course, the papers now received are the first and
only ones which have come safe. The infidelities of the post-offices,
both of England and France, are not unknown to you. The former are the
most rascally, because they retain one's letters, not choosing to take
the trouble of copying them. The latter, when they have taken copies,
are so civil as to send the originals, re-sealed clumsily with a
composition, on which they had previously taken the impression of the
seal. England shows no dispositions to enter into friendly connections
with us. On the contrary, her detention of our posts, seems to be the
speck which is to produce a storm. I judge that a war with America would
be a popular war in England. Perhaps the situation of Ireland may deter
the ministry from hastening it on. Peace is at length made between the
Emperor and Dutch. The terms are not published, but it is said he gets
ten millions of florins, the navigation of the Scheldt not quite to
Antwerp, and two forts. However, this is not to be absolutely relied on.
The league formed by the King of Prussia against the Emperor is a most
formidable obstacle to his ambitious designs. It certainly has defeated
his views on Bavaria, and will render doubtful the election of his
nephew to be King of the Romans. Matters are not yet settled between him
and the Turk. In truth, he undertakes too much. At home he has made some
good regulations.

Your present pursuit being (the wisest of all) agriculture, I am not in
a situation to be useful to it. You know that France is not the country
most celebrated for this art. I went the other day to see a plough which
was to be worked by a windlass, without horses or oxen. It was a poor
affair. With a very troublesome apparatus, applicable only to a
dead level, four men could do the work of two horses. There seems a
possibility that the great _desideratum_ in the use of the balloon may
be obtained. There are two persons at Javel (opposite to Auteuil) who
are pushing this matter. They are able to rise and fall at will, without
expending their gas, and they can deflect forty-five degrees from the
course of the wind.

I took the liberty of asking you to order me a Charleston newspaper.
The expense of French postage is so enormous that I have been obliged to
desire that my newspapers, from the different States, may be sent to the
office for Foreign Affairs at New York; and I have requested of Mr. Jay
to have them always packed in a box, and