country. A commerce carried on by exchange of productions is the most likely to be lasting and to meet mutual encouragement. You will be pleased to communicate the contents of the enclosed letter to the persons at your port concerned in the American trade, but so that it may not get into the public papers. You will observe that the article of rice and ship duties are still to be provided for. I shall be obliged to you if you will inform me what duties are paid on American rice on its importation into your port, and to give me a distinct detail of the several port duties and ship duties paid by American vessels thither, noting on what or by what name they are payable, the amount, for whose profit they are, by what title they are received, and the laws which authorized them; in order that we may be enabled to get these articles settled also. I have the honor to be, with great esteem, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.
TO M. DE CALONNE
Sir,—I have been honored with your Excellency's letter of October the 22d, wherein you communicate to me the regulations which his majesty, the King, has been pleased lately to establish in favor of the commerce between his subjects and the citizens of the United States. I avail myself of the first occasion of conveying this information to Congress, who will receive with singular satisfaction this new proof of his majesty's friendship and of his willingness to multiply the ties of interest and intercourse between the two nations. Favors are doubly precious which, promoting the present purposes of interest and of friendship, enlarge the foundations for their continuance and increase. The part which your Excellency has been pleased to take in the establishment of these regulations, merits and meets my sincere thanks, and adds a little the more to those sentiments of profound esteem and respect with which I have the honor to be, your Excellency's most obedient, and most humble servant.
TO M. DE CREVECŒUR
Sir,—Congress have as yet come to no resolution as to the general redemption of paper money. That it is to be redeemed is a principle of which there is no doubt in the mind of any member of Congress, nor of any citizen of the United States. A resolution of Congress taken in a particular case, which stood on the same ground on which the general one will stand, founds a presumption amounting nearly to a certainty that they will pay to the holder of every bill what it cost him, or the person whom he represents at the time of receiving it, with an interest from that time, of six per cent. They have of course established no rule of evidence as to the time of receiving the money. I think, however, that it would be advisable for M. de Lisle, or the representatives of Pileerf, to establish the time at which their money was received by the affidavits of such persons as know it. Those of disinterested persons would be best; but if there is no disinterested person acquainted with the fact, they will do well to take the affidavits of persons interested. It is probable this kind of testimony will be admitted; at any rate it can do no harm, no particular form nor no terms of art are required for these affidavits. It will suffice if they state facts substantially, and that the oath be administered by some person who, by the laws of the country in which it is administered, is authorized to administer an oath. I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient humble servant.
TO M. DU RIVAL
Sir,—I am honored with your letter of the 1st instant, enclosing inquiries on the subject of the coins of the United States. Some time during the last year, Congress decided that the Spanish milled dollar should be their money unit, and that their coins should be in a decimal progression above or below that. Some intermediate coins will also be doubtless made for convenience, and indeed they determined that their smallest copper coin should be the two-hundredth part of a dollar. They did not determine how much pure silver their money unit should contain, nor establish the proportion between their silver and gold coins. No other resolutions were entered into, nor had anything been done to effectuate these. What is said, therefore, on this subject in the Courier d'Europe is entirely fable, unless the compiler of that paper has received information of a later date than the middle of August. I do expect that Congress will sometime soon complete their system or resolutions on this subject, and carry them into effect.
I have the honor to be, with sentiment of the highest respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.
P. S. I omitted to observe that most of the gold and silver coins of Europe pass in the several States of America according to the quantity of pure metal they contain.
TO M. FAMIN
Sir,—This will be handed you by Colonel Blackden, heretofore an officer in the American army—at present engaged in trade. He goes to Honfleur with a view to examine the commercial relations which may be established between that port and the United States. He wishes particularly to see the nature of its harbor, the conveniences already established for commerce, and to know something of the productions which can be taken and given there in exchange. Knowing your desire to assist in drawing the American commerce to that port, I take the liberty of recommending this gentleman to your acquaintance, and of praying you to procure him the information he desires.
Some late regulations of the King and Council in favor of the commerce of the United States having given us room to hope that our endeavors may be successful to remove a good part of it from Great Britain to France, Honfleur presents itself as a more important instrument for this purpose than it had heretofore appeared. We are, therefore, now pressing more earnestly its establishment as a free port, and such other regulations in its favor as may invite the commerce to it.
I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.
TO THE HONORABLE MR. JAY
Sir,—In a letter which I had the honor of writing you on the 26th of September, I informed you that a Dutch company were making propositions to the Minister of Finance here to purchase at a discount, the debt due from the United States to this country. I have lately procured a copy of their memoir which I now enclose. Should Congress think this subject worthy their attention, they have no time to lose, as the necessities of the minister, which alone has made him listen to this proposition, may force him to a speedy conclusion. The effect which a payment of the whole sum would have here, would be very valuable. The only question is, whether we can borrow it in Holland, a question which cannot be resolved but in Holland. The trouble of the trial, and the expense of the transaction, would be well repaid by the dispositions which would be excited in our favor in the King and his ministers. I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect esteem and respect, Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.
M. LE ROY DE L'ACADEMIE DES SCIENCES
Sir,—I received the honor of yours of September the 18th, a day or two after the accident of a dislocated wrist had disabled me from writing. I have waited thus long in constant hope of recovering its use. But finding that this hope walks before me like my shadow, I can no longer oppose the desire and duty of answering your polite and learned letter. I therefore employ my left hand in the office of scribe, which it performs indeed slowly, awkwardly and badly.
The information given by me to the Marquis de Chastellux, and alluded to in his book and in your letter was, that the sea breezes which prevail in the lower parts of Virginia during the summer months, and in the warm parts of day, had made a sensible progress into the interior country: that formerly, within the memory of persons living, they extended but little above Williamsburg; that afterwards they became sensible as high as Richmond; and that, at present, they penetrate sometimes as far as the first mountains, which are above an hundred miles further from the sea coast than Williamsburg is. It is very rare, indeed, that they reach those mountains, and not till the afternoon is considerably advanced. A light north-westerly
