I am to acknowledge, all together, the receipt of your favors of March the 17th, 26th, and May the 7th, and to return you abundant thanks for your attention to the article of dry rice, and the parcel of seeds you sent me. This is interesting, because, even should it not take place of the wet rice, in South Carolina, it will enable us to cultivate this grain in Virginia, where we have not lands disposed for the wet rice. The collection of the works of Monsieur de Poivre has not, as I believe, been ever published. It could hardly have escaped my knowledge, if they had been ever announced. The French translation of the book on trade has not yet come to my hands. Whenever I receive the copies, they shall be distributed, and principally among the members of the Etats Generaux. I doubt whether, at this session, they will take up the subject of commerce. Whenever they do, they will find better principles no where than in that book. I spoke with Mr. Stewart yesterday on the subject of the distribution, and if I should be gone before the books come to hand, he will execute the commission. Your nation is very far from the liberality that treatise inculcates. The proposed regulation on the subject of our wheat is one proof. The prohibition of it in England would, of itself, be of no great moment, because I do not know that it is much sent there. But it is the publishing a libel on our wheat, sanctioned with the name of parliament, and which can have no object but to do us injury, by spreading a groundless alarm in those countries of Europe where our wheat is constantly and kindly received. It is a mere assassination. If the insect they pretend to fear, be the Hessian fly, it never existed in the grain. If it be the weevil, our grain always had that; and the experience of a century has proved, that either the climate of England is not warm enough to hatch the egg and continue the race, or that some other unknown cause prevents any evil from it. How different from this spirit, my dear Sir, has been your readiness to help us to the dry rice, to communicate to us the bread tree, &tc. Will any of our climates admit the cultivation of the latter? I am too little acquainted with it to judge. I learn that your newspapers speak of the death of Ledyard, at Grand Cairo. I am anxious to know whether there be foundation for this. I have not yet had time to try the execution of the wood hygrometer proposed by Dr. Franklin. Though I have most of the articles ready made, I doubt now whether I shall be able to do it before my departure for America, the permission for which I expect every hour; and I shall go off the instant I receive it. While there, I shall have the pleasure of seeing your father and friends. I expect to return in the fall.
In the mean time, I have the honor to be, with very great esteem and respect, Dear Sir, your most obedient, humble servant,
Th: Jefferson.
LETTER CCIII.—TO THOMAS PAINE, May 19,1789
TO THOMAS PAINE.
Paris, May 19,1789.
Dear Sir,
Your favors of February the 16th to April the 13th, and of May the 3rd and 10th, are received; and the two last are sent to Mr. Leroy, who will communicate them to the Academy.
You know that the States General have met, and probably have seen the speeches at the opening of them. The three orders sit in distinct chambers. The great question, whether they shall vote by orders or persons can never be surmounted amicably. It has not yet been proposed in form; but the votes which have been taken on the outworks of that question show, that the Tiers-Etat are unanimous, a good majority of the Clergy (consisting of the Curés) disposed to side with the Tiers-Etat, and in the chamber of the Noblesse there are only fifty-four in that sentiment, against one hundred and ninety, who are for voting by orders. Committees to find means of conciliation are appointed by each chamber; but conciliation is impossible. Some think the Nobles could be induced to unite themselves with the higher Clergy into one House, the lower Clergy and Tiers-Etat forming another. But the Tiers-Etat are immovable. They are not only firm, but a little disdainful. The question is, what will ensue? One idea is to separate, in order to consult again their constituents, and to take new instructions. This would be doing nothing, for the same instructions would be repeated; and what, in the mean time, is to become of a government absolutely without money, and which cannot be kept in motion with less than a million of livres a day? The more probable expectation is as follows. As soon as it shall become evident, that no amicable determination of the manner of voting can take place, the Tiers-Etat will send an invitation to the two other orders, to come and take their places in the common chamber. A majority of the Clergy will go, and the minority of the Noblesse. The chamber thus composed, will declare that the States General are constituted, will notify it to the King, and that they are ready to proceed to business. If the King refuses to do business with them, and adheres to the Nobles, the common chamber will declare all taxes at an end, will form a declaration of rights, and do such other acts as the circumstances will permit, and go home. The tax-gatherers will then be resisted, and it may well be doubted whether the soldiery and their officers will not divide, as the Tiers-Etat and Nobles. But it is more likely that the King will agree to do business with the States General, so constituted, professing that the necessities of the moment force this, and that he means to negotiate (as they go along) a reconciliation between the seceding members, and those which remain. If the matter takes this turn, there may be small troubles and ebullitions excited by the seceding Noblesse and higher Clergy; but no serious difficulty can arise. M. de Lamoignon, the Garde des Sceaux of the last year, has shot himself. The Emperor’s complaint is pulmonary, and incurable. The Grand Seignior is dead; his successor, young and warlike. I congratulate you sincerely on the success of your bridge. I was sure of it before from theory: yet one likes to be assured from practice also. I am anxious to see how Mr. Rumsey’s experiment succeeds.