d, lately
sailed from Havre to New York, I shipped three boxes of books, one
marked J. M. for yourself, one marked B. F. for Dr. Franklin, and one
marked W. H. for William Hay in Richmond. I have taken the liberty of
addressing them all to you, as you will see by the enclosed bill of
lading, in hopes you will be so good as to forward the other two. You
will have opportunities of calling on the gentlemen for the freight,
&c. In yours, you will find the books, noted in the account enclosed
herewith. You have now Mably's works complete, except that on Poland,
which I have never been able to get, but shall not cease to search
for. Some other volumes are wanting too, to complete your collection of
Chronologies. The fourth volume of D'Albon was lost by the bookbinder,
and I have not yet been able to get one to replace it. I shall continue
to try. The _Memoires sur les Droits et Impositions en Europe_ (cited by
Smith) was a scarce and excessively dear book. They are now reprinting
it. I think it will be in three or four quartos, of from nine to twelve
livres a volume. When it is finished, I shall take a copy for you.
Amelot's Travels into China, I can learn nothing of. I put among the
books sent you, two somewhat voluminous, and the object of which
will need explanation; these are the _Tableau de Paris_ and _L'Espion
Anglois_. The former is truly a picture of private manners in Paris, but
presented on the dark side, and a little darkened moreover. But there
is so much truth in its groundwork, that it will be well worth your
reading. You will then know Paris (and probably the other large cities
of Europe) as well as if you had been there for years. _L'Espion
Anglois_ is no caricature. It will give you a just idea of the wheels by
which the machine of government is worked here. There are in it, also,
many interesting details of the last war, which, in general, may be
relied on. It may be considered as the small history of great events.
I am in hopes, when you shall have read them, you will not think I have
misspent your money for them. My method for making out this assortment
was, to revise the list of my own purchases since the invoice of 1785,
and to select such as I had found worth your having. Besides this,
I have casually met with, and purchased, some few curious and cheap
things.

I must trouble you on behalf of a Mr. Thomas Burke, at Loughburke near
Loughrea in Ireland, whose brother, James Burke, is supposed to have
die