would meet with to the benefit of his own country; the Metropolis is the seat of pleasure & of Politics, but a just estimate of this country can only be formed by visiting the interior of it; & there only can observation be made useful in numberless instances to the circumstances of America. Should you visit this place or the neighbourhood of it, before I have the pleasure of seeing you, be assured of my possessing the inclination to be of every service to you in my power & to assist you in obtaining the object of your researches or acquiring the information you may wish for; it is the slightest return I can make for innumerable attentions received in your country & for the liberal and friendly reception I everywhere experienced & always acknowledge with pleasure.

I shall be happy to hear that you have had a pleasant voyage across the Atlantic, & all your family are arrived in good health; and tho' I have not the Honor to be known to Mrs. King, I beg my respects to her.

I am, Dear Sir, with great esteem & respect, your very obedient & humble Servant.

WILLIAM STRICKLAND.

R. KING TO COL. MONROE, PARIS.

LONDON, August 1, 1796.

DEAR SIR:

Mr. Pinckney having desired to return home, I arrived here a few days ago to relieve him. We sailed from New York on the 20th of June, but as your information through our countrymen, who are so frequently arriving from America, is probably as late or later I presume that I can tell you nothing new or interesting.

I shall be happy to hear from you, and beg you to be assured that it will afford me peculiar pleasure to render you any service that my situation in this country will permit.

R. KING.

CHAPTER VII.

Mr. King enters upon his Duties as Ambassador-Presentation to the KingFirst Interview with Lord Grenville-Statement by Dr. Edwards of the Condition of Affairs in France-Appointment of Col. Trumbull as the fifth Commissioner under 7th Article of the Treaty-Mr. Monroe's Recall from France-Treaty of Peace with Algiers-Count De la Prâde's Pretensions.

Mr. King in the following letter announces to the Secretary of State his arrival in London, his reception by the King, and his first interview with Lord Grenville :

R. KING TO SECRETARY OF STATE.

LONDON, August 10, 1796.

DEAR SIR:

I arrived here on the 23d ultimo; the King was in the course of a few days to go to Weymouth, where he spends the remainder of the summer. Finding it to be the desire of Mr. Pinckney that I should enter on my office without delay, I was in the course of the week that followed my arrival presented to the King and Queen.

My reception being in the usual manner, nothing occurred on the occasion that merits particular attention; the King expressed his satisfaction with the prospect of a lasting friendship and harmony between the two countries, declared that he sincerely desired to live in friendship with the United States and that he would execute with the most scrupulous good faith the Treaty lately concluded with them.

Tho' this is a season when public men in this country consider themselves entitled to some relaxation from business, and most

*

of them are in the country not much disposed to be interrupted, yet I thought some parts of my instructions were so important and interesting, that I ought not to delay requesting a conference with Lord Grenville respecting them. I accordingly wrote him a note on the eighth instant, requesting him to appoint a time when I should wait on him for the purpose of making certain communications to him, relating as well to the suspended portions of the late Treaty, as to some other points that are mentioned in my instructions. He appointed the next day for the interview, when I communicated to him in a concise manner our ideas respecting the points of our conference. He heard me with attention, expressed the desire of this government to preserve harmony and good understanding with us, and said that as these were points of much consequence to their commerce and marine, he would faithfully state what I had said to his colleagues, with whom a conference would be requisite preparatory to any reply. The object of the meeting was to begin, and to make the principal points contained in my instructions. Speaking respecting the care of our Seamen, Lord Grenville expressed a wish that some notice had been given of our intention to send an agent for their protection to their West India Colonies; observing that the Governors of those colonies were not authorized to allow the residence of such a character, and that without instructions they might perhaps refuse to admit Mr. Talbot, an event, he said, that might excite unpleasant feelings on our part. I explained the course of this measure, and urged the importance of our having an agent in that quarter; intimating at the same time that an immediate instruction for Mr. Talbot's admission might arrive in season to prevent any disappointment to which we might otherwise be exposed.

Col. Trumbull is in France; he is expected here soon, but I am fearful that he will be unwilling to accept the agency for the protection of our seamen. This I shall regret, as from a recent arrangement, appplication for the discharge of our seamen, detained on board the British ships, which have formerly been made by our Consuls, must soon go through my hands. I hope to be able to prevail on Col. Trumbull to accept the apAppendix III.

*

pointment and continue to act until the President can appoint another person.

With great respect,

R. KING.

Mr. T. Pickering, Secretary of State, in his letter of August 8, 1796, says to Mr. King:

"Our Treaty with Spain was promptly ratified, and the ratified copy has been received here a few days since from Spain. By this time all the British posts must have been delivered up to the troops of the United States, except perhaps the remote one of Michilimackinac. The deliveries, so far as we have received intelligence have been made in the most handsome manner on the part of the British."

R. KING TO COL. MONROE, PARIS.

DEAR SIR:

LONDON, August 11, 1796.

I avail myself of Mr. Tudor's visit to Paris to inform you that a few days since a paper was published in the English Gazettes, purporting to be a letter from the Directory to Mr. Barthelemi, in which the French government announces their intention to stop the cargoes of all neutral vessels bound to the English ports, and assigns as the cause and justification of this measure a recent order of the British government to stop the cargoes of all neutral vessels bound to French ports. Though I was not ascertained of the authority of this paper, yet considering its importance to our commerce, I applied to this government for information whether any such order had been issued, and I was assured in reply that no such order exists, and that no new order has been issued on this subject. I expect that it will be in my power in a day or two to send you a precise and formal document on this point; in the meantime I could not excuse myself from giving you the earliest information in my power relative to a measure so truly afflicting, should the paper in question prove genuine.

I am &c.,

R. KING.

The following statement is in Mr. King's handwriting:

*

DOCTOR EDWARDS, August 19th, 1796.

Dr. Edwards called on me yesterday with Mr. Pinckney, having arrived the day before from France-he spoke of the dissatisfaction towards the U. S. which was entertained by and influenced the Government of France-that Mr. Monroe had conducted with fidelity towards the U. S., that he had vindicated the measures of our Government, and, though he did not like the Treaty, that he had contended that in no respect it violated our Treaty with France-that the Government there were elevated with their successes, and said though we might not have broken the Treaty, that nevertheless by the late Treaty with England, we had broken our Friendship with France-that the late order for stopping neutral vessels was aimed in a great measure against England-that however they were disposed to treat us not as an

* Through the assistance of Mr. F. D. Stone, Librarian of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, the editor has been enabled to identify Dr. Edwards with Dr. Evan Edwards, of Philadelphia. He was born in 1757, and received a classical and medical education, was an earnest participant in the Revolutionary war, and especially during the British occupation of Philadelphia, having been an aide to Lord Stirling. After the war he held many important positions in Pennsylvania, and was a Judge from 1791 to the time of his death in 1802.

Frenno's Gazette is quoted, saying:

"He possessed talents which eminently qualified him for a public station, a sound understanding, good sense improved by habits of reading and reflection, an intimate knowledge of mankind, incorruptible integrity with popular and engaging manners. His affable and amiable manners and cheerful conversation procured him the esteem and good-will of all who conversed with him." Mr. Charles Biddle, in his Autobiography, p. 309, gives an interesting account of him. He was very sick in Paris, and spoke in the warmest terms of the kindness of those who cared for him, wondering how these people-French-could "be guilty of crimes so disgraceful to human nature. It has often been said that Mr. Monroe encouraged Thomas Paine to write the infamous letter he sent to Genl. Washington. The Doctor often told me that Monroe sent him to Paris, and did everything in his power to prevent his sending or publishing that letter. Paine told him that anything Mr. Monroe wrote, it was of no consequence whether it was suppressed or not, but what he wrote was for posterity."

† Penn. Magazine, ii., p. 74; also ix., p. 325; Miss Sally Wister's Journal