I have the honor of reporting to Mr. Marechal de Castries that present moment is favorable in our view for commerce with the United States, but that these hopes come with very keen wishes to on the conservation of the steamships. In putting strong rights on whale oil, the English have forced one hundred fifty fishing families to settle in their homes, and the English building trade had already arrived to take them from them when my letter, happily published, gave them hopes of trading with us, and made them renounce the project that they were going to execute. A merchant from Boston has arrived here who spoke to me on behalf of the governor, and on behalf of many homes in that city and in New York. His goal will be to direct all of the returns to France, and since he is going to link it to Mr. [illegible] and form a society in all of our ports and in those of America, this company will make, I hope, a commercial trade of several millions. We are buying the furs in England [illegible] cash. My furrier told me that he could have them come from New York for four hundred thousand francs, and Mr. [illegible] will take them for [2] a million. A society of Carolina recommended by the government of this state addressed a memorandum to me to form commercial liaisons with France. Seeing that one has made a case at last of wood from [illegible], of tar from America, it is a great commercial goal that justice be rendered equally to [illegible]. Provence had two [illegible] of wine in warehouses that it was not able to sell. Her only hope is in the United States where she can draw some items that are useful to her. Many of my friends in the state of Massachusetts know that I will not approve the navigation act. They assure me in advance that upon returning to the assembly they will abandon the decision entirely, or at least those parts that interest France. The result is that the changes will not be the consequence of representation, but of the sole desire to not do anything that will be disagreeable to us. It seems to me that the destruction and diminishing of the steamships is dangerous at this time. Monsieur de la Nornie thinks that [illegible sentence]. I wrote that only the furs would be a considerable item of freight for those in New York. If the steamships were at [illegible], there would be a lot of passengers, even those going to London because the path between the two cities is shorter than that of Falmouth to London. There are a hundred good reasons to honor [illegible sentence] Lafayette