Your favor of the 4th. inst. came to hand yesterday. I now inclose you the two Arrets against the importation of foreign manufactures into this kingdom.1 the cause of the balance against this country in 330favor of England as well as it’s amount is not agreed on. no doubt the rage for English manufactures must be a principal cause. the speculators in Exchange say also that those of the circumjacent countries who have a balance in their favor against France remit that balance to England from France. if so it is possible that the English may count this balance twice: that is, in summing their exports to one of those states, & their imports from it, they count the difference once in their favour: then a second time when they sum the remittances of cash they receive from France. there has been no arret relative to our commerce since that of Aug. 1784. and all the late advices from the French West Indies are that they have now in their ports always three times as many vessels as there ever were before, & that the increase is principally from our States. I have now no further fears of that arret’s standing it’s ground. when it shall become firm I do not think it’s extension desperate. but whether the placing it on the firm basis of treaty be practicable is a very different question. as far as it is possible to judge from appearances I conjecture that Crawford will do nothing. I infer this from some things in his conversation, and from an expression of the Count de Vergennes in a conversation with me yesterday. I pressed upon him the importance of opening their ports freely to us in the moment of the oppressions of the English regulations against us & perhaps of the suspension of their commerce. he admitted it but said we had free ingress with our productions; I enumerated them to him and shewed him on what footing they were and how they might be improved. we are to have further conversations on the subject. I am afraid the voiage to Fontainebleau will interrupt them. from the enquiries I have made I find I cannot get a very small & indifferent house there for the season (that is, for a month) for less than 100. or 150 guineas. this is nearly the whole salary for the time & would leave nothing to eat. I therefore cannot accompany the court there, but I will endeavor to go occasionally there from Paris.2 they tell me it is the most favourable scene for business with the Count de Vergennes, because he is then more abstracted from the domestic applications.— Count D’Aranda is not yet returned from the waters of Vichy. as soon as he returns I will apply to him in the case of mr̃ Watson— I will pray you to insure Houdon’s life from the 27th. of last month to his return to Paris. as he was to stay in America a month or two, he will probably be about 6 months absent: but the 3. per cent for the voiage being once paid I suppose they will ensure his life by the month whether his absence be longer or 331shorter. the sum to be insured is fifteen thousand livres tournois. if it be not necessary to pay the money immediately there is a prospect of exchange becoming more favourable. but whenever it is necessary be so good as to procure it by selling a draught on mr̃ Grand which I will take care shall be honoured. compliments to the ladies & am Dr. Sir / Your friend & sert

The day before yesterday I took the liberty to trouble you with a few lines by Mr. Prentis, & expressed my determination to do it more at large by the next opportunity, which now offers in Dr. Bancraft.1 Knowing my way of thinking you must, I suppose, have been surprised at hearing my return to Europe. The friendship with which you have constantly honored me, ever since I had the pleasure to become acquainted with you, requires, I think, that I should inform you of my reasons, for such a step, or at least will afford me a title to do it.

When I was appointed by my State to go to Europe, I sold every thing I had in it, except lands, & put all the money I received in the State-Loan-Office, desiring my Attorneys to do the same of the money they should receive after my departure, which was conformably done. The part I took in the Spring of 1780, at the time you exerted all your abilities to justify Congress in their resolution of calling in the paper-money at 40. for 1; must have fully convinced you, Sir, of my sentiments against the strangely unjust notion, that individuals should receive an equal sum of real money for the nominal they had lent the Public.2 But I thought, as I do still, that, it being impossible to ascertain the exact value of it, the States ought rather to have run the risque of losing some thing, than have ruined those who had assisted them at a critical & calamitous season. The scale of depreciation of the State of Virginia, Sir, has been the ruin of a great many; in which affair I have suffered more than others for several reasons, one of which seems to indicate, that the Majority 332among the Managers of public affairs think they are Advocates for their employers, rather than impartial & discreet Judges between the Public & private individuals. There is to add that, besides our capital having been reduced to a mere trifle, we have not yet received a farthing for interest.

From the conversations I had with the Govr., who employed me, I understood that I should be allowed 1000. Louis d’ors per annum for my expenditures. Having never received remittances from the State while in Europe, I was obliged to contract large debts, besides having sold in a hurry, & consequently to a great disadvantage, 2. small estates I had in Tuscany. I was obliged to live in Europe in a manner becoming a public Agent, to save the credit of the State, & to facilitate the execution of the business intrusted to me; likewise to undertake many expensive journeys, to entertain an extensive correspondence, & to import news-papers at a considerable expence (particularly from Great britain) for the purpose of confuting the falsities spread to our disadvantage by the Enemy. Considering that many times I had been forced to raise money at a great loss, that I had the interest to pay for several years, & that I had been exposed to extraordinary expences on account of my captivity, I expected to be looked upon as a good economist, having not exceeded in the whole the sum mentioned to me for my expences by the above-said Govr., & which ought to have been punctually remitted to me. In the settlement of my accounts with the Executive, I was allowed about the half of that sum, the reasons of which Mr. Short, who was then a member of it, will be more able to explain, than I could.

Thus situated, I did morgage the produce of my Effects in Virginia to my Creditors in Europe, cheafly to preserve my honor in case of death, & am come over to give them personal satisfaction in regard to my conduct towards them, & to endeavour to do some thing towards procuring me a subsistence in my old age, which I hope may not last so long as to become a curse.3

The exact truth of these things must remain among us. I would not for the World that the People in Europe should Know in what manner our domestic affairs have been conducted. In speaking of my own to my Friends, I shall be very attentive to save the honour, & even delicacy of our country, as I did in writing the history, progress, & end of our paper-money.4

Having now told you my motives for coming to Europe, I will pass to some thing else more pleasing. From my own observations, & from the letters of my Friends in several States, I have the pleasure 333to inform you, that the notions of giving proper consistency to the Confederation gain ground every day, & in every State. I saw with the greatest satisfaction, that the expectation from our growing youth in America is very promising; and from what I have seen & learnt during my stay in New-York, there is not a Member of Congress, who has any influence over another.

I take the liberty to inclose you a printed paper for your perusal. In my next I shall trouble you with my reasons for having thought of estabilishing such a Society.5 In the mean time I beg you never to forget, that you will greatly contribute to my happiness, by affording me opportunities to obey your commands, & to be instrumental in any thing which may tend to promote the interest & honor of our Country.

I have the honor to be most respectfully, / Dear Sir, / Your Excellency’s most Humble / & most Obedient Servant