crew was well treated, and would be sent back by the French.  But the government of Algiers demands of France, sixty thousand sequins, or twenty-seven thousand pounds sterling, for the captives escaped; that is, nearly one thousand pounds each.  The greater part of the regency were for an immediate declaration of war against France; but the Dey urged the heavy war the Turks were at present engaged in; that it would be better not to draw another power on them, at present; that they would decline renewing the treaty of one hundred years, which expired two years ago, so as to be free to act hereafter; but, for the present, they ought to accept payment for the captives, as a satisfaction.  They accordingly declared to the French consul, that they would put him, and all his countrymen there, into irons, unless the sixty thousand sequins were paid:  the consul told them, his instructions were, positively, that they should not be paid.  In this situation stood matters between that pettifogging nest of robbers and this great kingdom, which will finish, probably, by crouching under them, and paying the sixty thousand sequins.  From the personal characters of the present administration, I should have hoped, under any other situation than the present, they might have ventured to quit the beaten track of politics hitherto pursued, in which the honor of their nation has been calculated at nought, and to join in a league for keeping up a perpetual cruise against these pirates, which, though a slow operation, would be a sure one for destroying all their vessels and seamen, and turning the rest of them to agriculture.  But a desire of not bringing upon themselves another difficulty, will probably induce the ministers to do as their predecessors have done.

August 12.  The enclosed paper of this morning gives some particulars of the action between the Russians and Swedes, the manifesto of the Empress, and the declaration of the court of Versailles, as to the affair of Trincomale.

I have the honor to be, with sentiments of perfect esteem and respect, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER CLIV.—­TO WILLIAM CARMICHAEL, August 12, 1788

TO WILLIAM CARMICHAEL.

Paris, August 12, 1788.

Dear Sir,

Since my last to you, I have been honored with yours of the 18th and 29th of May, and 5th of June.  My latest American intelligence is of the 24th of June, when nine certainly, and probably ten States, had accepted the new constitution, and there was no doubt of the eleventh (North Carolina), because there was no opposition there.  In New York, two thirds of the State were against it, and certainly if they had been called to the decision, in any other stage of the business, they would have rejected it; but before they put it to the vote, they would certainly have heard that eleven States had joined in it, and