n others on all of
them. English vessels, on the other hand, are distinguished by paying
heavier duties than those of any other nation. Should you desire any
further information, or to pass letters with certainty to any mercantile
house in America, do me the favor to address yourselves to me at Paris,
and I shall do whatever depends on me for this object.

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

Th: Jefferson.

MEMORANDA TAKEN ON A JOURNEY FROM PARIS IN 1787

_Memoranda taken on a Journey from Paris into the Southern Parts of
France, and Northern of Italy, in the year 1787_.

CHAMPAGNE. March 3. _Sens_ to _Vermanton_. The face of the country is in
large hills, not too steep for the plough, somewhat resembling the Elk
hill and Beaver-dam hills of Virginia. The soil is generally a rich
mulatto loam, with a mixture of coarse sand, and some loose stone. The
plains of the Yonne are of the same color. The plains are in corn, the
hills in vineyard, but the wine not good. There are a few apple-trees,
but none of any other kind, and no enclosures. No cattle, sheep, or
swine; fine mules.

Few _chateaux_; no farm-houses, all the people being gathered in
villages. Are they thus collected by that dogma of their religion, which
makes them believe, that to keep the Creator in good humor with his own
works, they must mumble a mass every day? Certain it is, that they are
less happy and less virtuous in villages, than they would be insulated
with their families on the grounds they cultivate. The people are illy
clothed. Perhaps they have put on their worst clothes at this moment, as
it is raining. But I observe women and children carrying heavy burthens,
and laboring with the hoe. This is an unequivocal indication of extreme
poverty. Men, in a civilized country, never expose their wives and
children to labor above their force and sex, as long as their own labor
can protect them from it. I see few beggars. Probably this is the effect
of a police.

BURGUNDY. March 4. _Lucy-le-Bois. Cussy-les-Forges. Rouvray.
Maison-neuve. Vitieaux. La Chaleure. Pont de Panis. Dijon_. The hills
are higher, and more abrupt. The soil a good red loam and sand, mixed
with more or less grit, small stone, and sometimes rock. All in corn.
Some forest wood here and there, broom, whins, and holly, and a few
enclosures of quick-hedge. Now and then a flock of sheep.

The people