e obtained for the purpose. I say this, however, with due deference
to the opinion of Congress, who are better judges of the necessity and
practicability of the measure.

I mentioned to you, in a former letter, the application I had made to
the Dutch ambassadors and Prussian envoy, for the protection of Mr.
Dumas. The latter soon after received an assurance, that he was put
under the protection of the States of Holland; and the Dutch ambassador
called on me a few days ago, to inform me, by instruction from
his constituents, 'that the States General had received a written
application from Mr. Adams, praying their protection of Dumas: that they
had instructed their greffier, Fagel, to assure Mr. Adams, by letter,
that he was under the protection of the States of Holland; but to inform
him, at the same time, that Mr. Dumas's conduct, out of the line of
his office, had been so extraordinary, that they would expect _de
l'honnetete de Mr. Adams_, that he would charge some other person with
the affairs of the United States, during his absence.'

Your letter, of September the 8th, has been duly received. I shall pay
due attention to the instructions relative to the medals, and give any
aid I can, in the case of Boss's vessel. As yet, however, my endeavors
to find _Monsieur Pauly, avocat au conseil d'etat, rue Coquilliere_,
have been ineffectual. There is no such person living in that street.
I found a _Monsieur Pauly, avocat au parlement_, in another part of
the town; he opened the letter, but said it could not mean him. I shall
advertise in the public papers. If that fails, there will be no other
chance of finding him. Mr. Warnum will do well, therefore, to send some
other description by which the person may be found. Indeed some friend
of the party interested should be engaged to follow up this business,
as it will require constant attention, and probably a much larger sum of
money than that named in the bill inclosed in Mr. Warnum's letter.

I have the honor to enclose you a letter from O'Bryan to me, containing
information from Algiers, and one from Mr. Montgomery at Alicant.
The purpose of sending you this last, is to show you how much the
difficulties of ransom are increased since the Spanish negotiations.
The Russian captives have cost about eight thousand livres apiece, on an
average. I certainly have no idea that we should give any such sum; and,
therefore, if it should be the sense of Congress to give such a price, I