Rittenhouse replied on June 11: “I have read over M
r. Keiths paper carefully, and endeavoured to make out his meaning. He has indeed expressed himself so very loosely that it
is not easy to say what he intended . . .”
Rittenhouse’s letter, 1 page folio, contains a detailed criticism of Keith’s pamphlet, and states his opinion that “M
r. Keith must certainly have wrote down his very first thoughts on the subject, which he never afterwards considered or corrected.”
Some ten years later, on June 22, 1801, the author sent Jefferson from Keith-hall by Aberdeen pamphlets on the British and
on the French constitution, q.v., and wrote: “. . . I have been induced to give your Excellency the trouble of this Letter, and the papers which accompany it, from the
following Causes--I was in early life resolved to settle in America, at the Request of an Uncle, the Rev
d. John Barclay of S
t. Peters Church--near Easton Maryland--About 12 years ago I published a pamphlet on the Equalization of Weights Measures and
Coins, which, with a manuscript sent along with it, was very favourably accepted by your illustrious predecessor George Washington--And
as I I [sic] read a pamphlet by your Excellency on the same subject, I have taken the Liberty of sending other two pamphlets . . .”
George Skene Keith, 1752-1823, Scottish minister. For the two pamphlets mentioned in his letter above, see no. 2805 and 2806.
[3766]
13.
Mémoire de l’Académie des Sciences, presenté à la Convention Nationale, Paris, 1792.
This pamphlet has not been located.
The
Académie des Sciences (styled Académie Royale des Sciences during the periods of the monarchy) was founded in 1666, suppressed in 1793, and reorganized
in 1795 (5 fructidor, an III). Each volume of its
Mémoires contained a number of articles by the leading scientists of the day. A volume of
Mémoires was not issued in 1792, and it seems probable that Jefferson removed an article from some volume and had it bound in this
set of tracts. See Lasteyrie,
Bibliographie Génerale des Travaux Historiques et Árchéologiques Publiés par les Sociétés Savantes de la France, 1901.
[3767]
14.
A Dimension Proper for an Unit of Measures Pointed Out, and an Improvement in the Second Pendulum described; which will fit
it for making the experiment recommended by the Committee of Congress on Weights and Measures in their Report to that House
in last session: with a plan for a reform of our measures, which shews that they may be extended by a complete decimal scale,
formed on the said unit of measures . . . By a Citizen of America.
Philadelphia: Printed by
Budd and
Bartram,
1796.
8vo., 12 leaves.
Sabin 20189.
Evans 30353.
A copy of this pamphlet is credited by both Sabin and Evans to the Library of Congress, where however there is no copy at
the present time. There are no catalogue cards for this book in the Library of Congress, and there is no entry in the printed
catalogue of 1864.
[3768]
15. FAUCHET,
Jean Antoine Joseph, Baron.
Joseph Fauchet, Minister Plenipotentiary of the French Republic near the United States, to Mr. Randolph Secretary of State of the United
States.
Without name of place or printer [
Philadelphia,
1795].
QC89 .F8A4
8vo. 2 leaves without title-page; the above caption on the first page is headed: [
Translation]
Philadelphia, the 15th Thermidor, 2d year of the French Republic, one and indivisible (
2d August. 1794, Old Style.)
The letter begins:
Sir, You have doubtless been informed of the tedious and con-
