"I have the honor to be, most respectfully, your Excellency's most obedient and humble servant,
FRANCIS DANA."
In consequence of the above letter I received a message from the Vice Chancellor on the 15th by one of his Secretaries, acquainting me that he should be glad to see me at his house in the country the next morning. When I waited upon him accordingly, he said he had received my two letters respecting my departure for America, assigning the ill state of my health as the occasion of it, that I was already well informed of the time her Imperial Majesty had fixed for my reception, and of the reasons which influenced her in that respect; and that she could not make any change in it; that if my health did not permit me to wait for the event, in such a case it lay wholly with me to return. I told him the cause which I had mentioned was the true cause, that my health was in such a state the last fall, when I wrote to the Congress, that I should not have remained over the winter, but from an expectation that everything would have been settled during the winter, so that I might have had an audience of her Majesty, and been ready to return to America early in the spring, by which time I expected to have received the permission of the Congress, that I wished only to have the matter properly understood, that the permission of the Congress was not owing to any transactions which had taken place here.
He then asked if I had received any answer from the Congress since the communication of my mission. I replied, none at all, that if he would be pleased to attend to dates, he would see it was impossible; that my communication was made on the 24th of February, that the permission of the Congress was dated on the 1st of April, between thirty and forty days after; that the greater part of that time, my letter containing the account of it, must have been on its way to Paris; that if my letters reached them in two or three months it was very well; that six months, sometimes nine, as was the present case, elapsed before I could receive any answer from America, and that I did not receive her Majesty's first answer, till near two months after the communication.
He seemed to be perfectly satisfied with this account, and said he was very sorry my health would not permit me to remain here, that he should have been very happy to have had the honor of seeing me in my public character. I expressed again the great regret with which I should depart, especially after having resided so long in the country without having had an audience of her Imperial Majesty, which I should have deemed the highest honor of my life. I told him, so convenient an opportunity now offering directly from hence for Boston, I thought I ought not to omit improving it, that if I should, I should be detained in the country through the next winter; for I could not think it would be proper to depart sooner, after taking an audience of her Majesty, to which he seemed to assent. He said, perhaps, after I had recovered my health, I might return again, when he should be very happy to see me, &c. I thanked him for his politeness, and we parted without the least apparent dissatisfaction. Yet I am persuaded, that they had much rather I should remain, because they have their apprehensions, that Congress may resent the postponement of my audience to the conclusion of the definitive treaties of peace; an event, which they must know can operate no change in the political existence of the United States.
I thought it best to put the permission upon its true ground, and my speedy departure upon the ill state of my health; because this would not in the least engage Congress, but leave them at perfect liberty to send another Minister at this Court or not, as they shall judge expedient, all circumstances considered. It is clearly my opinion, since Congress decline being at the expense of concluding a commercial treaty with her Majesty, that the supporting a Minister here has become a matter of much indifference to our interests. The interests of this empire are much more in the power of the United States, than theirs are in the power of this empire. Should we vigorously adopt the cultivation of hemp, and our territories along the Ohio are exceedingly well adapted to it, we should strike at the foundation of the commerce of this empire, and give her Majesty reason to repent at leisure of the line of conduct she has chosen to hold with the United States.
I have the honor to be, &c.
FRANCIS DANA.
TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.
Cambridge, December 17th, 1783.