torture abolished, the
criminal code reformed, are facts which will do eternal honor to their
administration, in history. But were I their historian, I should not
equally applaud their total abandonment of their foreign affairs. A
bolder front in the beginning, would have prevented the first loss, and
consequently, all the others. Holland, Prussia, Turkey, and Sweden, lost
without the acquisition of a single new ally, are painful reflections
for the friends of France. They may, indeed, have in their places the
two empires, and perhaps Denmark; in which case, physically speaking,
they will stand on as good ground as before, but not on as good moral
ground. Perhaps, seeing more of the internal working of the machine,
they saw, more than we do, the physical impossibility of having money
to carry on a war. Their justification must depend on this, and their
atonement, on the internal good they are doing to their country; this
makes me completely their friend.

I am, with great esteem and attachment, Dear Sir, you friend and
servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CLV.--TO M. CATHALAN, August 13,1788

TO M. CATHALAN.

Paris, August 13,1788.

Sir,

I have to acknowledge the receipt of your two favors, of June, and
July the 11th, and to thank you for the political intelligence they
contained, which is always interesting to me. I will ask a continuance
of them, and especially that you inform me, from time to time, of the
movements in the ports of Marseilles and Toulon, which may seem to
indicate peace or war. These are the most certain presages possible; and
being conveyed to me from all the ports, they will always enable me to
judge of the intentions or expectations of the ministry, and to notify
you of the result of the intelligence from all the ports, that you may
communicate it to the American commerce.

I have the pleasure to inform you, that the new constitution proposed to
the United States, has been established by the votes of nine States.
It is happy for us to get this operation over before the war kindled in
Europe could affect us, as by rendering us more respectable, we shall be
more probably permitted, by all parties, to remain neutral.

I take the liberty of putting under your cover a letter for Mr. Bernard,
containing some seeds, and another to Giuseppe Chiappe, our consul
at Mogadore. I thank you for your settlement of the price of the
_Observations Meteorologiques_, and I have repaid the sixty livres