our taxes are now a third and will soon be half of our whole exports; and when you add the expenses of the State Governments we shall be found to have got to the plenum of taxation in ten short years of peace. Great Britain, after centuries of wars and revolutions, had at the commencement of the present war taxed only to the amount of two-thirds of her exports. We have opened a loan for five millions, at eight per cent. interest, and another is proposed of two millions. These are to build six seventy-fours and six eighteens, in part of additional navy, for which a bill passed the House of Representatives two days ago, by fifty-four against forty-two. Besides the existing army of 5,000 and additional army of 9,000, an _eventual_ army of 30,000 is proposed to be raised by the President, in case of invasion by any European power, or danger of invasion, _in his opinion_, and the _volunteer_ army, the amount of which we know not, is to be immediately called out and exercised at the public expense. For these purposes a bill has been twice read and committed in the Senate. You have seen by Gerry's communications that France is _sincerely anxious_ for reconciliation, willing to give us a _liberal_ treaty, and does not wish us to break the British treaty, but only to put her on an equal footing. A further proof of her sincerity turned up yesterday. We had taken an armed vessel from her, had refitted and sent her to cruise against them, under the name of the Retaliation, and they re-captured and sent her into Guadaloupe. The new commissioners arriving there from France, sent Victor Hughes off in irons, and said to our captain, that as they found him bearing a regular commission as an officer of the United States, with his vessel in their port, and his crew, they would inquire into no fact respecting the vessel preceding their arrival, but that he, his vessel and crew, were free to depart. They arrived here yesterday. The federal papers call her a _cartel_. It is whispered that the executive means to return an equal number of the French prisoners, and this may give a color to call her a cartel, but she was liberated freely and without condition. The commissioners further said to the captain that, as to the differences with the United States, new commissioners were coming out from France to settle them, and in the meantime they should do us no injury. The President has appointed Rufus King to make a commercial treaty with the Russians in London, and William Smith, of South Carolina, to go to Constantinople to make one with the Turks. Both appointments are confirmed by the Senate. A little dissatisfaction was expressed by some that we should never have treated with them till the moment when they had formed a coalition with the English against the French. You have seen that the Directory had published an arret declaring they would treat as pirates any neutrals they should take in the ships of their enemies. The