* * * * * TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON. Passy, December 5th, 1782. Sir, I am honored by your several letters, Nos 16, 17, 18 and 19, dated September 5th, 13th, 15th, and 18th. I believe that the complaints you make in them of my not writing, may ere now have appeared less necessary, as many of my letters written before those complaints must have since come to hand. I will nevertheless mention some of the difficulties your Ministers meet with, in keeping up a regular and punctual correspondence. We are far from the seaports, and not well informed, and often misinformed about the sailing of 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 received 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 seacoast; and I imagine that they may sometimes be opened and destroyed because they cannot be well sealed. Again, the observation you make, that the Congress Ministers in Europe seem to form themselves into a privy council, transacting affairs without the privity or concurrence of the sovereign, may be in some respects just; but it should be considered, that if they do not write as frequently as other Ministers here do to their respective Courts, or if when they write, their letters are not regularly received, the greater distance of the seat of war, and the extreme irregularity of conveyances may be the causes, and not a desire of acting without the knowledge or orders of their constituents. There is no European Court, to which an express cannot be sent from Paris in ten or fifteen days, and from most of them answers may be obtained in that time. There is, I imagine, no Minister who would not think it safer to act by orders than from his own discretion; and yet, unless you leave more to the discretion of your Ministers in Europe than Courts usually do, your affairs may sometimes suffer extremely from the distance which, in the time of war especially, may make it five or six months before the answer to a letter shall be received. I suppose the Minister from this Court will acquaint Congress with the King's sentiments, respecting their very handsome present of a ship of the line. People in general here are much pleased with it.