ask me, what they are about to do here. A
British navy and Prussian army hanging over Holland on one side, a
French navy and army hanging over it on the other, looks as if they
thought of fighting. Yet I think both parties too wise for that, too
laudably intent on economizing, rather than on further embarrassing
their finances. May they not propose to have a force on the spot to
establish some neutral form of a constitution, which these powers will
cook up among themselves, without consulting the parties for whom it
is intended? The affair of Geneva shows such combinations possible.
Wretched, indeed, is the nation, in whose affairs foreign powers are
once permitted to intermeddle. Lord Wycombe is with us at present. His
good sense, information, and discretion are much beyond his years, and
promise good things for your country.

I beg you to accept assurances of the esteem/and respect, with which
I have the honor to be, Dear Sir, your most obedient and most humble
servant,

Th: Jefferson.

LETTER LXVI.--TO M. L'ABBE MORELLET, July 2, 1787

TO M. L'ABBE MORELLET.

Paris, July 2, 1787.

I am sorry, my Dear Sir, that your interest should be affected by the
ill behavior of Barrois. But when you consider the facts, you will be
sensible that I could not have indulged his indolence further, without
increasing the injury to a more punctual workman. Stockdale, of London,
had asked leave to print my Notes. I agreed to it; and promised he
should have the plate of the map as soon as it should be corrected,
and the copies struck off for you and myself. He thereupon printed his
edition completely in three weeks. The printer, who was to strike off
two hundred and fifty maps for me, kept the plate but five days. It was
then delivered to Barrois, with notice that it could not be left
longer with him, than should suffice to strike off his number. Repeated
applications for it, by Mr. Short and my servant, were only answered
by repeated promises, and times of delivery fixed, no one of which was
performed. When I returned, he had been possessed of the plate upwards
of two months. I was astonished and confounded, to be told it had not
been sent to Stockdale, and that his edition had been lying dead on his
hands three months. I sent to Barrois the very day of my return, to let
him know, that justice to Stockdale did not permit me to defer sending
him the plate any longer: yet I would wait five days, at the end of
which he must