I have the satisfaction to inform you that a negotiation which, by
desire of the House of Representatives, was opened some years ago with
the British Government, for the erection of light-houses on the Bahamas,
has been successful. Those works, when completed, together with those
which the United States have constructed on the western side of the Gulf
of Florida, will contribute essentially to the safety of navigation
in that sea. This joint participation in establishments interesting
to humanity and beneficial to commerce is worthy of two enlightened
nations, and indicates feelings which can not fail to have a happy
influence upon their political relations. It is gratifying to the
friends of both to perceive that the intercourse between the two people
is becoming daily more extensive, and that sentiments of mutual good
will have grown up befitting their common origin and justifying the hope
that by wise counsels on each side not only unsettled questions may be
satisfactorily terminated, but new causes of misunderstanding prevented.

Notwithstanding that I continue to receive the most amicable assurances
from the Government of France, and that in all other respects the most
friendly relations exist between the United States and that Government,
it is to be regretted that the stipulations of the convention concluded
on the 4th July, 1831, remain in some important parts unfulfilled.

By the second article of that convention it was stipulated that the sum
payable to the United States should be paid at Paris, in six annual
installments, into the hands of such person or persons as should be
authorized by the Government of the United States to receive it, and
by the same article the first installment was payable on the 2d day of
February, 1833. By the act of Congress of the 13th July, 1832, it was
made the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to cause the several
installments, with the interest thereon, to be received from the French