mmunications of his object. This was to
get a remission of the duties on his cargo of oil, and he was willing to
propose a future contract. I suggested however to the Marquis, when
we were alone, that instead of wasting our efforts on individual
applications, we had better take up the subject on general ground, and
whatever could be obtained, let it be common to all. He concurred with
me. As the jealousy of office between ministers does not permit me to
apply immediately to the one in whose department this was, the Marquis's
agency was used. The result was to put us on the footing of the
Hanseatic towns, as to whale-oil, and to reduce the duties to eleven
livres and five sols for five hundred and twenty pounds French, which is
very nearly two livres on the English hundred weight, or about a guinea
and a half the ton. But the oil must be brought in American or French
ships, and the indulgence is limited to one year. However, as to this, I
expressed to Count de Vergennes my hopes that it would be continued; and
should a doubt arise, I should propose, at the proper time, to claim
it under the treaty on the footing _gentis amicissimae_. After all, I
believe Mr. Boylston has failed of selling to Sangrain, and from what I
learn, through a little too much hastiness of temper. Perhaps they may
yet come together, or he may sell to somebody else.

When the general matter was thus arranged, a Mr. Barrett arrived here
from Boston, with letters of recommendation from Governor Bowdoin,
Gushing, and others. His errand was to get the whale business here
put on a general bottom, instead of the particular one which had been
settled, you know, the last year, for a special company. We told him
what was done. He thinks it will answer, and proposes to settle at
L'Orient for conducting the sales of the oil and the returns. I hope,
therefore, that this matter is tolerably well fixed, as far as the
consumption of this country goes. I know not as yet to what amount that
is; but shall endeavor to find out how much they consume, and how much
they furnish themselves. I propose to Mr. Barrett, that he should induce
either his State, or individuals, to send a sufficient number of boxes
of the spermaceti candle to give one to every leading house in Paris;
I mean to those who lead the ton: and at the same time to deposite a
quantity for sale here, and advertise them in the _petites affiches_.
I have written to Mr. Carmichael to know on what footing the