view when they settled those
of their foreign Ministers, none of whom complain of their being
inadequate, unless it be Mr Jay, who has given us some reason to think
his salary, in his opinion, is barely sufficient for his support, and
that his manner of living is not equal to what he conceives the
dignity of the United States requires. With respect to the salaries of
the secretaries to the Embassies, it is in my opinion, (founded upon
the practice of other nations) at least the double of what it ought to
be.

If, as I presume, Congress intended by their resolution, that I should
lay before them an account of the manner in which our foreign
Ministers live at present, that they might themselves be enabled to
judge of the proportion it bore to their appointments, I can only say,
that the result of inquiries on this head must necessarily be
extremely uncertain. I submit them as far as they have come to my
knowledge.

Dr Franklin has a part of M. Chaumont's house at Passy; he keeps a
chariot and pair, and three or four servants, and gives a dinner
occasionally to the Americans and others; his whole expense is, as far
as I can learn, very much within his income.

Mr Adams lives in lodgings, keeps a chariot and pair, and two men
servants; he has hitherto retained a private secretary in the absence
of Mr Dana, who will, if is to be presumed, be paid by Congress. I
have lately heard that Mr Adams was about to take a house.

Mr Dana's salary, even if he should assume a public character, in a
country where the relative value of money is so high, that, if I am
well informed, an elegant house may be had for fifteen guineas a year,
is very ample.

Of Mr Jay's manner of living, I have been able to obtain no account,
but should conclude from the price of the necessaries of life, in the
part of Spain in which he lives, from the port the Court and the
people about it maintain, and above all, from its sitting in different
parts of the kingdom, that to live in the same style with Dr Franklin
or Mr Adams, his expenses must amount to nearly double of theirs.

But as every conjecture of this kind must be very uncertain, all I can
do is to lay before Congress the relative expense, as far as I can
learn it, between the different places at which our Ministers reside,
taking Philadelphia for the common standard.

Paris, if wine, clothing, and the wages of servants are included, is
about twenty per cent cheaper than Philadelphia; Amsterd