st friendly and confidential conversations,
convince me it had not a shadow of foundation. He possessed the
confidence of that government in the highest degree, insomuch, that
it may truly be said, that they were more under his influence, than
he under theirs. The fact is, that his temper was so amiable and
conciliatory, his conduct so rational, never urging impossibilities, or
even things unreasonably inconvenient to them, in short, so moderate
and attentive to their difficulties, as well as our own, that what his
enemies called subserviency, I saw was only that reasonable disposition,
which, sensible that advantages are not all to be on one side, yielding
what is just and liberal, is the more certain of obtaining liberality
and justice. Mutual confidence produces, of course, mutual influence,
and this was all which subsisted between Dr. Franklin and the government
of France.

I state a few anecdotes of Dr. Franklin, within my own knowledge, too
much in detail for the scale of Delaplaine's work, but which may find a
cadre in some of the more particular views you contemplate. My health is
in a great measure restored, and our family join with me in affectionate
recollections and assurances of respect.

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER CXLVI.--TO M. DE NEUVILLE, December 13, 1818

TO M. DE NEUVILLE.

Monticello, December 13, 1818.

I thank your Excellency for the notice with which your letters favor me,
of the liberation of France from the occupation of the allied powers. To
no one, not a native, will it give more pleasure. In the desolation of
Europe, to gratify the atrocious caprices of Bonaparte, France sinned
much: but she has suffered more than retaliation. Once relieved from
the incubus of her late oppression, she will rise like a giant from
her slumbers. Her soil and climate, her arts and eminent science, her
central position and free constitution, will soon make her greater than
she ever was. And I am a false prophet if she does not, at some future
day, remind of her sufferings those who have inflicted them the most
eagerly. I hope, however, she will be quiet for the present, and risk
no new troubles. Her constitution, as now amended, gives as much of
self-government as perhaps she can yet bear, and will give more, when
the habits of order shall have prepared her to receive more. Besides the
gratitude which every American owes her, as our sole ally during the
war of independence, I am additionally affectioned