acknowledgments; which I beg they will accept, with my warmest wishes of success to their laudable endeavors for the promoting of useful knowledge among us, to which I shall be happy if I can in any degree contribute.

MCCCLXXXVI

TO MR. FRANCIS CHILDS, PRINTER AT NEW YORK

PHILADELPHIA, 1 October, 1785.

SIR: I thank you for your kind congratulations on my return. My printing materials, consisting of a great variety of founts, were sent down the Seine some weeks before I left Passy, but were so long in their passage, that when I came to Havre they were not arrived, and I was obliged to come away without them. It was expected that the next packet would be ordered to sail from Havre, in which case I left directions that my packages should all be sent by her to New York. When I hear of their arrival I may possibly come to New York; and then we may treat on the subject you mention. I have now only to add that I shall be glad of being serviceable to you on reasonable terms, and am your humble servant, B. FRANKLIN.

MCCCLXXXVII

FROM JOHN JAY

NEW YORK, 4 October, 1785.

DEAR SIR: Your grandson, whom it gave me great pleasure to see, delivered to me a few days ago

your

kind letter of the 21st of last month. Your being again with your family, the manner in which the French court parted with you, the attention you experienced from your English friends, and the reception you met with from your fellow-citizens, are circumstances that must give you great satisfaction. It strikes me that you will find it somewhat difficult to manage the two parties in Pennsylvania; it is much to be wished that union and harmony may be reëstablished there, and if you accomplish it, much honor and many blessings will result from it. Unless you do it, I do not know who can; for, independent of experience and talents, you possess their confidence, and your advice and measures must derive very great weight from the reputation and consideration you enjoy.

Why your letters respecting your grandson have not been more efficacious, I cannot explain. The appointment of persons in the foreign department has in no instance been referred to me for my advice or opinion. Jealousy of power and influence in individuals as well as bodies of men seems to characterize the spirit of the times, and has much operation both on men and measures.

We are happy to find that you think of visiting New York. By the road from Burlington to Amboy, which is smooth and but short, you might doubtless come with very little inconvenience, especially as you may travel at your leisure, and take as many days as your ease and the weather may require. Mrs. Jay is exceedingly pleased with this idea, and sincerely joins with me in wishing to see

it realized. Her attachments are strong, and that to you, being founded in esteem and the recollection of kind offices, is particularly so. I suspect your little friend has forgotten your person; your name is familiar to her, as indeed it will be to every generation. With the best wishes, I am, dear sir, your obliged and affectionate servant,

JOHN JAY.

MCCCLXXXVIII

FROM M. LE VEILLARD

PASSY, 9 October, 1785.

MY DEAR FRIEND:-We are waiting with the greatest impatience to hear from you. The newspapers have given us anxiety on your account; for some of them insist that you have been taken by the Algerines, while others pretend that you are at Morocco, enduring your slavery with all the patience of a philosopher. These reports luckily have not been confirmed; but we shall not be entirely at our ease until we see your handwriting, dated at Philadelphia. You cannot imagine how sad we have felt ever since you have left us, and how often we speak of you. This we shall never cease to do. There is even poor Castor, who never knows what to do with himself on Sunday mornings.

We have again for a moment had fears of a war with the Emperor. He had some difficulty in coming to a final settlement with the Dutch; but,

fortunately, all is at last concluded and signed. The King of Prussia, moreover, who is in a fine position at this moment, is at the head of a confederacy of almost all the states of Germany, to resist all attempts at aggrandizement on the part of the Emperor. As to your countrymen, have they at last found a solid basis on which to rest their fabric? Can they sustain their liberty? Certainly they have great need of your wise counsels.

You will be astonished to hear that we have just arrested in his full dress, and sent to the Bastile, a cardinal, who is a prince and bishop of Strasburg. This cardinal, who has an income of more than twelve hundred thousand livres, took from a jeweller's on credit, and on the queen's account, a diamond necklace, worth one million six hundred thousand livres. Accused by her before the king, he has produced a note which, as he pretends, he believed to have been written and signed by her. His trial is going on before the Parliament of Paris, and his sentence will be pronounced after the vacation. He is in the uncomfortable dilemma of being able to prove that he is not a knave, only by proving that he is a fool.

Mademoiselle Brillon is to be married on the 20th of this month to M. Viasal de Malachet, son of one of the king's secretaries. He is a counsellor at the Court of Aids, and is to leave that business to take the office of M. Brillon, with whom the young couple are to live. Your friends can never cease to regret your absence. I am asked about you ten times a

The Cardinal de Rohan.

day. They all send you their affectionate regards. I hope you have been industrious during your passage, and that you have finished your memoirs and will send them to me. My wife and daughter unite with me, and we all beg you to remember that nobody in the world loves you more affectionately than we do.

LE VEILLARD.

MCCCLXXXIX

TO M. LE RAY DE CHAUMONT

PHILADELPHIA, 20 October, 1785. I make no apology for writing in English, because I know my friend Sophy can translate it for you.' Immediately after my landing, I wrote to acquaint

The first part of the memoirs of his life, written in England, Dr. Franklin had communicated to M. Le Veillard.

"Franklin knew the French language passably well, but he never acquired a very great facility either in writing or speaking. it. He learned it as early as 1733, so that he could read it a little; but when he visited France in 1767 and 1769, though he was already a celebrity in Paris, and brought letters to Madame Geoffrin from David Hume, he did not find himself adequately equipped with French for circulating in Paris society. He lost no time, when he took up his residence in France, in repairing this deficiency as well as possible at his then advanced age, and he succeeded marvellously in that, as in every thing to which he applied his mind. But there is a story told at the expense of his French, which is no doubt good testimony upon this point merely because it was current, whether authentic or not, and there is no reason, that I know of, to question its authenticity.

At a session of the French Academy, finding it difficult to follow the exercises, and wishing to appear no less appreciative than the rest of the audience, he said that he should applaud every time he heard Madame de Boufflers give signs of approbation. It unfortunately happened that he applauded the loudest at his own praises.-EDITOR.