THE DUC DE LA VAUGUYON TO JOHN ADAMS. Translation. The Hague, December 20th, 1781. Sir, I have received the letter you did me the honor to address me. I shall be impatient to converse with you on the subject to which it relates, and shall expect to see you at ten o'clock tomorrow morning, as you desire. Receive, Sir, my renewed assurances of the profound respect with which I have the honor to be, &c. DE LA VAUGUYON. * * * * * TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS. Amsterdam, December 25th, 1781. Sir, There has appeared an ulterior declaration, in addition to the ordinances of the 30th of April and the 3d of November, concerning the navigation and the maritime commerce of the subjects of Prussia during the present war. "The ordinances, which the King has caused to be published of the 30th of April and 3d of November of this year, have, in truth, already prescribed to the subjects of his Majesty, the manner in which they ought, for their greatest safety, to direct their navigation and their commerce; nevertheless, as several doubts have arisen in this regard, his Majesty, in order to obviate them, and to direct his subjects who trade by sea, has thought fit to establish, ordain, and declare, as follows. "ARTICLE I. It cannot be doubted, and it is understood, that the Prussian vessels, which have put to sea before the publication of the ordinance of the 3d of November, and which, by consequence, could not be furnished with passports expedited by the Minister of foreign affairs, which are therein prescribed, cannot be taken or molested, by reason of the want of such passports, but that the passports heretofore in use, which they have taken at their departure, ought to have, until their return, their force and value, and to procure them, until that time, a sufficient security. To remove, however, still more effectually, all difficulties, which might exist in this regard, the obligation to furnish themselves with immediate passports from Berlin, is not to commence until after the 1st of January, 1782, to the end that every one may have time to take his measures in consequence.