character of
Commissary-General of commerce. By the papers above mentioned you will
have seen the nature and extent of that gentleman's commission. I have
now the honor to present him to your notice, persuaded that you will
with pleasure procure him occasions of putting effectually into
execution the views of the court and commerce of his country. Their
nomination of him to this important trust, until circumstances may
demand that he be immediately authorised by his Sovereign, will, I
make no doubt, be a sufficient motive with you to secure him all the
civilities and services which it may be in your power to afford him.

I have the honor to be, &c.

WILLIAM CARMICHAEL.

* * * * *

TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.

St Ildefonso, August 30th, 1783.

Sir,

On the 19th, 22d, and 29th ultimo, and the 2d of this month, I had the
honor to address you from Madrid. On the 5th instant I followed the
Court to this place, where it had been since the 24th of last month.

I took the earliest opportunity of waiting on his Excellency, the
Count de Florida Blanca, to remind him of his promise to present me to
the King and royal family, and of other affairs interesting to
individuals mentioned in former letters, for which I had been obliged
to apply to him. He gave me the strongest assurances of his desire to
terminate, to the satisfaction of the parties interested, the affairs
in question, imputing to other departments the delays I had
experienced in their adjustment. On the subject of my presentation, he
seemed much embarrassed, stating the difficulties he should be exposed
to in procuring that honor for me, which his Majesty refused to others
vested with the same character, mentioning the case of the _Charge
d'Affaires_ of Denmark, a copy of whose letter to this Minister on the
subject of his presentation, I had the honor to enclose you on the
25th of June. He observed, that the Russian and Swedish Ministers were
about to leave the Court, and would, if I was presented, insist on the
presentation of their Secretaries also.

I begged leave in reply to assure his Excellency of the concern it
gave me to expose him to the least inconvenience upon that account,
but that he would be pleased to recollect the promise he had made to
the Marquis de Lafayette and myself in writing on this subject. That