tate of their case, and let me know in what
court their process is, and when it is likely to be decided. I hope the
circumstances of the case will excuse the freedom I take; and I have the
honor to be, with great respect, Sir,

your most obedient, humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXXVII.--TO HOGENDORP, October 13,1785

TO HOGENDORP.

Paris, October 13,1785.

Dear Sir,

Having been much engaged lately, I have been unable sooner to
acknowledge the receipt of your favor of September the 8th. What you are
pleased to say on the subject of my Notes, is more than they deserve.
The condition in which you first saw them, would prove to you how
hastily they had been originally written; as you may remember the
numerous insertions I had made in them, from time to time, when I could
find a moment for turning to them from other occupations. I have never
yet seen Monsieur de Buffon. He has been in the country all the summer.
I sent him a copy of the book, and have only heard his sentiments on one
particular of it, that of the identity of the mammoth and elephant.
As to this, he retains his opinion that they are the same. If you had
formed any considerable expectations from our revised code of laws, you
will be much disappointed. It contains not more than three or four laws
which could strike the attention of a foreigner. Had it been a digest of
all our laws, it would not have been comprehensible or instructive, but
to a native. But it is still less so, as it digests only the British
statutes and our own acts of Assembly, which are but a supplementary
part of our law. The great basis of it is anterior to the date of the
Magna Charta, which is the oldest statute extant. The only merit of this
work is, that it may remove from our book-shelves about twenty folio
volumes of statutes, retaining all the parts of them, which either their
own merit or the established system of laws required.

You ask me what are those operations of the British nation, which
are likely to befriend us, and how they will produce this effect? The
British government, as you may naturally suppose, have it much at heart
to reconcile their nation to the loss of America. This is essential to
the repose, perhaps even to the safety of the King and his ministers.
The most effectual engines for this purpose are the public papers. You
know well, that that government always kept a kind of standing army of
news-writers, who, without any regard to trut