TO MR. SHORT.

PARIS, December 8, 1788.

DEAR SIR,-My last to you was of the 21st of November, addressed to Milan, poste restante, according to the desire expressed through Mrs. Paradise. I have lately received yours of the 19th of November, and sincerely felicitate you on your recovery. I wish you may have suffered this to be sufficiently established before you set out on your journey. The present letter will probably reach you amidst the classical enjoyments of Rome. I feel myself kindle at the reflection, to make that journey; but circumstances will oblige me to postpone it, at least. We are here under a most extraordinary degree of cold. The thermometer has been ten degrees of Reaumur below freezing; this is eight degrees of Fahrenheit above zero, and was the degree of cold here in the year 1740. The long continuance of this severity, and the snow now on the ground, give physical prognostications of a hard winter. You will be in a privileged climate, and will have had an enviable escape from this. The Notables are not yet separated, nor is their treasonable vote against the people yet consolidated; but it will be. The parliament have taken up the subject, and passed a very laudable vote in opposition. They have made it the occasion of giving sketches of what should be a bill of rights. Perhaps this opposition of authority may give the court an option between the two. Stocks are rising slowly, but steadily. The loan of 1784, is at thirteen loss; the caisse d'escompte, four thousand and seventy-five. The Count de Bryenne has retired, and M. de Puy-segur succeeded to his place. Madame de Chambonois (sister of M. de Langear) is dead of the small-pox. Pio is likely to receive a good appointment in his own country, which will take him from us. Corn is likely to become extremely scarce in France, Spain and England. This country has offered a premium of forty sous the quintal on flour of the United States, and thirty sous the quintal on our wheat, to be brought here between February and June.

General Washington writes me that industry and economy

begin to take place of that idleness and extravagance which had succeeded to the close of the war. The Potomac canal is in great forwardness. J. M. writes me word that Mr. Jay and General Knox are talked of in the middle States for Vice Presidents, but he queries whether both will not prefer their present berths. It seems agreed that some amendments will be made to the new Constitution. All are willing to add a bill of rights; but they fear the power of internal taxation will be abridged. The friends of the new government will oppose the method of amendment by a federal convention, which would subject the whole instrument to change, and they will support the other method, which admits Congress, by a vote of two-thirds, to submit specific changes to the Assemblies, three-fourths of whom must concur to establish them.

The enclosed letter is from Pallegrino, one of the Italian laborers established in our neighborhood. I fancy it contains one for his father. I have supposed it would not be unpleasant to you to have the delivery of it, as it may give you a good opportunity of conferring with one of that class as much as you please. I obey at the same time my own wishes to oblige the writer. Mazzei is at this time ill, but not in danger. I am impatient to receive further letters from you, which may assure me of the solidity of your recovery, being with great anxiety for your health and happiness, dear Sir, your affectionate friend and

servant.

[The annexed is here inserted in the Author's MS. To whom addressed, does not appear.]

The Minister Plenipotentiary for the United States of America, finds himself under the necessity of declining to authenticate writings destined to be sent to the United States, for this main reason, that such authentication is not legal evidence there. After a reason so sufficient, it seems superfluous to add, that, were his authentication admissible in the courts of the United

States, he could never give it to any seal or signature, which had not been put in his presence; that he could never certify a copy, unless both that and the original were in a hand-writing legible to him, and had been compared together by him, word by word: that so numerous are the writings presented, that their authentication alone, would occupy the greater part of his time, and withdrawing him from his proper duties, would change the nature of his office to that of a Notary. He observes to those who do him the honor of addressing themselves to him on this subject, that the laws for the authentication of foreign writings, are not the same through all the United States, some requiring an authentication under the seal of the Prevoté of a city, and others admitting that of a Notary; but that writings authenticated in both these manners, will, under the one or the other, be admitted in most, if not all, of the United States. It would seem advisable, then, to furnish them with this double authentication.

.

TO DOCTOR CURRIE.

PARIS, December 20, 1788. DEAR DOCTOR," Procrastination is the thief of time," so says Young, and so I find it. It is the only apology, and it is the true one for my having been so long without writing to you. In the meantime I shall overtake the present epistle if it be as long getting to you as my letters are sometimes coming. to me from America. I have asked of Congress a leave of five or six months' absence this year to carry my family back to America, and hope to obtain it in time to sail in April from Havre for James river directly. In this case I shall have the pleasure of seeing you at Richmond and Eppington a few days. This country is seriously meditating the establishment of a constitution, and the distress of the court for money, with the real good intentions of the King, will produce their concurrence in it. All the world is occupied at present in framing, every one his own plan, of a bill of rights. The States

General will meet probably in March, (the day not being yet known.) They will probably establish their own periodical meetings, their right to participate of the legislation, their sole right to tax. So far the court will not oppose. Some will endeavor to procure, at the same time, a habeas corpus law and free press. I doubt if the latter can be obtained yet, and as for the former, I hardly think the nation itself ripe to accept it. Though they see the evil of lettres de cachet, they believe they do more good on the whole. They will think better in time. The right of taxation includes the idea of fixing a civil list for the King, and of equalizing the taxes on the clergy and nobility as well as the commons. The two former orders do not pay onethird of the proportion ad valorum, which the last pay. This will be a great addition to their revenue. While engaged so much internally, you may be assured they wish for external peace. The insanity of the King of England will much befriend their desires in this respect. Regencies are generally peaceable. The war in the north appeared at one time likely to be quieted, but new dissensions in Poland threaten to embroil Russia and Prussia. In this case Prussia will previously make her peace with the Turks by ceding the Crimea to them. So much for political news. In the literary way we are like, after a very long dearth of good publications, to have something worth reading. The works of the late King of Prussia in sixteen volumes 8vo, appear now. They contain new and curious historical matter. A work on Grecian Antiquities, by the Abbé Barthelemi, of great classical learning, the produce of twenty years' labor, is now in the press, about eight volumes 8vo. A single small volume on government, by the Marquis de Condorcet, is struggling to get abroad in spite of the prohibition it is under. You have heard of the new chemical nomenclature endeavored to be introduced by Lavoisier, Fourcroy, &c. Other chemists of this country, of equal note, reject it, and prove, in my opinion, that it is premature, insufficient and false. These latter are joined by the British chemists; and upon the whole, I think the new nomenclature will be rejected, after doing more harm than

good. There are some good publications in it, which must be translated into the ordinary chemical language before they will be useful. A person lately discovered here a very simple method of bleaching yellow paper, or stained paper, (provided there be no grease on the stain,) by the fumes of the muriatic acid poured on magnesia. He showed it to me two or three days after the discovery. On mentioning it to M. Bertholet, we found that a process on the same principles had, for a year or two past, been adopted successfully for the bleaching linen. This is now effected in from eight hours to two or three days, without requiring the great bleaching fields which the ancient method does; and they say that the linen is less injured. There are two large bleacheries established in this country on this principle, and I believe they are beginning to try it in England. There is a vast improvement in the composition of gunpowder, not yet communicated to the public. We are now at the twenty-ninth livraison of the Encyclopedia. I shall bring to Mr. Hay what he has not yet received, and have then the pleasure of assuring you in person of the sentiments of sincere esteem with which I am, dear Sir, your friend and servant.

TO THOMAS PAINE.

PARIS, December 23, 1788.

DEAR SIR,-It is true that I received, very long ago, your favors of September the 9th and 15th, and that I have been in daily intention of answering them, fully and confidentially; but you know, such a correspondence between you and me cannot pass through the post, nor even by the couriers of ambassadors. The French packet boats being discontinued, I am now obliged to watch opportunities by Americans going to London, to write my letters to America. Hence it has happened, that these, the sole opportunities by which I can write to you without fear, have been lost, by the multitude of American letters I had to