wait for an acceptance of my resignation, but to come home without it, provided it does not arrive in a reasonable time. Don't think, therefore, of coming to Europe. If you do, we shall cross each other, and I shall arrive in America about the same time that you may arrive in Europe.

I shall certainly return home in the spring. With or without leave, resignation accepted or not, home I will come, so you have nothing to do but wait to receive your old friend

LETTER CXCI.

J. ADAMS.

Paris, 27 February, 1783.

MY DEAREST FRIEND,

"L'AMBITION dans l'oisiveté, la bassesse dans l'orgeuil, le desir de s'enrichir sans travail, l'aversion pour la vérité, la flatterie, la trahison, la perfidie, l'abandon de tous ses engagemens, le mépris des devoirs du citoyen, la crainte de la vertu du prince, l'espérance de ses foiblesses, et plus que tout cela, le ridicule perpétuel jetté sur la vertu, forment, je crois, le caractère du plus grand nombre des courtisans, marqué dans tous les lieux et dans tous les temps.” 1 It is Montesquieu who draws this picture, and I

"De l'esprit des loix," book iii., chap. 5.

think it is drawn from the life, and is an exact resemblance. You cannot wonder, then, that I am weary, and wish to be at home upon almost any terms. Your life would be dismal in a high degree, you would be in a hideous solitude among millions. None of them would be society for you that you could endure. Mrs. Jay is in this situation, ardently longing to come home. Yet she is much better circumstanced than you are, to be abroad, as her family is smaller and younger. You must leave a part of your family. No. Let us live in our own country, and in our own way, educate our children to be good for something. Upon no consideration whatever would I have any of my children educated in Europe. In conscience I could not consent to it.

If Congress had been steady and continued in force my commission to make a treaty of commerce with Great Britain, I should have gone to London, and have finished the treaty before now; but I should not have thought of residing in London long. I should have resigned and returned to America in a year or two at farthest. If Congress should now revive my commission and send me a new one, which I think altogether mprobable, but believe they will complete their work by sending another man upon that errand, I would not stay longer in England than a year or two at farthest. I cannot bear the thought of a long banishment from my own native soil where alone I can ever be happy or comfortable.

I write you by every opportunity, lest you should embark for Europe when I am upon my passage

home, which would be a terrible disappointment to both. My intention is to come home, whether I receive the acceptance of my resignation or not, unless I receive a commission to St. James's. Don't you embark, therefore, until you receive a letter from me desiring you to come. If I should receive such a commission, I will write you immediately by way of France, Holland and England, and shall wish you to come to me on the wings of the wind. But the same influence, French influence I mean, which induced Congress to revoke my commission, will still continue to prevent the revival of it. And I think it likely, too, that English influence will now be added to French, for I don't believe that George wishes to see my face. In this case I shall enjoy the satisfaction of coming, where I wish most to be, with all my children, living in simplicity, innocence and repose.

What I write you upon this subject is in confidence, and must not be communicated but with great discretion.

Yours entirely and forever,

JOHN ADAMS.

LETTER CXCII.

MY DEAREST FRIEND,

Paris, 30 May, 1783.

HERE I am out of all patience. Not a word from America. The British ministry lingering on. Mr. Hartley uncertain what to do. No regulation of commerce agreed on. No definitive treaty of peace signed, nor likely to be signed very soon. My spring passage home lost. To embark in July or August would be the worst season of the whole year, on account of heats and calms. I don't see a possibility of embarking before September or October. The total idleness, the perpetual uncertainty we are in, is the most insipid and at the same time disgusting and provoking situation imaginable. I had rather be employed in carting street dust and marsh mud. Neither do I know how or where I shall get a passage. I could now go with Mr. Van Berckel in a fine new sixty-eight gun ship. In the fall, I suppose I shall be obliged to step on board a merchant ship loaded down to the brim; but whether from Holland, or from some port in France, I know not. So many vessels will run away to England that I fear it will be difficult to find a passage from France or Holland. But we must bear it all if we can.

Our son is at the Hague, pursuing his studies with great ardor. They give him a good character wher

ever he has been, and I hope he will make a good man. It is unaccountable that not one vessel should have arrived from any part of New England since the peace, nor for so long a time before. But all is mystery. Pray write me. Don't omit to write, until I arrive home. Direct to the care of Mr. Dumas, à l'hotel des Etats Unis d'Amerique, at the Hague, or to the care of Mr. Jay, at Paris. These gentlemen will take care of your letters, if I should be gone.

Yours, with great affection,

LETTER CXCIII.

J. A.

Paris, 8 April, 1783.

MY DEAREST FRIEND,

WHAT Would I not give for an arrival from America, or for certain advice from London of the appointment of a ministry, or for the arrival here of a minister to sign the definitive treaty ?

9 June.

What would I not give for an arrival from America, or for advice from London what the ministry intend to do? Mr. Hartley is now here, but we advance slowly to the definitive treaty. I can now have no hopes of seeing you before late in the fall. If the