the expectations I had formed. Our country is getting into a ferment against yours, or rather has caught it from yours. God knows how this will end; but assuredly in one extreme or the other. There can be no medium between those who have loved so much. I think the decision is in your power as yet, but will not be so long. I pray you to be assured of the sincerity of the esteem & respect with which I have the honour to be Sir your most obedt humble servt.

TO JAMES MONROE.'

J. MSS.

PARIS Aug. 28. 1785.

DEAR SIR,—I wrote you on the 5th of July by Mr. Franklin & on the 12th of the same month by Mons! Houdon. Since that date yours of June 16. by Mr. Mazzei is received. Everything looks like peace here. The settlement between the Emperor & Dutch is not yet published, but it is believed to be agreed. Nothing is done as yet between him & the Porte. He is much wounded by the Confederation of several of the Germanic body at the head of which is the King of Prussia, & to which the King of England as elector of Hanover is believed to accede. The object is to preserve the constitution of that empire. It shews that these princes entertain serious jealousies of the ambition of the Emperor, and this will very much endanger the election of his nephew as King of the Romans. A late arret of this court against the admission of British Manufactures produces a

The parts in italics are in cipher numbers in the original.

great sensation in England. I wish it may produce a disposition there to receive our commerce in all their dominions on advantageous terms. This is the only

balm which can heal the wound that it has received. It is but too true that that country furnishes market, three fourths of the exports of the eight northern most states. A truth not proper to be spoken of, but which should influence our proceedings with them. How that negotiation advances you are probably better informed than I am. The infidelity of the post offices rendering the communication between Master Adams and myself difficult. The improvement of our commerce with France will be advanced more by negotiation at Saint James than at Versailles.

The July French packet being arrived without bringing any news of Mr Lambe. If the English one of the same month be also arrived without news of him, I expect Mr Adams will concur with me in sending some other person to treat with the Barbary states. Mr. Barclay is willing to go, & I have proposed him to Mr. Adams but have not yet received his answer. The peace expected between Spain & Algiers will probably not take place. It is said the former was to have given a million of dollars. Would it not be prudent to send a minister to Portugal? Our commerce with that country is very important. Perhaps more so than with any other country in Europe. It is possible too that they might permit our whaling vessels to refresh in Brazil or give some other indulgence in South America. The lethargic character of their ambassador here gives

a very unhopeful aspect to a treaty on this ground. I lately spoke with him on the subject and he has promised to interest himself in obtaining an answer from his court. I have waited to see what was the pleasure of Congress as to the secretaryship of my office here; that is, to see whether they proposed to appoint a secretary of legation, or leave me to appoint a private secretary. Colo. Humphreys' occupation in the dispatches & record of the matters which relate to the general commissions does not afford him leisure to aid me in my office, were I entitled to ask that aid. In the meantime the lengthy papers which often accompany the communications between the ministers here & myself, & the other business of the office absolutely require a scribe. I shall therefore on Mr. Short's return from the Hague appoint him my private secretary till Congress shall think proper to signify their pleasure. The salary allowed Mr. Franklin in the same office was 1000 Dollars a year. I shall presume that Mr Short may draw the same allowance from the funds of the N. T. here as soon as I shall have made this appointment. I shall give official notice of it to Mr. Jay, that Congress may, if they disapprove of it, say so.

I am much pleased with your land ordinance, & think it improved from the first in the most material circumstances. I had mistaken the object of the division of the lands among the states. I am sanguine in my expectations of lessening our debts by this fund, and have expressed my expectations to the Minister & others here. I see by the public papers

you have adopted the dollar as your money unit. In the arrangement of coins I had proposed, I ought to have inserted a gold coin of 5. dollars, which being within 2/ of the value of a guinea will be very convenient. The English papers so incessantly repeating their lies about the tumults, the anarchy, the bankruptcies & distresses of America, these ideas prevail very generally in Europe. At a large table where I dined the other day, a gentleman from Switzerland expressed his apprehensions for the fate of Doct! Franklin as he said he had been informed he would be received with stones by the people, who were generally dissatisfied with the revolution & incensed against all those who had assisted in bringing it about. I told him his apprehensions were just, & that the People of America would probably salute Dr. Franklin with the same stones they had thrown at the Marquis Fayette. The reception of the Doctor is an object of very general attention, and will weigh in Europe as an evidence of the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of America with their revolution. As you are to be in Williamsburgh early in November, this is the last letter I shall write you till about that time; I am with very sincere esteem Dr. Sir Your friend and servt.

DEAR SIR,-I shall sometimes ask your permission to write you letters, not official but private. The present is of this kind, and is occasioned by the

question proposed in yours of June 14. "whether it would be useful to us to carry all our own productions, or none?" Were we perfectly free to decide this question, I should reason as follows. We have now lands enough to employ an infinite number of people in their cultivation. Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independant, the most virtuous, & they are tied to their country & wedded to it's liberty & interests by the most lasting bonds. As long therefore as they can find employment in this line, I would not convert them into mariners, artisans or anything else. But our citizens will find employment in this line till their numbers, & of course their productions, become too great for the demand both internal & foreign. This is not the case as yet, & probably will not be for a considerable time. As soon as it is, the surplus of hands must be turned to something else. I should then perhaps wish to turn them to the sea in preference to manufactures, because comparing the characters of the two classes I find the former the most valuable citizens.

sider the class of artificers as the panders of vice & the instruments by which the liberties of a country are generally overturned. However we are not free to decide this question on principles of theory only. Our people are decided in the opinion that it is necessary for us to take a share in the occupation of the ocean, & their established habits induce them to require that the sea be kept open to them, and that