that his ministry will not endure long enough, to cause it to feel the effects of his false principles of administration:  and it is he alone who is able, if any one can, to preserve order in the finances, until the reform is effected which we hope from the assembling of the States General.  In the mean time, the public estimation of his talents and virtue is not so high as it has been.  There are persons who pretend that he is more firmly established in public opinion than he ever was.  They deceive themselves.  The ambitious desire he has always manifested of getting again into the administration, his work on the Importance of Religious Opinions, and the Memoires of M. de Calonne, have greatly impaired his reputation.

LETTER CCVII.—­TO JAMES MADISON, June 18, 1789

TO JAMES MADISON.

Paris, June 18, 1789.

Sir,

My last to you was of May the 11th.  Yours of March the 29th came to hand ten days ago; and about two days ago, I received a cover of your hand-writing, under which were a New York paper of May the 4th, and a letter from Mr. Page to Mazzei.  There being no letter from you, makes me hope there is one on the way, which will inform me of my conge.  I have never received Mr. Jay’s answer to my public letter of November the 19th, which you mention him to have written, and which I fear has been intercepted.  I know only from you, that my letter got safe to hand.  My baggage has been made up more than a month, so that I shall leave Paris almost in the instant of receiving the permission.

The campaign begins under unfavorable auspices for Russia.  The death of the Grand Seignior, who was personally disposed for peace, has brought a young and ardent successor to the throne, determined to push the war to extremity.  Her only ally, the Emperor, is in articulo mortis, and the grand Duke of Tuscany, should he succeed, loves peace and money.  Denmark is forbidden by England and Prussia to furnish even its stipulated maritime aid.  There is no appearance of any other power’s engaging in the war.  As far as I can discover, the King of England is somewhat better in his head, but under such a complete depression of spirits, that he does not care how the world goes, and leaves his ministers to do as they please.  It is impossible for you to conceive how difficult it is to know the truth relative to him, he is environed in such an atmosphere of lies.  Men who would not speak a falsehood on any other subject, lie on this, from a principle of duty; so that even eye-witnesses cannot be believed without scanning their principles and connections; and few will stand this, of the very few permitted to see him.