he subject was too valuable to be neglected under the
present difficulty, and it was the last moment in which we could be
availed of it. I set out immediately, therefore, for the Hague, and we
came on to this place together, in order to see what could be done. It
was easier to discover, than to remove, the causes which obstructed the
progress of the loan. Our affairs here, like those of other nations,
are in the hands of particular bankers. These employ particular, and
they have their particular circle of money lenders. These money
lenders, as I have before mentioned, while placing a part of their
money in our foreign loans, had at the same time employed another part
in a joint speculation, to the amount of eight hundred and forty
thousand dollars, in our domestic debt. A year's interest was becoming
due on this, and they wished to avail themselves of our want of money
for the foreign interest, to obtain payment of the domestic. Our first
object was to convince our bankers, that there was no power on this
side the Atlantic which could accede to this proposition, or give it
any countenance. They at length, therefore, but with difficulty,
receded from this ground, and agreed to enter into conferences with the
brokers and lenders, and to use every exertion to clear the loan from
the embarrassment in which this speculation had engaged it. What will
be the result of these conferences, is not yet known. We have hopes,
however, that it is not desperate, because the bankers consented
yesterday to pay off the capital of fifty-one thousand florins, which
had become due on the first day of January, and which had not yet been
paid. We have gone still further. The treasury-board gives no hope of
remittances, till the new government can procure them. For that
government to be adopted, its legislature assembled, its system of
taxation and collection arranged, the money gathered from the people
into the treasury, and then remitted to Europe, must extend
considerably into the year 1790. To secure our credit then, for the
present year only, is but to put off the evil day to the next. What
remains of the last loan, when it shall be filled up, will little more
than clear us of present demands, as may be seen by the estimate
enclosed. We thought it better, therefore, to provide at once for the
years 1789 and 1790, also; and thus to place the Government at its
ease, and her credit in security, during that trying interval. The same
estimate wi