whence a friend of mine would forward it. It is accordingly shipped there on board the Van Berckel, Captain W. Campbell. There are good things in the work; but his chapter on the liberty of the press appears to me to contain more rhetoric than reason. With great esteem I am, ever, &c., B. FRANKLIN. COUNT DE VERGENNES TO B. FRANKLIN. Translation. Versailles, May 22d, 1785. Sir, I have learnt with much concern of your retiring, and of your approaching departure for America. You cannot doubt but that the regrets which you will leave will be proportionate to the consideration you so justly enjoy. I can assure you, sir, that the esteem the King entertains for you does not leave you any thing to wish; and that his Majesty will learn with real satisfaction, that your fellow citizens have rewarded in a manner worthy of you, the important services that you have rendered them. I beg, sir, that you will preserve for me a share in your remembrance, and never doubt the sincerity of the interest I take in your happiness. It is founded on the sentiments of attachment of which I have assured you, and with which I have the honor to be, &c., DE VERGENNES. Sir, TO THOMAS BARCLAY. Passy, June 19th, 1785. With respect to my continuing to charge £2,500 sterling per annum as my salary, of which you desire some explanation, I send of that charge, the resolution of Congress, which is in you, in support these words: "In Congress, October 5th, 1779. Resolved, that each of the Ministers Plenipotentiary be allowed at the rate of two thousand five hundred pounds sterling per annum, and each of their Secretaries at the rate of one thousand pounds sterling per annum, in full for their services and expenses respectively. That the salary of each of the said officers be computed from the time of his leaving his place of abode, to enter on the duties of his office, and be continued three months after the notice of his recall." The several bills I afterwards received, drawn on the Congress banker, Mr. Grand, for my salary, were all calculated on that sum, as my salary; and neither the banker nor myself has received notice of any change respecting me. He has accordingly, since the drawing ceased, continued to pay me at the same rate. I have, indeed, heard that a resolution was passed last year, that the salaries of Plenipotentiaries should be no more than £2,000 sterling per annum. But the resolution, I suppose, can relate only to such Plenipotentiaries as should be afterwards appointed; for I cannot conceive that a Congress, after promising a Minister £2,500 a year, and when he has thereby been encouraged to engage in a way of living for their honor which only that salary can support, would think it just to diminish it a fifth, and leave him under the difficulty of reducing his expenses proportionably—a thing scarce practicablethe necessity of which he might have avoided, if he had not confided in their original promise. But the article of salary, with all the rest of my accounts, will be submitted to the judgment of Congress, together with some other considerable articles I have not charged, but on which I shall expect from their equity some consideration. If, for want of knowing precisely the intention of Congress, what expenses should be deemed public, and what private, I have charged any article to the public which should be defrayed by me, their banker has my order, as soon as the pleasure of Congress shall be made known to him, to rectify the error, by transferring the amount to my private account, and discharging by so much that of the public. I was not apprized until within a few hours of the arrangements which you have made for your departure. Had I been informed of it sooner I should have proposed to the King to order a frigate to convey you to your own country in a manner suitable to the known importance of the services you have been engaged in, to the esteem you have acquired in France, and the particular esteem which his Majesty entertains for you. I pray you, sir, to accept my regrets, and a renewed assurance of the most entire consideration, with which I have the honor to be, sir, your very humble and very obedient servant, DE CASTRIES. Sir, TO JOHN JAY, SECRETARY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS. Philadelphia, September 19th, 1785. I have the honor to acquaint you, that I left Paris the 12th of July, and, agreeable to the permission of Congress, am returned to my own country. Mr. Jefferson had recovered his health, and was much esteemed and respected there. Our joint letters have already informed you of our late proceedings, to which I have nothing to add, except that the last act I did, as Minister Plenipotentiary for making treaties, was to sign with him, two days before I came away, the treaty of friendship and commerce that had been agreed on with Prussia, and which was to be carried to the Hague by Mr. Short, there to be signed by the Baron Thulemeyer on the part of the King, who, without the least hesitation, had approved and conceded to the new humane articles proposed by Congress. Mr. Short was also to call at London for the signature of Mr. Adams, who I learnt, when at Southampton, was well received at the British Court. The Captain Lamb, who, in a letter of yours to Mr. Adams, was said to be coming to us with instructions respecting Morocco, had not appeared, nor had we heard any thing of him; so nothing had been done by us in that treaty. I left the Court of France in the same friendly disposition towards the United States that we have all along experienced, though concerned to find that our credit is not better supported in the * See this treaty at large in the public Journal of Congress, vol. 4, p. 639. payment of the interest money due on our loans, which, in caseof another war, must be, they think, extremely prejudicial to us, and indeed may contribute to draw on a war the sooner, by affording our enemies the encouraging confidence that those who take so little care to pay will not again find it easy to borrow. I received from the King at my departure, the present of his picture set round with diamonds, usually given to Ministers Plenipotentiary who have signed any treaties with that Court; and it is at the disposition of Congress, to whom be pleased to present my dutiful respects. I am, with great esteem and regard, &c., B. FRANKLIN. P. S. Not caring to trust them to a common conveyance, I send by my late secretary, who will have the honor of delivering them to you, all the original treaties I have been concerned in negociating that were completed. Those with Portugal and Denmark continue in suspense. B. F. Sir, TO MR. GRAND, BANKER AT PARIS. Philadelphia, July 11th, 1786. I send you enclosed some letters that have passed between the Secretary of Congress and me, respecting three millions of livres, acknowledged to have been received before the treaty of February, 1778, as don gratuit from the King, of which only two millions are found in your accounts; unless the million from the Farmers General be one of the three. I have been assured, that all the money received from the King, whether as loan or gift, went through your hands; and as I always looked on the million we had of the Farmers General to be distinct from what we had of the Crown, I wonder how I came to sign the contract acknowledging three millions of gift, when, in reality, there was only two exclusive of that from the Farmers; and, as both you and I examined the project of the contract before I signed it, I am surprised that neither of us took notice of the error. It is possible that the million furnished ostensibly by the Farmers was in fact a gift of the Crown, in which case, as Mr. Thomson observes, they owe us for the two ship loads of tobacco which they received on account of it. I must earnestly request of you to get this matter explained, that it may stand clear before I die, lest some enemy should afterwards accuse me of having received a million not accounted for. I have received the letter which you did me the honor to write on the 28th of this month, touching the advance of a million which you say was made by the Farmers General to the United States of America, the 3d of June, 1777. I have no knowledge of that advance. What I have verified is, that the King, by the contract of the 25th of February, 1783, has confirmed the gratuitous gift, which his Majesty had previously made, of the three millions hereafter mentioned, viz: one million delivered by the Royal Treasury, the 10th of June, 1776, and two other millions advanced also by the Royal Treasury, in 1777, on four receipts of the Deputies of Congress, of the 17th of January, 3d of April, 10th of June, and 15th of October, of the same year. This explanation will, sir, I hope, resolve your doubt touching the advance of the 3d of June, 1777. I further recommend to you, sir, to confer on this subject with M. Gojard, who ought to be better informed than we, who had no knowledge of any advances but those made by the Royal Treasury. I laid before the Count de Vergennes the two letters which you did me the honor to write, touching the three millions, the free gift |