“ to clear the hands and strengthen the arms of all departments of civil authority, cannot fail to prove interesting. It would not become me to enlarge upon the merit of the performance, or to attempt to bias that candid judgment which the Author hopes will be pronounced upon it on this, and on your side the Atlantic. I may however be allowed to add, that it is the production of no vulgar pen, the unaided effort of a Lady, not altogether unknown to you, Mrs. R. F. A. Lee, only daughter of the late Francis Lord Le Despencer, the friend of Franklin and of Freedom.

"Mrs. Lee writes not for emolument, but from a patriotic desire to be thought useful to her country; she is a Lady of uncommon endowments, and joins to a brilliant fancy, the most vigorous and manly understanding, and her work throughout breathes a spirit of rational liberty, which however it may be accepted in this country, will no doubt prove highly gratifying to the people of the United States.

"Previous to the French Revolution Mrs. Lee passed some agreeable hours at your villa near Paris, but as she was then young, you may have forgotten the circumstance. In July 1807 she sent you a communication by a Capt. Hinckley; no answer to which having been received, she concludes the messenger failed in his endeavors to forward the packet to you.

"Should the present opportunity, through the kindness of General Pinckney, prove more fortunate, she hopes to be favored with a few lines in reply. Eighteen Copies are also sent for the American Universities, and the Author will esteem herself singularly happy, if you will have the goodness to cause them to be forwarded to the respective seminaries for which they are intended . . .

"Mrs. Lee’s address is / 36, Clarges Street, Piccadilly.”

The books were sent by General Pinkney from London on September 25, 1810: “Mrs. Leigh, who is I believe known to you, sent me some Time ago two Copies of her Book upon Government, with a Request that I would tender them to you on her Behalf as a Mark of her Respect.--I promised that I would do so; but missed the opportunity on which I had calculated.--At length however I fulfil my promise and send the Books.

"I have not the Honour to know Mrs Leigh personally.--She made some Noise here a few years ago.--Her book has not made quite so much, but it is a respectable performance and worthy of a kind reception, although a Treatise upon Government (at least the Sort of Government which Mrs Leigh considers) is not exactly what one expects from a Woman . . .”

Rachel Fanny Antonina Lee, 1774?-1829, English historical writer and pamphleteer, was the daughter of Sir Francis Dashwood, and the wife of Matthew Allen Lee. The “noise” referred to in General Pinkney’s letter was a criminal trial. Mrs. Lee was the subject of chapter IV of De Quincey’s Autobiographic Sketches .

Contemporary French marbled calf, gilt backs, marbled endpapers, silk bookmarks. Not initialled by Jefferson. Volume I with the Library of Congress 1815 bookplate, the second volume with a later plate. On the title of the