combers and weavers, brought hither from Holland with the woollen manufactory about sixty years ago, or to their being less exposed to the sun than in other places, their business keeping them much within doors, I know not. Perhaps, as in some other cases, different causes may club in producing the effect, but the effect itself is certain. Never was I in a place of greater industry, wheels and looms going in every house. As soon as we left Abbeville, the swarthiness returned. I speak generally; for here are some fair women at Paris, who, I think, are not whitened by art. As to rouge, they don't pretend to imitate nature in laying it on. There is no gradual diminution of the color, from the full bloom in the middle of the cheek to the faint tint near the sides, nor does it show itself differently in different faces. I have not had the honor of being at any lady's toilet to see how it is laid on, but I fancy I can tell you how it is or may be done. Cut a hole of three inches diameter in a piece of paper; place it on the side of your face in such a manner as that the top of the hole may be just under the eye; then, with a brush dipped in the color, paint face and paper together; so, when the paper is taken off, there will remain a round patch of red exactly the form of the hole. This is the mode, from the actresses on the stage upwards, through all ranks of ladies, to the princesses of the blood; but it stops there, the queen not using it, having, in the serenity, complacence and benignity, that shine so eminently in, or rather through her countenance, sufficient beauty, though now an old woman, to do extremely well without it.

You see I speak of the queen as if I had seen her; and so I have, for you must know I have been at court. We went to Versailles last Sunday, and had the honor of being presented to the king; he spoke to both of us very graciously and very cheerfully, is a handsome man, has a very lively look, and appears younger than he is. In the evening we were at the Grand Couvert, where the family sup in public. The table was half a hollow square, the service gold. When either made a sign for drink, the word was given by one of the waiters: A boire pour le Roi, or, A boire pour la Reine. Then two persons came from within, the one with wine and the other with water in carafes; each drank a little glass of what he brought, and then put both the carafes with a glass on a salver, and then presented it. Their distance from each other was such as that other chairs might have been placed between any two of them. An officer of the court brought us up through the crowd of spectators, and placed Sir John so as to stand between the queen and Madame Vic

toire. The king talked a good deal to Sir John, asking many questions about our royal family; and did me too the honor of taking some notice of me; that is saying enough, for I would not have you think me so much pleased with this king and queen as to have a whit less regard than I used to have for ours. No Frenchman shall go beyond me in thinking my own king and queen the very best in the world, and the most amiable.

Versailles has had infinite sums laid out in building it and supplying it with water. Some say the expenses exceeded eighty millions sterling. The range of buildings is immense; the garden-front most magnificent, all of hewn stone; the number of statues, figures, urns, &c., in marble and bronze of exquisite workmanship, is beyond conception. But the waterworks are out of repair, and so is great part of the front next the town, looking, with its shabby, half-brick walls, and broken. windows, not much better than the houses in Durham Yard. There is, in short, both at Versailles and Paris, a prodigious mixture of magnificence and negligence, with every kind of elegance except that of cleanliness, and what we call tidiness. Though I must do Paris the justice to say that in two points of cleanliness they exceed us. The water they drink, though from the river, they render as pure as that of the best spring, by filtering it through cisterns filled with sand; and the streets, with constant sweeping, are fit to walk in, though there is no paved foot-path. Accordingly, many well-dressed people are constantly seen walking in them. The crowd of coaches and chairs, for this reason, is not so great. Men, as well as women, carry umbrellas in their hands, which they extend in case of rain or too much sun; and, a man with an umbrella not taking up more than three foot square, or nine square feet of the street, when, if in a coach, he would take up two hundred and forty square feet, you can easily conceive that, though the streets here are narrow, they may be much less encumbered. They are extremely well paved, and the stones, being generally cubes, when worn on one side may be turned and become new.

The civilities we everywhere receive give us the strongest impressions of the French politeness. It seems to be a point settled here universally that strangers are to be treated with respect; and one has just the same deference shown one here by being a stranger as in England by being a lady. The customhouse officers at Port St. Denis, as we entered Paris, were about to scize two dozen of excellent Bordeaux wine given us at Boulogne, and which we brought with us; but, as soon as they found

we were strangers, it was immediately remitted on that account. At the church of Notre Dame, where we went to see a magnificent illumination, with figures, &c., for the deceased Dauphiness, we found an immense crowd, who were kept out by guards; but, the officer being told that we were strangers from England, he immediately admitted us, accompanied and showed us everything. Why don't we practise this urbanity to Frenchmen? Why should they be allowed to outdo us in anything?

Here is an exhibition of painting, like ours in London, to which multitudes flock daily. I am not connoisseur enough to judge which has most merit. Every night, Sundays not excepted, here are plays or operas; and, though the weather has been hot, and the houses full, one is not incommoded by the heat so much as with us in winter. They must have some way of changing the air that we are not acquainted with. I shall inquire into it.

Travelling is one way of lengthening life, at least, in appearance. It is but about a fortnight since we left London, but the variety of scenes we have gone through makes it seem equal to six months living in one place. Perhaps I have suffered a greater change, too, in my own person, than I could have done in six years at home. I had not been here six days before my tailor and perruquier had transformed me into a Frenchman. Only think what a figure I make in a little bag-wig and with naked ears! They told me I was become twenty years younger, and looked very gallant.

This letter shall cost you a shilling, and you may consider it cheap, when you reflect that it has cost me at least fifty guineas to get into the situation that enables me to write it. Besides, I might, if I had stayed at home, have won perhaps two shillings of you at cribbage. By the way, now I mention cards, let me tell you that quadrille is now out of fashion here, and English whist all the mode at Paris and the court.

And pray look upon it as no small matter that, surrounded as I am by the glories of the world, and amusements of all sorts, I remember you, and Dolly, and all the dear good folks at Bromley. It is true, I cannot help it, but must and ever shall remember you all with pleasure.

Need I add that I am particularly, my dear good friend, yours, most affectionately, B. FRANKLIN.

[TO LORD KAMES.]

Use of Oxen in Agriculture- Congratulations- Political Prospects. LONDON, February 21, 1769.

MY DEAR FRIEND: I received your excellent paper on the preferable use of oxen in agriculture, and have put it in the way of being communicated to the public here. I have observed in America that the farmers are more thriving in those parts of the country where horned cattle are used than in those where the labor is done by horses. The latter are said to require twice the quantity of land to maintain them, and, after all, are not good to eat; at least, we don't think them so.

Here is a waste of land that might afford subsistence for so many of the human species. Perhaps it was for this reason that the Hebrew law-giver, having promised that the children of Israel should be as numerous as the sands of the sea, not only took care to secure the health of individuals, by regulating their diet, that they might be fitter for producing children, but also forbid their using horses, as those animals would lessen the quantity of subsistence for men. Thus we find, when they took any horses from their enemies, they destroyed them; and, in the commandments, where the labor of the ox and ass is mentioned and forbidden on the Sabbath, there is no mention of the horse, probably, because they were to have none; and, by the great armies suddenly raised in that small territory they inhabited, it appears to have been very full of people.*

Food is always necessary to all, and much the greatest part of the labor of mankind is employed in raising provisions for the mouth. Is not this kind of labor, then, the fittest to be the standard by which to measure the values of all other labor, and, consequently, of all other things, whose value depends on the labor of making or procuring them? May not even gold and silver be thus valued? If the labor of the farmer in producing a bushel of wheat be equal to the labor of the miner in producing an ounce of silver, will not the bushel of wheat just measure the value of the ounce of silver? The miner must eat: the farmer, indeed, can live without the ounce of silver, and so,

*There is not in the Jewish law any express prohibition against the use of horses ; it is only enjoined that the kings should not multiply the breed, or carry on trade with Egypt for the purchase of horses. (Deut. 17: 16.) Solomon was the first of the Kings of Judah who disregarded this ordinance. He had forty thousand stalls of horses, which he brought out of Egypt. (1 Kings 4: 26 and 10: 28.) From this time downwards, horses were in constant use in the Jewish armies. It is true that the country, from its rocky surface and unfertile soil, was extremely unfit for the maintenance of those animals.- Note by Lord Kames.

perhaps, will have some advantage in settling the price. But these discussions I leave to you, as being more able to manage them; only, I will send you a little scrap I wrote, some time since, on the laws prohibiting foreign commodities.

I congratulate you on your election as President of the Edinburgh Society. I think I formerly took notice to you, in conversation, that I thought there had been some similarity in our fortunes, and the circumstances of our lives. This is a fresh instance, for by letters just received I find that I was, about the same time, chosen President of our American Philosophical Society, established at Philadelphia.

I have sent by sea, to the care of Mr. Alexander, a little box, containing a few copies of the late edition of my books, for my friends in Scotland. One is directed for you, and one for your society, which I beg that you and they would accept as a small mark of my respect. With the sincerest esteem and regard, B. FRANKLIN.

P. S. I am sorry my letter of 1767, concerning the American disputes, miscarried. I now send you a copy of it from my book. The examination mentioned in it you have, probably, seen. Things daily wear a worse aspect, and tend more and more to a breach and final separation.

[TO JOHN ALLEYNE.]

On Early Marriages.

CRAVEN-STREET, August 9, 1768. DEAR JACK: You desire, you say, my impartial thoughts on the subject of an early marriage, by way of answer to the numberless objections that have been made by numerous persons to your own. You may remember, when you consulted me on the occasion, that I thought youth, on both sides, to be no objection. Indeed, from the marriages that have fallen under my observation, I am rather inclined to think that early ones stand the best chance of happiness. The temper and habits of the young are not yet become so stiff and uncomplying as when more advanced in life; they form more easily to each other, and hence many occasions of disgust are removed. And, if youth has less of that prudence which is necessary to manage a family, yet the parents and elder friends of young married persons are