Before Jones finished the quarter sessions and left Oxford on 19 January 1778, he was engaged in his first direct political activity. Although he had known Burke for nine years, the two were not close, but Jones's observations in Parliament had shown him the oratorical power of the MP for Bristol. The event triggering their association was General John Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga, New York, which marked the turning point of the American Revolution. The national income plummeted because of the lost colonial markets, but the king needed many recruits and large sums to continue the war. Subscriptions were opened at Birmingham, Coventry, and Halifax. The London Court of Common Council defeated a motion on 16 January to open a bounty subscription in London, because assistance in “the present ruinous and destructive war, whilst offers of just and honourable terms are withheld from America” would reflect dishonor on the City. Yet a successful subscription began.

Probably Burke initiated the correspondence, which may have assisted him in the Opposition's attack on raising troops by means of private subscription. Unable to meet Burke in London at the time suggested, Jones dispatched “cursory considerations” (1:257–60). First, the Declaration of Rights bars the Crown from receiving supplies from a subject to support the army through any medium except Parliament. However, long usage permits paying a bounty to volunteer sailors; ancient statutes permit the raising of compulsory forces in a time of “extreme Necessity, sudden Invasion or formidable Insurrection.”