From John Adams to the Baron Lynden van Blitterswyck, 8 April 1785
To the Baron Lynden van Blitterswyck
Auteuil near Paris April 8. 1785
Sir
I take this Opportunity by Mr Bingham whom you once Saw at my House at the Hague1 to congratulate you on your agreable Situation in England as I entertain a pleasing Remembrance of those Social Hours We have heretofore passed together in Paris and the Hague, I cannot but cherrish a Hope of meeting you again in some Part of the World. Two months ago I thought it possible it might be in London and it is by no means certain that it will not be. Whether it is to be or not, I Should be very much obliged to you, if you would inform me, what are the Ceremonies of introducing a Minister to the King and Royal Family at St. James, and by whom he is introduced, and in what manner he is introduced to the Corps Diplomatique.2
with great Respect & sincere Esteem &c
LbC (Adams Papers); internal address: “The Baron De Linden / Envoy from Holland to / his Britannic Majesty.”; APM Reel 107.
1. William Bingham and his wife, Anne Willing Bingham, visited JA at The Hague in June 1784 (vol. 16:251).
2. In 1782 JA described Baron Dirk Wolter Lynden van Blitterswyck, the current Dutch minister to Britain, as “a sensible and worthy man” with whom he had “had the pleasure of a great deal of Conversation” (vol. 13:417, 424). JA resumed his relationship with Lynden van Blitterswyck in late May 1785 when he arrived at London as the U.S. minister and consulted the Dutch diplomat almost immediately about diplomatic protocol at the Court of St. James, for which see JA’s second letter to Thomas Jefferson of 27 May, below. JA’s request for such information in this letter was the product of hope rather than certainty, for he did not learn until 26 April that Congress had appointed him minister on 24 Feb. (to Samuel Mather, 26 April, and note 3, below).