but the sudden occurrence of acts of violence had suspended all proceedings upon it. There being much concord of opinion on the elements of this instrument, it was liberally framed, and passed with a very general approbation. They then appointed a committee to prepare a projet of a constitution; at the head of which was the archbishop of Bordeaux. From him, in the name of the committee, Mr Jefferson received a letter, requesting him to attend and assist at their deliberations. But he excused himself, on the obvious considerations that his mission was to the king, as chief magistrate of the nation, that his duties were limited to the concerns of his own country, and forbade his intermeddling with the internal transactions of France, where he had been received under a specific character only.

In this critical state of things, Mr Jefferson received a note from the Marquis la Fayette, informing him that he should bring a party of six or eight friends, to ask a dinner of him the next day. He assured him of their welcome. When they came, there were La Fayette himself and seven others, leaders of the different divisions of the reform party, but honest men, and sensible of the necessity of effecting a coalition by mutual sacrifices. Their object in soliciting this conference, was to avail themselves of the counsel and mediation of the American minister, and to effect a reconciliation upon terms which he should prescribe. The discussions began at the hour of four, and were continued till ten o'clock in the evening; during which Mr Jefferson was witness to a 'coolness and candor of argument unusual in political conflicts, to a logical reasoning, and a chaste eloquence, disfigured by no gaudy tinsel of rhetoric or declamation, which he thought worthy of being placed in parallel with the finest dialogues of antiquity, as handed to us by Xenophen, by Plato, and Cicero.'

The result of this conference decided the fate of the French constitution. It was mutually agreed, on the ad

vice of Mr Jefferson, that the king should have a suspensive veto on the laws; that the legislature should be composed of a single body only; and that it should be chosen by the people. This agreement united the patriots on a common ground. They all rallied to the principles thus settled, carried every question agreeably to them, and reduced the aristocracy to impotence and insignifi

cance.

But duties of exculpation were now incumbent upon Mr Jefferson. He waited the next morning on Count Montmorin, minister of foreign affairs, and explained to him with truth and candor, how it happened that his house had been made the scene of conferences of such. a character. Montmorin told him he already knew every thing which had passed; that so far from taking umbrage at his conduct on that occasion, he earnestly wished he would habitually assist at such conferences, being satisfi ed he would be useful in moderating the warmer spirits, and promoting a wholesome and practicable reformation only. Mr Jefferson told him he knew too well the duties he owed to the king, to the nation, and to his own country, to take any part in the transactions of their internal government; and that he should persevere, with care, in the character of a neutral and passive spectator, with wishes only, and very sincere ones, that those measures might prevail, which would be for the greatest good of the nation. 'I have no doubt, indeed,' says Mr Jefferson, 'that this conference was previously known and approved by this honest minister, who was in confidence and communication with the patriots, and wished for a reasonable reformation of the constitution.'

At this auspicious stage of the French revolution, Mr Jefferson retired from the scene of action; and the wisdom and moderation of his counsels ceased with the opportunities of imparting them. He left France, with warm and unabated expectations that no serious commotion would take place, and that the nation would soon

settle down in the quiet enjoyment of a great degree of acquired liberty, to go on improving its condition by future and successive ameliorations, but never to retrograde. The example of the United States had been viewed as their model on all occasions, and with an authority like that of the bible, open to explanation, but not to question. The king had now become a passive machine in the hands of the national assembly, and had he been left to himself, would probably have acquiesced in their determinations. A wise constitution would have been formed, hereditary in his line, himself at its head, with powers so large as to enable him to execute all the good of his station, and so limited as to restrain him from its abuse. This constitution he would have faithfully administered, and more than this he never wished. Such was the belief and the hope of Mr Jefferson; and to one source alone, he ascribed the overthrow of all these fond anticipations, and the deluge of crimes and cruelties which subsequently desolated France. To the despotic and disastrous influence of a single woman, he attributed the horrible catastrophe of the French revolution!

But he had a queen of absolute sway over his weak mind and timid virtue, and of a character the reverse of his in all points. This angel, as gaudily painted in the rhapsodies of Burke, with some smartness of fancy, but no sound sense, was proud, disdainful of restraint, indignant at all obstacles to her will, eager in the pursuit of pleasure, and firm enough to hold to her desires, or perish in their wreck. Her inordinate gambling and dissipations, with those of the Count d'Artois, and others of her clique, had been a sensible item in the exhaustion of the treasury, which called into action the reforming hand of the nation; and her opposition to it, her inflexible perverseness, and dauntless spirit, led herself to the guillotine, drew the king on with her, and plunged the world into crimes and calamities which will for ever stain the pages of modern history. I have ever believed, that had there been no queen, there would have been no revolution. No force would have been

provoked, nor exercised. The king would have gone hand in hand with the wisdom of his sounder counsellors, who, guided by the increased lights of the age, wished only, with the same pace, to advance the principles of their social constitution. The deed which closed the mortal course of these sovereigns, I shall neither approve nor condemn. I am not prepared to say, that the first magistrate of a nation cannot commit treason against his country, or is unamenable to its punishment: nor yet, that where there is no written law, no regulated tribunal, there is not a law in our hearts, and a power in our hands, given for righteous employment in maintaining right, and redressing wrong. Of those who judged the king, many thought him wil fully criminal; many, that his existence would keep the nation in perpetual conflict with the horde of kings, who would war against a regeneration which might come home to themselves, and that it were better that one should die than all. I should not have voted with this portion of the legislature. I should have shut up the queen in a convent, putting harm out of her power, and placed the king in his station, investing him with limited powers, which, I verily believe, he would have honestly exercised, according to the measure of his understanding. In this way, no void would have been created, courting the usurpation of a military adventurer, nor occasion given for those enormities which demoralized the nations of the world, and destroyed, and is yet to destroy, millions and millions of its inhabitants."

Mr Jefferson had been more than a year soliciting leave to return to America, with a view to place his daughters in the society of their friends, to attend to some domestic arrangements of pressing moment, and to resume his station for a short time, at Paris; but it was not until the last of August that he received the permission desired.

The generous tribute which he has paid to the French nation, at this point in his auto-biographical notes, discloses the state of feeling with which he quitted a country, where he had passed so various and useful a portion of his public life.

And here I cannot leave this great and good country, without expressing my sense of its pre-eminence of character among the nations of the earth. A more benevolent people I have never known, nor greater warmth and devotedness in their select friendships. Their kindness and accommodation to strangers is unparalleled, and the hospitality of Paris is beyond any thing I had conceived to be practicable in a large city. Their eminence, too, in science, the communicative dispositions of their scientific men, the politeness of the general manners, the ease and vivacity of their conversation, give a charm to their society, to be found no where else. In a comparison of this with other countries, we have the proof of primacy, which was given to Themistocles after the battle of Salamis. Every general voted to himself the first reward of valor, and the second to Themistocles. So, ask the travelled inhabitant of any nation, in what country on earth would you rather live? - Certainly, in my own, where are all my friends, my relations, and the earliest and sweetest affections and recollections

of my life. Which would be your second choice?

France.'

On the 26th of September, 1789, Mr Jefferson left Paris for America. He was detained at Havre by contrary winds, until the 8th of October, when he crossed over to Cowes, where he was again detained by contrary winds, until the 22d, when he embarked and landed at Norfolk, Virginia, on the 23d of November. On his way to Monticello he passed some days at Eppington, in Chesterfield county, the residence of his friend and connection, Mr Eppes; and while there he received a letter from the president, General Washington, by express, covering an appointment of secretary of State to the new government. Gratifying as was this high testimonial of his public estimation, the highest in the power of the president to confer, he nevertheless received it with real regret. His wish had been to return to Paris, where he had left his household establishment, to see the end of the revolution, which he then thought would