as well as those from Mr
Bingham.

We have the honor to enclose a copy of a letter from M. de Sartine,
the Minister of Marine, and to request the attention of Congress to
the subject of it.

We are told in several letters from the honorable Committee for
Foreign Affairs, that we shall receive instructions and authority for
giving up, on our part, the whole of the 11th article of the treaty,
proposing it as a condition to the Court of France, that they on their
part should give up the whole of the 12th. But unfortunately, these
instructions, and authority were omitted to be sent with the letters,
and we have not yet received them. At the time of the exchange of the
ratifications, we mentioned this subject to the Count de Vergennes,
and gave him an extract of the Committee's letter. His answer to us
was, that the alteration would be readily agreed to, and he ordered
his secretary not to register the ratification till it was done. We
therefore request that we may be honored with the instructions and
authority of Congress to set aside the two articles as soon as
possible, and while the subject is fresh in memory.

The letter to M. Dumas[51] is forwarded, and in answer to the
Committee's inquiry, what is proper for Congress to do for that
gentleman, we beg leave to say, that his extreme activity and
diligence in negotiating our affairs, and his punctuality in his
correspondence with Congress as well as with us, and his usefulness to
our cause in several other ways, not at present proper to be
explained, give him, in our opinion, a good title to two hundred
pounds sterling a year at least.

The other things mentioned in the Committee's letter to us shall be
attended to as soon as possible. We have received also the resolution
of Congress of the 9th of February, and the letter of the Committee of
the same date, empowering us to appoint one or more suitable persons
as commercial agents, for conducting the commercial business of the
United States in France, and other parts of Europe. But as this power
was given us before Congress received the treaty, and we have never
received it but with the ratification of the treaty, and as by the
treaty Congress is empowered to appoint consuls in the ports of
France, perhaps it may be expected from us, that we should wait for
consuls. At present, Mr John Bonfield of Bordeaux, and Mr J. D.
Schweighauser at Nantes, both by the appointment of Mr William Lee,
are the only persons authorise