to time. Honest and
annual publications of the payments made, will inspire confidence, while
silence would conceal nothing from those interested to know.

You will perceive by the _comte rendu_ which I send you, that this
country now calls seriously for its interest at least. The nonpayment
of this, hitherto, has done our credit little injury, because the
government here, saying nothing about it, the public have supposed they
wished to leave us at our ease as to the payment. It is now seen that
they call for it, and they will publish annually the effect of that
call. A failure here, therefore, will have the same effect on our credit
hereafter, as a failure at Amsterdam. I consider it, then, as of a
necessity not to be dispensed with, that these calls be effectually
provided for. If it shall be seen, that the general provision before
hinted at cannot be in time, then it is the present government which
should take on itself to borrow in Amsterdam what may be necessary. The
new government should by no means be left by the old to the necessity of
borrowing a stiver, before it can tax for its interest. This will be
to destroy the credit of the new government in its birth. And I am of
opinion, that if the present Congress will add to the loan of a million
(which Mr. Adams and myself have proposed this year) what may be
necessary for the French calls to the year 1790, the money can be
obtained at the usual disadvantage. Though I have not at this
moment received such authentic information from our bankers as I may
communicate to Congress, yet I know privately from one of them (Mr.
Jacob Van Staphorst, who is here), that they had on Hand a fortnight ago
four hundred thousand florins, and the sale going on well. So that the
June interest, which had been in so critical a predicament, was already
secured. If the loan of a million on Mr. Adams's bonds of this year be
ratified by Congress, the applications of the money on hand may go on
immediately, according to the statement I sent to Mr. Jay. One article
in this I must beg you to press on the treasury board; that is, an
immediate order for the payment of the three years' arrearages to the
French officers. They were about holding a meeting to take desperate
measures on this subject, when I was called to Holland. I desired them
to be quiet till my return, and since my return I have pressed a further
tranquillity till July, by which time I have given them reason to hope I
may have an