The same expression will do for the other paper, which has been subscribed as above and submitted to my consideration, for restoring or making restitution of prizes under the circumstances therein mentioned.

It is proper you should be informed that the minister of France intends to leave this city for New York to-morrow, and not amiss, perhaps, to know that in mentioning the seasonable aid of hands which the Ambuscade received from the French Indiaman the day preceding her meeting the Boston he added that seamen would no longer be wanting, as he had now 1,500 at his command.  This being the case (although the allusion was to the subject he was then speaking upon), some of these men may be employed in the equipment of privateers other than those now in existence, as the right of fitting out such in our ports is asserted in unequivocal terms.

Was the propriety of convening the Legislature at an earlier day than that on which it is to assemble by law considered yesterday?

The late decree of the National Convention of France, dated the 9th of May, authorizing their ships of war and armed vessels to stop any neutral vessel loaded in whole or part with provisions and send them into their ports, adds another motive for the adoption of this measure.

Go.  WASHINGTON.

[From Annals of Congress, Seventh Congress, second session, 746-747.]

JOHN ADAMS, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

INSTRUCTIONS TO THE COMMANDERS OF ARMED VESSELS BELONGING TO THE UNITED STATES, GIVEN AT PHILADELPHIA THIS 28TH DAY OF MAY, A.D. 1798, AND IN THE TWENTY-SECOND YEAR OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE SAID STATES.

Whereas it is declared by an act of Congress passed the 28th day of May, 1798, that armed vessels sailing under authority or pretense of authority from the French Republic have committed depredations on the commerce of the United States and have recently captured the vessels and property of citizens thereof on and near the coasts, in violation of the law of nations and treaties between the United States and the French nation: 

Therefore, and in pursuance of the said act, you are instructed and directed to seize, take, and bring into any port of the United States, to be proceeded against according to the laws of nations, any armed vessel sailing under authority or pretense of authority from the French Republic which shall have committed, or which shall be found hovering on the coasts of the United States for the purpose of committing, depredations on the vessels belonging to citizens thereof, and also to retake any ship or vessel of any citizen or citizens of the United States which may have been captured by any such armed vessel.

By command: 

JAMES M’HENRY, Secretary of War.

[From American State Papers, Foreign Relations, Vol.  II, pp. 365-367.]

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PRIVATE ARMED VESSELS OF THE UNITED STATES.