PARIS, August 11, 1787.
DEAR SIR,--Mr. Ammonett sent me your favor of May 7, which you expected
he would have brought. He furnished me with the name of the family to
whose property he supposes himself entitled, and the name of the town
where it lies. I have endeavored to have them searched out, but as yet
neither family nor town is discovered. If they can be found, the estate
will then have to be searched for; the laws for limitation of actions
will form the next opposition to him, and probably the laws of
forfeiture against the Protestants, who were the subject of the
revocation of the edict of Nantes, which laws have never been repealed,
nor probably ever will be, even should the future condition of
Protestants here be mitigated. I shall proceed in the enquiry for him,
and let him know the result.
Your son Thomas, at Edinburgh, has done me the favor to open a little
correspondence with me. He has sometimes asked my advice as to the
course of his studies, which I have given to him the more freely as he
informed me he was not tied down to any particular plan by your
instructions. He informed me in his last letter that you proposed he
should come to Paris this fall, stay here the winter, and return to
Virginia in the spring. I understand him as proposing to study the law,
so that probably, on his return, you will place him at Williamsburg for
that purpose. On this view of his destination I venture to propose to
you another plan. The law may be studied as well in one place as
another; because it is a study of books alone, at least till near the
close of it. Books can be read equally well at Williamsburg, at London,
or Paris. The study of the law is an affair of three years, the last of
which should be spent in attending Mr. Wythe's lectures. Upon the plan
he has now in expectation, his residence here six months as a
traveller, must cost him two hundred guineas, and three years' study at
Williamsburg, four hundred and fifty guineas more, making five hundred
and fifty guineas in the whole. My proposition is that he shall pass
his two first years of legal study in some one of the villages within
an hour's walk of Paris, boarded with some good family, wherein he may
learn to speak the language, which is not to be learned in any other
way. By this means he will avoid the loss of time and money which would
be the consequence of a residence in the town, and he will be nigh
enough to come to dine, to make acquaintances, see good company, and
examine the useful details of the city. With very great economy he may
do this on one hundred guineas a year, but at his ease for one hundred
and fifty guineas. At the end of two years I would propose him a
journey through the southern parts of France, thence to Genoa, Leghorn,
Florence, Rome, Naples, Venice, Milan, Turin, Geneva, Lyons and Paris.
This will employ him seven months, and cost him three hundred and
thirty guineas, if he goes alone, or two hundred and thirty guineas if
he finds a companion. Then he should return to Virginia, and pass his
third year of legal study in attending Mr. Wythe's lectures. This whole
plan would take three years and seven months, and cost from seven
hundred to seven hundred and fifty guineas, which would be one month
longer, and one hundred and fifty or two hundred guineas dearer than
the one proposed. The advantages of this would be his learning to speak
French well, his acquiring a better acquaintance here with men and
things, and his having travelled through the most interesting parts of
Europe, advantages which he will forever think cheaply purchased for
one hundred and fifty or two hundred guineas, even were a deduction of
that sum to be made from the establishment you mean to give him. But in
every case, whether you decide that he shall return to study in
Virginia, or remain here for that purpose, I would recommend that he
should not be tied down to quit Edinburgh this fall precisely, but only
when he shall have finished his courses of lectures in those sciences
with which he should not be unacquainted. I have taken the liberty of
noting these to him. I perceive by his letters that he has a good
genius, and everybody bears witness to his application, which is almost
too great. It would be a pity, therefore, he should miss of giving them
full encouragement. I must beg your pardon for thus intruding myself
into a business belonging to yourself alone, and hope you will find its
excuse in the motives from which it proceeds, friendship for yourself,
Mrs. Randolph and your son. I wish to see you gratified, and to be
gratified myself in seeing him act the advantageous part, which will
naturally result from his talents, his merit, and the favorable ground
from which he will start; a fear of seeing this endangered by a too
early return to our own country where the example of his cotemporaries
may soon possibly lead him from the regular pursuits his friends may
chalk out for him, all these considerations have impelled me to take
this liberty, and to rely for pardon on the assurance of the sincere
attachment and respect with which I am, dear Sir, your affectionate
friend and servant.