exclusive right of receiving in their chancery, or on board their vessels,
the declarations and all other the acts which the captains, masters,
crews, passengers and merchants of their nation may choose to make there,
even their testaments and other disposals by last will; and the copies
of the said acts, duly authenticated by the said Consuls or vice-Consuls,
under the seal of their consulate, shall receive faith in law, equally as
their originals would, in all the tribunals of the dominions of the M. C.
King and the United States.
They shall also have, and exclusively, in case of the absence of the
testamentary executor, guardian or lawful representative, the right to
inventory, liquidate, and proceed to the sale of the personal estate
left by subjects or citizens of their nation, who shall die within
the extent of their consulate; they shall proceed therein with the
assistance of two merchants of their said nation, or, for want of them,
of any other at their choice, and shall cause to be deposited in their
chancery, the effects and papers of the said estates; and no officer,
military, judiciary, or of the police of the country, shall disturb them
or interfere therein in any manner whatsoever; but the said Consuls and
vice-Consuls shall not deliver up the said effects, nor the proceeds
thereof, to the lawful representatives, or to their order, till they
shall have caused to be paid all debts which the deceased shall have
contracted in the country; for which purpose, the creditor shall have a
right to attach the said effects in their hands, as they might in those
of any other individual whatever, and proceed to obtain sale of them,
till payment of what shall be lawfully due to them. When the debts shall
not have been contracted by judgment, deed or note, the signature whereof
shall be known, payment shall not be ordered, but on the creditor's
giving sufficient surety resident in that country, to refund the sums he
shall have unduly received, principal, interest and costs; which surety,
nevertheless, shall stand duly discharged after the term of one year,
in time of peace, and of two, in time of war, if the discharge cannot be
formed before the end of this term, against the representatives who shall
present themselves.
And in order that the representatives may not be unjustly kept out of the
effects of the deceased, the Consuls and vice-Consuls shall notify his
death in some one of the gazettes published within their consulate, and
that they shall retain the said effects in their hands four months, to
answer all just demands which shall be presented; and they shall be bound,
after this delay, to deliver to the persons succeeding thereto, what shall
be more than sufficient for the demands which shall have been formed.
Article VI. The Consuls and vice-Consuls respectively, shall receive the
declarations, protests and reports, of all captains and masters of their
respective nations, on account of average losses sustained at sea; and
these captains and masters shall lodge in the chancery of the said Consuls
and vice-Consuls, the acts which they may have made in other ports, on
account of the accidents which may have happened to them on their voyage.
If a subject of the M. C. K. and a citizen of the United States, or a
foreigner, are interested in the said cargo, the average shall be settled
by the tribunals of the country, and not by the Consuls or vice-Consuls;
but when only the subjects or citizens of their own nation shall be
interested, the respective Consuls or vice-Consuls shall appoint skilful
persons to settle the damages and average.
Article VII. In cases where by tempest, or other accident, French ships
or vessels shall be stranded on the coasts of the United States, and
ships or vessels of the United States shall be stranded on the coasts of
the dominions of the M. C. K., the Consul or vice-Consul nearest to the
place of shipwreck shall do whatever he may judge proper, as well for the
purpose of saving the said ship or vessel, its cargo and appurtenances, as
for the storing and the security of the effects and merchandise saved. He
may take an inventory of them, without the intermeddling of any officers
of the military, of the customs, of justice, or of the police of the
country, otherwise than to give the Consuls, vice-Consuls, captain and
crew of the vessels shipwrecked or stranded, all the succor and favor
which they shall ask of them, either for the expedition and security of
the saving and of the effects saved, as to prevent all disturbance.
And in order to prevent all kind of dispute and discussion in the said
cases of shipwreck, it is agreed that when there shall be no Consul or
vice-Consul to attend to the saving of the wreck, or that the residence of
the said Consul or vice-Consul (he not being at the place of the wreck)
shall be more distant from the said place than that of the competent
judge of the country, the latter shall immediately proceed therein, with
all the despatch, certainty and precautions, prescribed by the respective
laws; but the said territorial judge shall retire, on the arrival of the
Consul or vice-Consul, and shall deliver over to him the report of his
proceedings, the expenses of which, the Consul or vice-Consul shall cause
to be reimbursed to him, as well as those of saving the wreck.
The merchandise and effects saved, shall be deposited in the nearest
Custom-house, or other place of safety, with the inventory thereof,
which shall have been made by the Consul or vice-Consul, or by the judge
who shall have proceeded in their absence, that the said effects and
merchandise may be afterwards delivered (after levying therefrom the
costs), and without form of process, to the owners, who, being furnished
with an order for their delivery, from the nearest Consul or vice-Consul,
shall reclaim them by themselves, or by their order, either for the
purpose of re-exporting such merchandise, in which case they shall
pay no kind of duty of exportation, or for that of selling them in the
country, if they be not prohibited there; and in this last case, the said
merchandise, if they be damaged, shall be allowed an abatement of entrance
duties, proportioned to the damage they have sustained, which shall be
ascertained by the affidavits taken at the time the vessel was wrecked or
struck.
Article VIII. The Consuls and vice-Consuls shall exercise police over all
the vessels of their respective nations, and shall have on board the said
vessels, all power and jurisdiction in civil matters, in all the disputes
which may there arise; they shall have an entire inspection over the said
vessels, their crew and the changes and substitutions there to be made.
For which purpose, they may go on board the said vessels wherever they
may judge it necessary; well understood, that the functions hereby allowed
shall be confined to the interior of the vessels, and that they shall not
take place in any case, which shall have any interference with the police
of the ports where the said vessels shall be.
Article IX. The Consuls and vice-Consuls may cause to be arrested,
the captains officers, mariners, sailors, and all other persons, being
part of the crews of the vessels of their respective nations, who shall
have deserted from the said vessels, in order to send them back, and
transport them out of the country. For which purpose, the said Consuls and
vice-Consuls shall address themselves to the courts, judges and officers
competent, and shall demand the said deserters in writing, proving by
an exhibition of the registers of the vessel or ship's roll, that those
men were part of the said crews; and on this demand, so proved (saving,
however, where the contrary is proved), the delivery shall not be refused;
and there shall be given all aid and assistance to the said Consuls and
vice-Consuls, for the search, seizure and arrest of the said deserters,
who shall even be detained and kept in the prisons of the country, at
their request and expense, until they shall have found an opportunity of
sending them back. But if they be not sent back within three months, to
be counted from the day of their arrest, they shall be set at liberty, and
shall be no more arrested for the same cause.
Article X. In cases where the respective subjects or citizens shall have
committed any crime, or breach of the peace, they shall be amenable to the
judges of the country.
Article XI. When the said offenders shall be a part of the crew of a
vessel of their nation, and shall have withdrawn themselves on board
the said vessel, they may be there seized and arrested by order of the
judges of the country; these shall give notice thereof to the Consul
or vice-Consul, who may repair on board, if he thinks proper; but this
notification shall not, in any case, delay execution of the order in
question. The persons arrested, shall not afterwards be set at liberty,
until the Consul or vice-Consul shall have been notified thereof; and they
shall be delivered to him, if he requires it, to be put again on board of
the vessels on which they were arrested, or of others of their nation, and
to be sent out of the country.
Article XII. All differences and suits between the subjects of the M. C.
K. in the U. S. or between the citizens of the United States within the
dominions of the M. C. K. and particularly all disputes relative to the
wages and terms of engagement of the crews of the respective vessels, and
all differences of whatever nature they be, which may arise between the
privates of the said crews, or between any of them and their captains,
or between the captains of different vessels of their nation, shall
be determined by the respective Consuls and vice-Consuls, either by a
reference to arbitrators, or by a summary judgment, and without costs.
No officer of the country, civil or military, shall interfere therein,
or take any part whatever in the matter; and the appeals from the said
consular sentences, shall be carried before the tribunals of France or of
the United States, to whom it may appertain to take cognizance thereof.
Article XIII. The general utility of commerce, having caused to be
established within the dominions of the M. C. K. particular tribunals and
forms, for expediting the decision of commercial affairs, the merchants
of the U. S. shall enjoy the benefit of these establishments; and the
Congress of the U. S. will provide in the manner the most conformable to
its laws, equivalent advantages in favor of the French merchants, for the
prompt despatch and decision of affairs of the same nature.
Article XIV. The subjects of the M. C. K. and citizens of the U. S.
who shall prove by legal evidence, that they are of the said nations
respectively, shall, in consequence, enjoy an exemption from all personal
service in the place of their settlement.
Article XV. If any other nation acquires, by virtue of any convention
whatever, a treatment more favorable with respect to the consular
pre-eminences, powers, authority and privileges, the Consuls and
vice-Consuls of the M. C. K., or of the U. S. reciprocally, shall
participate therein, agreeably to the terms stipulated by the second,
third, and fourth articles of the treaty of amity and commerce, concluded
between the M. C. K. and the U. S.
Article XVI. The present convention shall be in full force during the
term of twelve years, to be counted from the day of the exchange of
ratifications, which shall be given in proper form, and exchanged on both
sides, within the space of one year, or sooner, if possible.
In faith whereof, we, Ministers Plenipotentiary, have signed the present
convention, and have thereto set the seal of our arms.
Done at Versailles the 14th of November, one thousand seven hundred and
eighty-eight.
L. C. DE MONTMORIN.} {TH: JEFFERSON.
L. S. } Signed. { L. S.
TO JAMES MADISON.
PARIS, November 18, 1788.
DEAR SIR,--My last to you was of the 31st July; since which, I have
received yours of July the 24th, August the 10th and 23d. The first part
of this long silence in me, was occasioned by a knowledge that you were
absent from New York; the latter part, by a want of opportunity, which has
been longer than usual. Mr. Shippen being just arrived here, and to set
out to-morrow for London, I avail myself of that channel of conveyance.
Mr. Carrington was so kind as to send me the second volume of the American
Philosophical Transactions, the Federalist, and some other interesting
pamphlets; and I am to thank you for another copy of the Federalist, and
the report of the instructions to the ministers, for negotiating peace.
The latter, unluckily, omitted exactly the passage I wanted, which was
what related to the navigation of the Mississippi. With respect to the
Federalist, the three authors had been named to me. I read it with care,
pleasure and improvement, and was satisfied there was nothing in it by
one of those hands, and not a great deal by a second. It does the highest
honor to the third, as being, in my opinion, the best commentary on the
principles of government, which ever was written. In some parts, it is
discoverable that the author means only to say what may be best said
in defence of opinions, in which he did not concur. But in general, it
establishes firmly the plan of government. I confess, it has rectified
me on several points. As to the bill of rights, however, I still think
it should be added; and I am glad to see, that three States have at
length considered the perpetual re-eligibility of the President, as an
article which should be amended. I should deprecate with you, indeed, the
meeting of a new convention. I hope they will adopt the mode of amendment
by Congress and the Assemblies, in which case, I should not fear any
dangerous innovation in the plan. But the minorities are too respectable,
not to be entitled to some sacrifice of opinion, in the majority;
especially, when a great proportion of them would be contented with a bill
of rights.
Here, things internally are going on well. The Notables now in session,
have, indeed, passed one vote, which augurs ill to the rights of the
people; but if they do not obtain now so much as they have a right to,
they will in the long run. The misfortune is, that they are not yet ripe
for receiving the blessings to which they are entitled. I doubt, for
instance, whether the body of the nation, if they could be consulted,
would accept of a habeas corpus law, if offered them by the King. If
the _Etats Genereux_, when they assemble, do not aim at too much, they
may begin a good constitution. There are three articles which they may
easily obtain; 1, their own meeting, periodically; 2, the exclusive right
of taxation; 3, the right of registering laws and proposing amendments
to them, as exercised now by the parliaments. This last, would be
readily approved by the court, on account of their hostility against
the parliaments, and would lead immediately to the origination of laws;
the second has been already solemnly avowed by the King; and it is well
understood, there would be no opposition to the first. If they push at
much more, all may fail. I shall not enter further into public details,
because my letter to Mr. Jay will give them. That contains a request of
permission to return to America, the next spring, for the summer only. The
reasons therein urged, drawn from my private affairs, are very cogent.
But there is another, more cogent on my mind, though of a nature not
to be explained in a public letter. It is the necessity of attending my
daughters, myself, to their own country, and depositing them safely in the
hands of those with whom I can safely leave them. I have deferred this
request as long as circumstances would permit, and am in hopes it will
meet with no difficulty. I have had too many proofs of your friendship,
not to rely on your patronage of it, as, in all probability, nothing can
suffer by a short absence. But the _immediate_ permission is what I am
anxious about; as by going in April and returning in October, I shall
be sure of pleasant and short passages, out and in. I must entreat your
attention, my friend, to this matter, and that the answers may be sent me
through several channels.
Mr. Limozin, at Havre, sent you, by mistake, a package belonging to
somebody else. I do not know what it contained, but he has written to you
on the subject, and prayed me to do the same; he is likely to suffer if it
be not returned.
Supposing that the funding their foreign debt will be among the first
operations of the new government, I send you two estimates; the one by
myself, the other by a gentleman infinitely better acquainted with the
subject, showing what fund will suffice to discharge the principal and
interest, as it shall become due, aided by occasional loans, which the
same fund will repay. I enclose them to you, because collating them
together, and with your own ideas, you will be able to devise something
better than either; but something must be done. This government will
expect, I fancy, a very satisfactory provision for the payment of their
debt, from the first session of the new Congress. Perhaps, in this matter,
as well as the arrangement of your foreign affairs, I may be able, when
on the spot with you, to give some information and suggest some hints,
which may render my visit to my native country not altogether useless.
I consider as no small advantage the resuming the tone of mind of my
constituents, which is lost by long absence, and can only be recovered
by mixing with them; and shall particularly hope for much profit and
pleasure, by contriving to pass as much time as possible with you. Should
you have a trip to Virginia in contemplation, for that year, I hope you
will time it so as that we may be there together. I will camp you at
Monticello, where, if illy entertained otherwise, you shall not want
books. In firm hope of a happy meeting with you in the spring, or early
in summer, I conclude with assurances of the sincere esteem and attachment
with which I am, dear Sir, your affectionate friend and servant.
TO A. DONALD.
PARIS, November 18, 1788.
DEAR SIR,--Often solicited by persons on this side the water, to inquire
for their friends in America, about whose fate they are uncertain, I can
only hand on their requests to my friends in America. The enclosed letter
from the Chevalier de Sigougne, desires some inquiry after his brother,
whom he supposes to have settled at Todd's Bridge. As this is within your
reach, I must refer the request to your humanity, and beg of you, if you
can hear of him, you will be so good as to give me an account of him,
returning me the enclosed letter at the same time.
The campaign between the Turks and Russians has been tolerably equal. The
Austrians have suffered through the whole of it. By the interposition
of Prussia and England, peace is likely to be made between Russia,
Denmark, and Sweden. This is a proof that England does not meant to
engage in the war herself. This country will certainly engage herself in
no manner, externally, before the meeting of her States General. This
assembly has been so long disused, that the forms of its convocation
occasion difficulty. The Notables have been convened to prescribe them,
and they are now in session. I am in hopes this will end in giving a
good degree of liberty to this country. They enjoy, at present, the most
perfect tranquillity within; their stocks, however, continue low, and
money difficult to be got for current expenses. It is hoped that Mr.
Neckar's talents and popularity, with the aid of a National Assembly,
will extricate them from their difficulties. We have been daily expecting
to hear of the death of the King of England: our last news is of the
11th, when he was thought in the utmost danger. This event might produce
a great change in the situation of things: it is supposed Mr. Fox would
come into place, and he has been generally understood to be disposed
for war. Should the King survive, I think the continuance of peace more
probable at present, than it has been for some time past. Be so good as to
contrive the enclosed letter by a very safe conveyance. Remember me in the
most friendly terms to Dr. Currie, and be assured yourself of the esteem
and attachment with which I am, dear Sir, your affectionate friend and
servant.
TO JOHN JAY.
PARIS, November 19, 1788.
SIR,--Since my letter of September the 5th, wherein I acknowledged Mr.
Remsen's favor of July the 25th, I have written those of September the
24th, and of the 14th instant. This last will accompany the present, both
going by the way of London, for want of a direct opportunity; but they go
by a private hand.
No late event worth notice has taken place between the Turks and
Austrians. The former continue in the territories of the latter, with all
the appearances of superiority. On the side of Russia, the war wears an
equal force, except that the Turks are still masters of the Black Sea.
Oczakow is not yet taken. Denmark furnished to Russia its stipulated
quota of troops, with so much alacrity, and was making such other warlike
preparations, that it was believed they meant to become principals in the
war against Sweden. Russia and England hereupon interposed efficaciously.
Their ministers appointed to mediate, gave notice to the court of
Copenhagen, that they would declare war against them in the name of their
two sovereigns, if they did not immediately withdraw their troops from
the Swedish territories. The court of London has since said, that their
minister (Elliot) went further in this than he was authorized. However,
the Danish troops are retiring. Poland is augmenting its army from twenty
to an hundred thousand men. Nevertheless, it seems as if England and
Prussia meant, in earnest, to stop the war in that quarter, contented
to leave the two empires in the hands of the Turks. France, desired by
Sweden to join the courts of London and Berlin in their mediation between
Sweden and Russia, has declined it. We may be assured she will meddle in
nothing external, before the meeting of the States General. Her temporary
annihilation in the political scale of Europe, leaves to England and
Prussia the splendid roll of giving the law without meeting the shadow
of opposition. The internal tranquillity of this country is perfect;
their stocks, however, continue low, and the difficulty of getting money
to face current expenses, very great. In the contest between the King
and parliament, the latter, fearing the power of the former, passed the
convoking the States General. The government found itself obliged by
other difficulties, also to recur to the same expedient. The parliament,
after its recall, showed that it was now become apprehensive of the States
General, and discovered a determination to cavil at their form, so as to
have a right to deny their legality, if that body should undertake to
abridge their powers. The court, hereupon, very adroitly determined to
call the same Notables who had been approved by the nation the last year,
to decide on the form of convoking the Etats Genereux: thus withdrawing
itself from the disputes which the parliament might excite, and committing
them with the nation. The Notables are now in session. The government
had manifestly discovered a disposition that the Tiers etat, or Commons,
should have as many representatives in the States General as the Nobility
and Clergy together; but five _bureaux_ of the Notables have voted by very
great majorities, that they should have only an equal number with each of
the other orders, singly. One _bureau_, by a majority of a single voice,
had agreed to give the Commons the double number of representatives.
This is the first symptom of a decided combination between the Nobility
and Clergy, and will necessarily throw the people into the scale of the
King. It is doubted whether the States can be called so early as January,
though the government, urged by the want of money, is for pressing the
convocation. It is still more uncertain, what the States will do when they
meet: there are three objects which they may attain, probably without
opposition, from the court: 1, a periodical meeting of the States; 2,
their exclusive rights of taxation; 3, the right of enregistering laws
and proposing amendments to them, as now exercised by the parliaments.
This would lead, as it did in England, to the right of originating laws.
The parliament would, by the last measure, be reduced to a mere judiciary
body, and would probably oppose it. But against the King and nation, their
opposition could not succeed. If the States stop here, for the present
moment, all will probably end well, and they may, in future sessions,
obtain a suppression of _lettres de cachet_, a free press, a civil list,
and other valuable modifications of their government. But it is to be
feared, that an impatience to rectify everything at once, which prevails
in some minds, may terrify the court, and lead them to appeal to force,
and to depend on that alone.
Before this can reach you, you will probably have heard of an _Arret_,
passed the 28th of September, for prohibiting the introduction of foreign
whale oils, without exception. The English had glutted the markets of
this country with their oils: it was proposed to exclude them, and an
_Arret_ was drawn, with an exception for us: in the last stage of the
_Arret_, the exception was struck out, without my having any warning, or
even suspicion of this. I suspect this stroke came from the Count de La
Luzerne, minister of marine; but I cannot affirm it positively. As soon as
I was apprized of this, which was several days after it passed (because it
was kept secret till published in their seaports), I wrote to the Count de
Montmorin a letter, of which the enclosed is a copy, and had conference
on the subject, from time to time, with him and the other ministers.
I found them prepossessed by the partial information of their Dunkirk
fishermen; and therefore thought it necessary to give them a view of the
whole subject in writing, which I did: in the place of which, I enclose
you a printed copy. I therein entered into more details, than the question
between us seemed rigorously to require. I was led to them by other
objects. The most important was, to disgust Mr. Neckar, as an economist,
against their new fishery, by letting him foresee its expense. The
particular manufactures suggested to them, were in consequence of repeated
applications from the shippers of rice and tobacco; other details which
do not appear immediately pertinent, were occasioned by circumstances
which had arisen in conversation, or an apparent necessity of giving
information on the whole matter. At a conference, in the presence of M.
Lambert, on the 16th (where I was ably aided by the Marquis de La Fayette,
as I have been through the whole business), it was agreed to except us
from the prohibition. But they will require rigorous assurance, that
the oils coming under our name, are really of our fishery. They fear
we shall cover the introduction of the English oils from Halifax. The
_Arret_ for excepting us was communicated to me, but the formalities of
proving the oils to be American, were not yet inserted. I suppose they
will require every vessel to bring a certificate from their consul or
vice-consul, residing in the State from which it comes. More difficult
proofs were sometimes talked of. I supposed I might surely affirm to them,
that our government would do whatever it could to prevent this fraud,
because it is as much our interest as theirs, to keep the market for the
French and American oils only. I am told Massachusetts has prohibited
the introduction of foreign fish oils into her ports. This law, if well
executed, will be an effectual guard against fraud; and a similar one in
the other States interested in this fishery, would much encourage this
government to continue her indulgence to us. Though the _Arret_, then, for
the re-admission of our oils, is not yet passed, I think I may assure you
it will be so in a few days, and of course, that this branch of commerce,
after so threatening an appearance, will be on a better footing than ever,
as enjoying, jointly with the French oil, a monopoly of their markets.
The continuance of this will depend on the growth of their fishery.
Whenever they become able to supply their own wants, it is very possible
they may refuse to take our oils; but I do not believe it possible for
them to raise their fishery to that, unless they can continue to draw off
our fishermen from us. Their seventeen ships, this year, had one hundred
and fifty of our sailors on board. I do not know what number the English
have got into their service. You will readily perceive, that there are
particulars in these printed observations, which it would not be proper
to suffer to become public. They were printed merely that a copy might be
given to each minister, and care has been taken to let them go in no other
hands.
I must now trouble Congress with a petition on my own behalf. When I left
my own house in October, 1783, it was to attend Congress as a member,
and in expectation of returning in five or six months. In the month of
May following, however, I was desired to come to Europe, as member of a
commission, which was to continue two years only. I came off immediately,
without going home to make any other arrangements in my affairs, thinking
they would not suffer greatly before I should return to them. Before
the close of the two years, Doctor Franklin retiring from his charge
here, Congress were pleased to name me to it; so that I have been led on
by events, to an absence of five years, instead of five months. In the
meantime matters of great moment to others as well as myself, and which
can be arranged by nobody but myself, will await no longer. Another motive
of still more powerful cogency on my mind, is the necessity of carrying
my family back to their friends and country. I must, therefore, ask of
Congress a leave of short absence. Allowing three months on the sea,
going and coming, and two months at my own house, which will suffice for
my affairs, I need not be from Paris but between five and six months. I
do not foresee anything which can suffer during my absence. The consular
convention is finished, except as to the exchange of ratification, which
will be the affair of a day only. The difference with Schweighauser and
Dobrée, relative to our arms, will be finished. That of Denmark, if ever
finished, will probably be long spun out. The ransom of the Algerine
captives, is the only matter likely to be on hand. That cannot be set
on foot till the money is raised in Holland, and an order received for
its application; probably these will take place, so that I may set it
in motion before my departure; if not, I can still leave it on such a
footing as to be put into motion the moment the money can be paid. And
even when the leave of Congress shall be received, I will not make use
of it, if there is anything of consequence which may suffer; but would
postpone my departure till circumstances will admit it. But should these
be as I expect they will, it will be vastly desirable to me, to receive
the permission immediately, so that I may go out as soon as the vernal
equinox is over, and be sure of my return in good time and season in
the fall. Mr. Short, who had had thoughts of returning to America, will
postpone that return till I come back. His talents and character allow
me to say, with confidence, that nothing will suffer in his hands. The
friendly dispositions of Monsieur de Montmorin would induce him readily
to communicate with Mr. Short in his present character; but should any of
his applications be necessary to be laid before the Council, they might
suffer difficulty; nor could he attend the diplomatic societies, which
are the most certain sources of good intelligence. Would Congress think it
expedient to remove the difficulties, by naming him secretary of legation,
so that he would act, of course, as chargé des affaires during my absence?
It would be just that the difference between the salary of a secretary
and a secretary of legation should cease, as soon as he should cease to
be charged with the affairs of the United States; that is to say, on my
return; and he would expect that. So that this difference for five or six
months, would be an affair of about one hundred and seventy guineas only,
which would be not more than equal to the additional expense that would
be brought on him necessarily by the change of character. I mention these
particulars, that Congress may see the end as well as the beginning of
the proposition, and have only to add, "their will be done." Leave for me
being obtained, I will ask it, Sir, of your friendship, to avail yourself
of various occasions to the ports of France and England, to convey me
immediate notice of it, and relieve me as soon as possible from the
anxiety of expectation, and the uncertainty in which I shall be. We have
been in daily expectation of hearing of the death of the King of England.
Our latest news are of the 11th. He had then been despaired of, for three
or four days; but as my letter is to pass through England, you will have
later accounts of him than that can give you. I send you the newspapers to
this date, and have the honor to be, with the greatest esteem and respect,
Sir, your most obedient humble servant.
P. S. The last crop of corn in France has been so short, that they
apprehend want. Mr. Neckar desires me to make known this scarcity to our
merchants, in hopes they would send supplies. I promised him I would. If
it could be done without naming him, it would be agreeable to him, and
probably advantageous to the adventurers.
[_The annexed are the observations on the subject of admitting our
whale oil in the markets of France, referred to in the preceding
letter._]
Whale oil enters, as a raw material, into several branches of manufacture,
as of wool, leather, soap: it is used also, in painting, architecture and
navigation. But its great consumption is in lighting houses and cities.
For this last purpose, however, it has a powerful competitor in the
vegetable oils. These do well in warm, still weather, but they fix with
cold, they extinguish easily with the wind, their crop is precarious,
depending on the seasons, and to yield the same light, a larger wick
must be used, and greater quantity of oil consumed. Estimating all these
articles of difference together, those employed in lighting cities find
their account in giving about twenty-five per cent. more for whale, than
for vegetable oils. But higher than this, the whale oil, in its present
form, cannot rise; because it then becomes more advantageous to the city
lighters to use others. This competition, then, limits its price, higher
than which no encouragement can raise it; and it becomes, as it were,
a law of its nature. But, at this low price, the whale fishery is the
poorest business into which a merchant or sailor can enter. If the sailor,
instead of wages, has a part of what is taken, he finds that this, one
year with another, yields him less than he could have got as wages in any
other business. It is attended, too, with great risk, singular hardships,
and long absence from his family. If the voyage is made solely at the
expense of the merchant, he finds that, one year with another, it does
not reimburse him his expense. As for example, an English ship of three
hundred tons and forty-two hands, brings home, _communibus annis_, after
four months' voyage, twenty-five tons of oil, worth four hundred and
thirty-seven pounds ten shillings sterling. But the wages of the officers
and seamen, will be four hundred pounds; the outfit, then, and the
merchant's profit, must be paid by the government; and it is accordingly
on this idea that the British bounty is calculated. From the poverty of
this business, then, it has happened that the nations who have taken it
up, have successively abandoned it. The Basques began it; but though the
most economical and enterprising of the inhabitants of France, they could
not continue it; and it is said they never employed more than thirty ships
a year. The Dutch and Hanse towns succeeded them. The latter gave it up
long ago. The English carried it on in competition with the Dutch, during
the last and beginning of the present century; but it was too little
profitable for them, in comparison with other branches of commerce open to
them.
In the meantime, the inhabitants of the barren island of Nantucket had
taken up this fishery, invited to it, by the whales presenting themselves
on their own shore. To them, therefore, the English relinquished it,
continuing to them, as British subjects, the importation of their oils
into England, duty free, while foreigners were subject to a duty of
eighteen pounds five shillings sterling, a ton. The Dutch were enabled
to continue it long, because, 1st. They are so near the northern fishing
grounds, that a vessel begins her fishing very soon after she is out
of port. 2d. They navigate with more economy than the other nations of
Europe. 3d. Their seamen are content with lower wages: and 4th, their
merchants, with a lower profit on their capital. Under all these favorable
circumstances, however, this branch of business, after long languishing,
is, at length, nearly extinct with them. It is said, they did not send
above half a dozen ships in pursuit of the whale, this present year.
The Nantuckois, then, were the only people who exercised this fishery to
any extent, at the commencement of the late war. Their country, from its
barrenness yielding no subsistence, they were obliged to seek it in the
sea which surrounded them. Their economy was more rigorous than that of
the Dutch. Their seamen, instead of wages, had a share in what was taken:
this induced them to fish with fewer hands, so that each had a greater
dividend in the profit; it made them more vigilant in seeking game, bolder
in pursuing it, and parsimonious in all their expenses. London was their
only market. When, therefore, by the late Revolution, they became aliens
in Great Britain, they became subject to the alien duty of eighteen
pounds five shillings, the ton of oil, which being more than equal to the
price of the common whale oil, they are obliged to abandon that fishery.
So that this people, who, before the war, had employed upwards of three
hundred vessels a year, in the whale fishery, (while Great Britain had
herself, never employed one hundred,) have now almost ceased to exercise
it. But they still had the seamen, the most important material for this
fishery; and they still retained the spirit for fishing: so that, at
the re-establishment of peace, they were capable, in a very short time,
of reviving their fishery, in all its splendor. The British government
saw that the moment was critical. They knew that their own share in that
fishery, was as nothing; that the great mass of fishermen was left with
a nation now separated from them; that these fishermen, however, had lost
their ancient market; had no other resource within their country, to which
they could turn; and they hoped, therefore, they might, in the present
moment of distress, be decoyed over to their establishments, and be added
to the mass of their seamen. To effect this, they offered extravagant
advantages to all persons who should exercise the whale fishery from
British establishments. But not counting with much confidence, on a long
connection with their remaining possessions on the continent of America,
foreseeing that the Nantuckois would settle in them, preferably, if put
on an equal footing with those of Great Britain, and that thus they might
have to purchase them the second time, they confined their high offers to
settlers in Great Britain. The Nantuckois, left without resource by the
loss of their market, began to think of removing to the British dominions;
some to Nova Scotia, preferring smaller advantages, in the neighborhood
of their ancient country and friends; others to Great Britain, postponing
country and friends to high premiums. A vessel was already arrived from
Halifax to Nantucket, to take off some of those who proposed to remove;
two families had gone on board, and others were going, when a letter
was received there, which had been written by Monsieur le Marquis de La
Fayette, to a gentleman in Boston, and transmitted by him to Nantucket.
The purport of the letter was, to dissuade their accepting the British
proposals, and to assure them, that their friends in France would endeavor
to do something for them. This instantly suspended their design: not
another went on board, and the vessel returned to Halifax, with only the
two families.
In fact, the French government had not been inattentive to the views
of the British, nor insensible to the crisis. They saw the danger of
permitting five or six thousand of the best seamen existing, to be
transferred by a single stroke to the marine strength of their enemy, and
to carry over with them an art, which they possessed almost exclusively.
The counterplan which they set on foot, was, to tempt the Nantuckois, by
high offers, to come and settle in France. This was in the year 1785. The
British, however, had in their favor a sameness of language, religion,
laws, habits, and kindred. Nine families only, of thirty-three persons in
the whole, came to Dunkirk; so that this project was not likely to prevent
their emigration to the English establishments, if nothing else had
happened.
France had effectually aided in detaching the United States of America
from the _force_ of Great Britain; but, as yet, they seemed to have
indulged only a silent wish, to detach them from her _commerce_. They had
done nothing to induce that event. In the same year, 1785, while M. de
Calonnes was in treaty with the Nantuckois, an estimate of the commerce
of the United States was submitted to the Count de Vergennes, and it was
shown, that of three millions of pounds sterling, to which their exports
amounted, one third might be brought to France, and exchanged against her
productions and manufactures, advantageously for both nations; provided
the obstacles of prohibition, monopoly and duty, were either done away
or moderated, as far as circumstances would admit. A committee, which
had been appointed to investigate a particular one of these objects,
was thereupon instructed to extend its researches to the whole, and
see what advantages and facilities the government could offer, for the
encouragement of a general commerce with the United States. The committee
was composed of persons well skilled in commerce; and after laboring
assiduously for several months, they made their report: the result of
which was given in the letter of his Majesty's Comptroller General, of
the 22d of October, 1786, wherein he stated the principles which should
be established, for the future regulation of the commerce between France
and the United States. It was become tolerably evident at the date of
this letter, that the terms offered to the Nantuckois, would not produce
their emigration to Dunkirk; and that it would be safest, in every event,
to offer some other alternative, which might prevent their acceptance of
the British offers. The obvious one was, to open the ports of France to
their oils, so that they might still exercise their fishery, remaining
in their native country, and find a new market for its produce, instead
of that which they had lost. The article of whale oil was, accordingly,
distinguished in the letter of M. de Calonnes, by an immediate abatement
of duty, and promise of further abatement, after the year 1790. This
letter was instantly sent to America, and bid fair to produce there
the effect intended, by determining the fishermen to carry on their
trade from their own homes, with the advantage only of a free market
in France, rather than remove to Great Britain, where a free market and
great bounty were offered them. An _Arret_ was still to be prepared, to
give legal sanction to the letter of M. de Calonnes. Monsieur Lambert,
with a patience and assiduity almost unexampled, went through all the
investigations necessary to assure himself, that the conclusion of the
committee had been just. Frequent conferences on this subject were held
in his presence; the deputies of the chambers of commerce were heard, and
the result was, the _Arret_ of December the 29th, 1787, confirming the
abatements of duty, present and future, which the letter of October, 1786,
had promised, and reserving to his Majesty, to grant still further favors
to that production, if, on further information, he should find it for the
interest of the two nations.
The English had now begun to deluge the markets of France, with their
whale oils; and they were enabled by the great premiums given by their
government, to undersell the French fisherman, aided by feebler premiums,
and the American, aided by his poverty alone. Nor is it certain, that
these speculations were not made at the risk of the British government,
to suppress the French and American fishermen in their only market. Some
remedy seemed necessary. Perhaps it would not have been a bad one, to
subject, by a general law, the merchandise of every nation, and of every
nature, to pay additional duties in the ports of France, exactly equal
to the premiums and drawbacks given on the same merchandise, by their
own government. This might not only counteract the effect of premiums
in the instance of whale oils, but attack the whole British system of
bounties and drawbacks, by the aid of which, they make London the centre
of commerce for the whole earth. A less general remedy, but an effectual
one, was, to prohibit the oils of all _European_ nations; the treaty with
England requiring only, that she should be treated as well as the most
favored _European_ nation. But the remedy adopted was, to prohibit all
oils, without exception.
To know how this remedy will operate, we must consider the quantity of
whale oil which France consumes annually, the quantity which she obtains
from her own fishery; and, if she obtains less than she consumes, we are
to consider what will follow the prohibition.
The annual consumption of France, as stated by a person who has good
opportunities of knowing it, is as follows:
lbs. pesant. quinteaux. tons.
Paris, according to the registers of
1786 2,800,000 28,000 1,750
Twenty-seven other cities, lighted
by M. Sangrain 800,000 8,000 500
Rouen 500,000 5,000 312½
Bordeaux 600,000 6,000 375
Lyons 300,000 3,000 187½
Other cities, leather and light 3,000,000 30,000 1,875
--------- ------ -----
8,000,000 80,000 5,000
Other calculations, or say rather, conjectures, reduce the consumption
to about half this. It is treating these conjectures with great respect,
to place them on an equal footing with the estimate of the person before
alluded to, and to suppose the truth half way between them. But we will
do it, and call the present consumption of France only sixty thousand
quintals, or three thousand seven hundred and fifty tons a year. This
consumption is increasing fast, as the practice of lighting cities is
becoming more general, and the superior advantages of lighting them with
whale oil, are but now beginning to be known.
What do the fisheries of France furnish? She has employed, this year,
fifteen vessels in the southern, and two in the northern fishery, carrying
forty-five hundred tons in the whole, or two hundred and sixty-five each,
on an average. The English ships, led by Nantuckois as well as the French,
have never averaged in the southern fishery, more than one-fifth of their
burthen, in the best year. The fifteen ships of France, according to
this ground of calculation, and supposing the present to have been one
of the best years, should have brought, one with another, one-fifth of
two hundred and sixty-five tons, or fifty-three tons each. But we are
told, they have brought near the double of that, to wit, one hundred tons
each, and fifteen hundred tons in the whole. Supposing the two northern
vessels to have brought home the cargo which is common from the northern
fishery, to wit, twenty-five tons each, the whole produce this year, will
then be fifteen hundred and fifty tons. This is five and a half months'
provision, or two-fifths of the annual consumption. To furnish for the
whole year, would require forty ships of the same size, in years as
fortunate as the present, and eighty-five, _communibus annis_; forty-four
tons, or one-sixth of the burthen, being as high an average as should
be counted on, one year with another; and the number must be increased,
with the increasing consumption. France, then, is evidently not yet in
a condition to supply her own wants. It is said, indeed, she has a large
stock on hand unsold, occasioned by the English competition. Thirty-three
thousand quintals, including this year's produce, are spoken of: this is
between six and seven months' provision; and supposing by the time this is
exhausted that the next year's supply comes in, that will enable her to go
on five or six months longer; say a twelvemonth in the whole. But at the
end of the twelve month, what is to be done? The manufactures depending
on this article, cannot maintain their competition against those of other
countries, if deprived of their equal means. When the alternative, then,
shall be presented, of letting them drop, or opening the ports to foreign
whale oil, it is presumable the latter will be adopted as the lesser evil.
But it will be too late for America. Her fishery, annihilated during the
late war, only began to raise its head on the prospect of a market held
out by this country. Crushed by the _Arret_ of September the 28th, in its
first feeble effort to revive, it will rise no more. Expeditions, which
require the expense of the outfit of vessels, and from nine to twelve
months' navigation, as the southern fishery does, most frequented by the
Americans, cannot be undertaken in sole reliance on a market, which is
opened and shut from one day to another, with little or no warning. The
English alone, then, will remain to furnish these supplies, and they must
be received even from them. We must accept bread from our enemies, if our
friends cannot furnish it. This comes exactly to the point, to which that
government has been looking. She fears no rivals in the whale fishery but
America: or rather, it is the whale fishery of America, of which she is
endeavoring to possess herself. It is for this object, she is making the
present extraordinary efforts, by bounties and other encouragements; and
her success, so far, is very flattering. Before the war, she had not one
hundred vessels in the whale trade, while America employed three hundred
and nine. In 1786, Great Britain employed one hundred and fifty-one
vessels; in 1787, two hundred and eighty-six; in 1788, three hundred and
fourteen, nearly the ancient American number; while the latter has fallen
to about eighty. They have just changed places then; England having gained
exactly what America has lost. France, by her ports and markets, holds
the balance between the two contending parties, and gives the victory, by
opening and shutting them, to which she pleases. We have still precious
remains of seamen educated in this fishery, and capable, by their poverty,
their boldness and address, of recovering it from the English in spite
of their bounties. But this _Arret_ endangers the transferring to Great
Britain every man of them, who is not invincibly attached to his native
soil. There is no other nation, in present condition, to maintain a
competition with Great Britain in the whale fishery. The expense at which
it is supported on her part, seems enormous. Two hundred and fifty-five
vessels, of seventy-five thousand four hundred and thirty-six tons,
employed by her this year, in the northern fishery, at forty-two men
each; and fifty-nine in the southern, at eighteen men each, make eleven
thousand seven hundred and seventy-two men. These are known to have
cost the government fifteen pounds each, or one hundred and seventy-six
thousand five hundred and eighty pounds, in the whole, and that, to employ
the principal part of them, from three to four months only. The northern
ships have brought home twenty, and the southern sixty tons of oil, on an
average; making eighty-six hundred and forty tons. Every ton of oil, then,
has cost the government twenty pounds in bounty. Still, if they can beat
us out of the field and have it to themselves, they will think their money
well employed. If France undertakes, solely, the competition against them,
she must do it at equal expense. The trade is too poor to support itself.
The eighty-five ships, necessary to supply even her present consumption,
bountied, as the English are, will require a sacrifice of twelve hundred
and eighty-five thousand two hundred livres a year, to maintain three
thousand five hundred and seventy seamen, and that a part of the year
only; and if she will put it to twelve thousand men, in competition with
England, she must sacrifice, as they do, four or five millions a year.
The same number of men might, with the same bounty, be kept in as constant
employ, carrying stone from Bayonne to Cherbourg, or coal from Newcastle
to Havre, in which navigations they would be always at hand, and become
good seamen. The English consider among their best sailors, those employed
in carrying coal from Newcastle to London. France cannot expect to raise
her fishery, even to the supply of her own consumption in one year, or in
several years. Is it not better, then, by keeping her ports open to the
United States, to enable them to aid in maintaining the field against the
common adversary, till she shall be in condition to take it herself, and
to supply her own wants? Otherwise, her supplies must aliment that very
force which is keeping her under. On our part, we can never be dangerous
competitors to France. The extent to which we can exercise this fishery,
is limited to that of the barren island of Nantucket, and a few similar
barren spots; its duration, to the pleasure of this government, as we
have no other market. A material observation must be added here: sudden
vicissitudes of opening and shutting ports, do little injury to merchants
settled on the opposite coast, watching for the opening, like the return
of a tide, and ready to enter with it. But they ruin the adventurer,
whose distance requires six months' notice. Those who are now arriving
from America, in consequence of the _Arret_ of December the 29th, will
consider it as the false light which has led them to their ruin. They
will be apt to say, that they come to the ports of France by invitation of
that _Arret_, that the subsequent one of September the 28th, which drives
them from those ports, founds itself on a single principle, viz. "that the
prohibition of foreign oils, is the most useful encouragement which can be
given to that branch of industry." They will say, that, if this be a true
principle, it was as true on the 29th of December, 1787, as on the 20th of
September, 1788; it was then weighed against other motives, judged weaker
and overruled, and it is hard it should be now revived, to ruin them.
The refinery for whale oil, lately established at Rouen, seems to
be an object worthy of national attention. In order to judge of its
importance, the different qualities of whale oil must be noted. Three
qualities are known in the American and English markets. 1st. That of the
spermaceti whale. 2d. Of the Greenland whale. 3d. Of the Brazil whale.
1. The spermaceti whale found by the Nantuckois in the neighborhood of
the western islands, to which they had gone in pursuit of other whales,
retired thence to the coast of Guinea, afterwards to that of Brazil, and
begins now to be best found in the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope,
and even of Cape Horn. He is an active, fierce animal, and requires vast
address and boldness in the fisherman. The inhabitants of Brazil make
little expeditions from their coast, and take some of these fish. But
the Americans are the only distant people who have been in the habit of
seeking and attacking him, in numbers. The British, however, led by the
Nantuckois, whom they have decoyed into their service, have begun this
fishery. In 1785, they had eighteen ships in it, in 1787, thirty-eight;
in 1788, fifty-four, or, as some say, sixty-four. I have calculated on the
middle number, fifty-nine. Still they take but a very small proportion of
their own demand; we furnish the rest. Theirs is the only market to which
we carry that oil, because it is the only one where its properties are
known. It is luminous, resists coagulation by cold, to the forty-first
degree of Fahrenheit's thermometer, and fourth of Reaumur's, and yields no
smell at all; it is used, therefore, within doors, to lighten shops, and
even in the richest houses, for antichambers, stairs, galleries, &c. It
sells at the London market for treble the price of common whale oil. This
enables the adventurer to pay the duty of eighteen pounds five shillings
sterling the ton, and still to have a living profit. Besides the mass of
oil produced from the whole body of the whale, his head yields three or
four barrels of what is called head matter, from which is made the solid
spermaceti, used for medicine and candles. This sells by the pound, at
double the price of the oil. The disadvantage of this fishery is, that the
sailors are from nine to twelve months absent on the voyage; of course,
they are not at hand on any sudden emergency, and are even liable to be
taken before they know that war is begun. It must be added, on the subject
of this whale, that he is rare and shy, soon abandoning the grounds
where he is hunted. This fishery, less losing than the other, and often
profitable, will occasion it to be so thronged, soon, as to bring it on a
level with the other. It will then require the same extensive support, or
to be abandoned.
2. The Greenland whale oil is next in quality. It resists coagulation by
cold, to thirty-six degrees of Fahrenheit, and two of Reaumur; but it
has a smell insupportable within doors, and is not luminous. It sells,
therefore, in London, at about sixteen pounds the ton. This whale is
clumsy and timid; he dives when struck, and comes up to breathe by the
first cake of ice, where the fisherman needs little address or courage
to find and take him. This is the fishery mostly frequented by European
nations; it is this fish which yields the fin in quantity, and the voyages
last about three or four months.
The third quality is that of the small Brazil whale. He was originally
found on the coast of Nantucket, and first led that people to this
pursuit; he retired, first to the Banks of Newfoundland, then to the
western islands, and is now found within soundings on the coast of Brazil,
during the months of December, January, February and March. His oil
chills at fifty degrees of Fahrenheit, and eight of Reaumur, is black and
offensive; worth, therefore, but thirteen pounds the ton, in London. In
warm summer nights, however, it burns better than the Greenland oil.
To the qualities of the oils thus described, it is to be added, that an
individual has discovered methods, 1, of converting a great part of the
oils of the spermaceti whale into the solid substance called spermaceti,
heretofore produced from his head alone; 2, of refining the Greenland
whale oil, so as to take from it all smell, and render it limpid and
luminous as that of the spermaceti whale; 3, of curdling the oil of the
Brazil whale into tallow, resembling that of beef, and answering all its
purposes. This person is engaged by the company, which has established the
refinery at Rouen; their works will cost them half a million of livres;
will be able to refine all the oil which can be used in the kingdom,
and even to supply foreign markets. The effect of this refinery, then,
would be, 1, to supplant the solid spermaceti of all other nations, by
theirs, of equal quality, and lower price; 2, to substitute instead of
spermaceti oil, their black whale oil refined, of equal quality, and lower
price; 3, to render the worthless oil of the Brazil, equal in value to
tallow; and 4, by accommodating these oils to uses, to which they could
never otherwise have been applied, they will extend the demand beyond its
present narrow limits, to any supply which can be furnished, and thus give
the most effectual encouragement and extension to the whale fishery. But
these works were calculated on the _Arret_ of December the 29th, which
admitted here, freely and fully, the produce of the American fishery. If
confined to that of the French fishery alone, the enterprise may fail, for
want of matter to work on.
After this review of the whale fishery as a political institution, a few
considerations shall be added on its produce, as a basis of commercial
exchange between France and the United States. The discussion it has
undergone, on former occasions, in this point of view, leaves little new
to be now urged.
The United States, not possessing mines of the precious metals, can
purchase necessaries from other nations, so far only as their produce is
received in exchange. Without enumerating our smaller articles, we have
three of principal importance, proper for the French market; to wit,
tobacco, whale oil and rice. The first and most important, is tobacco.
This might furnish an exchange for eight millions of the productions of
this country; but it is under a monopoly, and that not of a mercantile,
but of a financiering company, whose interest is, to pay in money, and not
in merchandise, and who are so much governed by the spirit of simplifying
their purchases and proceedings, that they find means to elude every
endeavor on the part of government, to make them diffuse their purchases
among the merchants in general. Little profit is derived from this, then,
as an article of exchange for the produce and manufactures of France.
Whale oil might be next in importance; but that is now prohibited.
American rice is not yet of great, but it is of growing consumption in
France, and being the only article of the three which is free, it may
become a principal basis of exchange. Time and trial may add a fourth,
that is, timber. But some essays, rendered unsuccessful by unfortunate
circumstances, place that, at present, under a discredit, which it will
be found hereafter not to have merited. The English know its value, and
were supplied with it before the war. A spirit of hostility, since that
event, led them to seek Russian rather than American supplies; a new
spirit of hostility has driven them back from Russia, and they are now
making contracts for American timber. But of the three articles before
mentioned, proved by experience to be suitable for the French market,
one is prohibited, one under monopoly, and one alone free, and that the
smallest and of very limited consumption. The way to encourage purchasers,
is, to multiply their means of payment. Whale oil might be an important
one. In one scale, are the interests of the millions who are lighted,
shod, or clothed with the help of it, and the thousands of laborers and
manufacturers, who would be employed in producing the articles which might
be given in exchange for it, if received from America; in the other scale,
are the interests of the adventurers in the whale fishery; each of whom,
indeed, politically considered, may be of more importance to the State,
than a simple laborer or manufacturer; but to make the estimate with the
accuracy it merits, we should multiply the numbers in each scale into
their individual importance, and see which preponderates.
Both governments have seen with concern that their commercial intercourse
does not grow as rapidly as they would wish. The system of the United
States is, to use neither prohibitions nor premiums. Commerce there,
regulates itself freely, and asks nothing better. Where a government
finds itself under the necessity of undertaking that regulation, it would
seem, that it should conduct it as an intelligent merchant would; that
is to say, invite customers to purchase, by facilitating their means of
payment, and by adapting goods to their taste. If this idea be just,
government here has two operations to attend to, with respect to the
commerce of the United States; 1, to do away, or to moderate, as much as
possible, the prohibitions and monopolies of their materials for payment;
2, to encourage the institution of the principal manufactures, which the
necessities or the habits of their new customers call for. Under this
latter head, a hint shall be suggested, which must find its apology in
the motive for which it flows; that is, a desire of promoting mutual
interests and close friendship. Six hundred thousand of the laboring poor
of America, comprehending slaves under that denomination, are clothed in
three of the simplest manufactures possible; to wit, oznaburgs, plains and
duffel blankets. The first is a linen; the two last, woollens. It happens,
too, that they are used exactly by those who cultivate the tobacco and
rice, and in a good degree by those employed in the whale fishery. To
these manufactures they are so habituated, that no substitute will be
received. If the vessels which bring tobacco, rice and whale oil, do not
find them in the ports of delivery, they must be sought where they can be
found; that is, in England, at present. If they were made in France, they
would be gladly taken in exchange there. The quantities annually used by
this description of people, and their value, are as follows:
livres.
Oznaburgs 2,700,000 aunes,
at sixteen sous the aune, worth 2,160,000
Plains 1,350,000 aunes,
at two livres the aune, 2,700,000
Duffel blankets 300,000 aunes,
at seven and four-fifths livres each,
2,160,000
---------
7,020,000
It would be difficult to say how much should be added, for the consumption
of inhabitants of other descriptions; a great deal surely. But the present
view shall be confined to the one description named. Seven millions
of livres, are nine millions of day's work, of those who raise, spin
and weave the wool and flax; and, at three hundred working days to the
year, would maintain thirty thousand people. To introduce these simple
manufactures, suppose government to give five per cent. on the value of
what should be exported of them, for ten years to come; if none should
be exported, nothing would be to be paid; but on the other hand, if the
manufactures, with this encouragement, should raise to the full demand,
it will be a sacrifice of three hundred and fifty-one thousand livres a
year, for ten years only, to produce a perpetual subsistence for more than
thirty thousand people, (for the demand will grow with our population,)
while she must expend perpetually one million two hundred and eighty-five
thousand livres a year, to maintain the three thousand five hundred and
seventy seamen, who would supply her with whale oil. That is to say, for
each seaman, as much as for thirty laborers and manufacturers.
But to return to our subject, and to conclude.
Whether, then, we consider the _Arret_ of September the 28th, in a
political or a commercial light, it would seem, that the United States
should be excepted from its operation. Still more so, when they invoke
against it the amity subsisting between the two nations, the desire of
binding them together by every possible interest and connection, the
several acts in favor of this exception, the dignity of legislation, which
admits not of changes backwards and forwards, the interests of commerce,
which requires steady regulations, the assurances of the friendly motives
which have led the King to pass these acts, and the hope, that no cause
will arise to change either his motives or his measures towards us.
TO JOHN JAY.
PARIS, November 29, 1788.
SIR,--In the hurry of making up my letter of the 19th inst., I omitted
the enclosed printed paper, on the subject of whale oil. That omission is
now supplied by another conveyance, by the way of London. The explanatory
_Arret_ is not yet come out. I still take for granted, it will pass,
though there be an opposition to it in the Council. In the meantime,
orders are given to receive our oils which may arrive. The apprehension of
a want of corn, has induced them to turn their eyes to foreign supplies;
and to show their preference of receiving them from us, they have passed
the enclosed _Arret_, giving a premium on wheat and flour from the United
States, for a limited time. This, you will doubtless think proper to have
translated and published. The Notables are still in session; the votes
of the separate _bureaux_, have not yet been reduced to a joint act, in
an assembly of the whole. I see no reason to suppose they will change
the separate votes relative to the representation of the Tiers Etat, in
the States General. In the meantime, the stream of public indignation,
heretofore directed against the court, sets strongly against the Notables.
It is not yet decided when the States will meet; but certainly they cannot
till February or March. The Turks have retired across the Danube. This
movement indicates their going into winter quarters, and the severity of
the weather must hasten it. The thermometer was yesterday at eight degrees
of Fahrenheit, that is, twenty-four degrees below freezing; a degree of
cold equal to that of the year 1740, which they count here among their
coldest winters. This having continued many days, and being still likely
to continue, and the wind from northeast, render it probable, that all
enterprize must be suspended between the three great belligerent powers.
Poland is likely to be thrown into great convulsions. The Empress of
Russia has peremptorily demanded such aids from Poland as might engage
in the war. The King of Prussia, on the other hand, threatens to march an
army on their borders. The vote of the Polish confederacy for one hundred
thousand men, was a coalition of the two parties, in that single act only.
The party opposed to the King, have obtained a majority, and have voted
that this army shall be independent of him. They are supported by Prussia,
while the King depends on Russia. Authentic information from England,
leaves not a doubt, that the King is lunatic; and that, instead of the
effect, is the cause of the illness, under which he has been so near
dying. I mention this, because the English newspapers, speaking by guess
on that as they do on all other subjects, might mislead you as to his true
situation; or rather, might mislead others, who know less than they do,
that a thing is not rendered the more probable by being mentioned in those
papers.
I enclose those of Leyden to the present date with the gazettes of France,
and have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect esteem and
respect, Sir, your most obedient humble servant.
TO GENERAL WASHINGTON.
PARIS, December 4, 1788.
SIR,--Your favor of August the 31st came to hand yesterday; and a
confidential conveyance offering, by the way of London, I avail myself of
it, to acknowledge the receipt.
I have seen, with infinite pleasure, our new Constitution accepted by
eleven States, not rejected by the twelfth; and that the thirteenth
happens to be a State of the least importance. It is true, that the
minorities in most of the accepting States have been very respectable; so
much so as to render it prudent, were it not otherwise reasonable, to make
some sacrifice to them. I am in hopes, that the annexation of a bill of
rights to the Constitution will alone draw over so great a proportion of
the minorities as to leave little danger in the opposition of the residue;
and that this annexation may be made by Congress and the Assemblies,
without calling a convention, which might endanger the most valuable
parts of the system. Calculation has convinced me that circumstances may
arise, and probably will arise, wherein all the resources of taxation will
be necessary for the safety of the State. For though I am decidedly of
opinion we should take no part in European quarrels, but cultivate peace
and commerce with all, yet who can avoid seeing the source of war, in the
tyranny of those nations, who deprive us of the natural right of trading
with our neighbors? The produce of the United States will soon exceed the
European demand; what is to be done with the surplus, when there shall be
one? It will be employed, without question, to open, by force, a market
for itself, with those placed on the same continent with us, and who wish
nothing better. Other causes, too, are obvious, which may involve us in
war; and war requires every resource of taxation and credit. The power
of making war often prevents it, and in our case would give efficacy to
our desire of peace. If the new government wears the front which I hope
it will, I see no impossibility in the availing ourselves of the wars of
others, to open the other parts of America to our commerce, as the price
of our neutrality.
The campaign between the Turks and the two empires, has been clearly
in favor of the former. The Emperor is secretly trying to bring about
a peace. The alliance between England, Prussia, and Holland (and some
suspect Sweden also), renders their mediation decisive wherever it is
proposed. They seemed to interpose it so magisterially between Denmark
and Sweden, that the former submitted to its dictates, and there was all
reason to believe that the war in the north-western parts of Europe would
be quieted. All of a sudden, a new flame bursts out in Poland. The King
and his party are devoted to Russia. The opposition rely on the protection
of Prussia. They have lately become the majority in the confederated
diet, and have passed a vote for subjecting their army to a commission
independent of the King, and propose a perpetual diet, in which case he
will be a perpetual cipher. Russia declares against such a change in their
constitution, and Prussia has put an army into readiness for marching,
at a moment's warning, on the frontiers of Poland. These events are too
recent to see, as yet, what turn they will take, or what effect they will
have on the peace of Europe. So is that also of the lunacy of the King
of England, which is a decided fact, notwithstanding all the stuff the
English papers publish about his fevers, his deliriums, &c. The truth
is, that the lunacy declared itself almost at once, and with as few
concomitant complaints as usually attend the first development of that
disorder. I suppose a regency will be established, and if it consists of
a plurality of members, it will probably be peaceable. In this event, it
will much favor the present wishes of this country, which are so decidedly
for peace, that they refused to enter into the mediation between Sweden
and Russia, lest it should commit them. As soon as the convocation of the
States General was announced, a tranquillity took place through the whole
kingdom; happily, no open rupture has taken place in any part of it. The
parliaments were reinstated in their functions at the same time. This was
all they desired; and they had called for the States General only through
fear that the crown could not otherwise be forced to reinstate them. Their
end obtained, they began to foresee danger to themselves in the States
General. They began to lay the foundation for cavilling at the legality
of that body, if its measures should be hostile to them. The court, to
clear itself of the dispute, convened the Notables, who had acted with
general approbation on the former occasion, and referred to them the
forms of calling and organizing the States General. These Notables consist
principally of Nobility and Clergy; the few of the Tiers Etat among them
being either parliament men, or other privileged persons. The court wished
that, in the future States General, the members of the Tiers Etat should
equal those of both the other orders, and that they should form but one
House, all together, and vote by persons, not by orders. But the Notables,
in the true spirit of Priests and Nobles, combining together against the
people, have voted, by five _bureaux_ out of six, that the people, or
Tiers Etat, shall have no greater number of deputies than each of the
other orders separately, and that they shall vote by orders: so that two
orders concurring in a vote, the third will be overruled; for it is not
here as in England, where each of the three branches has a negative on the
other two. If this project of theirs succeeds, a combination between the
two Houses of Clergy and Nobles, will render the representation of the
Tiers Etat merely nugatory. The _bureaux_ are to assemble together, to
consolidate their separate votes; but I see no reasonable hope of their
changing this. Perhaps the King, knowing that he may count on the support
of the nation, and attach it more closely to him, may take on himself to
disregard the opinion of the Notables in this instance, and may call an
equal representation of the people, in which, precedents will support him.
In every event, I think the present disquiet will end well. The nation
has been awaked by our Revolution, they feel their strength, they are
enlightened, their lights are spreading, and they will not retrograde.
The first States General may establish three important points, without
opposition from the court: 1, their own periodical convocation; 2, their
exclusive right of taxation (which has been confessed by the King); 3,
the right of registering laws, and of previously proposing amendments to
them, as the parliaments have, by usurpation, been in the habit of doing.
The court will consent to this, from its hatred to the parliaments, and
from the desire of having to do with one, rather than many legislatures.
If the States are prudent, they will not aim at more than this at first,
lest they should shock the dispositions of the court, and even alarm the
public mind, which must be left to open itself by degrees to successive
improvements. These will follow, from the nature of things; how far
they can proceed, in the end, towards a thorough reformation of abuse,
cannot be foreseen. In my opinion, a kind of influence which none of
their plans of reform take into account, will elude them all; I mean the
influence of women, in the government. The manners of the nation allow
them to visit, alone, all persons in office, to solicit the affairs of
the husband, family, or friends, and their solicitations bid defiance to
laws and regulations. This obstacle may seem less to those who, like our
countrymen, are in the precious habit of considering right, as a barrier
against all solicitation. Nor can such an one, without the evidence of his
own eyes, believe in the desperate state to which things are reduced in
this country from the omnipotence of an influence which, fortunately for
the happiness of the sex itself, does not endeavor to extend itself in our
country beyond the domestic line.
Your communications to the Count de Moustier, whatever they may have
been, cannot have done injury to my endeavors here, to open the West
Indies to us. On this head, the ministers are invincibly mute, though I
have often tried to draw them into the subject. I have, therefore, found
it necessary to let it lie, till war, or other circumstances, may force
it on. Whenever they are in war with England, they must open the islands
to us, and perhaps, during that war, they may see some price which might
make them agree to keep them always open. In the meantime, I have laid my
shoulder to the opening the markets of this country to our produce, and
rendering its transportation a nursery for our seamen. A maritime force
is the only one, by which we can act on Europe. Our navigation law (if
it be wise to have any) should be the reverse of that of England. Instead
of confining _importations_ to home-bottoms, or those of the _producing_
nation, I think we should confine _exportations_ to home-bottoms, or to
those of nations _having treaties with us_. Our exportations are heavy,
and would nourish a great force of our own, or be a tempting price to the
nation to whom we should offer a participation of it, in exchange for free
access to all their possessions. This is an object to which our government
alone is adequate, in the gross; but I have ventured to pursue it here, so
far as the consumption of our productions by this country extends. Thus,
in our arrangements relative to tobacco, none can be received here, but
in French or American bottoms. This is employment for near two thousand
seamen, and puts nearly that number of British out of employ. By the
_Arret_ of December, 1787, it was provided, that our whale oils should
not be received here, but in French or American bottoms; and by later
regulations, all oils, but those of France and America, are excluded. This
will put one hundred English whale vessels immediately out of employ, and
one hundred and fifty ere long; and call so many of French and American
into service. We have had six thousand seamen formerly in this business,
the whole of whom we have been likely to lose. The consumption of rice
is growing fast in this country, and that of Carolina gaining ground on
every other kind. I am of opinion, the whole of the Carolina rice can
be consumed here. Its transportation employs two thousand five hundred
sailors, almost all of them English at present; the rice being deposited
at Cowes, and brought from thence here. It would be dangerous to confine
this transportation to French and American bottoms, the ensuing year,
because they will be much engrossed by the transportation of wheat and
flour hither, and the crop of rice might lie on hand for want of vessels;
but I see no objections to the extensions of our principle to this article
also, beginning with the year 1790. However, before there is a necessity
of deciding on this, I hope to be able to consult our new government in
person, as I have asked of Congress a leave of absence for six months,
that is to say, from April to November next. It is necessary for me to
pay a short visit to my native country, first, to reconduct my family
thither, and place them in the hands of their friends, and secondly, to
place my private affairs under certain arrangements. When I left my own
house, I expected to be absent but five months, and I have been led by
events to an absence of five years. I shall hope, therefore, for the
pleasure of personal conferences with your Excellency, on the subject
of this letter, and others interesting to our country; of getting my own
ideas set to rights by a communication of yours, and of taking again the
tone of sentiment of my own country, which we lose, in some degree, after
a certain absence. You know, doubtless, of the death of the Marquis de
Chastellux. The Marquis de La Fayette is out of favor with the court, but
high in favor with the nation. I once feared for his personal liberty, but
I hope he is on safe ground at present.
On the subject of the whale fishery, I enclose you some observations
I drew up for the ministry here, in order to obtain a correction of
their _Arret_ of September last, whereby they had involved our oils
with the English, in a general exclusion from their ports. They will
accordingly correct this, so that our oils will participate with theirs,
in the monopoly of their markets. There are several things incidentally
introduced, which do not seem pertinent to the general question; they
were rendered necessary by particular circumstances, the explanation of
which, would add to a letter already too long. I will trespass no further,
than to assure you of the sentiments of sincere attachment and respect
with which I have the honor to be, your Excellency's most obedient humble
servant.
P. S. The observations enclosed, though printed, have been put into
confidential hands only.
TO JOHN ADAMS.
PARIS, December 5, 1788.
DEAR SIR,--I had the pleasure of writing to you on the 2d of August, and
of adding a postscript of August the 6th.
* * * * *
You recollect well the _Arret_ of December the 29th, 1787, in favor of our
commerce, and which, among other things, gave free admission to our whale
oil, under a duty of about two louis a ton. In consequence of the English
treaty, their oils flowed in, and overstocked the market. The light duty
they were liable to under the treaty, still lessened by false estimates
and aided by the high premiums of the British government, enabled them
to undersell the French and American oils. This produced an outcry
of the Dunkirk fishery. It was proposed to exclude all European oils,
which would not infringe the British treaty. I could not but encourage
this idea, because it would give to the French and American fisheries a
monopoly of the French market. The _Arret_ was so drawn up; but, in the
very moment of passing it, they struck out the word _European_, so that
our oils became involved. This, I believe, was the effect of a single
person in the ministry. As soon as it was known to me, I wrote to Monsieur
de Montmorin, and had conferences with him and the other ministers. I
found it necessary to give them information on the subject of the whale
fishery, of which they knew little but from the partial information of
their Dunkirk adventurers. I therefore wrote the observations (of which
I enclose you a printed copy), had them printed to entice them to read
them, and particularly developed the expense at which they are carrying
on that fishery, and at which they must continue it, if they do continue
it. This part was more particularly intended for Mr. Neckar, who was quite
a stranger to the subject, who has principles of economy, and will enter
into calculations. Other subjects are incidentally introduced; though
little connected with the main question, they had been called for by other
circumstances. An immediate order was given for the present admission
of our oils, till they could form an _Arret_; and, at a conference, the
draught of an _Arret_ was communicated to me, which re-established that
of December 29th. They expressed fears, that, under cover of our name, the
Nova Scotia oils would be introduced; and a blank was left in the draught,
for the means of preventing that. They have since proposed, that the
certificate of their consul shall accompany the oils, to authorize their
admission, and this is what they will probably adopt. It was observed,
that if our States would prohibit all foreign oils from being imported
into them, it would be a great safeguard, and an encouragement to them to
continue the admission. Still there remains an expression in the _Arret_,
that it is provisory only. However, we must be contented with it as it is,
my hope being, that the legislature will be transferred to the National
Assembly, in whose hands it will be more stable, and with whom it will be
more difficult to obtain a repeal, should the ministry hereafter desire
it. If they could succeed in drawing over as many of our Nantucket men as
would supply their demands of oil, we might then fear an exclusion; but
the present _Arret_, as soon as it shall be passed, will, I hope, place us
in safety till that event, and that event may never happen. I have entered
into all these details, that you may be enabled to quiet the alarm which
must have been raised by the _Arret_ of September the 28th, and assure the
adventurers that they may pursue their enterprises as safely as if that
had never been passed, and more profitably, because we participate now
of a monopolized, instead of an open market. The enclosed observations,
though printed, have only been given to the ministers, and one or two
other confidential persons. You will see that they contain matter which
should be kept from the English, and will, therefore, trust them to
the perusal only of such persons as you can confide in. We are greatly
indebted to the Marquis de La Fayette for his aid on this, as on every
other occasion. He has paid the closest attention to it, and combated for
us, with the zeal of a native.
The necessity of reconducting my family to America, and of placing
my affairs there under permanent arrangements, has obliged me to ask
of Congress a six months' absence, to wit, from April to November
next. I hope, therefore, to have the pleasure of seeing you there, and
particularly, that it will be at New York that I shall find you. Be so
good as to present my sincere esteem to Mrs. Adams, and believe me to be,
with very affectionate attachment, dear Sir, your friend and servant.
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 one-third 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 write. I
now determine, without foreseeing any such conveyance, to begin my letter
to you, so that when a conveyance occurs, I shall only have to add recent
occurrences. Notwithstanding the interval of my answer which has taken
place, I must beg a continuance of your correspondence; because I have
great confidence in your communications, and since Mr. Adams' departure, I
am in need of authentic information from that country.
I will begin with the subject of your bridge, in which I feel myself
interested; and it is with great pleasure that I learn, by your favor
of the 16th, that the execution of the arch of experiment exceeds
your expectations. In your former letter, you mention, that instead of
arranging your tubes and bolts as ordinates to the cord of the arch, you
had reverted to your first idea, of arranging them in the direction of
the radii. I am sure it will gain, both in beauty and strength. It is true
that the divergence of those radii recurs as a difficulty, in getting the
rails on upon the bolts; but I thought this fully removed by the answer
you first gave me, when I suggested that difficulty, to wit, that you
should place the rails first, and drive the bolts through them, and not,
as I had imagined, place the bolts first, and put the rails on them. I
must doubt whether what you now suggest, will be as good as your first
idea; to wit, to have every rail split into two pieces longitudinally,
so that there shall be but the halves of the holes in each, and then
to clamp the two halves together. The solidity of this method cannot be
equal to that of the solid rail, and it increases the suspicious part of
the whole machine, which, in a first experiment, ought to be rendered
as few as possible. But of all this, the practical iron men are much
better judges than we theorists. You hesitate between the catenary and
portion of a circle. I have lately received from Italy, a treatise on the
equilibrium of arches, by the Abbé Mascheroni. It appears to be a very
scientific work. I have not yet had time to engage in it; but I find that
the conclusions of his demonstrations are, that every part of the catenary
is in perfect equilibrium. It is a great point, then, in a new experiment,
to adopt the sole arch, where the pressure will be equally borne by every
point of it. If any one point is pushed with accumulated pressure, it
will introduce a danger foreign to the essential part of the plan. The
difficulty you suggest, is, that the rails being all in catenaries, the
tubes must be of different lengths, as these approach nearer or recede
farther from each other, and therefore, you recur to the portions of
concentric circles, which are equi-distant in all their parts. But I would
rather propose, that you make your middle rail an exact catenary, and the
interior and exterior rails parallels to that. It is true they will not
be exact catenaries, but they will depart very little from it; much less
than portions of circles will. Nothing has been done here on the subject
since you went away. There is an Abbé D'Arnal at Nismes, who has obtained
an exclusive privilege for navigating the rivers of this country, by the
aid of the steam engine. This interests Mr. Rumsey, who had hoped the
same thing. D'Arnal's privilege was published in a paper of the 10th of
November. Probably, therefore, his application for it was previous to
the delivery of Mr. Rumsey's papers to the Secretary of the Academy of
Sciences, which was in the latter part of the month of August. However,
D'Arnal is not a formidable competitor. He is not in circumstances to make
any use, himself, of his privilege, and he has so illy succeeded with a
steam mill he erected at Nismes, that he is not likely to engage others
to venture in his projects. To say another word of the catenarian arch,
without caring about mathematical demonstrations, its nature proves it to
be in equilibrio in every point. It is the arch formed by a string fixed
at both ends, and swaying loose in all the intermediate points. Thus at
liberty, they must finally take that position, wherein every one will be
equally pressed; for if any one was more pressed than the neighboring
point, it would give way, from the flexibility of the matter of the
string.
* * * * *
I am, with sentiments of sincere esteem and attachment, dear Sir, your
friend and servant.
TO MR. THOMAS PAINE.
PARIS, December 23, 1788.
DEAR SIR,--As to the affairs of this country, they have hitherto gone on
well. The Court being decided to call the States General, know that the
form of calling and constituting them would admit of cavil. They asked
the advice of the Notables. These advised that the form of the last States
General of 1614 be observed. In that, the commons had but about one-third
of the whole number of members, and they voted by orders. The Court wished
now that they should have one-half of the whole number of members, and
that they should form but one house, not three. The parliament have taken
up the subject, and given the opinion which the Court would have wished.
We are, therefore, in hopes that, availing themselves of these contrary
opinions, they will follow that which they wished. The priests and nobles
threaten schism; and we do not know yet what form will ultimately be
adopted. If no schism of this kind prevents it, the States will meet
about March or April, and will obtain, without opposition from the Court,
1. Their own periodical convocation; 2. A share in the legislation; 3.
The exclusive right to tax and appropriate the public money. They will
attempt also to obtain a habeas corpus law and free press; but it does
not appear to me that the nation is ripe to accept of these, if offered.
They may try to modify them to their present ideas in their first session,
and at some future day adopt them in all their latitude. Upon the whole,
if the dispute between the privileged and unprivileged orders does not
prevent it, there is no doubt in my mind that they will obtain a fixed,
free and wholesome Constitution. I should add, also, if external war does
not call them from this pursuit. But against this they are secured by the
insanity of the King of England, and they will not suffer themselves to
be drawn into war by any other nation. There is reason to believe that the
disturbances lately arisen in Poland, will induce the Empress to make her
peace with the Turks, by parting with the Crimea, that she may be able to
turn herself this way and preserve Poland, of more consequence to her. In
this event, there is no doubt the Emperor makes peace with the Turks also,
and it would not surprise if he and the Empress should attack the King of
Prussia. I think it is not apprehended here that the death of the King of
Spain will make any change in the politics of that Court. You ask about
Mr. Littlepage. We heard that he joined the Prince of Nassau on the Black
Sea, but know nothing of him since, nor have we any information about
Paul Jones since the first action on that sea, wherein he was present. You
also ask when I shall go to America, and whether by the way of England. I
hope to receive my permission in time to sail immediately after the vernal
equinox, because this will give me time to arrange my affairs in America,
and to return here between the autumnal equinox and setting in of the
winter. I shall certainly not go by the way of England. The encumbrance
of a family and baggage will prevent this. I hope you will find some
conveyance sufficiently confidential to communicate to me by letter what
you say you wish to communicate in person. While in America, I shall
attend on our President and Senate in order to possess them of such views
of European affairs as I shall have been able to obtain. I shall suppose
this the more my duty, as they will be forming their plan of foreign
affairs. You have heard of the _Arret_ of September 28th, excluding
foreign whale oils from the ports of this country. I have obtained the
promise of an explanatory _Arret_ to declare that that of September 28th
was not meant to extend to us. Orders are accordingly given in the ports
to receive ours, and the _Arret_ will soon be published. This places us
on a better footing than ever, as it gives us a monopoly of this market in
conjunction with the French fishermen.
TO MR. CARMICHAEL.
PARIS, December 25, 1788.
DEAR SIR,--A sick family has prevented me, for upwards of a month, from
putting pen to paper but in indispensable cases, and for some time before
that, I had been waiting to receive American news worth communicating to
you. These causes have occasioned my silence since my last, which was of
the 12th of August, and my leaving unacknowledged, till now, your several
favors of July 24th, Aug. 14th, Sept. 9th and Nov. 3d. That of the 14th
instant also came to hand the day before yesterday.
You have long ago known that eleven States have ratified our new
Constitution, and that North Carolina, contrary to all expectation, had
declined either accepting or refusing, but has proposed amendments copied
verbatim from those of Virginia. Virginia and Massachusetts had preferred
this method of management, that is to say, desiring Congress to propose
specific amendments to the several legislatures, which is one of the modes
of amendment provided in the new Constitution; in this way nothing can
be touched but the parts specifically pointed out. New York has written
circular letters to the legislatures to adopt the other mode of amendment,
provided also by the Constitution, that is to say, to assemble another
federal convention. In this way the whole fabric would be submitted to
alteration. Its friends, therefore, unite in endeavoring to have the first
method adopted, and they seem agreed to concur in adding a bill of rights
to the Constitution. This measure will bring over so great a part of the
opposition, that what will remain after that will have no other than the
good effect of watching, as sentinels, the conduct of government, and
laying it before the public. Many of the opposition wish to take from
Congress the power of internal taxation. Calculation has convinced me
this would be very mischievous. The Electors are to be chosen the first
Wednesday of January; President the first Wednesday in February, and the
new government is to meet at New York the first Wednesday in March. The
election of Senators has already begun. Pennsylvania has chosen Mr. R.
Morrison and McClay; Connecticut, Dr. Johnson and Elsworth. I have heard
of no others. I hope there is no doubt of General Washington's acceptance
of the Presidentship. Mr. J. Adams, Mr. Hancock, Mr. Jay and General Knox,
are talked of in the Northern and Middle States for Vice-President. Yet it
is suggested to me that the two latter will probably prefer their present
offices, and the two former divide each other's interest so that neither
may be chosen. Remarkable deaths are Colonel Bannister of Virginia, and
John Penn of North Carolina. General Washington writes me word that the
great rains had prevented the continuance of their labors on the Potomac,
so that they should not be able to bring the navigation this winter to
the great falls as he had hoped. It will want little of it, and no doubt
remains of their completing the whole. That of James River has some time
since been so far completed as to let vessels pass down to Richmond.
The crop of wheat in America the last year has been a fine one both for
quantity and quality. This country is likely to want. They have offered
a premium of forty sous the quintal on flour of the United States, and
thirty sous on their wheat imported here. They have also opened their
islands for our supplies. Much will come here. Views which bid defiance to
my calculations had induced this court in an _Arret_ of September 28th,
to comprehend us with the English, in the exclusion of whale oil from
their ports, in flat contradiction to their _Arret_ of December last.
This you know would be a sentence of banishment to the inhabitants of
Nantucket, and there is no doubt they would have removed to Nova Scotia
or England, in preference to any other part of the world. A temporary
order, however, is now given for our admittance, and a more prominent one
under preparation. The internal affairs of this country will, I hope, go
on well. Neither the time, place, nor form of the States General are yet
announced. But they will certainly meet in March or April. The clergy
and nobility, as clergy and nobility eternally will, are opposed to the
giving to the Tiers Etat so effectual a representation as may dismount
them from their backs. The court wishes to give to the unprivileged order
an equal number of votes with the privileged, and that they should sit in
one house, but the court is timid. Some are of opinion that a majority of
the nobles are also on the side of the people. I doubt it when so great
a proportion of the Notables, indeed almost an unanimity, were against
them, and five princes of the blood out of seven. If no schism prevents
the proceedings of the States General, I suppose they will obtain in
their first session, 1. The periodical convocation of the States. 2. Their
participation in the legislature; and 3. Their exclusive right to levy and
appropriate money; and that at some future day, not very far distant, they
will obtain a habeas corpus law and free press. They have great need of
external peace to let them go on quietly with these internal improvements.
This seems to be secured to them by the insanity of the King of England.
Regents are generally peaceable, and I think this country will not let
itself be diverted from its object by any other power. There are symptoms
which render it suspicious that the two empires may make their peace
with the Turks. It seems more eligible to Russia to do this by ceding the
Crimea to them, that she may turn to the other side and save Poland, which
the King of Prussia is endeavoring to wrest from her. Probably the loss
of his principal ally will induce him to adopt a language and a conduct
less Thrasonic. The death of the King of Spain contributes to throw
into uncertainty the future face and fate of Europe. The English count
on his successor. We have not yet received from London the decision on
the question of regency. It is believed the Prince of Wales will be sole
regent, and that there will be a total change in the ministry. In this
case, probably 1405. 452. will be 846. 1453. 915. he will have found that
the old proverb is not always true, "that a bird in the hand is worth two
in the bush." There is something 816. 1209. 1225. 319. 8. 1548. 173. 1140.
457. 980. 913. 537. 814. 478. 887. 1363. 12. 1271. 1266. 904. 1266. 1017.
1548. 1128. 1581. 1438. 254.
The necessity of carrying back my family to America, and of carrying my
affairs, which I left under expectation of returning to them very soon,
have induced me to ask of Congress a leave of five or six months' absence
during the next year. I hope to obtain it in time to sail soon after
the vernal equinox, and shall return immediately after the autumnal. I
shall be happy while there if I can render you any service, and shall
hope to receive your commands before my departure, and in the meantime a
continuance of your interesting communications, now become much more so,
till we see which way the new administration of your residence will turn
itself. I have the honor to be, with great and sincere esteem, dear Sir,
your most obedient, and most humble servant.
TO DR. PRICE.
PARIS, January 8, 1789.