of the Schuylkill, and the Abbé Morley tells me will cost five millions of livres. It is on piers.

Your old friend M. Terenet, the bridge architect, is yet living. I was introduced to him by M. Le Roy. He has taken a residence in the Elysian Fields for the purpose of being near the works. He has invited me to see his house at Paris, where all his drawings and models are. By the next packet, I will write to you respecting the opinion of the Academy on the model. I shall be obliged to Mr. Clymer to send me some Philadelphia and American news. Please to present me with much respect to your family, and to all my good friends around you. I am, dear Sir, your affectionate and obedient servant,

THOMAS PAINE.

FROM COUNT DE BUFFON TO B. FRANKLIN.

MY DEAR SIR,

Translation.

Au Jardin du Roi, 18 July, 1787.

I always feel under great obligations to you, in finding that you sometimes think of me, and that, in the midst of your great occupations, you have been so thoughtful as to send me seeds and rare plants for the King's garden. I should be delighted to learn something of the progress of your Philosophical Society, of which you have been kind enough to elect me a member. I have just finished my Histoire Naturelle de Minéraux; and, if the Society does not possess this work, or if any volume is missing, I should be most happy to forward it to you.

Tell me also about your health, which is much better than mine. My pains are not very severe, but they

are almost without intermission. Your example, however, makes me hope, that they may all go off; for I understand, that since your return to America your health has been restored. I should like to hear so from yourself, and to learn if you have used any particular remedy. None of those, which I have taken thus far, has been of any avail, a mild treatment being absolutely the only one which I can bear. As your advice would certainly be useful to me, and I should have more confidence in you than in all the physicians, I should be glad to know from yourself what treatment or remedies you have found most beneficial. Accept the sentiments of strong and tender attachment, with which I shall ever remain, &c.

COUNT DE BUFFON.

P. S. I am now printing a treatise on the properties and use of the magnet, in which I show the close connexion of electricity with magnetism, and with the action of subterraneous fires in volcanoes. I shall have the honor to send it to you, as soon as it is out. My friend, M. Fanjas de Saint Fond, who has a great regard for you, desires me to present to you his respects.

FROM THE ABBÉ MORELLET TO B. FRANKLIN. Reminiscences. — Commercial Regulations, as to Imposts and Taxation.-Affairs in France. Madame Helvetius. Paine's Model of an iron Bridge.

Translation.

Auteuil, 31 July, 1787.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

I cannot express to you the pleasure your letters gave us, especially the details into which you have

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gone respecting your health, and all that particularly concerns yourself. It is a delightful thought to us, and one on which we love to dwell, that, at the age to which you have attained, and after having pursued so honorable a career, you have found, in the bosom of your own country, all those enjoyments of which your age is susceptible. You know how much we desire their long continuance. Believe me, our happiness would be incomplete without this hope. I I say this in the name of the whole Academy of Auteuil.

Since its productions have afforded you an hour's amusement, here are more of them, on which I shall be much pleased to have your opinion, and that of your friends. They are, moreover, in your own vein of pleasantry, and somewhat, I conceive, in that of Swift, with rather less of his dark misanthropy. At any rate, Dr. Jonathan and Dr. Benjamin are the models on whom I have fixed my eyes; and perhaps Nature herself has given me something of the turn of both in the art of speaking the truth in a jesting way, or without seeming to speak it. The difficulty is, that one cannot laugh outright at every thing which is truly laughable.

In the dedication of your College in the County of Lancaster, and the fine procession, and the religious ceremony, where were met together Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Catholics, Moravians, e tutti quanti, there was toleration in practice. I have translated the whole of the pamphlet which you sent me, and had it inserted in our Mercury. I think, indeed, that many readers will not perceive its scope, but it will not be thrown away upon every one. You see that I continue to diffuse, as far as is in my power, religious tolerance; but, for all this, I do not neglect the spirit of commercial liberality, and I fear, that the

latter makes too little progress among you. The duties on foreign merchandise, which you think necessary in your country, because you cannot levy direct taxes there, I consider as opposed to freedom of trade, when they are resorted to as sources of revenue; but I fear lest they should come to be looked upon among you, in the same light that they are throughout Europe, as a fine stroke of policy, intended to increase national commerce and wealth at the expense of foreign commerce and wealth, which is arrant folly.

I have reason to think, that you may follow our example on this point, since reading a pamphlet printed at Philadelphia, and, as the titlepage bears, read before the Society for Political Inquiry, at your house, yourself being present. In this, the author recommends duties and prohibitions to secure navigation from port to port in America; as if, with all her advantages in this line, she had any cause to fear the rivalry of foreign nations; as if she had not many more profitable modes of employing her capital and her men; as if the restraints upon her own commerce, and that of foreign nations, resulting from such legislation, would not cause her to lose more than she could expect to gain; as if she needed any other commercial regulations, than would naturally grow out of a good market for her staple commodities, her fisheries, and the like.

When you spoke to me of duties on imports, which you said you were obliged to impose, in order to defray the public expenses and for the payment of the national debt, and which you should repeal as soon as you could do without them and could levy a land-tax, although I did not approve such a practice, yet I looked upon it as honest, and perhaps necessary for a time. You impose duties that you may raise money; this is plain. But the author of

your pamphlet levies imposts to secure to America her navigation, and a balance of trade in her favor. He already follows in the steps of European governments, who have disguised all the tyranny they have exercised over commerce, under these false pretences; and I confess, I should be very sorry to see you pursuing the same crooked course.

You have learned from the common channels of news what great changes have taken place here. On this head there is too much to be said, to make it the subject of a letter. The most important events, and the acts of M. de Calonne, of the Assembly of Notables, and of the new administration, may all be found in great printed books, some copies of which will doubtless cross the Atlantic and reach your hands. If you take any interest in these things, they will afford you greater facilities of information respecting them, than a letter could do. The only thing I can tell you, which may be interesting to you, is, that our new Minister of Finance, the Archbishop of Toulouse, is a very well informed and intelligent man, well skilled in managing affairs and men, familiar with all sound principles, and having resolution to put them in practice. You must know, that entire freedom of trade finds a place among the maxims of his administration, and that he will subject it to no restriction, but such as he may be forced to lay upon it by circumstances, which he will always endeavour to remove and alter, as far as may be in his power. You are not ignorant, perhaps, that I can testify as to his way of thinking, since I have learned it in an acquaintance of nearly forty years, which still subsists.

Here is some hope for our country; but previous disorders, and other causes, which I shall not mention to you, may thwart or retard, more or less, the measures