cted me to put an end to this matter. Unwilling to trouble your
Excellency, whenever it can be avoided, I proposed to the parties to
have the question decided by arbitrators, to be chosen by us jointly.
They have refused it, as you will see by their answers to my letters,
copies of both which I have the honor to enclose you. I presume it to
be well settled in practice, that the property of one sovereign is not
permitted to be seized within the dominions of another; and that this
practice is founded not only in mutual respect, but in mutual utility.
To what the contrary practice would lead, is evident in the present
case, wherein military stores have been stopped, in the course of a war,
in which our greatest difficulties proceeded from the want of military
stores. In their letter, too, they make a merit of not having seized
one of our ships of war, and certainly the principle which admits the
seizure of arms, would admit that of a whole fleet, and would often
furnish an enemy the easiest means of defeating an expedition. The
parties obliging me, then, to have recourse to your Excellency on this
occasion, I am under the necessity of asking an order from you for the
immediate delivery of the stores and other property of the United States
at Nantes, detained by the house of Schweighaeuser and Dobree, and that
of Puchilberg, or by either of them, under a pretence of a judicial
seizure.

I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the most perfect respect and
esteem, your Excellency's most obedient and most humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CLXI.--TO M. DE REYNEVAL, September 16, 1788

TO M. DE REYNEVAL.

Sir,

Paris, September 16, 1788.

I have the honor now to enclose you my observations on the alteration
proposed in the consular convention. There remain only three articles of
those heretofore in question between us, to which I am unable to
agree; that is to say, the second, proposing still to retain personal
immunities for the consuls, and others attached to their office; the
eighth, proposing that the navigation code of each nation shall be
established in the territories of the other; and the ninth, insisting
that the ship's roll shall be conclusive evidence that a person belongs
to the ship.

There are several new matters introduced into the draught: some of these
are agreed to; others cannot be admitted, as being contrary to the
same principles which had obliged me to disagree to some of the form