which no satisfactory proofs can yet be obtained. To form any probable opinion respecting it, we must, as in every other intricate transaction, examine the characters and views of the parties concerned, and by comparing them together endeavor to discover upon which side the villainy lies.

No three persons could have been sent by Mr. Adams, less acceptable to the Directory of France, than Pinckney, Marshall and Gerry. Pinckney, it is well known, was refused before, and had, on that account, in his letters to Pickering, which were published, and which the French must have seen, represented that people in the worst point of view. Sending such a character to Paris in order to negociate a peace, was nearly an equal insult as if Mr. Pitt had sent to America the traitor Arnold in order to represent the court of Britain. John Marshall was an improper character in several respects; his principles of aristocracy were well known. Talleyrand, when in America, knew that this man was regarded as a royalist, and not as a republican, and that he was abhorred by most honest characters. Mr. Gerry was the least exceptionable of the three; but Gerry was never by nature intended fora diplomatic character, no more than Mr.Adams; they were both natives of that soil "in which no

salutary plant takes root." In short, if Mr. Adams had wished to declare war against France, he could 着 not have adopted a more explicit mode of making known his sentiments, than by sending this trium

virate to treat for a peace. The French, notwithstanding, appeared to manifest every desire to negociate; the Directory, it is true, did not admit the envoys to an audience; but the Minister for Foreign Affairs was empowered to treat with them, and every effort was used on his part to effect a negociation....but they neither would condescend to wait upon him together, or separately; their time was otherwise occupied, either in chatting with X. Y. and Z. or in composing elaborate epistles to Mr. Pickering, complaining of the insolence of Mr. Talleyrand and the roguery of the Directory.

Two of them, Pinckney and Marshall, at length departed, but not in the most honorable manner. An unhappy female of a respectable family in Paris, lost her reputation in their company: Her parents, to screen themselves from the odium of intriguing with the ambassadors of a foreign country, turned her out of doors. She applied to Pinckney for leave to accompany him to America, which, it is said, he granted, and fixed a day for their depar-. ture, but went off without either giving her notice, or a compensation for the loss of her virtue. The helpless lady was obliged to solicit the charity of Mr. Gerry, who also promised, she said, to conduct her to America, but afterwards left her as Mr. Pinckney. When all the embassy were fled, she applied to the Captain of an American vessel, who, on the faith of her story, gave her a passage to Charleston; but she had no sooner arrived, than she was apprehended as a female spy. A few ten-.

der and affectionate cards, which had been addressed to her by her lovers, and which she carried along with her as passports, were twisted into bills of treason; two or three small trunks containing wearing apparel, which constituted all her property, were, with the same facility, framed into tubs of seditious papers, for the purpose of distribution among the slaves of the southern States. What afterwards became of the unfortunate lady, we know not; whether Pinckney and Marshall recognized her, or whether she was drove to the hard necessity of working for her own support and that of a helpless infant, the only known benefit procured to the United States from the embassy of Pinckney, Marshall and Gerry.

To return from this digression, let us observe the conduct of Mr. Gerry: This gentleman often insinuates and sometimes even asserts, that Talleyrand told him he might rely on any information given by Mr. Y.; but from the correspondence between him and Talleyrand respecting their names, it evidently appears that the latter was totally ignorant of any offers ever made by him. As Mr. Gerry has never attempted to contradict Talleyrand in this matter, but seems to acquiesce in it, we must infer that the whole story of £.50,000 sterling, as a douceur, and 16 millions of Dutch rescriptions by way of loan, was either a fabrication of X. Y. and Z. or of our own envoys, or perhaps of both. If there was any reality in the said bribe, it proceeded from a very different quarter

than either Talleyrand or the Directory....X. and Y. were most probably agents for the privateersmen, and the £.50,000 was intended for their pockets, and not for that of the French minister. Some words dropped by Mr. X. and related by the envoys in their dispatches, appear to confirm this supposition. "He said that all the members of the Directory were not disposed to receive our money; that Merlin, for instance, was paid from another quarter, and would touch no part of the douceur which was to come from us." We replied, "that we had understood that Merlin was paid by the owners of the privateers; and he nodded an assent to the fact." A late publication published in Paris, in vindication of the conduct of Talleyrand, even insinuates that Pinckney was leagued with the privateer merchants; and that most of the privateers fitted out in the French ports, were the property of Americans. We trust that neither Mr. Pinckney nor any of our consuls were engaged in such a nefarious trade, although it must be allowed, there were several citizens of the United States who enriched themselves upon the spoils of their countrymen. The same publication affirms, that X. and Y. were the proprietors of several privateers at Bourdeaux and Dunkirk. If this be true, it is not surprising that they should have exerted every scheme to prevent a reconciliation. At all events, our envoys deserve the greatest censure for having been duped by such swindlers.

The following were the Acts passed this Session of Congress :

1. An act for the punishment of certain crimes therein specified.

2. An act respecting ballances reported against certain States, by the commissioners appointed to settle the accounts between the United States and the several States.

3. An act to alter the stamp duties imposed upon foreign bills of exchange and bills of lading, by an act, intitled, "An act laying duties upon stamped vellum, parchment and paper," and further to amend the same.

4. An act further to suspend the commercial intercourse between the United States and France, and the dependencies thereof.

5. An act for the relief of Jonathan Haskill.

6. An act to authorize the reimbursements of monies expended in rendering aid to sick and destitute American seamen in foreign countries.

7. An act for the relief of Gazzan, Taylor and Jones, and of Samuel Watt of the city of Philadelphia.

8. An act appropriating a certain sum of money to defray the expence of holding a treaty or treaties with the Indians.

9. An act for the augmentation of the navy. 10. An act authorising the establishment of docks.

11. An act authorizing the purchase of timber for naval purposes.