whole.
I suppose, that, in this case, our proportion of force would not be the
half of what I first calculated on.

These are the reasons, which have influenced my judgment on this
question. I give them to you, to show you that I am imposed on by a
semblance of reason at least; and not with an expectation of their
changing your opinion. You have viewed the subject, I am sure, in
all its bearings. You have weighed both questions, with all their
circumstances. You make the result different from what I do. The same
facts impress us differently. This is enough to make me suspect an error
in my process of reasoning, though I am not able to detect it. It is of
no consequence; as I have nothing to say in the decision, and am ready
to proceed heartily on any other plan, which may be adopted, if my
agency should be thought useful. With respect to the dispositions of the
States, I am utterly uninformed. I cannot help thinking, however, that
on a view of all the circumstances, they might be united in either of
the plans.

Having written this on the receipt of your letter, without knowing
of any opportunity of sending it, I know not when it will go: I add
nothing, therefore, on any other subject, but assurances of the sincere
esteem and respect, with which I am,

Dear Sir, your friend and servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER XXV.--TO JOHN JAY, August 11, 1786

TO JOHN JAY.

Paris, August 11, 1786.

Sir,

Since the date of my last, which was of July the 8th, I have been
honored with the receipt of yours of June the 16th. I am to thank you,
on the part of the minister of Geneva, for the intelligence it contained
on the subject of Gallatin, whose relations will be relieved by the
receipt of it.

The enclosed intelligence, relative to the instructions of the court of
London to Sir Guy Carleton, came to me through the Count de la Touche
and Marquis de la Fayette. De la Touche is a director under the Marechal
de Castries, minister for the marine department, and possibly receives
his intelligence from him, and he from their ambassador at London.
Possibly, too, it might be fabricated here. Yet weighing the characters
of the ministry of St. James's and Versailles, I think the former more
capable of giving such instructions, than the latter of fabricating them
for the small purposes the fabrication could answer.

The Gazette of France, of July the 28th, announces the arrival of
Peyrouse at Brazil, that he was to touch at