is out. My friend, M. Fanjas de Saint Fond, who has a great regard for you, desires me to present to you his respects.

MCCCCLXX

FROM THE ABBÉ MORELLET

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 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 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 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,

of Pennsylvania which relate to the object of the Society. I hope you and the Society will accept my thanks, and believe that I am truly sensible of the honor done me. As for any services I can do, they are indeed but small; for I find that, far from possessing in the decline of life your vigor of body and mind, every kind of business is becoming an incumbrance to me. At the same time, the calls of business increase upon me, as you will learn in some measure from the Report at the end of the Discourse, which you will receive with this letter.

A similar institution to yours, for abolishing negro slavery, is just formed in London, and I have been desired to make one of the acting committee, but I have begged to be excused. I have sent you some of their papers. I need not say how earnestly I wish success to such institutions. Something, perhaps, will be done with this view by the convention of delegates. This convention, consisting of many of the first men in respect of wisdom and influence in the United States, must be a most august and venerable assembly. May God guide their deliberations. The happiness of the world depends in some degree on the result. I am waiting with patience for an account of it.

I

In this part of the world there is a spirit rising, which must, in time, produce great effects. I refer principally to what is now passing in Holland, Brabant, and France. This spirit originated in America; and, should it appear that it has there

Alluding to the convention for forming the Constitution of the United States.

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 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 landtax, although I did not approve such 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 endeavor 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 of this new administration, and a crisis is at hand that may lay all our hopes in the dust. But no matter; I still hope, as you know, in the further progress of the human race; and I have taken it into my head to embody this sentiment in a little allegory which I send you.

Our Lady of Auteuil enjoyed highly all the good

I Madame Helvetius.

news you communicated to us about yourself, and especially the letter you addressed to her. She will answer you, as will also the Abbé de la Roche. Her cats have somewhat diminished in numbers, thanks to the bull-dog your grandson left with us. The trouble is, that no one will rid us of Boulet, which is the French name she has given him. Here he still is for our sins. His mistress places him at her side, on one of her fourteen chaises-longues, and he is the master of the house, we his humble servants obliged to open the door for him about forty or fifty times in an evening. But she received him from your grandson, and that is a good reason for us to bear patiently all the trouble he inflicts on us.

We are looking impatiently for news of the proceedings of your convention for uniting together the parties in your political State-a union, without which you can have neither perfect prosperity nor real tranquillity. The work of your excellent countryman, Mr. Jefferson, which I have translated, has been much liked here. It has been very well received, and I consider its principles very sound, and the facts well arranged. If any thing appears in your country, which you at all like, especially relating to subjects connected with commerce, or to your Constitution, I shall be much obliged to you if you will take advantage of some opportunity to send it to me.

Mr. Paine came to me in due time. He may have written you word that I had restored to him his iron bridge, which our revenue officers had seized at Notes on Virginia.