The Hague October 5. 1782. Saturday.1
In conference with the G[rand] Pen[sionary] Bleiswick. He told me, it was determined to sign the Treaty of Commerce, on Monday next at Noon. That I should not find the Greffier Fagel for that being Saturday, he would spend it at his Country Seat and not come to Town. That the Revolution in the Crimea and the commotions among the Tartars would probably find Employment enough for Russia. That there were some Symptoms of Anglomanie, in Sweeden. That there was no News from Paris about Peace, that Mr. Brantzen had not, when the last Advices came away, had his first Audience, of the King.
I went next to Mr. Fagels house, but the Answer was that on Saturdays the Greffier never came to Town.
There is in the Rotterdamche Courant of to day the following Article from Philadelphia of the 7. August. Het is opmerldyk dat de Staaten Generaal, de Onafhanglykheit der Vereenigde Staaten, juist op den 19 April dezes Jaars erkend hebben, zynde die dag de zevende Verjaring van den Veldslag by Lexington, en dat deze zaak nog opmerklyker maakt is, dat de Eerste Memorie van den Heer Adams, die zulk een grooten Indruk op de Hollandsche Natie gemaakt heeft, gedagteekend is den 19 April 1781.2
The Florin = 2 Scallings & 6. Sols
The Scalling = 7s. = 12s. 6d. of France.
Crown = 9 Scallings = 5£: 12s: 6d. of France.
17 Patars = 1 [l.t.]4 12s. of France.
The Plaquette = 6s: 3d.
9 liards = 3s: 9d.
1. First entry in D/JA/34, a gathering of leaves, quarto in size, the first in a series of twelve such booklets, some stitched and some unstitched but otherwise uniform in format and appearance, extending through July 1786 and virtually completing JA’s Diary in Europe. In all of them JA wrote only on the righthand half of the page, reserving the other half for additions.
2.
“It is remarkable that the States General have recognized the independence of the United States on exactly the 19th of April of this year, this day being the seventh anniversary of the battle at Lexington, and what makes the matter still more remarkable is that Mr. Adams’ First Memorial, which has made such a deep impression on the Dutch nation, is dated 19 April 1781.”
3. This table is in the margin of the MS, opposite the beginning of the entry dated 5 October.
4. In the MS appears a cryptic symbol which we conjecture stands for livres tournois. The patar or patard, a copper coin, was a Flemish stiver or sol.