I have the honor to be, with great and sincere esteem, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant,

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER CLVI.—­TO JOHN JAY, August 20,1788

TO JOHN JAY.

Paris, August 20,1788.

Sir,

I had the honor to write to you on the 3rd, 10th, and 11th instant, with a postscript of the 12th; all of which went by Mrs. Barclay.  Since that date, we have received an account of a third victory obtained by the Russians over the Turks, on the Black Sea, in which the Prince of Nassau, with his galleys, destroyed two frigates, three smaller vessels, and six galleys.  The Turkish power on that sea is represented, by their enemies, as now annihilated.  There is reason to believe, however, that this is not literally true, and that aided by the supplies furnished by the English, they are making extraordinary efforts to re-establish their marine.  The Russian minister here has shown the official report of Admiral Greigh, on the combat of July the 17th, in which he claims the victory, and urges in proof of it, that he kept the field of battle.  This report is said to have been written on it.  As this paper, together with the report of the Swedish admiral, is printed in the Leyden gazette of the 15th instant, I enclose it to you.  The court of Denmark has declared, it will furnish Russia the aid stipulated in their treaty:  and it is not doubted they will go beyond this, and become principals in the war.  The next probable moves are, that the King of Prussia will succor Sweden; and Poland, Russia, by land:  and a possible consequence is, that England may send a squadron into the Baltic, to restore equilibrium in that sea.  In my letter of the 11th, I observed to you, that this country would have two difficulties to struggle with, till the meeting of their States General, and that one of these was the want of money:  this has, in fact, overborne all their resources, and the day before yesterday, they published an Arret, suspending all reimbursements of capital, and reducing the payments of the principal mass of demands for interest, to twelve sous in the livre; the remaining eight sous to be paid with certificates.  I enclose you a newspaper with the Arret.  In this paper you will see the exchange of yesterday, and I have inserted that of the day before, to show you the fall.  The consternation is, as yet, too great to let us judge of the issue.  It will probably ripen the public mind to the necessity of a change in their constitution, and to the substituting the collected wisdom of the whole, in place of a single will, by which they have been hitherto governed.  It is a remarkable proof of the total incompetency of a single head to govern a nation well, when, with a revenue of six hundred millions, they are led to a declared bankruptcy, and to stop the wheels of government, even in its most essential movements, for want of money.