heir time in manufactures, or the surplus of our hands
must be employed in manufactures, or in navigation. But that day would,
I think, be distant, and we should long keep our workmen in Europe,
while Europe should be drawing rough materials, and even subsistence,
from America. But this is theory only, and a theory which the servants
of America are not at liberty to follow. Our people have a decided taste
for navigation and commerce. They take this from their mother country;
and their servants are in duty bound to calculate all their measures on
this datum: we wish to do it by throwing open all the doors of commerce,
and knocking off its shackles. But as this cannot be done for others,
unless they will do it for us, and there is no great probability that
Europe will do this, I suppose we shall be obliged to adopt a system
which may shackle them in our ports, as they do us in theirs. With
respect to the sale of our lands, that cannot begin till a considerable
portion shall have been surveyed. They cannot begin to survey till the
fall of the leaf of this year, nor to sell probably till the ensuing
spring. So that it will be yet a twelvemonth, before we shall be able to
judge of the efficacy of our land-office, to sink our national debt. It
is made a fundamental, that the proceeds shall be solely and sacredly
applied as a sinking fund, to discharge the capital only of the debt.

It is true that the tobaccos of Virginia go almost entirely to England.
The reason is, the people of that State owe a great debt there, which
they are paying as fast as they can. I think I have now answered your
several queries, and shall be happy to receive your reflections on the
same subjects, and at all times to hear of your welfare, and to give you
assurances of the esteem, with which I have the honor to be, Dear Sir,

your most obedient

and most humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXXVIII.--TO J. BANNISTER, JUNIOR, October 15,1785

TO J. BANNISTER, JUNIOR.

Paris, October 15,1785.

Dear Sir,

I should sooner have answered the paragraph in your letter, of September
the 19th, respecting the best seminary for the education of youth,
in Europe, but that it was necessary for me to make inquiries on the
subject. The result of these has been, to consider the competition as
resting between Geneva and Rome. They are equally cheap, and probably
are equal in the course of education pursued. The advantage of Geneva
is, that studen