being intended for the payment of Ministers' salaries for the two first quarters of this year. But as these bills came so late, that all those salaries were already paid, I shall make no use of the bills, but lay them by till further orders; and the salaries of different Ministers not having all the same times of falling due, as they had different commencements, I purpose to get all their accounts settled and reduced to the same period, and send you the state of them, that you may be clear in future orders. I see in one of the estimates sent me, that a quarter's salary of a Minister is reckoned at 14,513 livres, in the other it is reckoned 16,667 livres, and the bill for 9,756[6] livres is mentioned as intended to pay a balance due on the remittance of the 68,290 livres. Being unacquainted with the state of your exchange, I do not well comprehend this, and therefore leave the whole for the present, as I have said above. Permit me only to hint for your consideration, whether it may not be well hereafter to omit mention of sterling, in our appointments, since we have severed from the country to which that denomination of money is peculiar; and also to order the payment of your Ministers in such a manner, that they may know exactly what they are to receive, and not be subject to the fluctuations of exchange. If it is that, which occasions the difference between 14,583 for the first quarter, and the 16,667 for the second, it is considerable. I think we have no right to any advantage by the exchange, nor should we be liable to any loss from it. Hitherto we have taken 15,000 for a quarter, (subject however to the allowance or disallowance of Congress) which is lower than the medium between those two extremes. The different accounts given of Lord Shelburne's character, with respect to sincerity, induced the Ministry here to send over M. de Rayneval, Secretary to the Council, to converse with him, and endeavor to form by that means a more perfect judgment of what was to be expected from the negotiations. He was five or six days in England, saw all the Ministers, and returned quite satisfied, that they are sincerely desirous of peace, so that the negotiations now go on with some prospect of success. But the Court and people of England are very changeable. A little turn of fortune in their favor sometimes turns their heads; and I shall not think a speedy peace to be depended on, till I see the treaties signed. I am obliged to finish. With great esteem, &c. B. FRANKLIN. FOOTNOTE: [6] This was not merely to pay a balance, but an excess on account of contingencies. _Note by Mr Livingston_. * * * * * TO JOHN ADAMS. Passy, October 15th, 1782. Sir, A long and painful illness has prevented my corresponding with your Excellency regularly.