Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1826-04-14

WASHINGTON, March 8, 1920


Sir: have had the honor to receive your
letter Of the first instant, written on behalf OF
the Committee to whom was referred the
claims of Mr.. Monroe, asking my attention 10
the item claimed on account ofhis detention in
England for two years and four months after he
had made arrangements to return home, as sta
ted in his communication made at the last ses-
sion of Congress, Reports Of Committees, ?
vol. No. 70, page 1876, and requesting such in
formation as my experience and observation
may enable me 10 give in relation to the increase
of expense incident to such detention.
Understanding this application to be in the
right of an appeal to the personal experience
which nv residence in London, as Minister Of
the United States, may have given me upon this
subject, with great cheerfulness proceed to
comply with the request Of the committee
The expenses Of foreign Minister in Lon
don. enormous at all times, are liable to be in
creased, by the fact of his stay being temporary
or uncertain. This is especially the case as
regards his house, his carriage, and his SER
wants. A house, for example, in the West end
of the town, where alone a foreign minister can
live, who lives in London, that may be hired
for four hundred and fifty, or five hundred gull
meas year, will rent, at certain seasons OF the
year, for as much as twenty guineas week;
and even more, if taken only by the week, or
from month to month. At all seasons Of the
wear, the rent will increase as the time Tor
which the house is taken shortens, and diminish
as il is prolonged. Iftaken for three years, the
rent will be considerably less than for one year;
if taken for FIVE or seven years, perhaps less
than one half Of what it would be for a single
wear. The same rule holds, within the year, in
keeping a carriage. A pair of horses may be
hired, and, in London, all strangers, or nearly
all, including foreign ministers, hire their car
rage horses, without buying them,) for lao or
$50 guineas, by the year. If taken by the month
they cost 90 guineas month; IT by the day,
Guinea a.day. So Of servants; they are hired
cheaper by the year, than by the month; and
by the month, than by the day. The rule, In
deed, extends to all the supplies and accommo-
dstions that enter into the establishment and
support of minister's household In London;
and, when carried into all its details, makes
constant additions to his expenditures. There
are some items, besides those mentioned, In re-
gard to which it applies with much force; and
! think that it scarcely could have failed to do
so, when, as in the case of Mr.. Monroe, the du-
ty of entertaining was thrown more largely up
on him by the arrival Of special minister from
the United States in London.
Although minister may, in point OF fact,
reside one, two, or any greater number of years
in London; yet if, as with MIR. Monroe, he finds
himself under circumstances to expect to go a.
way sooner, and, above all, from month to
month, or from three months to three months
il is plain that he cannot avail himself OF the
advantage of long contracts, but must, in every
case. bear the burden of short ones. Thi.
principle of uncertainty as to the period Of re.
sidence, bears with hardship, in the article o.
house rent, upon all our ministers who are SEM
to London, though not to the extent, in this
particular, that it must have done upon Mr.
Monroe; for no minister who goes there, altho
in point of fac, he may stay FIVE or seven years
expects to stay so long when ne begins his resi-
dsrce. Consequently, he engages his house