LETTER IV.--TO JOHN JAY, July 29, 1789


TO JOHN JAY.

Paris, July 29, 1789.

Sir,

I have written you lately, on the 24th of June, with a postscript of the
25th; on the 29th of the same month; the 19th of July, with a postscript
of the 21st; and again on the 23rd. Yesterday I received yours of the
9th of March, by the way of Holland.

Mr. Necker has accepted his appointment, and will arrive today from
Switzerland, where he had taken refuge. No other ministers have been
named since my last. It is thought that Mr. Necker will choose his own
associates. The tranquillity of Paris has not been disturbed, since the
death of Foulon and Bertier, mentioned in my last. Their militia is in a
course of organization. It is impossible to know the exact state of the
supplies of bread. We suppose them low and precarious, because, some
days, we are allowed to buy but half or three fourths of the daily
allowance of our families. Yet as the wheat harvest must begin within
ten days or a fortnight, we are in hopes there will be subsistence
found till that time. This is the only source from which I should fear
a renewal of the late disorders; for I take for granted, the fugitives
from the wrath of their country, are all safe in foreign countries.
Among these are numbered seven Princes of the house of Bourbon, and six
ministers; the seventh (the Marshal de Broglio) being shut up in the
fortified town of Metz, strongly garrisoned with foreign soldiers. I