ned to the Duke of Dorset. You will read it with pleasure. It
has carried comfort to my heart, because it must do the same to the
King and the nation. Though it does not prove M. de Calonnes to be more
innocent than his predecessors, it shows him not to have been that
exaggerated scoundrel, which the calculations and the clamors of the
public have supposed. It shows that the public treasures have not been
so inconceivably squandered, as the parliaments of Grenoble, Thoulouse,
etc., had affirmed. In fine, it shows him less wicked, and France less
badly governed, than I had feared. In examining my little collection of
books, to see what it could furnish you on the subject of Poland; I
find a small piece which may serve as a supplement to the history I had
sent you. It contains a mixture of history and politics, which I think
you will like.

How do you do this morning? I have feared you exerted and exposed
yourself too much yesterday. I ask you the question, though I shall not
await its answer. The sky is clearing, and I shall away to my
hermitage. God bless you, my dear Madam, now and always. Adieu.

TO THE COUNT DE MONTMORIN.

PARIS, October 23, 1787.

SIR,--I take the liberty of troubling your Excellency on the subject of
the _Arret_ which has lately appeared, for prohibiting the importation
of whale oils and spermaceti, the produce of foreign fisheries. This
prohibition being expressed in general terms, seems to exclude the
whale oils of the United States of America, as well as of the nations
of Europe. The uniform disposition, however, which his Majesty and his
ministers have shown to promote the commerce between France and the
United States, by encouraging our productions to come hither, and
particularly those of our fisheries, induces me to hope, that these
were not within their view, at the passing of this _Arret_. I am led
the more into this opinion, when I recollect the assiduity exercised
for several months, in the year 1785, by the committee appointed by
government to investigate the objects of commerce of the two countries,
and to report the encouragements of which it was susceptible; the
result of that investigation, which his Majesty's Comptroller General
did me the honor to communicate, in a letter of the 22d of October,
1786, stating therein the principles which should be established for
the future regulations of that commerce, and particularly
distinguishing the articles of whale oils by an ab