state of the bank (which is the property of a private company, under the protection of government) a certain indication of the happy situation of our own finances. This is by no means the case. The demand for money to replace the property, which the enemy have destroyed, to repair buildings, and the profits which commerce yields, together with the difficulty of forming new systems of taxation in a country, which has hitherto scarce known a tax, beyond what was necessary for the support of its own frugal governments, renders the collection of a direct tax extremely difficult. Duties and excises must be levied upon some general system, so as to prevent one State from depending on another. This has been attempted by a five per cent duty on all imports, but it has hitherto been defeated by the refusal of Rhode Island to come into the plan. Congress are about to send down a committee of their own body to urge them to a compliance with this measure. Should it be attended with success, a very considerable revenue will arise from that source. credit, which has so frequently tottered during the revolution, will be established upon a firm and lasting basis.

Public

The evacuation of the southern States, which we have reason to believe has taken place by this time, though we have yet received no official information of it, will greatly increase our resources. Their exports will consist in the most valuable articles at foreign markets, and must occasion such an influx of wealth, as will enable them to contribute to the public expenses, which they have hitherto been in a great measure incapable of doing.

Before you left this, I believe most of the States had formed their governments. Massachusetts has since completed hers upon plans similar to those of the other

States. That of New Hampshire is printed for the approbation of the people, and I am told will shortly be agreed to.

The causes which occasioned a temporary suspension of government in South Carolina and Georgia being removed, they are again in the full exercise of them, and, indeed, have been so ever since Lord Cornwallis left the latter State.

Upon this head, therefore, I have nothing to inform you unless it be that the people appear to be perfectly happy under their new establishment; not the smallest commotion having arisen in any of the States from discontents on this, or, indeed, on any other ground, if we except an attempt, which was made by an inconsiderable party in one county of Massachusetts, to prevent the collection of debts till the termination of the war. This was instantly suppressed by the punishment of their leader. Indeed, this trifling matter was so little attended to here, that I should not have thought of mentioning it, if I had not seen that they had magnified it in England, into a revolt of the New England States against the government of the Congress. A letter from a Dr Walter, who I believe was originally of Massachusetts, is printed as a voucher for this impudent falsehood. As British emissaries may endeavor to circulate this with you, where they have an interest in deceiving, I concluded it proper to furnish you with the means of refuting it.

Your knowledge of the continental forms of governments, leaves me nothing to say on that head. It will, however, give you pleasure to be informed, that the great Council is at present as respectable for numbers, integrity, and abilities as it has been at any time during the war, and

I believe much freer from party spirit or partial views. Add to this, they have acquired an experience in public business, which they could not but want at first. I would not have you infer from this, that the old members are always continued; this is far from being the case; but as the new delegates are generally elected from the number of gentlemen who have held important offices in their respective States, they bring with them that knowledge, and habit of business which they acquired at home. The establishment of Ministers for the great executive department (a regulation which has taken place since you left us) has been found to be productive of very great advantages. Congress are no longer troubled with those little details, which used to take up their time. The business brought before them from those departments, is digested before it comes up, and they are not now obliged to wade through a variety of unnecessary circumstances, to come at what merits their attention. You are personally acquainted with the Ministers of Finance, and War, so that I need say nothing relative to the character of either. Their conduct gives general satisfaction; and Mr Morris's attention, abilities, and personal credit, have done much towards relieving that of the United States.

As this revolution makes a new era in the history of man, which furnishes no other instance of a whole people's uniting to form governments for themselves, and their posterity, I have thought it would not be unacceptable to the philosophic mind of the Empress of all the Russias, to contemplate the first rudiments of these governments, which may hope after the example of her own dominions, by an assiduous application to the arts of peace and war, to obtain an elevated station among the nations of the

earth. I have, therefore, directed to your care, a packet containing the confederation, and such of the constitutions of the respective States as have been hitherto printed. Thus, Sir, I have endeavored to give you a general view of our situation. In return for which I must pray you to be more minute in your information of what passes with you. I have already explained to you the objects on which I wish you particularly to enlarge. None of your letters have embraced those objects. I would recommend it to you to keep a journal of every remarkable event, to minute down every conversation you have upon political subjects; and to digest them weekly into a despatch for us; adding thereto, a sketch of the character and station of the person whose sentiments you give. I know, Sir, that this will be attended with some trouble, but I know too, that you will have no reluctance to impose any task upon yourself, which the duties of your station render necessary.

I am, Sir, &c.

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.

Sir,

TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.

St Petersburg, December 21st, 1782.

I had the honor of your letter of the 18th of September, last week, in which you acknowledge the receipt of mine of March 30th, but add, that the one of March 5th has never reached you. I am at a loss how to account for the failure of that, when a copy of it accompanied the other..

I am glad to learn the observations I sent you upon the

trade of this empire, have been deemed at all pertinent, and have afforded any useful hints, as well as that the state of its connexion with the Porte, has not been wholly uninteresting. If you have received my other letters in course, you will find I have not been silent upon the particular subjects you mention, and upon which you want information, nor altogether an idle spectator of events; although to this moment I have not had any conferences with either of her Majesty's Ministers, or taken any official step, yet I have constantly endeavored to clear up all misrepresentations of every kind, of our enemies or others, in a channel which I have reason to believe has had a good effect. I am assured that all alarms about a dangerous concurrence in commerce, which had been artfully raised to serve particular interests, are perfectly quieted, and that it is now also believed, that a free and direct commerce between this empire and America, will be highly beneficial to the former. A sketch of the arguments made use of to these ends, you will find in my preceding letters.

As to the great point of our independence, the armed neutrality sprung out of it, and the propositions of the mediators, were built upon it. These sentiments were expressed in my first letters from hence to the President, have since been repeated in several of my letters to you, and I have never seen occasion to change them. I have never troubled the French Minister with any conversation upon the subject you allude to, since that I first detailed to Congress, except when I thought some important change had taken place in the state of affairs, such as the capture of Lord Cornwallis and his army, when the Parliament passed their several resolutions respecting the American war, preceding the change of the old Ministry, when