Voltaire writes that he places in the recipient’s hands a small act of atonement for the breaches he has caused and that he made a great deal larger before the end of the year. He adds that it is no easy thing to build a city when one loses thirty thousand francs on the ship Carnatic, and speculates that the recipient lost something there too. He ends by saying that he is far more grieved to have lost Monsieur Turgot.