M

laboring to show, that his present conduct was consistent with that letter, and that letter with his refusal to sign. M-d-n took the principal share in the debate for it; in which, together with the aid I have already mentioned, he was somewhat assisted by I-nn-s, Lee, M———1, C———————n C- -n and G. Ns. M-s-n, H -y and Gr -n, were the principal supporters of the opposition. The discussion, as might be expected, where the parties were so nearly on a balance, was conducted generally with great order, propriety and respect of either party to the other."

The assembly of Virginia, hurried to their harvests, would not enter into a discussion of the district bill, but suspended it to the next session. E. Winston is appointed a judge, vice Gabriel Jones, resigned. R. Goode and Andrew Moore, Counsellors, vice B. Starke, dead, and Joseph Egglestone, resigned. It is said Wilson, of Philadelphia, is talked of, to succeed Mr. A. in London.-Quære?

The dispute about Virgil's tomb, and the laurel, seems to be at length settled, by the testimony of two travellers, given separately, and without a communication with each other. These both say, that attempting to pluck off a branch of the laurel, it followed their hand, being, in fact, nothing more than a plant or bough, recently cut and stuck in the ground, for the occasion. The cicerone acknowledged the roguery, and said they practised it with almost every traveller, to get money. You will, of course, tug well at the laurel which shall be shown you, to see if this be the true solution.

The President Dupaty is dead. Monsieur de Barentin, premier president de la cour des aides, is appointed garde des sceaux. The stocks are rather lower than when you left this. Present me in the most friendly terms to Messrs. Shippen and Rutledge. I rely on your communicating to them the news, and therefore, on their pardoning me for not repeating it in separate letters to them. You can satisfy them how necessary this economy of my time and labor is. This goes to Geneva, poste restante. I shall not write again till you

tell me where to write to.

Accept very sincere assurances of the affection, with which I am, Dear Sir, your friend and servant, TH: JEFFERSON.

SIR,

TO JOHN JAY.

Paris, September 24, 1788.

Understanding that the vessel is not yet sailed from Havre, which is to carry my letters of the 3rd and 5th instant, I am in hopes you will receive the present with them. The Russian accounts of their victories on the Black Sea must have been greatly exaggerated. According to these, the Captain Pacha's fleet was annihilated; yet themselves have lately brought him on the stage again, with fifteen ships of the line, in order to obtain another victory over him. I believe the truth to be, that he has suffered some checks, of what magnitude it is impossible to say where one side alone is heard, and that he is still master of that sea. He has relieved Oczakow, which still holds out; Choczim also is still untaken, and the Emperor's situation is apprehended to be bad. He spun his army into a long cord, to cover several hundred miles of frontier, which put it in the power of the Turks to attack with their whole force wherever they pleased. Laudon, now called to head the imperial army, is endeavoring to collect it ; but in the mean time the campaign is drawing to a close, and has been worse than fruitless. The resistance of Russia to Sweden has been successful in every point, by sea and land. This, with the interference of Denmark, and the discontent of the Swedish nation, at the breach of their constitution, by the King's undertaking an offensive war, without the consent of the Senate, has obliged him to withdraw his attacks by land, and to express a willingness for peace: one third of his officers have refused to serve. England and

Prussia have offered their mediation between Sweden and Russia, in such equivocal terms, as to leave themselves at liberty to say it was an offer, or was not, just as it shall suit them. Denmark is asking the counter-offer of mediation from this court. If England and Prussia make a peace effectually in the north, (which it is absolutely in their power to do,) it will be a proof they do not intend to enter into the war: if they do not impose a peace, I should suspect they mean to engage themselves; as one can hardly suppose they would let the war go on in its present form, wherein Sweden must be crushed between Russia and Denmark.

The garde des sceaux, M. de Lamoignon, was dismissed the 14th instant, and M. de Barentin is appointed in his The deputies of Bretagne are released from the Bastile, and M. d'Epremenil and M. Sabatier recalled from their

room.

confinement. The parliament is not yet reinstated; but it is confidently said it will be this week. The stocks continue. low, and the treasury under a hard struggle to keep the government in motion. It is believed the meeting of the States General will be as early as January, perhaps December. I have received a duplicate of the ratification of the loan of 1788, by Congress, and a duplicate of a letter of July the 22nd, from the treasury board, on another subject, but none on that of the captives, or foreign officers. I suppose some cause of delay must have intervened between the ratification of Congress and the consequent orders of the treasury board. I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect esteem and respect, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,

TH: JEFFERSON.

TO M. DE REYNEVAL.

Paris, October 1, 1788.

SIR,

I have now the honor of inclosing to you a copy of the letter of September the 16th, which I had that of writing to his Excellency the Count de Montmorin, with the papers therein referred to, and of soliciting the order I have asked for. The originals were sent at the date before mentioned. Notwithstanding the refusal of the houses of Schweighauser and Dobrée, and of Puchilberg, to settle their claim against the United States by arbitration, as I proposed to them, the United States will still be ready to do them justice. But those houses must first retire from the only two propositions they have ever yet made; to wit, either a payment of their demand without discussion, or a discussion before the tribunals of the country. In the mean time, I shall hope an acknowledgment with respect to us, of the principle which holds as to other nations that our public property here cannot be seized by the territorial judge. It is the more interesting to us, as we shall be more and longer exposed than other nations to draw arms and military stores from Europe. Our preference of this country has occasioned us to draw them from hence alone, since the peace: and the friendship we have constantly experienced from the government will, we doubt not, on this and every other occasion, insure to us

the protection of what we purchase. I have the honor to be, Sir, your friend and servant,

TH: JEFFERSON.

TO MR. CUTTING.

Paris, October 2, 1788.

DEAR SIR,

I am now to acknowledge the receipt of your favors of the 16th and 23rd ultimo, and to thank you for the intelligence they conveyed. That respecting the case of the interrogatories in Pennsylvania ought to make noise. So evident a

heresy in the common law ought not to be tolerated on the authority of two or three civilians, who happened, unfortunately, to make authority in the courts of England. I hold it essential, in America, to forbid that any English decision which has happened since the accession of Lord Mansfield to the bench, should ever be cited in a court: because, though there have come many good ones from him, yet there is so much sly poison instilled into a great part of them, that it is better to proscribe the whole. Čan you inform me what has been done by England on the subject of our wheat and flour? The papers say it is prohibited, even in Hanover. How do their whale fisheries turn out this year? I hope a deep wound will be given them in that article soon, and such as will leave us in no danger from their competition.

*

*

*

*

I am, with very great esteem, Dear Sir, your most obedient humble servant,

TH: JEFFERSON.

TO JOHN JAY.

Paris, November 14, 1788.

SIR,

In my letter of December the 21st, 1787, I had the honor of acknowledging the receipts of your two favors of July the 27th, 1787, which had come to my hands December the 19th, and brought with them my full powers for treating on the subject of the consular convention. Being then much engaged in getting forward the Arret which came out the 29th of December, and willing to leave some interval between that act and the solicitation of a reconsideration of our consular con

vention, I had declined mentioning it, for some time, and was just about to bring it on the carpet when it became necessary for me to go to Amsterdam. Immediately after my return, which was about the last of April, I introduced the subject to the Count de Montmorin, and have followed it unremittingly from that time. The office of Marine, as well as that of Foreign Affairs, being to be consulted in all the stages of the negotiation, has protracted its conclusion till this time: it is at length signed this day, and I have now the honor to inclose the original, for the ratification of Congress. The principal changes effected are the following:

The clauses of the convention of 1784, clothing consuls with privileges of the law of nations, are struck out, and they are expressly subjected, in their persons and property, to the laws of the land.

That giving the right of sanctuary to their houses is reduced to a protection of their chancery room and its papers.

Their coercive powers over passengers are taken away; and over those, whom they might have termed deserters of their nation, are restrained to deserted seamen only.

The clause, allowing them to arrest and send back vessels, is struck out, and instead of it, they are allowed to exercise a police over the ships of their nation generally.

So is that which declared the indelibility of the character of subject, and the explanation and extension of the eleventh article of the treaty of amity.

The innovations in the laws of evidence are done away: and the convention is limited to twelve years duration. Convinced that the fewer examples the better, of either persons or causes unamenable to the laws of the land, I could have wished still more had been done; but more could not be done with good humor. The extensions of authority given by the convention of 1784 were so homogeneous with the spirit of this government, that they were prized here. Monsieur de Reyneval has had the principal charge of arranging this instrument with me; and, in justice to him, I must say, I could not have desired more reasonable and friendly dispositions than he demonstrated through the whole of it.

I inclose herewith the several schemes successively proposed between us, together with the copies of the written observations given in with them, and which served as texts of discussion in our personal conferences. They may serve as a commentary on any passage which may need it, either now or hereafter, and as a history, how any particular passage comes to stand as it does. No. 1, is the convention of 1784. No.