made, till I heard the contrary from you. To-day I learn that they were not arrived while the cartel was there; and I have now desired of M. de Sartine that two hundred may be immediately sent over,-one to pay for the 100 Americans received, and the other to exchange a fresh parcel. His verbal answer is that the request is just, and shall be complied with; and he will write a letter to me to-morrow, which I may send over to be shown to the Board of Sick and Hurt, that will explain the matter, and clear me from any charge of bad faith. He added that he would also take the first opportunity of sending the remainder to equal the number delivered in Holland, in order to exchange for Americans, - having no scruple of doing this by advance, the Board having shewn the greatest honour and exactitude in all their proceedings. I am sure it has been my intention to do the same; and I shall alwas act accordingly. Tho I am not insensible of the injustice towards us of the Boston cartels formerly mentioned. I shall write to Mr. Hartley, from whom I have just received copies of the French certificates, &c., per next post after I receive the letter from M. de Sartine. In the meantime I wish you would be so good as to communicate to him the contents of this with my respects.

I should be glad to hear some more particulars about Mr. W., and the reasons of discarding him. I hope the rest of that worthy society are well and happy.

With great esteem I am, dear sir, &c.

B. F.

CHAPTER XIX.

A

MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY.

LARGE print, widely circulated in America, represents a beautiful lady crowning Dr. Franklin with laurel, as he sits in the midst of an elegant assembly of ladies and gentlemen, prominent among whom are Louis XVI., and Marie Antoinette. The authority of this picture which is recent is in the following passage in Madame Campan's memoirs: -

Elegant fêtes were given to Dr. Franklin, who united the renown of one of the most skilful naturalists, with the patriotic virtues which had made him embrace the noble rôle of Apostle of Liberty. I was present at one of these fêtes, where the most beautiful of three hundred women was designated to go and place on the philosopher's white locks a crown of laurel, and to give the old man two kisses on his cheeks."

It will be observed that Madame Campan does not say that the King and Queen were present, and there is no reason to suppose that they were. In the "Mémoires," which relate specially to the Court, as distinguished from the Government, or from life in Paris, or general politics, very little reference is made to American politics, and almost none to Franklin or his associates. Within a few years past the correspondence of Maria Theresa with her unfortunate daughter, and with Mercy, the Austrian minister, has been printed in full. It is a most melancholy

364

FRANKLIN IN FRANCE.

disclosure of the frivolity of the life of this undisciplined young woman, then in the first excitement of her career as wife of a king who adored her, and who supposed himself to be an absolute monarch. In 1780 — the year to which we have now come- - she was twenty-five years old, and had been ten years married. Poor Mercy writes of her to her mother: "Any impression made upon this august and charming princess is so fleeting that, with all the esprit possible, with all possible judgment and good faith, she is constantly torn out from her true self, even though she knows she is led into error." In these very years, the gambling at Court, where she was herself partner in a faro bank, was such as terrified him and Maria Theresa; and Marie Antoinette herself descends to flat falsehood in pretending to her mother that she has suppressed it.

In this year the Government of France, having laid aside its plans for invading England, determined to send out Rochambeau, with an allied army, to America. To this force Marie Antoinette alludes once or twice in her letters to her mother, and these make all her references to the American Revolution.

In the correspondence between mother and daughter, the first reference to the American struggle is made by Maria Theresa, in a letter in which she tells her daughter that she must now pay more attention to affairs of state:1 "These reflections of a good old mamma and sovereign, have led me to give new instructions to Mercy. I have told him that he must inform you about public affairs, and arrange with you what views you must take with your ministers. These are the most important objects, which I speak of only in passing. The dissensions between the Turks and Russians, those between Spain and 1 February 3, 1777.

MARIE ANTOINETTE.

365

Portugal, as well as the war in America, may very easily cause a conflagration, into which I might be drawn in spite of myself."

Marie Antoinette never alludes to the American war, nor to the envoys, until the 18th of March, 1778, when she says: "The King has directed that the King of England shall be told that he has made a treaty with the Ameri- ! cans. Mylord Stormont received on Sunday the orders of his Court to leave France. It seems as if our marine, about which much has been done for a long time, will soon be in action. God grant that all these movements may not bring on war on land!" She goes on to speak of the duel between the Count d'Artois and the Duke of Burgundy.

Two years after, on the 16th of March, 1780: “We were arranging to send eight or ten thousand good troops to America, at the end of the month, they are to be collected in Brittany, - but I believe that this news will defer the embarcation. We cannot risk this great force without being sure of the sea, it would be frightful to sustain more misfortunes there; I own to you I cannot think of it coolly. I hope Mme. de Starkemburg will be pleased with what I have done [for her] brother; I have procured a place for him in this expedition. This brother was Prince Emmanuel de Salm."

-

On the 13th of April she says, "The troops destined for the islands are on board, and only await a favorable wind." This was Rochambeau's expedition. Her allusion to the islands may not be bad geography, for they went by way of the West Indies. "God grant that they arrive happily." And on the 13th of July she writes, "The loss of Charleston is very annoying, on account of the advantage which it will give to the English, and their boasting about it; it is perhaps worse on account of the

bad defence of the Americans, nothing can be hoped from such bad troops." These are her only allusions to the alliance. Her mother died on the 29th of November, 1780, and this curious and valuable correspondence comes to an end at that date.

Early in the year 1780, Franklin received the orders of Congress to procure some medals for officers who had distinguished themselves in its service. These medals are frequently alluded to in the letters, and are well known to numismatists. Gérard returned from Philadelphia, where Luzerne took his place. And on the 4th of February, 1780, Mr. John Adams, with Mr. Dana and Mr. Thaxter, arrived in Paris, having landed at Corunna. He had been sent out with a commission to negotiate a peace whenever England might propose it. The suggestion had been made by Gérard to Congress, and renewed by Luzerne. Both of these gentlemen, and Vergennes, from whom it came, expected that Franklin would be named. Here Congress disappointed them, as Mr. Adams says, and he adds that in giving him a commission to negotiate a treaty of commerce with England, Congress went farther than the French Court meant or desired. Mr. Adams remained in Paris with his two sons until July, when he repaired to Amsterdam, and began upon his negotiations there. While in Paris he was not, as before, a colleague with Franklin. He was engaged in a curious discussion with Vergennes, as to his reception at Court and the publicity which should be given to his commission, in which Vergennes offended him by a tone of presumption, which even so skilful a diplomatist could not avoid, with the nation whose strength he did not yet know.

At the beginning of the year, Paul Jones came up to Paris, as has been said. He was received with enthusiasm everywhere, especially at the opera. By a curious