d treaty, my
business here is confined to the arrangement of the public accounts,
and the payment of the bills still due, the collecting intelligence,
and the solicitation of redress of the various complaints laid before
the Ministry in behalf of individuals. For this last purpose I wait
on the Count de Florida Blanca, and M. Del Campo, from time to time,
and in a respectful manner solicit their attention to these affairs.
Personally I have no reason to complain; in my political character I
should have more, if I did not know, that the first powers in Europe
are treated with the same inattention and delay. I mention this not to
excuse the conduct of this Court, but to convince you, that it is not
singular with respect to us. I have in some instances promises of
redress, and it is to be hoped, that circumstances, patience, and good
humor, will terminate these affairs to the satisfaction, in some
measure, of the parties interested.

While Mr Jay remains at Paris, as the public despatches are addressed
to him, I shall be deprived of intelligence from America, except what
I may acquire by private correspondence from thence. I have not had
the honor to hear from Mr Jay since he left this place, which may have
been occasioned by delay or ill health on the road and afterwards. I
have no correspondence with Messrs Adams and Dana, from whom I might
receive, and to whom I might contribute hints, that might be of
service to the public interest. Messrs Grenville and Oswald are still
at Paris, but on this subject you will have from others much more
accurate information than it is in my power to give you.

The Count d'Artois is expected here tomorrow, and will be received and
treated as an Infant of Spain. This visit is highly pleasing to the
royal family. He is expected with impatience. Nothing worth your
notice has yet passed at Gibraltar. The besiegers and the besieged,
equally prepare the one for the attack, the other for the defence of
the place. A courier extraordinary from France, brings advice of the
capture of eighteen transports and merchantmen bound to Quebec and
Newfoundland. Unhappily the New York fleet, which sailed with the
vessels captured, had two or three days before separated from them. A
fifty gun ship and a frigate, which escorted them, escaped. I have not
yet received M. Cabarrus's account. When these are once delivered and
settled, I shall take the earliest opportunity of transmitting to
Congress and to Mr Ja