hat the government will be so totally absorbed in domestic
arrangements, as to attend to nothing exterior. Mr. Jay will, of course,
communicate to you some ciphered letters lately written, and one of
this date. My public letter to him contains all the interesting public
details. I enclose with the present, some extracts of a letter from Mr.
Paine, which he desired me to communicate: your knowledge of the writer
will justify my giving you the trouble of these communications, which
their interesting nature and his respectability will jointly recommend
to notice. I am in great pain for the Marquis de la Fayette. His
principles, you know, are clearly with the people; but having been
elected for the _Noblesse_ of Auvergne, they have laid him under express
instructions to vote for the decision by orders and not persons. This
would ruin him with the _Tiers-Etat_, and it is not possible he could
continue long to give satisfaction to the _Noblesse_. I have not
hesitated to press on him to burn his instructions, and follow his
conscience as the only sure clue, which will eternally guide a man clear
of all doubts and inconsistencies. If he cannot effect a conciliatory
plan, he will surely take his stand manfully at once with the
_Tiers-Etat_. He will in that case be what he pleases with them, and
I am in hopes that base is now too solid to render it dangerous to be
mounted on it. In hopes of being able, in the course of the summer, to
pay my respects to you personally in New York, I have the honor to be,
with sentiments of the most perfect respect and attachment, Sir, your
most obedient and most humble servant,

Th: Jefferson.

[Extract of the letter from Thomas Paine, referred to in the
preceding, to General Washington.]

'London, March the 12th, 1789. I do not think it is worth while for
Congress to appoint any minister at this court. The greater distance
Congress observes on this point, the better. It will be all money thrown
away to go to any expense about it, at least during the present reign. I
know the nation well, and the line of acquaintance I am in enables me
to judge better on this matter than any other American can judge,
especially at a distance. I believe I am not so much in the good
graces of the Marquis of Lansdowne as I used to be. I do not answer his
purpose. He was always talking of a sort of re-connection of England
and America, and my coldness and reserve on this subject checked
communication. I b