The vessel being put in motion by the water-wheel, wrought by five men at the capstan, was steered so as to keep the wind right ahead, and her rate of going was found by the log to be three and a half miles in the hour. After this, the wind was brought on the beam, (that situation being considered as the nearest to trying the effect of the wheel in a calm,) when five men at the capstan made the vessel go at the rate of four miles an hour. With the wind brought on the quarter, five men caused her to go at the rate of four and a half miles an hour. Four men at the rate of four miles an hour. Two men, Three men, something more than three miles in the hour. at the rate of two and a half miles in the hour. One man, at the rate of one mile and three quarters of a mile in the hour. It is proper to remark, that a vessel of the same length with that in which the experiments were made, if in real service, should be furnished with two, if not three, water-wheels, and the same number of capstans. These experiments, and others, made in a double vessel, thirtyfive feet long, with five wheels wrought by cranks, have enabled Mr. Miller to ascertain sundry matters of great importance, about which he entertained doubts when he wrote the Treatise on Naval Architecture, to be presented to the Congress of the United States of America. One of these related to the power most proper to work the waterwheel. He is now satisfied that the capstan possesses the power best suited to that purpose. The mechanism of the movement is simple, and, by extending the bars one or two feet, the diameter of the wheel on the capstan may be enlarged, and thereby the revolutions of the water-wheel will be increased, which must accelerate the motion of the ship. He is equally well satisfied as to the distance at which the different vessels should be placed from each other. He does not hesitate to say, that in a triple ship, of the length and breadth of our first-rates, the vessels should not be placed at more than six feet from each other. A ship of twice the length, and about twice the breadth of our first-rates, should be quintuple, and the vessels placed at the distance of five and a half feet from each other. From the great number of wheels which can be wrought with capstans in ships of these magnitudes, Mr. Miller is certain they may be made to go from four to five miles an hour in a calm, and from three to four miles an hour against light winds. As an objection to ships of this construction, it is said that the sea will separate the different bottoms. This objection is not well founded, for top weight not being detrimental to these ships, in point of stiffness, all the beams on the different decks may be of the same size, and the strength of these united must be very superior to any weight or force which can operate against it. When the ship is afloat, however agitated or high the sea may be, the united strength of so many beams may be estimated, in some degree, by calculating the weight it will take to break an oak beam five and a half or six feet long, of the breadth and thickness of a first-rate's lower deck beam. Dalswinton, November 19, 1787. FROM JOHN ADAMS TO JOHN JAY. Grosvenor Square, December 16, 1787. Dear Sir, Two days ago I received the letter you did me the honor to write me on the 16th of October, with its enclosures. The approbation of my conduct in Europe, expressed in the resolutions of Congress of the 5th of October, does me honor, and demands my acknowledgments. The permission to return to America, and the termination of my commission in Holland, having removed all difficulties, it is my intention to embark with my family in the month of March. It would give me great pleasure, sir, to accept of your polite and friendly invitation to New York; but as the health of my family is very tender, and their apprehensions of the sea very great, it will be necessary for me to embark for Boston. Mr. Smith and his family will embark for New York. As Congress have not transmitted him any orders relative to another Minister, or to a Chargé d'Affaires at this Court, the presumption is, that it is either the intention of Congress to have no diplomatic character here, or that other persons are destined to fill it; in either case, Mr. Smith's road is as clear as mine-to return home. You have before this time received from Colonel Smith his own account of his journey, arrival, and reception in Portugal. This reception was more flattering than could have been expected, and was in every respect, I presume, fully satisfactory to him. But the mission has been attended with consequences affecting his health, which, there is reason to fear, he will have cause to remember for some time. A bilious fever, or tertian ague, contracted in Portugal or Spain, has left him in a delicate state of health, which I fear he will not fully remove till he arrives in America. The public mind cannot be occupied about a nobler object than the proposed plan of government. It appears to be admirably calculated to cement all America in affection and interest as one great nation. A result of accommodation and compromise cannot be supposed perfectly to coincide with any one's ideas of perfection. But as all the great principles necessary to order, liberty, and safety, are respected in it, and provision is made for corrections and amendments as they may be found necessary, I confess I hope to hear of its adoption by all the States. Two days ago a great consternation was spread in the stock exchange by a report of a quadruple alliance of the two Empires with France and Spain. Whether this is any more than an artificial circulation to turn the tide of popular terror and vapor, like the revived conversations about an invasion of England, I know not. France undoubtedly has the power to form alliances, if she will; which will bring the existence of Britain and Prussia into question. But the revival of States General and Provincial, and the contests which are likely to arise out of them, will give the French Government business for some time. Most perfectly do I agree with you that America has nothing to fear but a want of union and a want of government. The United States now stand in an elevated situation, and they must and will be respected and courted, not only by France and England, but by all other Powers of Europe, while they keep themselves neutral. It is suspected by some that the additional troops now recruiting for the army are intended to be sent to Canada and Nova Scotia. Their ostensible destination is to the West India Islands. No answer is made to any of my memorials or letters to the Ministry, nor do I expect that any thing will be done while I stay. There are reports of an intention to send a Minister to America, and a Mr. Liston, (1 think the name is,) now at Madrid, is mentioned. FROM JOHN ADAMS TO JOHN JAY. Grosvenor Square, February 14, 1788. Dear Sir, I yesterday received Mr. Remsen's letter of the 14th of December, with the journals and gazettes enclosed. At the last conferences at Whitehall, which were last Thursday, Lord Caermarthen thought proper to express a wish that this country had some sort of treaty of commerce with the United States of America, that it might be no longer necessary to take new measures from time to time, which looked hard. This observation his Lordship made, alluding to Mr. Grenville's motion in the House of Commons for making the regulation of the intercourse between America and the West India Islands perpetual. His Lordship then immediately said, "I presume Mr. Adams that the States will all immediately 'adopt the new Constitution. I have read it with pleasure. It is 'very well drawn up." All this oracular utterance was to signify to me what has all along been insinuated, that there is not as yet any national Government, but that as soon as there shall be one, the British Court will vouchsafe to treat with it. You will see by the Morning Chronicle of the 12th of February, enclosed, that Mr. Grenville's speech is in the same strain; so that we may conclude it to be the concerted language of the Cabinet. It is unnecessary for me to make any reflections upon it. The argument that arises out of it, in favor of the new Constitution, and a prompt acceptance of it, is but one among many. France and Holland furnish as many reasons as England. Mr. Jefferson must soon follow my example, and return to America, if that Constitution is not accepted by all the States; and what will be the consequence of the clamors of all the officers in France who are creditors, of all the notables who may be pleased to cast reflections, and of all our creditors in Holland, for want of payment of interest and principal as they become due, must be left to every American citizen seriously to consider. In preparing for my departure, I have been personally treated with the same uniform tenor of dry decency and cold civility, which appears to have been the premeditated plan from the beginning; and Opposition as well as Administration appear to have adopted the same spirit. Mr. Fox and Mr. Burke, Lord Camden and the Duke of Richmond, Lord Hawkesbury and Lord North and Lord Stormont have all behaved alike. If this country can make such arrangements that the King of Prussia may make a diversion of the French forces by land, and the native Indians, or discontented subjects, another of those of Spain in South America, you may easily believe that England will be eager for war. Let not our countrymen flatter themselves that they shall be able to maintain peace. Lord Caermarthen, indeed, said to me that he did not see a possibility of a misunderstanding in Europe, and that he even hoped that peace would be made between Russia and the Porte. His Lordship is in profound ignorance of it, I presume, if there is really any probability of an alliance of France with the Emperor or Empress. Mr. Jefferson bas informed you of his conjectures as well as his intelligence on that point. The Marquis de la Luzerne is now Ambassador at this Court from France, and has already met with humiliations not easily borne by Ambassadors. Monsieur de Calonne appears at the levee and drawing-room, and even at the table of the Marquis of Caermarthen on the Queen's birth-day, with the French Ambassador. The Chevalier de Ternant was presented by the French Ambassador to the King and Queen, and treated with the most marked disgust by both. These things are hard to bear. I have had some conversation with this Minister, with whom I made a voyage in 1779 from L'Orient to Boston, in the Sensible, and could wish to have resided longer with him, for he will certainly be attentive and able; but my embarcation is fixed to the month of March, and I hope to be in Boston in May. With great esteem and regard, &c., JOHN ADAMS. FROM JOHN ADAMS TO JOHN JAY. Grosvenor Square, February 16, 1788. Dear Sir, There is no maxim more clearly settled in all courts, and in all negotiations between nations, than that Sovereign should always |