all, and some extremely impatient to be gone, and the merchants uneasy about their letters, and the orders they had given for insurance (it being war-time) for fall goods; but their anxiety availed nothing; his Lordship's letters were not ready; and yet, whoever waited on him found him always at his desk, pen in hand, and concluded he must needs write abundantly." Apart from the manifest inconvenience of postal service conducted in the way described, one cannot wonder that the affairs of the American Colonies should get into a bad way when conducted under a policy of so manifest vacillation and indecision. But the irregular transmission of mails between America and Europe was not a thing referring merely to the year 1757, for Franklin, writing from Passy, near Paris, in the year 1782, again dwells upon the uncertainty of the communication. "We are far from the sea-ports," he says, "and not well informed, and often misinformed, about the sailing of the vessels. Frequently we are told they are to sail in a week or two, and often they lie in the ports for months after with our letters on board, either waiting for convoy or for other reasons. The post-office here is an unsafe conveyance; many of the letters we receive by it have evidently been opened, and doubtless the same happens to those we send; and, at this time particularly, there is so violent a curiosity in all kinds of people to know something relating to the negotiations, and whether peace may be expected, or a continuance of the war, that there are few private hands or travellers that we can trust with carrying our despatches to the sea-coast; and I imagine that they may sometimes be opened and destroyed, because they cannot be well sealed."