that Connecticut would also appoint, the moment its Assembly met.  Rhode Island had refused.  I expect they will propose several amendments; that that relative to our commerce will probably be adopted immediately, but that the others must wait to be adopted, one after another, in proportion as the minds of the States ripen for them.  Dr. Franklin enjoys good health.  I shall always be happy to hear from you, being, with sentiments of very sincere esteem and respect, Dear Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER LXV.—­TO B. VAUGHAN, July 2, 1787

TO B. VAUGHAN.

Paris, July 2, 1787.

Dear Sir,

Your favor of February the 16th came to my hands in the moment I was setting out on a tour through the southern parts of France and northern of Italy, from which I am but just now returned.  I avail myself of the earliest moment to acknowledge its receipt, and to thank you for the box of magnets which I found here.  Though I do not know certainly by or from whom they come, I presume they came by Colonel Smith, who was here in my absence, and from Messrs. Nairne and Blunt, through your good offices.  I think your letter of February the 16th flatters me with the expectation of another, with observations on the hygrometers I had proposed.  I value what comes from you too much, not to remind you of it.  Your favor by Mr. Garnett also came during my absence.  I presume he has left Paris, as I can hear nothing of him.  I have lost the opportunity, therefore, of seeing his method of resisting friction, as well as of showing, by attentions to him, respect for yourself and your recommendations.  Mr. Paine (Common Sense) is here on his way to England.  He has brought the model of an iron bridge, with which he supposes a single arch of four hundred feet may be made.  It has not yet arrived in Paris.  Among other projects, with which we begin to abound in America, is one for finding the longitude by the variation of the magnetic needle.  The author supposes two points, one near each pole, through the northern of which pass all the magnetic meridians of the northern hemisphere, and through the southern those of the southern hemisphere.  He determines their present position and periodical revolution.  It is said his publication is plausible.  I have not seen it.

What are you going to do with your naval armament on your side the channel.  Perhaps you will 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.