whether the body of the nation, if they could be consulted, would accept of a habeas corpus law, if offered them by the King.  If the Etats Generaux, when they assemble, do not aim at too much, they may begin a good constitution.  There are three articles which they may easily obtain; 1. their own meeting, periodically; 2. the exclusive right of taxation; 3. the right of registering laws and proposing amendments to them, as exercised now by the parliaments.  This last would be readily approved by the court, on account of their hostility against the parliaments, and would lead immediately to the origination of laws:  the second has been already solemnly avowed by the King; and it is well understood, there would be no opposition to the first.  If they push at much more, all may fail.  I shall not enter further into public details, because my letter to Mr. Jay will give them.  That contains a request of permission to return to America the next spring, for the summer only.  The reasons therein urged, drawn from my private affairs, are very cogent.  But there is another, more cogent on my mind, though of a nature not to be explained in a public letter.  It is the necessity of attending my daughters, myself, to their own country, and depositing them safely in the hands of those, with whom I can safely leave them.  I have deferred this request as long as circumstances would permit, and am in hopes it will meet with no difficulty.  I have had too many proofs of your friendship, not to rely on your patronage of it, as, in all probability, nothing can suffer by a short absence.  But the immediate permission is what I am anxious about; as by going in April and returning in October, I shall be sure of pleasant and short passages, out and in.  I must intreat your attention, my friend, to this matter, and that the answers may be sent me through several channels.

Mr. Liniozin, at Havre, sent you, by mistake, a package belonging to somebody else.  I do not know what it contained, but he has written to you on the subject, and prayed me to do the same, he is likely to suffer if it be not returned.

Supposing that the funding their foreign debt will be among the first operations of the new government, I send you two estimates; the one by myself, the other by a gentleman infinitely better acquainted with the subject, showing what fund will suffice to discharge the principal and interest, as it shall become due, aided by occasional loans, which the same fund will repay.  I enclose them to you, because collating them together, and with your own ideas, you will be able to advise something better than either; but something must be done.  This government will expect, I fancy, a very satisfactory provision for the payment of their debt, from the first session of the new Congress.  Perhaps, in this matter, as well as the arrangement of your foreign affairs, I may be able, when on the spot with you, to give some information and suggest some hints, which may render my visit to my native