed, and it is no longer the custom for princes of
the empire to go and fight in America for a cause with which they
have no concern.  And besides, to whom should they pay the thirty
guineas per man if I did not stay in Europe to receive them?  Then,
it is necessary also that I be ready to send recruits to replace the
men you lose.  For this purpose I must return to Hesse.  It is true,
grown men are becoming scarce there, but I will send you boys.
Besides, the scarcer the commodity the higher the price.  I am
assured that the women and little girls have begun to till our lands,
and they get on not badly.  You did right to send back to Europe that
Dr. Crumerus who was so successful in curing dysentery.  Don't bother
with a man who is subject to looseness of the bowels.  That disease
makes bad soldiers.  One coward will do more mischief in an
engagement than ten brave men will do good.  Better that they burst
in their barracks than fly in a battle, and tarnish the glory of our
arms.  Besides, you know that they pay me as killed for all who die
from disease, and I don't get a farthing for runaways.  My trip to
Italy, which has cost me enormously, makes it desirable that there
should be a great mortality among them.  You will therefore promise
promotion to all who expose themselves; you will exhort them to seek
glory in the midst of dangers; you will say to Major Maundorff that I
am not at all content with his saving the 345 men who escaped the
massacre of Trenton.  Through the whole campaign he has not had ten
men killed in consequence of his orders.  Finally, let it be your
principal object to prolong the war and avoid a decisive engagement
on either side, for I have made arrangements for a grand Italian
opera, and I do not wish to be obliged to give it up.  Meantime I
pray God, my dear Baron de Hohendorf, to have you in his holy and
gracious keeping.

        _Model of a Letter of Recommendation_

        Sir Paris April 2, 1777
        The Bearer of this who is going to America, presses me to give
him a Letter of Recommendation, tho' 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 me 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, &c.

        _The Twelve Commandments_

        TO MADAME BRILLON