Among many good qualities which my countrymen possess, some of a different character unhappily mix themselves.  The most remarkable are indolence, extravagance, and infidelity to their engagements.  Cure the two first, and the last would disappear, because it is a consequence of them, and not proceeding from a want of morals.  I know of no remedy against indolence and extravagance, but a free course of justice.  Every thing else is merely palliative:  but unhappily, the evil has gained too generally the mass of the nation, to leave the course of justice unobstructed.  The maxim of buying nothing without the money in our pockets to pay for it, would make of our country one of the happiest upon earth.  Experience during the war proved this; as I think every man will remember, that under all the privations it obliged him to submit to, during that period, he slept sounder, and awaked happier than he can do now.  Desperate of finding relief from a free course of justice, I look forward to the abolition of all credit, as the only other remedy which can take place.  I have seen, therefore, with pleasure, the exaggerations of our want of faith, with which the London papers teem.  It is, indeed, a strong medicine for sensible minds, but it is a medicine.  It will prevent their crediting us abroad, in which case, we cannot be credited at home.  I have been much concerned at the losses produced by the fire of Richmond.  I hope you have escaped them.  It will give me much pleasure to hear from you, as often as you can spare a moment to write.  Be assured that nobody entertains for you sentiments of more perfect and sincere esteem than, Dear Sir, your friend and servant,

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER LXXIV.—­TO WILLIAM DRAYTON, July 30, 1787

TO WILLIAM DRAYTON.

Paris, July 30, 1787.

Sir,

Having observed that the consumption of rice in this country, and particularly in this capital, was very great, I thought it my duty to inform myself from what markets they draw their supplies, in what proportion from ours, and whether it might not be practicable to increase that proportion.  This city being little concerned in foreign commerce, it is difficult to obtain information on particular branches of it in the detail.  I addressed myself to the retailers of rice, and from them received a mixture of truth and error, which I was unable to sift apart in the first moment.  Continuing, however, my inquiries, they produced at length this result; that the dealers here, were in the habit of selling two qualities of rice, that of Carolina, with which they were supplied chiefly from England, and that of Piedmont:  that the Carolina rice was long, slender, white, and transparent, answers well when prepared with milk, sugar, &ic. but not so well when prepared au gras; that that of Piedmont was shorter, thicker, and less white, but that it presented its form better when dressed