PARIS, December 23, 1786.
DEAR SIR,--I have received your favor of October 8, but the volume of
transactions mentioned to come with it, did not; but I had received one
from Mr. Hopkinson. You also mention the diplomas it covered for other
persons, and some order of the society relative to myself, which I
supposed were omitted by accident, and will come by some other
conveyance. So far as relates to myself, whatever the order was, I beg
leave to express to you my sense of their favor, and wish to merit it.
I have several _livraisons_ of the "Encyclopédie" for yourself and Mr.
Hopkinson, which shall be sent in the spring, when they will be less
liable to injury. Some books also which I received from Baron Blome
must await that conveyance. I receive some discouraging accounts of the
temper of the people in our new government, yet were I to judge only
from the accounts given in the public papers, I should not fear their
passing over without injury. I wish you may have given your opinion of
them to some of your friends here, as your experience and knowledge of
men would give us more confidence in your opinion. Russia and the Porte
have patched up an accommodation through the mediation of this court.
The coolness between Spain and Naples will remain, and will occasion
the former to cease intermeddling with the affairs of the latter. The
Dutch affairs are still to be settled. The new King of Prussia is more
earnest in supporting the cause of the slaveholder than his uncle was,
and in general an affectation begins to show itself of differing from
his uncle. There is some fear of his throwing himself into the Austrian
scale in the European division of power. Our treaty with Morocco is
favorably concluded through the influence of Spain. That with Algiers
affords no expectation. We have been rendered anxious here about your
health, by hearing you have had a severe attack of your gout.
Remarkable deaths are the Duchess of Chabot, of the House of
Rochefoucault, Beaujon, and Peyronet, the architect who built the
bridge of Neuilly, and was to have begun one the next spring from the
Place Louis XV. to the Palais Bourbon. A dislocated wrist not yet
re-established, obliges me to conclude here with assurances of the
perfect esteem and respect with which I have the honor to be, your
Excellency's most obedient, and most humble servant.
P. S. Will you permit my respects to your grandson, Mr. Franklin, to
find their place here?