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[Page 3]
[This draft answer is in Sr Joseph Banks hand.]
I have been at the office in search of your Lordship & was sent from thence to Hertford Street where I was told I should Certainly find you. I mention this as an excuse for your Lordship not having heard from me before.
The use the French make of the Potash is very Clear. Nitre Saltpetre is extracted from the mother water of nitre by the addition of Vegetable alcali [alkali] that is Potash & a Certain Quantity only Can be extracted at the usual Price with economy to add more Potash could be is expensive but more Saltpetre Can be extracted by the addition.
The French [indecipherable] Certainly are at work Extracting the whole Nitre from the mother by the addition of Potash but this will not very much increase the Product.
The Propriety of Stopping the exportation of Potash therefore Could admit of a doubt but we as it will produce Certain delay & inconvenience in their operations but in Fact we cannot ultimately prevent them from extracting the whole of their Saltpetre from the mother as they can have recourse to their woods to Produce potash by burning.
Sir Chas. Blagden who has done chemistry enough to explain this matter far more intelligently than I am has also a Considerable Knowledge of the Resources of the French on the object of Saltpetre which he gaind when he was in Paris before the Revolution he will Relay your Lordship