should go
through no post-office.

I was desirous, while at the sea-ports, to obtain a list of the American
vessels which have come to them since the peace, in order to estimate
their comparative importance to us, as well as the general amount of our
commerce with this country, so far as carried on in our own bottoms.
At Marseilles, I found there had been thirty-two, since that period; at
Cette, not a single one; at Bayonne, one of our free ports, only one.
This last fact I learned from other information, not having visited that
place; as it would have been a deviation from my route, too considerable
for the importance of the object. At Bordeaux, Nantes, and L'Orient, I
could not obtain lists in the moment; but am in hopes I shall be able
to get them ere long. Though more important to us, they will probably be
more imperfect than that of Marseilles. At Nantes, I began with Monsieur
Dobree an arrangement of his claims. I visited the military stores,
which have been detained there so long, opened some boxes of each
kind, and found the state of their contents much better than had been
represented. An exact list of the articles is to be sent me.

The importations into L'Orient of other fish-oils, besides those of the
whale, brought to my notice there a defect in the letter of Monsieur de
Calonne, of October the 22nd, which letter was formerly communicated to
you. In that, whale oil only was named. The other fish-oils, therefore,
have continued to pay the old duties. In a conference with Monsieur de
Villedeuil, the present Comptroller General, since my return, I proposed
the extending the exemption to all fish-oils, according to the letter
of the Hanseatic treaty, which had formed the basis of the regulations
respecting us. I think this will be agreed to. The delays of office
first, then the illness of Monsieur de Colonne, and lastly, his removal
and the throng of business occasioned by the _Assemblee des Notables_,
have prevented the reducing the substance of the letter into the form
of an _Arret_, as yet though I have continued soliciting it as much
as circumstances would bear. I am now promised that it shall be done
immediately, and it shall be so far retrospective to the date of the
letter, as that all duties paid since that, shall be refunded.

The new accessions of the ministry are valued here. Good is hoped from
the Archbishop of Toulouse, who succeeds the Count de Vergennes as _Chef
du Conseil de finance_. Monsieur