Part 8 (2/2)

There is one opinion in it, however, which I will ask you to reconsider, because it appears to me not entirely accurate, and not likely to do good. Page 362, ”Congress is not a legislative, but a diplomatic a.s.sembly.” Separating into parts the whole sovereignty of our States, some of these parts are yielded to Congress. Upon these I should think them both legislative and executive, and that would have been judiciary also, had not the confederation required them for certain purposes to appoint a judiciary. It has accordingly been the decision of our courts that the confederation is a part of the law of the land, and superior in authority to the ordinary laws, because it cannot be altered by the legislature of any one State. I doubt whether they are at all a diplomatic a.s.sembly. On the first news of this work there were proposals to translate it. Fearing it might be murdered in that operation, I endeavored to secure a good translator. This is done, and I lend him my copy to translate from. It will be immediately announced to keep others from attempting it. I am, with sincere esteem and respect, dear Sir, your most obedient, and most humble servant.

TO JOHN JAY.

PARIS, February 23, 1787.

SIR,--The a.s.semblee des Notables being an event in the history of this country which excites notice, I have supposed it would not be disagreeable to you to learn its immediate objects, though no way connected with our interests. The a.s.sembly met yesterday; the King, in a short but affectionate speech, informed them of his wish to consult with them on the plans he had digested, and on the general good of his people, and his desire to imitate the head of his family, Henry IV., whose memory is so dear to the nation. The Garde des Sceaux then spoke about twenty minutes, chiefly in compliment to the orders present. The Comptroller General, in a speech of about an hour, opened the budget, and enlarged on the several subjects which will be under their deliberation. He explained the situation of the finances at his accession to office, the expenses which their arrangement had rendered necessary, their present state, with the improvements made in them, the several plans which had been proposed for their future improvement, a change in the form of some of their taxes, the removal of the interior custom-houses to the frontiers, and the inst.i.tution of Provincial a.s.semblies. The a.s.sembly was then divided into committees, with a prince of the blood at the head of each. In this form, they are to discuss separately the subjects which will be submitted to them. Their decision will be reported by two members to the minister, who, on view of the separate decisions of all the committees, will make such changes in his plans as will best accommodate them to their views, without too much departing from his own, and will then submit them to the vote (but I believe not to the debate) of the General a.s.sembly, which will be convened for this purpose one day in every week, and will vote individually.

The event of the Count de Vergennes' death, of which I had the honor to inform you in a letter of the 14th instant, the appointment of the Count Montmorin, and the propriety of my attending at his first audience, which will be on the 27th, have r.e.t.a.r.ded the journey I had proposed, a few days.

I shall hope, on my return, to meet here new powers for the consular convention, as under those I have, it will be impossible to make the changes in the convention which may be wished for.

I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect esteem and respect, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant.

TO RICHARD PETERS.

PARIS, February 26, 1787.

DEAR SIR,--Your favor of October 1, covering the letter and bill to Captain Capitaine, did not come to my hands till yesterday. I wrote to him immediately, to inform him it should be delivered here at any moment. We talk and think of nothing here but the a.s.semblee des Notables. Were all the puns collected, to which this a.s.sembly has given rise, I think they would make a larger volume than the ”Encyclopedie.”

The government is said to want eighty millions of livres revenue more than they have. They propose to give to the people provincial administrations, and to make other improvements. It is a pity they had not more of the virtue called economy, of which we have something to spare. I hope the company of Mrs. Peters and your little ones have cured all your aches and pains both of body and mind. That you and they may continue forever clear of them, is the sincere prayer of, dear Sir, your friend and servant.

TO THE MARQUIS DE LA FAYETTE.

PARIS, February 28, 1787.

DEAR SIR,--I am just now in the moment of my departure. Monsieur de Montmorin having given us audience at Paris yesterday, I missed the opportunity of seeing you once more. I am extremely pleased with his modesty, the simplicity of his manners, and his dispositions toward us.

I promise myself a great deal of satisfaction in doing business with him. I hope he will not give ear to any unfriendly suggestions. I flatter myself I shall hear from you sometimes. Send your letters to my hotel, as usual, and they will be forwarded to me. I wish you success in your meeting. I should form better hopes of it, if it were divided into two Houses, instead of seven. Keeping the good model of your neighboring country before your eyes, you may get on, step by step, towards a good const.i.tution. Though that model is not perfect, yet, as it would unite more suffrages than any new one which could be proposed, it is better to make that the object. If every advance is to be purchased by filling the royal coffers with gold, it will be gold well employed. The King, who means so well, should be encouraged to repeat these a.s.semblies. You see how we republicans are apt to preach, when we get on politics. Adieu, my dear friend. Yours affectionately.

TO MADAME LA COMTESSE DE TESSE.

NISMES, March 20, 1787.

Here I am, Madam, gazing whole hours at the Maison Quarree, like a lover at his mistress. The stocking weavers and silk spinners around it consider me a hypochondriac Englishman, about to write with a pistol the last chapter of his history. This is the second time I have been in love since I left Paris. The first was with a Diana at the Chateau de Laye-Epinaye in Beaujolois, a delicious morsel of sculpture, by M. A.

Slodtz. This, you will say, was in rule, to fall in love with a female beauty; but with a house! it is out of all precedent. No, Madam, it is not without a precedent in my own history. While in Paris, I was violently smitten with the Hotel de Salm, and used to go to the Tuileries almost daily, to look at it. The _loueuse des chaises_, inattentive to my pa.s.sion, never had the complaisance to place a chair there, so that, sitting on the parapet, and twisting my neck round to see the object of my admiration, I generally left it with a _torti-colli_.

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