CORRESPONDENCE AND MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS MCCCXVIII TO M. MELMOTH PASSY [no date, circa 1784]. SIR: I should have been flattered exceedingly by Mrs. Melmoth's showing the least inclination for one of those portraits, when Mrs. Izard accepted the other, and should have presented it to her with the greatest pleasure. She did not appear to desire it, and I did not presume it of value enough to be offered. Her quarrel with me on that account is pleasing. The reconciliation, when I can obtain it, will be more so. At present another lady has put it out of my power to comply with the terms. M. de Chaumont, at whose pottery in the country they were made, receiving a request from Petersburg for one of them, to gratify the curiosity of the Empress, and having none in town, he got from me the only one I had left, and has sent it away. But I am promised another soon, and shall seize the first 3 moment of making my peace with it. In the meantime, I hope you will intercede for me, in that heart where I am sure you have an interest. Accept my thanks for the books, from the reading of which I promise myself a good deal of pleasure. Please to accept also the trifle enclosed, and believe me with most sincere esteem, etc., B. FRANKLIN. MCCCXIX TO DAVID HARTLEY PASSY, 3 January, 1785. MY DEAR FRIEND: I received your kind letter of December 1st from Bath. I am glad to hear that your good sister is in a fair way towards recovery. My respects and best wishes attend her. I communicated your letter to Mr. Jefferson, to remind him of his promise to communicate to you the intelligence he might receive from America on the subjects you mention, and now, having got back, I shall endeavor to answer the other parts of it. What you propose to draw up of your opinions on American negotiation may be of great use if laid, as you intend, before administration, in case they seriously intend to enter on it after the meeting of Parliament; for I know your ideas all tend to a good understanding between the two countries and their common advantage, and in my mind, too, all selfish projects of partial profit are the effects of short sightedness, they never producing permanent benefits, and are at length the causes of discord and its consequences, wherein much more is spent than all the temporary gains amounted to. I do not know that any one is yet appointed by your court to treat with us. We some time since acquainted your minister with our powers and disposition to treat, which he communicated to his court, and received for answer that his Majesty's ministers were ready to receive any propositions we might have to make for the common benefit of both countries, but they thought it more for the honor of both that the treaty should not be in a third place. We answered that, though we did not see much inconvenience in treating here, we would, as soon as we had finished some affairs at present on our hands, wait upon them, if they pleased, in London. We have since heard nothing. We have no late accounts from America of any importance. You know the Congress adjourned the beginning of June till the beginning of November. And since their meeting there has been no account of their proceedings. All the stories in your papers relating to their divisions are fiction, as well as those of the people being discontented with congressional government. Mr. Jay writes to me that they were at no time more happy or more satisfied with their government than at present, nor ever enjoyed more tranquillity or prosperity. In truth, the freedom of their ports to all nations has brought in a vast plenty of foreign goods, and occasioned a demand for their produce, the consequence of which is the double |