it only for the remaining lease, which was one year and three-quarters.  The price, which is not quite two hundred pounds, the situation, and all together, induced us to close the bargain, and I have prevailed upon the person who lets it to paint two rooms, which will put it into decent order; so that, as soon as our furniture comes, I shall again commence housekeeping.  Living at a hotel is, I think, more expensive than housekeeping, in proportion to what one has for his money.  We have never had more than two dishes at a time upon our table, and have not pretended to ask any company, and yet we live at a greater expense than twenty-five guineas per week.  The wages of servants, horse hire, house rent, and provisions are much dearer here than in France.  Servants of various sorts, and for different departments, are to be procured; their characters are to be inquired into, and this I take upon me, even to the coachman, You can hardly form an idea how much I miss my son on this, as well as on many other accounts; but I cannot bear to trouble Mr. Adams with anything of a domestic kind, who, from morning until evening, has sufficient to occupy all his time.  You can have no idea of the petitions, letters, and private applications for assistance, which crowd our doors.  Every person represents his case as dismal.  Some may really be objects of compassion, and some we assist; but one must have an inexhaustible purse to supply them all.  Besides, there are so many gross impositions practiced, as we have found in more instances than one, that it would take the whole of a person’s time to trace all their stories.  Many pretend to have been American soldiers, some have served as officers.  A most glaring instance of falsehood, however, Colonel Smith detected in a man of these pretensions, who sent to Mr. Adams from the King’s Bench prison, and modestly desired five guineas; a qualified cheat, but evidently a man of letters and abilities:  but if it is to continue in this way, a galley slave would have an easier task.

The Tory venom has begun to spit itself forth in the public papers, as I expected, bursting with envy that an American minister should be received here with the same marks of attention, politeness, and civility, which are shown to the ministers of any other power.  When a minister delivers his credentials to the King, it is always in his private closet, attended only by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, which is called a private audience, and the minister presented makes some little address to his Majesty, and the same ceremony to the Queen, whose reply was in these words:  “Sir, I thank you for your civility to me and my family, and I am glad to see you in this country;” then she very politely inquired whether he had got a house yet.  The answer of his Majesty was much longer; but I am not at liberty to say more respecting it, than that it was civil and polite, and that his Majesty said he was glad the choice of his country had fallen upon him.  The news-liars know nothing of the matter; they represent it just to answer their purpose.  Last Thursday, Colonel Smith was presented at Court, and to-morrow, at the Queen’s circle, my ladyship and your niece make our compliments.  There is no other presentation in Europe in which I should feel as much as in this.  Your own reflections will easily suggest the reasons.