The Emperor is full of the project of removing his East India Company from Trieste to Ostend, and of augmenting the commerce of his subjects, particularly in the Low Countries. The continuation of the war is favorable to his designs, at all events he will seek his own advantage in the proposed mediation.
All the neutral powers seem desirous of procuring stipulations favorable to their commerce and navigation, particularly in the Mediterranean, and for this purpose all appear to wish a general Congress. Perhaps upon the whole it would be more for the honor and permanent advantage of the United States, to have their independence acknowledged and guarantied in an assembly of this nature, than by a particular treaty between the belligerent powers. As Mr Jay is to negotiate with the Count d'Aranda at Paris the proposed treaty, my business here is confined to the arrangement of the public accounts, and the payment of the bills still due, the collecting intelligence, and the solicitation of redress of the various complaints laid before the Ministry in behalf of individuals. For this last purpose I wait on the Count de Florida Blanca, and M. Del Campo, from time to time, and in a respectful manner solicit their attention to these affairs. Personally I have no reason to complain; in my political character I should have more, if I did not know, that the first powers in Europe are treated with the same inattention and delay. I mention this not to excuse the conduct of this Court, but to convince you, that it is not singular with respect to us. I have in some instances promises of redress, and it is to be hoped, that circumstances, patience, and good humor, will terminate these affairs to the satisfaction, in some measure, of the parties interested.
While Mr Jay remains at Paris, as the public despatches are addressed to him, I shall be deprived of intelligence from America, except what I may acquire by private correspondence from thence. I have not had the honor to hear from Mr Jay since he left this place, which may have been occasioned by delay or ill health on the road and afterwards. I have no correspondence with Messrs Adams and Dana, from whom I might receive, and to whom I might contribute hints, that might be of service to the public interest. Messrs Grenville and Oswald are still at Paris, but on this subject you will have from others much more accurate information than it is in my power to give you.
The Count d'Artois is expected here tomorrow, and will be received and treated as an Infant of Spain. This visit is highly pleasing to the royal family. He is expected with impatience. Nothing worth your notice has yet passed at Gibraltar. The besiegers and the besieged, equally prepare the one for the attack, the other for the defence of the place. A courier extraordinary from France, brings advice of the capture of eighteen transports and merchantmen bound to Quebec and Newfoundland. Unhappily the New York fleet, which sailed with the vessels captured, had two or three days before separated from them. A fifty gun ship and a frigate, which escorted them, escaped. I have not yet received M. Cabarrus's account. When these are once delivered and settled, I shall take the earliest opportunity of transmitting to Congress and to Mr Jay, copies of all the public accounts in this country. I entreat your indulgence, and frequent remembrance of me.
I have the honor to be, &c.
WILLIAM CARMICHAEL.
TO ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.
St Ildefonso, September 8th, 1782.
Sir,
My last were of the 17th and 26th ultimo, I am still without the least information from America, since the 1st of May, the date of your last letter. His Excellency, the Count de Florida Blanca, whom I had the honor to see yesterday, seemed apprehensive, that Congress might be induced to believe, from the capitulation accorded to the British at Providence, that this Court had not after what happened at Pensacola instructed its commanders to take care in future, that the garrisons of such places as his Catholic Majesty's forces might reduce, should be disposed of in such a manner as not to be prejudicial to any of the belligerent powers. His Excellency assured me how much he should be concerned if an oversight of the General employed on this occasion, should create a misunderstanding injurious to the harmony which the King wished to cultivate with America, and prayed me to take the earliest opportunity of conveying these sentiments to Congress. He proceeded to inform me, that immediately after the Court received the articles of capitulation at Pensacola, instructions were sent to M. Galvez, to oblige the enemy to consent in future to the transportation of their prisoners to Europe; that these orders did not reach him until he had left the Havana, previous to the necessary arrangements for the expedition against the Bahama Islands.