Britain was already established. Her armed ships traversed the ocean in all directions. Captain Tucker saw a large English ship showing a row of guns, and with the consent of the Minister, engaged her. When hailed, she answered with a broadside. John Adams. had been requested to retire to the cockpit, but when the engagement had begun, he was found among the marines, with a musket in his hands.

The desired treaty with France had been consummated by Dr. Franklin, before the arrival of John Adams. After that event, Congress decided to have but one minister in that country, and Dr. Franklin having deservedly received the appointment, John Adams asked and obtained leave to return home, after an absence of a year and a half. During that period the younger Adams attended a public school in Paris, while his leisure hours were filled with the instructions casually derived from the conversation of John Adams, and Dr. Franklin, and other eminent intellectual per. sons, by whom his father was surrounded. The improvement of the son during his sojourn abroad is thus mentioned by John Adams, just before his embarkation on his return to America.

"My son has had a great opportunity to see this country, but this has unavoidably retarded his education in some other things. He has enjoyed perfect health from first to last, and is respected wherever he goes, for his vigor and vivacity both of mind and body; for his constant good-humor, and for his rapid

progress in French, as well as in general knowledge, which, for his age, is uncommon.”

John Adams now regarded his public life as closed. He wrote to Mrs. Adams:

"The Congress, I presume, expect that I should come home, and I shall come accordingly. As they have no business for me in Europe, I must contrive to get some for myself at home. Prepare yourself for removing to Boston, into the old house, for there you shall go, and I will draw writs and deeds, and harangue juries, and be happy."

This calculation was signally erroneous, as all calculations upon personal ease and peace by great and good men always are. He remained at home only three months, and during that time he had other and higher occupations than drawing writs and deeds. He was elected Delegate to the Convention charged with the responsible and novel duty of forming a written constitution for Massachusetts. In that body he labored with untiring assiduity, as in Congress; the constitution thus produced was in a great measure prepared by himself, and it is due to his memory to record the fact, that it was among the most democratic of all the constitutions which were adopted by the new States. The younger Adams having returned to America with his father, had thus the advantage of seeing republican theories brought into successful, practical application.

About this time Congress resolved on sending a

Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain, to negotiate, if possible, a treaty of peace. John Adams and John Jay received each an equal number of votes. The result was the appointment of Mr. Jay as Minister to Spain, and of John Adams as Minister to the Court of St. James. He was instructed to insist on the independence of the United States.

The younger Adams again attended the Diplomatist. They embarked in the French frigate La Sensible, on the 17th of November, 1779.

The frigate sprang a leak, and was obliged to put into the port nearest at hand, which proved to be Ferrol in Spain. They disembarked on the 11th of December, and traversed the intervening distance to Paris over land, a journey of a thousand miles. This journey was performed through the mountains on mules. Spain, as well as France, was then in alliance with America, and the Minister was everywhere received with respect and kindness. The French officers at Ferrol wore cockades in honor of the Triple Alliance, combining a white ribbon for the French, a red one for the Spanish, and a black one for the Americans.

The United Powers proposed demands which were ominous of disappointment to the Minister.-On the 12th of December he wrote:-"It is said that England is as reluctant to acknowledge the independence of America, as to cede Gibraltar, the last of which is insisted upon, as well as the first."

The travellers reached Paris about the middle of

February, 1780. John Adams mentioned a singular coincidence in his letter announcing their arrival. "I have the honor to be lodged here with no less a personage than the Prince of Hesse-Cassel, who is here upon a visit. We occupy different apartments in the same house, and have no intercourse with each other, to be sure; but some wags are of opinion, that if I were authorised to open a negotiation with him, I might obtain from him as many troops to fight on our side of the question, as he has already hired to the English against us !”

The American Revolution has wrought wonderful changes since that day. No German Prince could now send a man, or a musket, to war against its principles.

John Adams soon discovered that there was no prospect of success for his mission to England. He remained at Paris until August, 1780, and during the interval his son was kept at an academy in that city.

At the expiration of that period the Minister repaired to Holland, and there received instructions to negotiate a loan, and then a treaty of amity and commerce with the states of that country. The younger Adams while in Holland was placed at school, first at Amsterdam, and afterwards in the University of Leyden.

A letter of the father, dated at Amsterdam, 18th December, 1780, gives us a glimpse of the system of instruction approved by him, and a pleasant view of the principles which he deemed it important to be inculcated.

"I have this morning sent Mr. Thaxter with my two sons to Leyden, there to take up their residence for some time, and there to pursue their studies of Latin and Greek under the excellent masters, and there to attend lectures of the celebrated professors in that University. It is much cheaper there than here. The air is infinitely purer, and the company and conversation are better. It is perhaps as learned a University as any in Europe.

"I should not wish to have children educated in the common schools of this country, where a littleness of soul is notorious. The masters are mean spirited wretches, pinching, kicking, and boxing the children upon every turn. There is, besides, a general littleness, arising from the incessant contemplation of stivers and doits, which pervades the whole people.

Frugality and industry are virtues everywhere, but avarice and stinginess are not frugality. The Dutch say, that without a habit of thinking of every doit before you spend it, no man can be a good merchant, or conduct trade with success.

"This, I believe, is a just maxim in general; but I would never wish to see a son of mine govern himself by it. It is the sure and certain way for an industrious man to be rich. It is the only possible way for a merchant to become the first merchant, or the richest man in the place. But this is an object that I hope none of my children will ever aim at. It is indeed true every