Abroad, no event worth noting has taken place since my last.  The court of Denmark has not declared it will do any thing more, than furnish the stipulated aid to Russia.  The King of Prussia has as yet made no move, which may decide whether he will engage in the war, nor has England sent any squadron into the Baltic.  As the season for action is considerably passed over, it is become more doubtful, whether any other power will enter the lists till the next campaign; this will give time for stopping the further progress of the war, if they really wish to stop it.  Two camps of twenty-five thousand men each are forming in this country on its northern limits.  The Prince of Conde has the command of one, and the Duke de Broglio of the other.

I trouble you with the enclosed letter from a Henry Watson, claiming prize monies, as having served under Admiral Paul Jones, which I suppose should go to the treasury, or war-office.

I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect esteem and respect, Sir, your most obedient and most humble; servant,

Th:  Jefferson,

LETTER CLIX.—­TO THE COMMISSIONERS OF THE TREASURY, Sep. 6, 1788

TO THE COMMISSIONERS OF THE TREASURY.

Paris, September 6, 1788.

Gentlemen,

Your favor of July the 3rd came to hand some days ago, and that of July the 22nd in the afternoon of yesterday.  Knowing that a Mr. Vannet was to leave Paris this morning to go to Virginia in a vessel bound from Havre to Potomac, I have engaged him to receive the papers which are the subject of those letters, to take care of them from thence to Havre, and on the voyage; and when he shall have arrived in Potomac, instead of going directly to Richmond, as he intended, he will proceed with them himself to New York.  I shall pay here all expenses to their delivery at the ship’s side in America, freight included:  unless, perhaps, he may find it necessary to put another covering over them, if he should not be able to get them into the cabin; in this case, you will have to reimburse him for that.  I engage to him that you shall pay him their transportation from the ship’s side to New York, and his own reasonable expenses from the place of his landing to New York, and back to the place of landing.  As he takes that journey for this object only, it would be reasonable that you give him some gratuity for his time and trouble, and I suppose it would be accepted by him; but I have made no agreement for this.  The papers are contained in a large box and a trunk.  They were sent here by Mr. Ast, during my absence in Holland.  When they arrived at the gates of Paris, the officers of the customs opened the trunk, to see whether it contained dutiable articles; but finding only books and papers, they concluded the contents of the box to be of the same nature, and did not open that.  You receive it, therefore, as it came from the hands of Mr. Ast.