I am, with sincere esteem, Dear Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER LIX.—­TO J. BANNISTER, JUNIOR, June 19, 1787

TO J. BANNISTER, JUNIOR.

Paris, June 19, 1787.

Dear Sir,

I have received your favor of April the 23d, from New York, and am sorry to find you have had a relapse.  Time and temperance, however, will cure you; to which add exercise.  I hope you have long ago had a happy meeting with your friends, with whom a few hours would be to me an ineffable feast.  The face of Europe appears a little turbid, but all will subside.  The Empress has endeavored to bully the Turk, who laughed at her, and she is going back.  The Emperor’s reformations have occasioned the appearance of insurrection in Flanders, and he, according to character, 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.