suppose that he would wish to provide for its existing longer than it should prove useful and satisfactory. If after the experience of a few years it should be found to answer the purposes intended by it, both parties will have sufficient inducements to renew it, either in its present form or with such alterations and amendments as time, experience, and other circumstances may indicate."

All which is submitted to the wisdom of Congress.

JOHN JAY.

FROM MONSIEUR DE LA FORÊT TO JOHN JAY.

Translation.

New York,

23, 1786.

Monsieur de la Forêt has the honor to present his respects to the honorable Mr. Jay, and to enclose to him an extract of a letter which he received by the last packet.

Extract of a Letter from the Mareschal De Castries, of the 11th August, 1786, to M. De la Forêt.

"The United States must have seen our readiness to lend our good offices to their agents sent to the Regencies of Barbary. But the present system of that of Algiers, and the personal character of the Dey, give occasion to fear that they have not the success that we have desired."

Extract of a Letter from Mareschal De Castries to M. De la Forêt.

Versailles, January 22, 1786.

"The King has expressly recommended to his Consuls General and Chargé d'Affaires at Algiers and Morocco, the persons and negotiations of the Consuls whom Congress has sent to treat of peace with those Powers; but our endeavors will be fruitless, if the conditions required should not be complied with; and it would be to

deceive one's self to expect that any consideration could induce the Emperor of Morocco, and particularly the Regency of Algiers, to forego the advantages presented to them by the interest which the Americans have in living at peace with them. It will belong to their agents to obtain good, or, to speak more properly, the least burthensome conditions, and no doubts should be entertained in America of the services which we are pressing, to render them to that effect."

FROM JOHN JAY TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Office for Foreign Affairs, April 24, 1786.

Sir,

I received from M. De la Forêt the enclosed extract from a letter of M. De Castries, to which I have added a translation.

On the occasion of the letter which I had the honor to write to you on the 28th April last, you were pleased to promise me verbally to solicit with Congress the ratification of our consular convention as soon as there should be nine States represented. All the members of this assembly with whom I have conversed have assured me that the delay which this ratification has experienced was principally owing to this: that Congress had not received a copy of this convention until long after its signature, and that since that time this assembly has never found itself sufficiently numerous to take it into consideration. I have transmitted this answer to my Court, and Mr. Jefferson has received analogous instructions to inform the Minister of the reasons of the long silence of Congress respecting an object on which the Plenipotentiaries of the two nations had solemnly agreed. Since that period the Congress have not only been found

complete, but they have ratified the treaty of commerce with Prussia, although the signature of that treaty was a good deal more recent than that of the consular convention.

The United States being again sufficiently represented, I beg the favor of you to submit this affair to their consideration. Whatever may be their resolution in this respect, it is to be desired to facilitate the business with which the respective Consuls are charged, that they may be informed of the extent of their powers, and that they may know, in a clear and precise manner, the limits which their sovereigns have assigned to their authority.

I am, &c.,

OTTO.

Sir,

FROM JOHN JAY TO MONSIEUR OTTO.

Office for Foreign Affairs, July 3, 1786.

On returning to town yesterday, I received the letter which you did me the honor to write on the 27th of last month.

I well remember our conversation on the subject of your letter of the 18th of April last; that I informed you Mr. Jefferson would be instructed to explain the reasons of the delay which had retarded the decision on the consular convention, and that I promised you to do whatever depended on me to bring that matter to a speedy conclusion.

Your letter of the 18th April was received on the 19th. It was transmitted by me to Congress the 21st; it was referred to me the 25th; I reported on it the 28th; and Mr. Jefferson's instructions were sent in my letter to him of the 5th May last.

Your letter, now before me, shall (as soon as it can be translated) be transmitted to his Excellency the President of Congress, and whatever answer they may be pleased to direct me to convey to you shall, without delay, be communicated.

I flatter myself that Mr. Jefferson will find no difficulty in assigning very satisfactory reasons to his most Christian Majesty for the delays in question; and I am persuaded that Congress will proceed to consider and terminate this affair with as much despatch as circumstances may permit.

I have the honor to be, &c.,

JOHN JAY

FROM MONSIEUR OTTO TO JOHN JAY.

Translation.

New York, July 6, 1786.

Sir,

I did not receive the letter which you did me the honor to write to me the 3d of this month until my arrival here. I beg you to accept my thanks for the particulars which you have been so kind as to communicate respecting the ratification of our consular convention.

I have likewise received, sir, the information which you were pleased to give me of the ceremony that took place the 4th instant, although I had no notice of this till after my return to New York. I had intended to pay my respects on an occasion so solemn as that of the anniversary of American Independence; but, unfortunately, the Elizabethtown boat had sailed sooner than I expected. I. purpose to present my excuses to-day to his Excellency the President of Congress, and I hope, sir, that you will be persuaded that, from principles of duty and sentiment, I am warmly interested in whatever regards the United States.

I left Governor Livingston and his family in perfect health; they charged me with a thousand tender compliments to you and Mrs. Jay. I am, with respect, &c.,

OTTO.

FROM JOHN JAY TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Sir,

Office for Foreign Affairs, October 9, 1786.

I take the earliest opportunity of informing your Excellency that Mr. Remsen, on reading the printed scheme of a consular convention, observed that it did not exactly correspond with the copy in this office. This circumstance led him to compare it with the original scheme in the Secretary's office. As the discovery of this omission rescues the 10th article of the convention from the charge of essential deviations from the 12th in the scheme, and as it shows the latter to be equally liable, with the former, to the objections made against it in my report, I think it my duty to enclose a note of this variation,

between the original scheme and the copy in this office, that Congress may have an opportunity of making any further order that they may think proper on the subject.

I confess that the scheme now appears to me more ineligible than I before thought it, though I am still of opinion that the only prudent way of getting over this unpleasant business is to conclude a convention similar even to the scheme as it now appears to be, and render its inconveniences temporary by an article limiting its duration.

With great respect and esteem, I have the honor to be, &c., JOHN JAY.

P. S. The French packet will sail the 15th instant.

Note of the difference between the 12th article of the scheme of the convention entered into in the year 1782, on the Journal belonging to the Office for Foreign Affairs, and the said article in the original scheme, recorded in the Secret Journal in the Secretary's office :

12th Article as in the Original Scheme. They (Consuls and Vice Consuls) may cause to be arrested and sequestered every vessel carrying the flag of their respective nations, and even send them back to France or the United States, as the case may be, as well as arrest any captain, master, seaman, or passenger of their respective nations. They may cause to be arrested, and detained in the country, sailors and deserters of their respective nations, or cause them to be transported therefrom.

12th Article as in the Office Copy.

They (Consuls and Vice Consuls) may cause to be arrested and sequestered every vessel carrying the flag of their respective nations. They may cause to be arrested, and detained in the country, sailors and deserters of their respective nations, or cause them to be transported therefrom.

The scored (italicised) lines shew where the copy which Mr. Jay used when he made his report on the consular convention deviates from the original.

N. B. There were in that copy several other variations from the original, to the number of twenty in the whole, all of which are now corrected; but as none of them except the abovementioned materially affect Mr. Jay's report, it is not thought necessary to enumerate them in this note.