e my proper station at this Court, and to be engaged in the
business of making a commercial treaty with her Imperial Majesty.

But I shall find an impediment in this business not to be surmounted,
if Dr Franklin and Mr Adams should not be able, or think themselves
authorised to advance the cash mentioned in my former letter, for
which purpose I wrote to them as soon as the negotiations were
commenced, at least as soon as intelligence of it reached us here. It
is not time yet for me to expect their answer.

I have heretofore acquainted you, that I proposed to return to America
as soon after I should be received at this Court as our commercial
treaty should be finished. It would be less justifiable for me to quit
this Court before the completion of that treaty, because the Minister
who might succeed me, would probably want that information relative to
the commerce of this Empire, which I may have acquired by my long
residence here. I still continue of the same mind, and will now assign
my reasons for it, when it will certainly be too late for any one to
consider them in the light of a solicitation for my own benefit.
Congress have been pleased to honor me with the same rank in the
diplomatic corps, which they have conferred upon their Ministers in
Europe, viz. that of a Minister in the second class, and though this
is unquestionably the most expensive Court at which they have any
Minister, they have thought fit to reduce my appointment to three
fifths of that granted to their other Ministers. It is the same which
the _Charge d'Affaires_ of Spain had, of whom it was not expected that
he should hold a house and a table, as it is of the other Ministers. I
have lived here long enough to see that it will be absolutely
impossible for me to sustain the indispensable expenses of my rank,
with an appointment less than that of our other Ministers in Europe.
If there was, therefore, no other motive to influence my
determination, that alone, I have no doubt, Congress will admit for my
full justification.

For their particular information, I have endeavored to procure an
account of the appointments of all the foreign Ministers residing at
this Court, but have not yet obtained it. I can only say with regard
to the Minister of Sweden, who has a Secretary to his Embassy, that
his appointment and allowance for his house rent, exclusive of some
other benefits, amount to more than double my appointment, including
everything I can charge