to be made, so that it is by that time entered into fermentation.
Mr. Barrett says, that fifty livres the hundred weight will pay the
prime cost and duties, and leave a profit of sixteen per cent, to the
merchant. I hope that England will, within a year or two, be obliged to
come here to buy whale-oil for her lamps.

I like as little as you do, to have the gift of appointments. I hope
Congress will not transfer the appointment of their consuls to their
ministers. But if they do, Portugal is more naturally under the
superintendence of the minister at Madrid, and still more naturally
under that of the minister at Lisbon, where it is clear they ought to
have one. If all my hopes fail, the letters of Governor Bowdoin and
Gushing, in favor of young Mr. Warren, and your more detailed testimony
in his behalf, are not likely to be opposed by evidence of equal weight,
in favor of any other. I think with you, too, that it is for the public
interest to encourage sacrifices and services, by rewarding them, and
that they should weigh to a certain point, in the decision between
candidates.

I am sorry for the illness of the Chevalier Pinto. I think that treaty
important: and the moment to urge it, is that of a treaty between France
and England.

Lambe, who left this place the 6th of November, was at Madrid the 10th
of this month. Since his departure, Mr. Barclay has discovered that no
copies of the full powers were furnished to himself, nor of course to
Lambe. Colonel Franks has prepared copies, which I will endeavor to get,
to send by this conveyance for your attestation: which you will be so
good as to send back by the first safe conveyance, and I will forward
them. Mr. Barclay and Colonel Franks being at this moment at St.
Germain, I am not sure of getting the papers in time to go by Mr.
Dalrymple. In that case, I will send them by Mr. Bingham.

Be so good as to present me affectionately to Mrs. and Miss Adams, to
Colonels Smith and Humphreys, and accept assurances of the esteem with
which I am, Dear Sir,

your friend and servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXLVI.--TO JOHN JAY, January 2,1786

TO JOHN JAY.

Sir,

Paris, January 2,1786

Several conferences and letters having passed between the Count de
Vergennes and myself, on the subject of the commerce of this country
with the United States, I think them sufficiently interesting to be
communicated to Congress. They are stated in the form of a report,
and are