3. In blending the business of a public Minister with that of a commercial agent. The business of various departments is by this means so blended, and the public and private expenses so confounded with each other, that I am sure no satisfaction can ever be given to the public of the disposition of their interests, and I am very confident, that jealousies and suspicions will hereafter arise against the characters of gentlemen, who may, perhaps, have acted with perfect integrity and the fairest intentions for the public good. My idea is this; separate the offices of public Ministers from those of commercial agents;[37] recall, or send to some other Court, all the public Ministers but one at this Court; determine with precision the sum that shall be allowed to the remaining one for his expenses, for his salary, and for his time, risk, trouble, &c.; and when this is done, see that he receives no more than his allowance. The inconveniences arising from the multiplicity of Ministers and the complication of business are infinite. Remember me with the most tender affection to my worthy colleagues, and to all others to whom you know they are due. I am your friend and servant, JOHN ADAMS. FOOTNOTES: [36] In another letter, which Mr Adams afterwards wrote to Mr Samuel Adams, he says the account of the Commissioners' expenses here given is "exaggerated," and "put much too high," owing to his having been but a short time in Paris, and not being accurately informed on the subject. See this letter hereafter, dated February 14th, 1779, in the present volume. By a letter from Mr Arthur Lee, dated May 9th, 1778, containing a transcript from the banker's books, it appears, that from December, 1776, to March, 1778, a period of fifteen months, Silas Deane received on his private account, $20,926; Arthur Lee, $12,749; and Dr Franklin, $12,214. _See Arthur Lee's Correspondence_, Vol. II. p. 159, where the above sums are stated in livres, and they are here reduced to dollars by the rule practised at that time, of allowing five livres and eight sols to the dollar. The fractions are omitted in the reduction. It must be observed, that the above payments are not a specification of the amounts actually received for the period in question, because the Commissioners may have had other expenses for which they afterwards drew on the banker, but these sums may serve as a tolerably correct indication of their expenses, and were probably intended as such by Mr Lee. At this time no fixed salary was allowed, but Congress resolved that all expenses should be paid, and that such an additional compensation should be granted, as might afterwards be deemed expedient by Congress.