ding that all the envoys were agreed that one representative at
the French court would be vastly better as well as cheaper than the sort
of caucus which now held its angry sessions there. At worst one man
could not be forever at odds with himself. Adams, when he had finished
the task of arranging the archives, found no other occupation; and he
was scandalized at the extravagance of keeping three envoys. Lee, by
the way, had constantly insinuated that Franklin was blamably lax, if
not actually untrustworthy, in money matters, though all the while he
and his friend Izard had been quite shameless in extorting from the
doctor very large sums for their own expenses. When the figures came to
be made up it appeared that Franklin had drawn less than either of his
colleagues, and much less than the sum soon afterward established by
Congress as the proper salary for the position.[65] The frugal-minded
New Englander himself now acknowledged that he could "not find any
article of expense which could be retrenched,"[66] and he honestly
begged Congress to stop the triple outlay.

[Note 65: _Diplomatic Corresp. of Amer. Rev._ iv. 246.]

[Note 66: _Ibid._ 245.]

Franklin, upon his part, wrote that in many ways the public business and
the national prestige suffered much from the lack of unanimity among the
envoys, and said: "In consideration of the whole, I wish Congress would
separate us." Neither Adams nor Franklin wrote one word which either
directly or indirectly had a personal bearing. Arthur Lee was more
frank; in the days of Deane he had begun to write that to continue
himself at Paris would "disconcert effectually the wicked measures" of
Franklin, Deane, and Williams, and that it was "the one way of
redressing" the "neglect, dissipation, and private schemes" prevalent in
the department, and of "remedying the public evil." He said that the
French court was the place of chief importance, calling for the ablest
and most efficient man, to wit, himself. He suggested that Franklin
might be sent to Vienna, a dignified retreat without labor. Izard and
William Lee wrote letters of like purport; it was true that it was none
of their affair, but they were wont to interfere in the business of the
commissioners, as if the French mission were common property. Congress
took so much of this advice as all their advisers were agreed upon; that
is to say, it broke up the commission to France. But it did not appoint
Arthur Lee to remain there; on