Page:Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies, from the papers of Thomas Jefferson - Volume 1.djvu/341

 325

State. I pray you also, to take the trouble of expressing my ac knowledgments to the Governor and Chamber of Commerce, as well as to Mr. Hall, for the very precise details on this subject, with which they have been pleased to honor me. Your letter of last January, of which you make mention, never came to my hands. Of course, the papers now received are the first and only ones which have come safe. The infidelities of the post offices, both of England and France, are not unknown to you. The former are the most rascally, because they retain one s letters, not choosing to take the trouble of copying them. The latter, when they have taken copies, are so civil as to send the originals, re- sealed clumsily with a composition, on which they have previously taken the impression of the seal. England shews DO dispositions to enter into friendly connections with us. On the contrary, her de tention of our posts, seems to be the speck which is to produce a storm. I judge that a. war with America would be a popular war in England. Perhaps the situation of Ireland may deter the min istry from hastening it on. Peace is at length made between the Emperor and Dutch. The terms are not published, but it is said, he gets ten millions of florins, the navigation of the Scheldt not quite to Antwerp, and two forts. However, this is not to be ab solutely relied on. The league formed by the King of Prussia against the Emperor, is a most formidable obstacle to his ambitious designs. It certainly has defeated his views on Bavaria, and will render doubtful the election of his nephew to be King of the Ro mans. Matters are not yet settled between him and the Turk. In truth, he undertakes too much. At home he has made some good regulations.

Your present pursuit being (the wisest of all) agriculture, I am not in a situation to be useful to it. You know that France is not the country most celebrated for this art. I went the other day to see a plough which was to be worked by a windlass, without horses or oxen. It was a poor affair. With a very troublesome appa ratus, applicable only to a dead level, four men could do the work of two horses. There seems a possibility that the great desidera tum in the use of the balloon may be obtained. There are two persons at Javel (opposite to Auteuil) who are pushing this matter. They are able to rise and fall at will, without expending their gas, and they can deflect forty-five degrees from the course of the wind.

I took the liberty of asking you to order me a Charleston newspaper. The expense of French postage is so enormous, that I have been obliged to desire that my newspapers, from the dif ferent States, may be sent to the office for Foreign Affairs at New