Since writing thus far, I have received an intimation, that it will be
agreeable not to press our commercial regulations at this moment, the
ministry being too much occupied with the difficulties surrounding them,
to spare a moment on any subject which will admit of delay. Our business
must, therefore, be suspended for a while. To press it out of season,
would be to defeat, it. It would be felt as a vital benefit here, could
we relieve their finances, by paying what we owe. Congress will judge
by Mr. Adams's letters, how far the transferring all our debts in this
country to Holland is practicable. On the replenishing their treasury
with our principal and interest, I should not be afraid to ask
concessions in favor of our West India trade. It would produce a great
change of opinion as to us and our affairs. In the _Assemblee des
Notables_, hard things were said of us. They were induced, however,
in committing us to writing, to smother their ideas a little. In their
votes, now gone to be printed, our debt is described in these words.
The twenty-first article of the account, formed of the interest of the
claims of his Majesty on the United States of America, cannot be drawn
out for the present, except as a document.
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