urrounding them,
to spare a moment on any subject which will admit of delay. Our business
must, therefore, be suspended for a while. To press it out of season,
would be to defeat, it. It would be felt as a vital benefit here, could
we relieve their finances, by paying what we owe. Congress will judge
by Mr. Adams's letters, how far the transferring all our debts in this
country to Holland is practicable. On the replenishing their treasury
with our principal and interest, I should not be afraid to ask
concessions in favor of our West India trade. It would produce a great
change of opinion as to us and our affairs. In the _Assemblee des
Notables_, hard things were said of us. They were induced, however,
in committing us to writing, to smother their ideas a little. In their
votes, now gone to be printed, our debt is described in these words.
The twenty-first article of the account, formed of the interest of the
claims of his Majesty on the United States of America, cannot be drawn
out for the present, except as a document. The recovery of these claims,
as well principal as perhaps even interest, although they appear to
rest on the most solid security, may, nevertheless, be long delayed, and
should not, consequently, be taken into account in estimating the annual
revenue. This article amounts to one million and six hundred thousand
livres.' Above all things, it is desirable to hush the foreign officers
by payment. Their wants, the nature of their services, their access
to high characters, and connections with them, bespeak the reasons for
this. I hear also that Mr. Beaumarchais means to make himself heard,
if a memorial which he sends by an agent in the present packet is not
attended to, as he thinks it ought to be. He called on me with it,
and desired me to recommend his case to a decision, and to note in my
despatch, that it was the first time he had spoken to me on the
subject. This is true, it being the first time I ever saw him; but my
recommendations would be as displaced as unnecessary. I assured him
Congress would do in that business what justice should require, and
their means enable them. The information sent me by Mr. Montgomery
from Alicant, of the death of the Dey of Algiers, was not true. I had
expressed my doubt of it in my last, when I communicated it. I send
herewith the newspapers to this date, and a remonstrance of the
parliament, to show you in what language the King can be addressed at
this day. I have r