Mr. Berkley having represented some inconveniences incident to the plan of a Consular Convention between France and the United States, particularly the restriction of Consuls from trading, and his letter having been committed, a report was made proposing that the Convention should for the present be suspended. To this it had been objected, that, as the Convention might already be concluded, such a step was improper; and as the end might be obtained by authorizing the Minister at Versailles to propose particular alterations, that it was unnecessary. By Mr. MADISON it had been moved, that the report should be postponed, to make place for the consideration of an instruction and authority to the said Minister for that purpose; and this motion had, in consequence, been brought before Congress. On this day the business revived. The sentiments of the members were various, some wishing to suspend such part of the Convention only as excluded Consuls from commerce; others thought this exclusion too important to be even suspended; others, again, thought the whole ought to be suspended during the war; and others, lastly, contended that the whole ought to be new modelled, the Consuls having too many privileges in some respects, and too little power in others. It was observable that this diversity of opinions prevailed chiefly among the members who had come in since the Convention had been passed in Congress; the members originally present adhering to the views which then governed them. The subject was finally postponed; eight States only being represented, and nine being requisite for such a question. Even to have suspended the Convention,

after it had been proposed to the Court of France, and possibly acceded to, would have been indecent and dishonorable; and at a juncture when Great Britain was courting a commercial intimacy, to the probable uneasiness of France, of very mischievous tendency. But experience constantly teaches that new members of a public body do not feel the necessary respect or responsibility for the acts of their predecessors, and that a change of members and of circumstances often proves fatal to consistency and stability of public measures. Some conversation, in private, by the old members with the most judicious of the new, in this instance, has abated the fondness of the latter for innovations, and it is even problematical whether they will be again urged.

In the evening of this day the Grand Committee met, and agreed to meet again the succeeding evening, for the purpose of a conference with the Superintendent of Finance.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 7TH.

See the Journals.

In the evening the Grand Committee had the assigned conference with Mr. Morris, who informed them explicitly that it was impossible to make any advance of pay, in the present state of the finances, to the army, and imprudent to give any assurances with respect to future pay, until certain funds should be previously established. He observed that even if an advance could be made, it would be unhappy

that it should appear to be the effect of demands from the army; as this precedent could not fail to inspire a distrust of the spontaneous justice of Congress, and to produce repetitions of the expedient. He said that he had taken some measures with a view to a payment for the army, which depended on events not within our command; that he had communicated these measures to General Washington under an injunction of secrecy; that he could not yet disclose them without endangering their success; that the situation of our affairs within his department was so alarming, that he had thoughts of asking Congress to appoint a Confidential Committee to receive communications on that subject, and to sanctify, by their advice, such steps as ought to be taken. Much loose conversation passed on the critical state of things, the defect of a permanent revenue, and the consequences to be apprehended from a disappointment of the mission from the army; which ended in the appointment of Friday evening next for an audience to General McDougall, Col. Brooks and Col. Ogden, the Deputies on the subject of the memorial; the Superintendent to be present.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 8TH, THURSDAY, JANUARY 9TH, and FRIDAY, JANUARY 10TH.

On the Report* for valuing the land conformably to the rule laid down in the Federal Articles, the Delegates from Connecticut contended for postponing

*This proposed to require the States to value the land, and return the valuations to Congress.

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the subject during the war, alleging the impediments arising from the possession of New York, &c., by the enemy; but apprehending, as was supposed, that the flourishing State of Connecticut, compared with the Southern States, would render a valuation, at this crisis, unfavorable to the former. Others, particularly Mr. HAMILTON and Mr. MADISON, were of opinion that the rule of the Confederation was a chimerical one, since, if the intervention of the individual States were employed, their interests would give a bias to their judgments, or that at least suspicions of such bias would prevail; and, without their intervention, it could not be executed but at an expense, delay, and uncertainty, which were inadmissible; that it would perhaps be, therefore, preferable to represent these difficulties to the States, and recommend an exchange of this rule of dividing the public burdens for one more simple, easy, and equal. The Delegates from South Carolina generally, and particularly Mr. RUTLEDGE, advocated the propriety of the constitutional rule, and of an adherence to it, and of the safety of the mode in question arising from the honor of the States. The debates on the subject were interrupted by a letter from the Superintendent of Finance, informing Congress that the situation of his Department required that a committee should be appointed, with power to advise him on the steps proper to be taken; and suggesting an appointment of one, consisting of a member from each State, with authority to give their advice on the subject. This expedient was objected to as improper, since Congress would thereby delegate an incommunicable power, perhaps, and would, at any

rate, lend a sanction to a measure without even knowing what it was, not to mention the distrust which it manifested of their own prudence and fidelity. It was, at length, proposed and agreed to, that a special committee, consisting of Mr. RUTLEDGE, Mr. OSGOOD, and Mr. MADISON, should confer with the Superintendent of Finance on the subject of his letter, and make report to Congress. After the adjournment of Congress this Committee conferred with the Superintendent; who, after being apprized of the difficulties which had arisen in Congress, stated to them that the last account of our money affairs in Europe showed that, contrary to his expectations and estimates, there were three and a half millions of livres short of the bills actually drawn; that further drafts were indispensable to prevent a stop to the public service; that to make good this deficiency there was only the further success of Mr. Adams' loan, and the friendship of France, to depend on; that it was necessary for him to decide on the expediency of his staking the public credit on those contingent funds by further drafts; and that, in making this decision, he wished for the sanction of a committee of Congress; that this sanction was preferable to that of Congress itself only, as it would confide the risk attending bills drawn on such funds to a smaller number, and as secrecy was essential in the operation, as well to guard our affairs in general from injury, as the credit of the bills in question from debasement. It was supposed, both by the Superintendent and the Committee, that there was, in fact, little danger of bills drawn on France on the credit of the loan of four millions of dollars applied