he is impressed; if with it, he gets drunk, it is lost,
stolen from him, taken from him, and then the want of it gives authority
to impress, which does not exist now. After ten years' attention to the
subject, I have never been able to devise any thing effectual, but
that the circumstance of an American bottom be made, _ipso facto_, a
protection for a number of seamen proportioned to her tonnage; that
American captains be obliged, when called on by foreign officers, to
parade the men on deck, which would show whether they exceeded their own
quota, and allow the foreign officer to send two or three persons aboard
and hunt for any suspected to be concealed. This, Mr. Pinckney was
instructed to insist upon with Great Britain; to accept of nothing
short of it; and, most especially, not to agree that a certificate of
citizenship should be requirable from our seamen; because it would
be made a ground for the authorized impressment of them. I am still
satisfied that such a protection will place them in a worse situation
than they are at present. It is true, the British Minister has not shown
any disposition to accede to my proposition; but it was not totally
rejected: and if he still refuses, lay a duty of one penny sterling a
yard on British oznaburgs, to make a fund for paying the expenses of
the agents you are obliged to employ to seek out our suffering seamen. I
congratulate you on the arrival of Mr. Ames and the British treaty.
The newspapers had said they would arrive together. We have had a fine
winter. Wheat looks well. Corn is scarce and dear. Twenty-two shillings
here, thirty shillings in Amherst. Our blossoms are but just opening.
I have begun the demolition of my house, and hope to get through its
re-edification in the course of the summer. We shall have the eye of
a brick-kiln to poke you into, or an octagon to air you in. Adieu
affectionately. March 19,1796.

LETTER CXCI.--TO COLONEL MONROE, March 21, 1796

TO COLONEL MONROE.

Monticello, March 21, 1796.

Dear Sir,

I wrote you on the 2nd instant, and now take the liberty of troubling
you, in order to have the enclosed letter to M. Gautier safely handed to
him. I will thank you for information that it gets safely to hand, as it
is of considerable importance to him, to the United States, to the State
of Virginia, and to myself, by conveying to him the final arrangement of
the accounts of Grand and company with all those parties.

The British treaty ha