When I told you in my last Letter that the whole American Mission Extraordinary was here, I ought to have excepted Mr Carroll, and Mr Todd who are still lingering at Paris—Mr Carroll is attached to the mission as private Secretary to Mr Clay, and Mr Todd is of this Legation as he was of the former, a Gentilhomme d’Ambassade, quite independent in his movements, and very naturally thinking...
The stream of high and mighty travellers from London, through this place has been incessant since the passage of the Emperor Alexander—The two Sons of the king of Prussia, and his brothers the Princes Henry and William; the second Son of the Sovereign Prince of the Netherlands, Count Nesselrode, and lastly Field-Marshal Prince Blucher, have all been successively here—Most of them have stopp’d,...
The false alarm, that I gave you in my last Letter, of the arrival of the British Commissioners, came to us from no less a personage than the Mayor of the City—It was occasioned by the real arrival of two British General Officers, who the next Morning proceeded on their way to Ostend—Letters have since been received from England, by which it appears that we may expect the Commissioners in the...
As I am reduced to the necessity of copying all my own Letters, and as one of the duties the most indispensable to my heart is that of punctuality in my Correspondence with you, I have made it a principle to have my Letter ready for you in the Morning of the Post-day upon which it is dispatched, although it does not go to the Post-Office, untill 8 in the Evening. Hence it was that I had only...
There was a rose-bud, of your own drawing, enclosed in one of your last Letters—whether you sent it to me purposely, or whether it slipped by inadvertence into the folds of the Paper, as you was closing the Letter I do not know— If an accident, it was a lucky one; for I have it now before me, and take pleasure in looking at it— If you sent it on purpose I suppose it was to hint to me that you...
The day before Yesterday, I received the first of your Letters numbered by yourself—The number, 13, was exact, as you will see by my acknowledgments of the receipt of the twelve that preceded it; but in the date, 24 June, I apprehend there is a mistake—for your preceding Letter, number 12, which I received last Week was also dated 24. June; and then you had received neither of mine from...
Yesterday was the day of our removal, from the Hotel des Pays-Bas, on the Place d’Armes, to our own House in the Rue des Champs—Among the important consequences of this Revolution, it has produced that of a state of Separation between the primary members of the Mission, and the attachés—Those Gentleman found they could accommodate themselves with lodgings more to their taste, and as the...
Oh! for the Patience of Job, to bear the tricks played upon us by or at the Post-Offices!—The day before yesterday they brought me together your numbers 14 and 15, dated 6 and 12 July—the second of which has I believe come in proper time—22 days. but the other should have been here last week, and why did it not come?—Again—why were you on the 12th: of July still expecting my letter from...
The Saloon, which we visited in company with the Mayor of the City, the day after the Ceremonies at the distribution of the prizes, is an exhibition of Pictures, Sculpture, and Designs of Architecture, much like that which takes place about this time every year at the Academy of Arts at St: Petersburg. But it shews a much higher state of perfection in the Cultivation of the Arts—The Paintings...
I wrote you some weeks ago that after the arrival of the British Commissioners, I should probably find it impracticable to write you either so frequently, or with so much prolixity as I had done and should continue to do untill that Event.—They are now here and the occasion has come on which I must plead for your Indulgence—For although I am well aware that the length of my Letters must often...
American News presses upon us with an interest still increasing, and which will soon be but too powerful. It is impossible that the Summer should pass over without bringing intelligence which will make our hearts ache; though I hope and trust that nothing will or can happen, that will break the Spirit of our Nation—We are but just now receiving the accounts of the arrival of the Reinforcements...
At last, I have the satisfaction of knowing that there is no positive obstacle to the passage of Letters directly by the Post, between this place, and St: Petersburg, and that you have received the first and second Letters that I wrote you after my arrival here—But as you received them both together, I am further confirmed in the suspicion I had already formed in consequence of having myself...
We had last Friday, after my letter of that day to you was closed, a conference with the British Commissioners at their request, which will probably be the last—Lord Castlereagh himself had arrived here the Night before, and left this place on his way to Bruxelles the day after—We did not see him; but at the Conference it is scarcely a figure of speech to say that we felt him—Our opponents...
It is vain to attempt accounting for the irregularities of the Post-Office—Yesterday I received your N. 18 (which should have been numbered 19) of 28. July; and a Letter from Mr Harris, dated the day before—These Letters have been four entire weeks on the way—But Messrs: Gallatin, Bayard and Hughes, all received at the same time, Letters from Harris, dated 2. August—six days later than his...
Your Letter of the 2d. instt. addressed directly to me at the Hotel des Pays-Bas, came safely to hand on Saturday the 27th: It had therefore been 25 days on the road, and further confirmed the opinion that the Post is somewhere transmitted only once a week; and that the Post that starts on Saturdays is the one that goes through without being stopp’d—I should therefore from the commencement of...
Do not impute it to me, if from one Post-day to another I tell you different stories about the time of my expected departure to return to you. When I last wrote you, we had been promised a reply from our adverse parties without delay —They had then been in possession of our Note, five days, as much time as we had taken to prepare and send it in to them—We had been amply warned that we should...
There are two very sufficient reasons to restrain me from laughing at the difference of complexion in the political intelligence communicated by your letter of 5. August, which I received on Saturday, from that which your preceding favour, of 2. Augt: had contained. One was that I had already seen both faces of the news, in Letters received on the same day, from the Chargé d’Affairs, one...
Mr Smith and his family have arrived at Amsterdam; I have received a Letter from him dated on the 5th: instt: and have written to him, requesting him to come with them, immediately here. They got into the Texel on the very day that the John Adams sailed, and by the account which he writes me, were entering at one passage, while she was going out at the other—He did not however go on shore at...
Your Letters of 13 and 15 August, which I received both together on Saturday last have fully ascertained that the Post directly between this place and St: Petersburg, passes from somewhere only once a week—By the manner also in which you receive my Letters, two at a time, though I have sent them regularly to the Post-Office here, every Tuesday and Friday, it is proved that those of the latter...
The uneasiness I had felt at the general hints in some of your former Letters of your having done things that I should disapprove was perhaps a natural effect of their generality—The particulars into which you have now entered have removed it in a great measure. There are two principles, indispensible to all domestic economy; the first is to limit the expenditures within the extent of the...
As I was closing my last Friday’s Letter to you, I received yours of 23d: August, and acknowledged its receipt upon the margin.—By way of variety to the humours of the Post-Office, they brought me last Evening your’s of 19. August, and this morning that of the 25th. I know not how it happens that there is still so much irregularity in the transmission of your Letters to me, as it appears that...
I did succeed in filling my four pages for you last Tuesday in time to dispatch them by that Evenings Post, under cover to Amsterdam. Before the British Plenipotiaries came, I bespoke your indulgence in case I should after their arrival remit in the frequency, or abridge the length of my subsequent Letters to you. Since they have been here, we have at different times had a great pressure of...
If you keep the file of my Letters, and will look back to that of 5. August. you will find it contains an incartade against the Post-Office, for treating you and me so ungraciously, by its caprices and delays in the transmission of our Letters to each other.—It is very agreeable to me to find that my next Letter after that, to you, was delivered at the proper day the Wednesday, for the first...
Who of all the world should bolt into my bed-chamber yesterday-morning before 8 O’Clock, but George Boyd!—He comes as bearer of Dispatches to us, and to Mr Crawford, from the Department of State—Left Washington the 12th: and New-York the 16th: of August. in one of the swift-sailing Baltimore Schooners, arrived at Bordeaux, the 17th: of this Month, at Paris the 23d: and here about 6 O’Clock...
As news like those of the Catastrophe at Washington, seldom linger on the way, instead of a fortnight, which I anticipated in my last Letter as the term—in the course of which the account of that event would reach us, it came within twenty-four hours after I had given you my expectation of it—It was on Saturday Evening the first of this Month that we received the first accounts, and they came...
Captain Bates arrived here yesterday morning, from Amsterdam, and has lent me a number of American Newspapers, of the month of August, and to the first of September inclusive—They were brought by the Dutch vessel, the Prince of Orange, arrived at the Texel—The same that had touched at Havre de Grace—The Dutch Minister, Mr Changuion had gone in her to America, conveyed by the Ajax, a Dutch...
No letter from you, since that of 10. September, which I received, this day week—The next Post-day was Saturday, when there came one from Mr Harris of 14 September; but none from you. I have some apprehension, that on receiving mine of 19. August, and the newspaper accounts from England which must have reached you about the same time, you ceased writing to me, on the persuasion that I should...
Mr Boyd returned last Evening from Amsterdam, and is to proceed in the course of two or three days to Paris—As you are acquainted with his character and disposition you will not be surprized to learn that he found nothing congenial to them in Holland—He says he would not live at Amsterdam for all the money in the Country, and he complains of having been cheated and imposed upon from the hour...
First for the news from America. I had not closed my last Friday’s Letter to you, when the Times , of the 10th. and 11th. were brought to me. They had been sent to us by the British Plenipotentiaries, who receive the Newspapers by their special messengers, twice a week, sooner than they can come by the Post, and who very obligingly communicate them to us. The papers of which I now speak were...
Nothing from you since your Letter of 13. September, from which I conclude that you ceased writing, after receiving mine of 23. August. I cannot expect that you wrote again, until you received mine of 23. September, so that I have the prospect of being a full month without hearing from you—I have a Letter of 21. September from Mr Harris, and it reached me the twenty-second day from its...