As much as we were grieved to hear you were on the seas with madam in such a storm, we were just as delighted to hear the news of your arrival in London,1 which was marked here by Mr. Lynden, and was communicated to me in time by Mr. Fagel, with whom I had the opportunity to speak about your excellency at the Hôtel de France, and who requested that I relay his regards.

Mr. Irujo,2 my very dear friend, chargé d’affaires of Spain, whom I had 482 the honor of introducing to you at the Marquis de Verac’s, is departing to assume the same post at the British court. With the just desire that he has to foster the honor of your acquaintance, an excessive modesty causes him to believe that he needs a recommendation on my behalf, which is happily granted, though I know that his nation, his character, his merit, and his amiable qualities will serve as a far greater recommendation to your excellency, as to anyone else.

We hope to see in this country, as you have caused us to hope, Mrs. Smith with her husband, and to render them our gracious services; and would Mrs. Adams kindly accept, along with them, assurances of our respect.

I suppose that your excellency assiduously reads the Gazette de Leyde. It precisely, though succinctly, reports the succession of events in this country, which excuses me from having to enter into details.3

Today is the grand occasion of the renewal of the regency at Utrecht. I have every reason to believe that everything will transpire with the decency and firmness to which you were a witness on a similar occasion. The false states of Utrecht at Amersfort have accepted mediation between them and the city from Their High Mightinesses and other confederates.4 The pashas of Gelderland, along with their sultan, are becoming more and more mired in the mud. After having threatened to invade everything, they do not dare to mobilize the troops they have spread over the countryside for fear of getting their necks broken by their citizens. In Friesland another oligarchy wishes to imitate that of Gelderland, but the Frisians will not endure it. In Groningen, Overijssel, and Zeeland, as well as in Holland, a sense of repulsion against tyranny only grows greater and more beautiful. And our diplomats here have been, for some time, as silent as disciples of Pythagoras.5

I am with great respect your excellency’s most humble and most obedient servant