ARTICLE XIII. The stipulation "to pay a reasonable compensation for the loss such arrest shall occasion to the proprietors," is not so determinate as to save the necessity of a future arrangement. It was thought questionable whether any mode which might now be thought of might not, by a change of circumstance before the case should arise, become incapable, and that arrangements would then be easily and amicably taken for doing justice to the individuals interested. We are ready, however, to receive a proposition for defining the mode at this time. We agree, also, to the addition proposed to this clause, to wit: "But in the case supposed of a ' vessel stopped for articles heretofore deemed contraband, if the 'master of the vessel stopped will deliver out the goods supposed to 'be of contraband nature, he shall be admitted to do it, and the ' vessel shall not, in that case, be carried into any port, nor further 'detained, but shall be allowed to proceed on her voyage."

ARTICLE XIX. A clause in the treaty with France, the first the United States ever entered into, renders necessary the exceptions subjoined to this article. It has not been repeated, nor is proposed to be repeated in any subsequent treaty. If any antecedent treaties would require a like exception on the part of his Prussian Majesty, we shall cheerfully concur in its insertion, the case being either particularly specified or generally described. The practice of carrying prizes into neutral ports and there selling them is admitted by the usage of nations, and can give offence to none who have not guarded against it by particular contract. Were the clause now under consideration to be so changed as to exclude the prizes made on the enemies of either from being sold in the ports of the other, and that kind of stipulation to take place generally, it would operate very injuriously against the United States in cases wherein it is not presumed his Majesty would wish it. For, suppose them to be hereafter in war with any Power in Europe their enemy, though excluded from the ports of every other State, will yet have their own ports at hand into which they may carry and sell the prizes they shall make on the United States; but the United States, under a like general exclusion, having no ports of their own in Europe, their prizes in these seas must be hazarded across the ocean to seek a market at home, an incumbrance which would cripple all their efforts on that element, and give to their enemies great advantage over them.

ARTICLE XXI. Agreed to add as proposed-" but by the judicatures of the place into which the prize shall be conducted."

ARTICLE XXV. Agreed to as proposed "but if any such "Consuls shall exercise commerce, they shall be submitted to the 'same laws and usages to which the private individuals of their 'nation are submitted in the same place."

Upon the whole it will be seen that we accommodate ourselves to the amendments proposed to the 2d, 3d, 5th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 12th, 13th, 21st, and 25th articles; that we agree to the amendments proposed to the 4th article with certain qualifications; and we cannot but hope that the 4th and 19th articles, so amended and qualified, may be permitted to stand.

The letter you have done me the honor to write to me in the month of January without date, reached me a few days ago. I have transmitted to the King the offer to establish the ports of Embden and Stettin as free ports, and I am waiting for the orders of his Majesty, which orders, when received, I will hasten to communicate to you. The counter project also which follows my letter of January 24th must have reached you, and I have hopes of seeing the work, which has been the object of our mutual cares, consolidated.

The orders of the King, with which I am at present furnished, have enabled me to answer more fully the last letter you have done

me the honor to write to me, and the reception of which I have advised you, by my letter of February 11th. His Majesty thinks that the establishing of one or two free ports would be absolutely useless, agreeably to the correct remark made by the American Plenipotentiaries, that the second and third articles of the counter project grant to both nations reciprocally, in all the ports where they wish to trade, all the advantages enjoyed by the most favored nations. This observation has put an end to the question, inasmuch as the intentions of the King are in no way to limit the commerce of the citizens of the United States to any particular ports. In case, however, that the establishment of a free port should appear to be of some utility, it might be complied with without much difficulty in regard to Embden, but a similar concession for the port of Stettin would be objected to for several reasons. The letter of the Plenipotentiaries having been written before the receipt of the observations on the last counter project, accompanied by my letter of January 24th of the present year, it is to be presumed that any further explanations would appear useless. I flatter myself, gentlemen, that the first letter which I shall have the honor to receive from you, will facilitate the means of giving, in concert with you, the desired stability to the negotiation which is the object of our mutual cares. The success of this transaction will answer my wishes as well as the common interest of both our nations.

I have made known to my Court the proposal contained in the letter you have done me the honor to write the 22d September last, his Holiness, considering no less the convenience of your proposition, than that the right of the Roman Catholic inhabitants and citizens of the United States shall be maintained, orders me to declare to you that all vessels under the flag of the United States, which shall enter the ports of Civita Vecchia, in the Mediterranean, and Ancona, in the Adriatic, shall meet there with the best reception that can be desired; VOL. I.-36

provided that the vessels and property of the subjects of the Holy See shall, reciprocally, be treated in the same manner in the ports of the United States. I must add to this declaration, by an express order of his Holiness, that the citizens of the United States shall find, in the abovementioned ports of his dominion, a person appointed to give them every assistance which they may want.

I am happy to declare to you these intentions of my Court, which cannot but be agreeable to the United States of America.

I have the honor to be, &c.,

ARCHBISHOP OF SELUCIE.

FROM JOHN JAY TO THE COMMISSIONERS.

Gentlemen,

Office for Foreign Affairs, New York, January 14, 1785.

On the 21st ultimo I accepted the place of Secretary for Foreign Affairs. All the foreign letters which had been received during the recess of Congress were then, and are still, in the hands of a committee to whom they had been referred. None have since arrived.

The adjournment from Trenton to this place necessarily occasioned delay in business. Congress yesterday made a House, and I expect some of these more important measures will soon be matured.

By the next opportunity, I flatter myself with having the pleasure of writing to you more particularly. Judges are nominated, and will doubtless be appointed, to decide the interfering claims of Massachusetts and New York. Advices, just received, give reason to apprehend an attack of the Cherokees on Kentucky, a settlement which increases with a degree of rapidity scarcely credible. It is rumored, but not ascertained, that the Spaniards encourage them. I have the honor to be, &c., JOHN JAY.

FOURTH REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS TO CONGRESS, ADDRESSED TO JOHN JAY, SECRETARY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

Paris, March 18, 1785.

Sir,

We received, by the last packet, the favor of your letter of January 14th, in which we have the agreeable information of your

having accepted the appointment of Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Besides the general interest we feel in this event as members of the Union which is to be availed of your services, we are particularly happy that a channel of communication is opened for us with Congress, in whose justice and abilities we so perfectly confide.

In our letter by the February packet, which we addressed to his Excellency the President of Congress, we had the honor of transmitting the state of our transactions intervening between the date of that and of our preceding letter. We now beg leave, through you, to inform them of our progress since the last period.

No. 1, is a letter from the Pope's Nuncio at this Court, which, though dated at this place the 15th December, 1784, was not delivered to us till late in February, we consider it as definitive of our commission to the Holy See, unless new instructions or circumstances should render a further proceeding under it proper.

No. 2, from the Chargé d'Affaires of Tuscany here, came also to hand after the closing of our letter by the last packet.

From Baron de Thulemeier, Prussian Minister at the Hague, we have received the enclosed letter, No. 3, covering a French translation of the draft of a treaty which we had proposed through him to the Court of Berlin, as formerly reported to Congress, with observations on the several parts of it. This paper is numbered 4, and has been answered by our letter, of which No. 5 is a copy.

We have also received from the Baron de Thulemeier, the letters No. 6 and 7, in answer to ours (formerly communicated to Congress) on the subjects of the free ports within the territories of his Sovereign.

In consequence of a letter written by Mr. Adams to Mr. Dumas, praying his enquiries and information as to the presents, whether periodical or occasional, made by the United Netherlands to the several piratical States, he has favored us with the enclosed authentic information, marked No. 8. We learn, from public papers, that the Republic of Venice pays, annually, to Tripoli a tribute of three thousand five hundred sequins.* From a comparison of the strength of this with that of the other piratical States, some grounds are furnished for conjecturing what is paid by them to the others when in peace with them. We have promises of some further information on the subject of these tributes, which the envy or pride of nations *The sequin of Venice is $2 40.