I received, tho’ long after they were written, your very agreable Favours of Oct. 30—85, and February 9.—86, with the Pieces enclos’d, Productions of the Auteuil Academy of Belles Lettres. Your kind and friendly Wishes and Congratulations are extremely obliging. It gives me infinite Pleasure to find that I still retain a favourable Place in the Remembrance of the worthy and the Good, whose delightful and instructive Society I had the Happiness of enjoying while I resided in France.

But tho’ I could not leave that dear Nation without Regret, I certainly did right in coming home. I am here in my Niche, in my own House, in the Bosom of my Family, my Daughter and Grandchildren, all about me, among my old Friends or the Sons of my Friends who equally respect me, and who all speak and understand the same Language with me; and you know that if a Man desires to be useful by the Exercise of his mental Faculties, he loses half their Force when in a foreign Country, where he can only express himself in a Language with which he is not well acquainted. I short I enjoy here Every Opportunity of doing Good, and every thing else I could wish for, except Repose; and that I may soon expect, either by the Cessation of my Office, which cannot last more than 3 Years, or by ceasing to live.

I am of the same Opinion with you respecting the Freedom of Commerce, in Countries especially where direct Taxes are practicable. This will be our Case in time when our wide-extended Country fills up with Inhabitants. But at present they are so sparsely settled, often 5 or 6 Miles distant from one another in the back Counties, that the Collection of a direct Tax is almost impossible the Trouble of the Collector’s Tax is almost impossible the Trouble of the Collector’s going from House to House, amounting to more than the Value of the Tax. Nothing can be better express’d than your Sentiments are on this Point, where you prefer Liberty of Trading, Cultivating, Manufacturing, &c. even to political civil Liberty, this being affected but rarely, the others every Hour. Our Debt occasion’d by the War, being heavy, we are under the Necessiry of using Imports, and every Method we can think of to assist in raising a Revenue to discharge it; but in Sentiment we are well disposed to abolish Duties on Importation as soon as we possibly can afford to do so.

Whatever may be reported by the English in Europe, you may be assured that our People are almost unanimous in being satisfied with the Revolution. Their unbounded Respect for all who were principally concern’d in it, whether as Warriors or Statesmen, and the enthusiastic Joy with which the Day of the Declaration of Independence is every where annually celebrated, are indisputable Proofs of this Truth. In one or two of the States there have been some Discontents on partial and local Subjects; these may have been fomented, as the Accounts of them are exaggerated, by our antient Enemies; but they are now nearly suppress’d and the rest of the States enjoy Peace and good Order, and flourish amazingly. The Crops have been good for several Years past, the Price of Country Produce high from Foreign Demand, and it fetches ready Money; Rents are high in our Towns, which increase fast by new Buildings, Labourers and Artisans have high Wages well paid; and vast Tracts of new Land are continually clearing and render’d fit for Cultivation.

Your Project of Transporting, rather than drowning, the good Lady’s eighteen Cats, is very humane. The kind Treatment they experience from their present Mistress may possibly cause an Unwillingness to hazard the Change of Situation; but if they are of the Angora Breed, and can be inform’d how two of their Tribe brought over by my Grandson are caress’d and almost ador’d here, they may possibly be induc’d to transport themselves rather than risque any longer the Persecution of the Abbé’s, which sooner or later must end in their Condemnation. Their Requéte is admirably well-written; but their continually Increasing in Number will in time make their Cause insupportable: Their Friends should therefore advise them to submit voluntarily either to Transport= or to Castr= ation.

The Remarks of a Grammarian on the Particle on, are full of Wit, and just Satire. My Friends here who understand French have been highly entertain’d with them. They will do good if you publish them. They have had some Effect upon me, as you will see in this Letter: For where I spoke of the prosperous State of our Affairs here, fearing you might suppose that I thought all well because I myself had a Profitable Place, I found it proper to add other Reasons.

Your taking the Pains of Translating the Addresses, is a strong Mark of the Continuance of your Friendship for me, which gave me as much Pleasure as the Addresses themselves had done, and that you may well believe, was not a little: For indeed the Reception I met with on my Arrival far exceeded my Expectation. Popular Favour, not the most constant Thing in the World, still continues with regard to me, my Election to the Presidentship for the second Year being unanimous. Whether it will hold out to the End of the third, is uncertain. A Man in high Place has so many Occasions, which he cannot avoid, of disobliging, if he does his Duty; and those he disobliges have so much more Resentment, than those he obliges have Gratitude, that it often happens when he is strongly attack’d he is weakly defended. You will therefore not wonder if you should hear that I do not finish my political Career with the same Eclat that I began it.

It grieves me to learn that you have been aflicted with Sickness. It is as you say the Condition of living, but it seems a hard Condition. I sometimes wonder that all good Men and Women are not by Providence kept free from Pain and Disease. For the best of all possible Worlds, I should suppose it must be so; and I am piously inclin’d to believe that this World’s not being better made was owing merely to the Badness of the Materials.

Embrace for me tenderly the good Dame whom I love as ever. I thought to have written to her and to Mr. Cabanis by this Pacquet, but must defer it to the next for want of Time. I am, my dear Friend, with sincere Esteem and Affection, Yours ever