ready tomorrow. I am not certain whether this will be in time for the departure of Mr. Barclay or of Col: Franks, for it is not yet decided which of them goes to London. I have also procured for you three plateaux de dessert with a silvered ballustrade round them, and four figures. Of Biscuit the former cost 192, the latter 12# each, making together 240. livres or 10. Louis. The merchant undertakes to send them by the way of Rouen through the hands of Mr. Garvey & to have them delivered in London. There will be some additional expenses of packing, transportation & duties here. Those in England I imagine you can save. When I know the amount I will inform you of it, but there will be no occasion to remit it here. With respect to the figures I could only find three of those you named, matched in size. These were Minerva, Diana, and Apollo, I was obliged to add a fourth, unguided by your choice. They offered me a fine Venus; but I thought it out of taste to have two at table at the same time. Paris & Helen were represented. I conceived it would be cruel to remove them from their peculiar shrine. When they shall pass the Atlantic, it will be to sing a requiem over our freedom & happiness. At length a fine Mars was offered, calm, bold, his faulchion not drawn but ready to be drawn. This will do, thinks I, for the table of the American Minister in London, where those whom it may concern may look and learn that though Wisdom is our guide, and the Song and Chase our supreme delight, yet we offer adoration to that tutelar God also who rocked the

cradle of our birth, who has accepted our infant offerings & has shown himself the patron of our rights &

avenger of our wrongs.

and your party formed.

The group then was closed,
Envy & malice will never

be quiet. I hear it already whispered to you that in admitting Minerva to your table I have departed from the principle which made me reject Venus: in plain English that I have paid a just respect to the daughter but failed to the mother. No Madam, my respect to both is sincere. Wisdom, I know, is social. She seeks her fellows, but Beauty is jealous, and illy bears the presence of a rival.-But, Allons, let us turn over another leaf, & begin the next chapter, I receive by Mr. Short a budget of London papers, they teem with every horror of which human nature is capable, assassinations, suicides, thefts, robberies, &, what is worse than assassination, theft, suicide, or robbery, the blackest slanders! indeed the man must be of rock, who can stand all this; to Mr. Adams it will be but one victory the more. It would have illy suited me. I do not love difficulties. I am fond of quiet, willing to do my duty, but irritable by slander & apt to be forced by it to abandon my post. These are weaknesses from which reason & your counsels will preserve Mr. Adams. I fancy it must be the quantity of animal food eaten by the English which renders their character insusceptible of civilization. I suspect it is in their kitchens & not in their churches that their reformation must be worked, & that Missionaries of that description from hence would avail more than those who should endeavor to

tame them by precepts of religion or philosophy. But what do the foolish printers of America mean by retailing all this stuff in our papers? As if it was not enough to be slandered by one's enemies without circulating the slanders among his friends also.

I

To show you how willingly, I shall ever receive & execute your commissions, I venture to impose one on you. From what I recollect of the diaper & damask we used to import from England I think they were better & cheaper than here, you are well acquainted with those of both countries, if you are of the same opinion I would trouble you to send me two sets of tablecloths & napkins for 20 covers each, by Col? Franks or Mr. Barclay who will bring them to me, but if you think they can be better got here I would rather avoid the trouble this commission will give. I enclose you a specimen of what is offered me at 100 livres for the tablecloth & 12 napkins. suppose that, of the same quality, a table cloth 2 aunes wide &. 4 aunes long & 20 napkins of 1 aune each, would cost 7. guineas.—I shall certainly charge the publick my houserent & court taxes. I shall do more. I shall charge my outfit. Without this I can never get out of debt. I think it will be allowed. Congress is too reasonable to expect, where no imprudent expenses are incurred, none but those which are required by a decent respect for the mantle with which they cover the public servants that such expences should be left as a burthen on our private fortunes. But when writing to you I fancy myself at Auteuil, and chatter on till the last page of my paper

awakes me from my reverie, & tells me it is time to assure you of the sincere respect & esteem with which I have the honor to be Dear Madam,

P.S.

Your most obedient & most humble serv!

The cask of wine at Auteuil, I take chearfully. I suppose the seller will apply to me for the Otherwise, as I do not know who he is, I

price.

shall not be able to find him out.

TO HOGENDORP.
(COUNT GYSBERT-CHARLES VAN.)

J. MSS.

PARIS, Oct. 13, 1785.

DEAR SIR,-Having been much engaged lately, I have been unable sooner to acknolege the receipt of your favor of Sep. 8. What you are pleased to say on the subject of my Notes is more than they deserve. The condition in which you first saw them would prove to you how hastily they had been originally written; as you may remember the numerous insertions I had made in them from time to time, when I could find a moment for turning to them. from other occupations. I have never yet seen Monsr. de Buffon. He has been in the country all the summer. I sent him a copy of the book, & have only heard his sentiments on one particular of it, that of the identity of the Mammoth & Elephant. As to this he retains his opinion that they are the same. If you had formed any considerable expectations from our Revised code of laws you will be much disappointed. It contains not more than three or four laws

which could strike the attention of the foreigner. Had it been a digest of all our laws, it would not have been comprehensible or instructive but to a native. But it is still less so, as it digests only the British statutes & our own acts of assembly, which are but a supplementary part of our law. The great basis of it is anterior to the date of the Magna charta, which is the oldest statute extant. The only merit of this work is that it may remove from our book shelves about twenty folio volumes of our statutes, retaining all the parts of them which either their own merit or the established system of laws required.

You ask me what are those operations of the British nation which are likely to befriend us, and how they will produce this effect? The British government as you may naturally suppose have it much at heart to reconcile their nation to the loss of America. This is essential to the repose, perhaps even to the safety of the King & his ministers. The most effectual engines for this purpose are the public papers. You know well that that government always kept a kind of standing army of news writers who without any regard to truth, or to what should be like truth, invented & put into the papers whatever might serve the minister. This suffices with the mass of the people who have no means of distinguishing the false from the true paragraphs of a newspaper. When forced to acknolege our independance they were forced to redouble their efforts to keep the nation quiet. Instead of a few of the papers formerly engaged, they now engaged every one.

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