the new constitution are generally disposed to make such changes as may be requisite to guard liberty. This will probably reconcile the bulk of the opposition. Nothing could be more agreeable to me, than your company on our voyage to Virginia; and I am sorry I am unable to form such an idea of the epoch of it, as might enable you to decide whether it suited you. Governeur Morris, who is now here, informs me that there was no congress when he came away; but none was expected until the new government. My letters, asking leave of absence, were not then arrived, and consequently I cannot have that leave but from the new government; nor even expect that they will take it up among their first subjects. This renders the time of my receiving permission uncertain; and should it be so late that I cannot go, do my business there, and return in the fall, I shall prefer postponing my departure hence until the fall, so that I may return in the spring; being quite decided against a winter passage. You see therefore, my dear sir, the impossibility of my fixing the epoch of my departure. Pray continue to me during your stay, your interesting political information; and accept assurances of the esteem and respect, with which I am, dear sir, your most obedient humble servant,

To Mr. Shippen."*

THOMAS JEFFERSON.

* This interesting letter was written to a Mr. Shippen, who was a favourite nephew of Mr. Lee. Finding it among Mr. Lee's MSS. the author has inserted it.

VOL. II.

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43

APPENDIX IX.

Letters to Arthur Lee, from many of his Correspondents in Europe and Great Britain. (Many of his MSS. of this kind have been lost.)

LETTERS FROM SIR WILLIAM JONES.

"TEMPLE, June 29th, 1778.

My Dear Sir, I would have answered your kind letter long before this, if I had not been expecting from term to term, that the case of John

would be argued in Westminster Hall; and I wished to send you a report of the arguments at the bar, and on the bench. The case is I apprehend now dropped, as I have heard nothing of it since the last consultation. I thank you for your hints on the subject, and am happy that our opinions so exactly coincide. How deeply I was afflicted with poor Alleyne's death, you who know my regard for him will easily imagine. Paradise is much dejected at the loss of his estate; at least at the suspension of his rents. I wish he was in Virginia; but you know how incapable he is, with all his good qualities, of stirring for himself in active life.

The word illegible.

I go on here to my satisfaction; I mean in my pro

*

*

*

I am

in a chancery cause, in which some points of French law will arise, and one or two of the witnesses reside in France. The property in dispute is considerable. It is possible that this business will bring me to Paris in September or October. Shall you be there at that time? If you are, let me hope to have access to you. I have much to tell you about some old acquaintance. I should like to be in a little private lodging, where I may spend a week or fortnight, unknown to all, except a few friends.

No news but what is very public, and which you must know by this time.

I am, my dear sir, with great truth, your faithful friend,

WILLIAM JONES.

A Monsieur, Monsieur Arthur Lee, A Paris."

"CHRISNA NAGAR, BENGAL, Sept. 28th, 1788.

My Dear Sir, I am just escaped from Calcutta to my cottage, about a hundred miles from it, where I can repose but a few days, after a degree of judicial labour, of which an English bar can afford no example. We have been sitting seven hours a day, sometimes whole nights, for three months together; and that without any assistance from juries, except in criminal cases. The length of our sittings has left us hardly any vacation; and I have so large an arrear of letters for the ships of the season, that I must divide my mornings between all my friends, and write concisely to each, with a promise of longer letters the

next season.

The interesting picture you give of your country, has both light and shade in it; but though some rocks and thickets appear to obstruct the foreground, I see the distant prospect brighten, and have a sanguine hope that I shall live to admire your constitution, in all the blaze of true liberty and universal justice. If young Englishmen had any English spirit, they would finish their education by visiting the United States, instead of fluttering about Italy; and strive to learn rather political wisdom from republicans, than to pick up a few superficial notions of the fine arts, from the poor thralls of bigotry and superstition. If I live, I seriously intend to make the tour of your states, before I retire to my Sabine farm; and my wife, who is much better than when I wrote last, often speaks of the scheme with delight.

The

I have read the original of Halheld's book, which is not properly a code, but a short compendium or digest, compiled about ten or twelve years ago by eleven Brahmans, of whom only five are now living. The version was made by Halheld from the Persian, and that by a Musselman writer from the Bengal dialect, in which one of the Brahmans (the same who has corrected my Sanscrit copy) explained it to him. A translation in the third degree from the original, must be, as you will easily imagine, very erroneous. texts quoted in the original are ascribed to the Gods; that is, they are of indefinite antiquity; but I cannot believe any of them to be more than three thousand years old. I am superintending a new work of the same kind, but more extensive, on the plan of Justinian's Digest, which some of the most learned of the native lawyers are compiling; they are stimulated to diligence by handsome monthly salaries. I shall not, if my health continues firm, think of leaving Asia, until I see the completion of a work, which will be the standard of justice among ten millions of men;

and will, I trust, secure their inheritable property to their descendants.

The last phrase brings to my mind the effects of poor Mr. Steptoe; concerning which my agent at Calcutta, and the registrar of the court, will make diligent enquiries; and the result of their enquiries I will take care to communicate in a postscript.

Give my kind remembrance to your brother, and Mr. Izard, when you happen to see them. I fear you are still disunited from Franklin; a disunion which I ever lamented, and must lament. I shall be impatient to know the resolutions of the general convention; they will be dictated I am sure by humanity and virtue, but experience only can make your constitùtion perfect.

I am, dear sir, your affectionate and faithful ser

vant,

W. JONES.

To the Hon. Arthur Lee, North America."

LETTERS FROM THE EARL OF BUCHAN.

"WALCOT, near BATH, Oct. 31st, 1769.

My Dear Sir,-I should be very happy to be entrusted with the welfare of Virginia, and am sure I should pass my time most agreeably among you; but I am afraid I love you too well to have that charge committed to me at present, after what has past; not that I think any plan is to be adopted of a disagreeable tendency, but that my avowed sentiments with regard to my countrymen on the other side of the Atlantic, might be thought too favourable to certain demands which might be made. There remains another obstacle, which is, that my father, I am sorry