cter,
will probably tread back his steps. A change of system here with respect
to the Dutch, is suspected; because the Kings of Prussia and England
openly espouse the cause of the Stadtholder, and that of the Patriots is
likely to fall. The American acquaintances whom you left here, not being
stationary, you will hardly expect news of them. Mrs. Barrett, lately
dead, was, I think, known to you. I had a letter from Ledyard lately,
dated at St. Petersburg. He had but two shirts, and yet more shirts than
shillings. Still he was determined to obtain the palm of being the first
circumambulator of the earth. He says, that having no money, they kick
him from place to place, and thus he expects to be kicked round the
globe. Are you become a great walker? You know I preach up that kind
of exercise. Shall I send you a _conte-pas_? It will cost you a dozen
louis, but be a great stimulus to walking, as it will record your steps.
I finished my tour a week or ten days ago. I went as far as
Turin, Milan, Genoa; and never passed three months and a half more
delightfully. I returned through the canal of Languedoc, by Bordeaux,
Nantes, L'Orient, and Rennes; then returned to Nantes, and came up the
Loire to Orleans. I was alone through the whole, and think one travels
more usefully when alone, because he reflects more.

Present me in the most friendly terms to Mrs. Bannister and to your
father, and be assured of the sincere esteem of, Dear Sir, your friend
and servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER LX.--TO JAMES MADISON, June 20, 1787*

TO JAMES MADISON.

Paris, June 20, 1787.

[* Much of this letter is in cipher: but the notes annexed
to it, have enabled the Editor to decipher and publish it.]

Dear Sir,

I wrote you last on the 30th of January, with a Postscript of February
the 5th. Having set out the last day of that month to try the waters
of Aix, and been journeying since, till the 10th instant, I have been
unable to continue my correspondence with you. In the mean time, I have
received your several favors of February the 15th, March the 18th and
19th, and April the 23d. The last arrived here about the 25th of May,
while those of March the 18th and 19th, though written, five weeks
earlier, arrived three weeks later. I mention this, to show you how
uncertain is the conveyance through England.

The idea of separating the executive business of the confederacy from
Congress, as the judiciary is already, in some de