a due portion for admeasurement of a
meridian crossing the forty-fifth degree of latitude, and terminating
at both ends in the same level, can be found in no country on earth but
theirs. It would follow then, that other nations must trust to their
admeasurement, or send persons into their country to make it themselves,
not only in the first instance, but whenever afterwards they may wish to
verify their measures. Instead of concurring, then, in a measure which,
like the pendulum, may be found in every point of the forty-fifth
degree, and through both hemispheres, and consequently in all the
countries of the earth lying under that parallel, either northern or
southern, they adopt one which can be found but in a single point of
the northern parallel, and consequently only in one country, and that
country is theirs.

I left with you a statement of the case of Schweighaeuser and Dobree,
with the original vouchers on which it depends. From these you will have
known, that being authorized by Congress to settle this matter, I began
by offering to them an arbitration before honest and judicious men of
a neutral nation. They declined this, and had the modesty to propose
an arbitration before merchants of their own town. I gave them warning
then, that as the offer on the part of a sovereign nation to submit to
a private arbitration was an unusual condescendence, if they did not
accept it then, it would not be repeated, and that the United States
would judge the case for themselves hereafter. They continued to decline
it, and the case now stands thus. The territorial judge of France
has undertaken to call the United States to his jurisdiction, and has
arrested their property, in order to enforce appearance, and possess
himself of a matter whereon to found a decree; but no court can have
jurisdiction over a sovereign nation. This position was agreed to;
but it was urged, that some act of Mr. Barclay's had admitted the
jurisdiction. It was denied that there had been any such act by Mr.
Barclay, and disavowed, if there was one, as without authority from the
United States, the property on which the arrest was made having been
purchased by Dr. Franklin, and remaining in his possession till taken
out of it by the arrest. On this disavowal, it was agreed that there
could be no further contest, and I received assurance that the property
should be withdrawn from the possession of the court by an evocation
of the cause before the King's Cou