The internal affairs here do not yet clear up. Most of the late innovations have been much for the better. Two only must be fundamentally condemned; the abolishing, in so great a degree, of the parliaments, and the substitution of so ill-composed a body as the cour pleniere. If the King has power to do this, the government of this country is a pure despotism. I think it a pure despotism in theory, but moderated in practice by the respect which the public opinion commands. But the nation repeats, after Montesquieu, that the different bodies of magistracy, of priests and nobles, are barriers between the King and the people. It would be easy to prove that these barriers can only appeal to public opinion, and that neither these bodies, nor the people, can oppose any legal check to the will of the monarch. But they are manifestly advancing fast to a constitution. Great progress is already made. The provincial assemblies, which will be a very perfect representative of the people, will secure them a great deal against the power of the crown. The confession lately made by the government, that it cannot impose a new tax, is a great thing: the convocation of the States General, which cannot be avoided, will produce a national assembly, meeting at certain epochs, possessing at first probably only a negative on the laws, but which will grow into the right of original legislation, and prescribing limits to the expenses of the King. These are improvements which will assuredly take place, and which will give an energy to this country they have never yet had. Much may be hoped from the States General, because the King's dispositions are solidly good; he is capable of great sacrifices; all he wants to induce him to do a thing, is to be assured it will be for the good of the nation. He will probably believe what the States General shall tell him, and will do it. It is supposed they will reduce the parliament to a mere judiciary. I am in hopes all this will be effected without convulsions. The English papers have told the world, with their usual truth, that all here is civil war and confusion. There have been some riots, but as yet not a single life has been lost, according to the best evidence I have been able to collect. One officer was wounded at Grenoble. The arrest of the twelve deputies of Bretagne a fortnight ago, I apprehended would have produced an insurrection; but it seems as if it would not. They have sent eighteen deputies more, who will probably be heard. General Armand was one of the twelve, and is now in the Bastille. The Marquis de La Fayette, for signing the prayer which these deputies were to present, and which was signed by all the other nobles of Bretagne resident in Paris (about sixty in number), has been disgraced, in the old-fashioned language of the country; that is to say, the command in the south of France this summer, which they had given him, is taken away. They took all they could from such others of the subscribers as held anything from the Court. This dishonors them at Court, and in the eyes and conversation of their competitors for preferment. But it will probably honor them in the eyes of the nation. This is as full a detail as I am able to give you of the affairs of Europe. I have nothing to add to them but my wishes for your health and happiness, and assurances of the esteem with which I have the honor to be, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.
[TO MR. BELLINI.]
Paris, July 25, 1788.
Dear Sir,—Though I have written to you seldom, you are often the object of my thoughts, and always of my affection. The truth is, that the circumstances with which I am surrounded, offer little worth detailing to you. You are too wise to feel an interest in the squabbles, in which the pride, the dissipations, and the tyranny of kings, keep this hemisphere constantly embroiled. Science indeed, finds some aliment here, and you are one of her sons. But this I have pretty regularly communicated to Mr. Madison, with whom, I am sure, you participate of it. It is with sincere pleasure I congratulate you on the good fortune of our friend Mazzei, who is appointed here, to correspond with the King of Poland. The particular character given him is not well defined, but the salary is, which is more important. It is eight thousand livres a year, which will enable him to live comfortably, while his duties will find him that occupation, without which he cannot exist. Whilst this appointment places him at his ease, it affords him a hope of permanence also. It suspends, if not entirely prevents, the visit he had intended to his native country, and the return to his adoptive one, which the death of his wife had rendered possible. This last event has given him three quarters of the globe elbow-room, which he had ceded to her, on condition she would leave him quiet in the fourth. Their partition of the next world will be more difficult, if it be divided only into two parts, according to the protestant faith. Having seen by a letter you wrote him, that you were in want of a pair of spectacles, I undertook to procure you some, which I packed in a box of books addressed to Mr. Wythe, and of which I beg your acceptance. This box lay forgotten at Havre the whole of the last winter, but was at length shipped, and I trust has come to hand. I packed with the spectacles, three or four pair of glasses, adapted to the different periods of life, distinguished from each other by numbers, and easily changed. You see I am looking forward in hope of a long life for you; and that it may be long enough to carry you through the whole succession of glasses, is my sincere prayer. Present me respectfully to Mrs. Bellini, assure her of my affectionate remembrance of her, and my wishes for her health and happiness; and accept yourself, very sincere professions of the esteem and attachment with which I am, dear Sir, your affectionate friend and servant.
[TO MR. CUTTING.]
Paris, July 28, 1788.
Sir,—When I had the honor of writing you on the 24th instant, the transactions on the Black Sea were but vaguely known; I am now able to give them to you on better foundation. The Captain Pacha was proceeding with succors to Ocrakoff, as is said by some (for this fact does not come on the same authority with the others), the authentic account placing the two fleets in the neighborhood of each other at the mouth of the Liman, without saying how they came there. The Captain Pacha, with fifty-seven gun-boats, attacked the Russian vessels of the same kind, twenty-seven in number, the right wing of which was commanded by Admiral Paul Jones, the left by the Prince of Nassau. After an obstinate engagement of five hours, during which the Captain Pacha flew incessantly wherever there was danger or distress, he was obliged to retire, having lost three of his vessels, and killed only eight men of the Russians. I take this account from the report of the action by the Prince of Nassau, which the Russian minister here showed me. It is said in other accounts, that all the balls of the Turks passed overhead, which was the reason they did so little execution. This was on the 10th of June, and was the forerunner of the great and decisive action between the two main fleets, which took place on the 26th, the Russian fleet, commanded by Admiral Paul Jones, the Turkish by Captain Pacha, of which the result only, and not the details, are given us. This was, that the vessels of the Turkish Admiral and Vice-Admiral, and four others, were burnt, that is to say, six in all, two others were taken, and between three and four thousand prisoners. The Captain Pacha's flag was taken, and himself obliged to fly in a small vessel, his whole fleet being dispersed. The Prince Potemkin immediately got under march for Ocrakoff, to take advantage of the consternation into which that place was thrown. These facts are written by Prince Potemkin, from his head-quarters, to Prince Gallitzin, the Russian Ambassador at Vienna, who writes them to their minister here, who showed me the letter. The number of prisoners taken, renders it probable that the Captain Pacha was on his way to the relief of Ocrakoff with transports, as a less authentic report said he was. We are not told authentically what was the force on each side in the main action of the 26th, but it is supposed to have been about fifteen ships of the line on each side, besides their smaller vessels; but the evidence of this is vague, and the less to be relied on, as we have known that the Russians were much inferior in numbers to the Turks on that sea. A war of a less bloody kind is begun between the Pope and the King of Naples, who has refused this year to pay the annual tribute of the hackney as an acknowledgment that he holds his kingdom as feudatory of the Pope. The latter has declared him to stand deprived of his kingdom, but gives him three months to consider of it. We shall see what will be made of this farce. I have written this supplement to my other letter, in hopes it may still find you at London. I am, with much esteem, dear Sir, your most obedient humble servant.