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 76. Documents Richmond Dec. 20. 1781 Sir I now do myself the honour of inclosing you answers -to the queries which Mr. Jones put into my hands. I fear your patience has been exhausted in attending them, but I beg you to be assured there has been no avoidable delay on my part. I retired from the public service in June only, and after that the general confusion of our state put it out of my power to procure the informations necessary till lately. Even now you will find them very imperfect and not worth offering but as proof of my respect for your wishes. I have taken the liberty of re- ferring to you my friend Mr. Charles Thompson' for a perusal of them when convenient to you. Particular reasons, subsisting between him and myself, induced me to give you this trouble. If his Excellency the Chevalier de la Luzerne will accept the respects of a stranger I beg you to present mine to him, and to consider me as being with the greatest regard and esteem Sir Your most obedient and most humble servt Th : Jefferson [Indorsement :] Monsr de Marbois Secretary to the embassy of his most Christian Majesty Philadelphia. Annapolis Dec. 5. 1783 Sir Your very obliging letter of Nov. 22 was put into my hands just in the moment of my departure from Philadelphia, which put it out of my power to acknowledge in the same instant my obligation for the charge you were so kind as to undertake of presenting a French tutor to my daughter and for the very friendly disposition and attentions you flatter me with. The same cause prevented me from procuring her the books you were so kind as to recommend, but this shall be supplied by orders from hence. I had left with her a Gil Bias' and Don Quichotte which are among the best books of their class as far as I am acquainted with them. The plan of reading which I have formed for her is con- siderably different from [that] which I think would be most proper for her sex in any other country than America. I am obliged in it to extend my views beyond herself, and consider her as possibly at the head of a little family of her own. The chance that in marriage she will draw a blockhead I calculate at about fourteen to one, and of course that the education of her family will probably rest on her own ideas and direc- tion without assistance. With the poets and prose writers I shall there- ' The original edition of the Notes contained an extensive appendix by Secre- tary Charles Thomson ; in subsequent editions his material was distributed through the book. 2 Martha was eleven years old. '