I received, sir, with much gratitude the details that you had the goodness to send me.2 They are alarming even for those who know America. They can only appear all the more foreboding for those who do not know it. We are told that the storm has subsided; may the wise measures which Congress shall take, along with the states, and the Philadelphia Convention restore confidence and peace. The instructions of Mr. Calonne’s letter to Mr. Jefferson, the steps that we are taking toward the liberation of Honfleur, several projects that we have for the distribution of Carolina rice, and the depot to be given to America for the commerce of Nîmes with the Spaniards who have ruined the manufacturers of that town by their prohibitions— these are means toward the restoration in the United States of a little commerce and traffic.3 Encourage the government with your dispatches; it should not stop, in my view, until through all possible means it has procured for France the distribution or depot of all American goods, and if the sun of the United States dims for a period, it will only appear more brilliantly upon emerging from the clouds as it continues to rise toward its zenith.

The French treaty of commerce with Russia is signed; the British minister was less content than Ségur, and the voyage to Kherson will postpone the English treaty for some time.4 I was supposed to meet the empress at Kiev, but the Assembly of Notables keeps me here, perhaps for a long time.5 It has been delayed by the illness of Mr. Vergennes, which worries me, and that of the keeper of the seals and of Mr. Calonne himself, which are not as serious. I expect much out of this assembly that does much honor to the king and his ministry. Colonel Franks will deliver a short publication to you which is interesting only for the list at the bottom. I will be sure to send you news of the proceedings, the opening of which will be, I believe, on the fourteenth. The Dutch affairs are not yet improving; those of the captain pasha in Egypt are not going as well as had been thought.6 There are not yet any developments in the diplomatic corps because Mr. Adhémar has returned to 8 England. I pray you send me public news and news of yourself; gazettes that you address to Mr. Cadran, director of farms at Le Havre,7 will be gratefully received. I pray you accept my most sincere wishes for your happiness, and the assurance of the attachment with which I have the honor to be your most humble and most obedient servant

How have the affairs of Mr. L’Enfant been coming along?8