“ (I know not how truly) that bank stock sells somewhat below par. it has been said 7½ per cent; but as the publication was from the enemies of the bank, I do not give implicit faith to it. --with respect to the article ‘Etats unis’ of the Encyclopedie now inclosed I am far from making myself responsible for the whole of the article. the two first sections are taken chiefly from the Abbe Raynal & they are therefore wrong exactly in the same proportion the other sections are generally right. even in them however there is here & there an error. but on the whole it is good; and the only thing as yet printed which gives a just idea of the American constitutions. there will be another good work, a very good one, published here soon by a m ( ^~ r) Mazzei who has been many years a resident of Virginia, is well informed, and possesses a masculine understanding. I should rather have said it will be published in Holland, for I believe it cannot be printed here.--I should be happy indeed in an opportunity of visiting Holland; but I know not when it will occur. in the mean time it would give me great pleasure to see you here. I think you would find both pleasure & use in such a trip. I feel a sincere interest in the fate of your country, and am disposed to wish well to either party only as I can see in their measures a tendency to bring on an amelioration of the condition of the people, an increase in the mass of happiness. but this is a subject for conversation . . . ”

With regard to the work of Mazzei, mentioned in this letter, Jefferson used his own notes and Démeunier’s work. In a letter to the latter dated from Paris February 15, 1788, Jefferson wrote: “ Mr. Mazzei having asked of me information on the subject of the United States, I lent him the notes I had written for you. I saw in his manuscript afterwards things respecting you which I could not approve, and expressed to him strongly my desire that he should change them. I thought he would do it: but have not had time to look into his work since it’s publication. I beg you to be assured that I participate in no sentiments of his or of any other person relative to you which are not full of respect & esteem. I shall be sorry to see either him or any other writer indulge themselves in expressions which your candour & talents should sheild you from. I shall have the pleasure of seeing you at your own house one of these days, and of giving you further assurances of the esteem & attachment with which I have the honour to be Sir . . . ”

For Mazzei’s Recherches Historiques et Politiques sur les Etats-Unis de l’Amerique Septentrionale , see no. 3005.

In January 1786 Jefferson began taking subscriptions for the Encyclopédie for his friends in the United States. Benjamin Franklin, Francis Hopkinson, Dr. James Currie, James Monroe, Charles Thomson and many others received copies through Jefferson, whose book bills from Froullé during this period all contain a number of livraisons of the Encyclopédie; and Jefferson’s letters contain constant reports as to the number of livraisons issued.

The copy sent to Dr. Currie was the cause of some trouble. On October 17, 1785, Currie had written to Jefferson from Richmond, Virginia: “. . . I desired, as my particular friend you Would send me the Encyclopedia, if you thought proper, tho Came in the F Language it might divert my mind from play which has hitherto been my Bane & which I have altogether left Off except Chess. wishing to acquire some knowledge in that in Expectation of having the pleasure of one day or other seeing you here & being further instructed by you in it . . .”

Jefferson replied to this from Paris on January 28, 1786: “ . . . your desire of possessing the new Encyclopedie was expressed so problematically in a former letter, that I doubted whether you did not merely render yourself thro’ complaisance to my proposition. your last letter however is more explicit, wherefore I have immediately subscribed for you, and have obtained an abatement of two guineas in the price. it will be brought to me to day, and as there are now 29. vols complete, and binding is done so much better & cheaper here (about 2 livres a volume) I will have them bound and send them by the first conveiance. the medical part has not yet begun to appear, that author having chosen to publish the whole at once. I do not expect it will be the most valuable part of the work, for that science was demolished here by the blows of Moliere, and in a nation so addicted to ridicule, I question if ever it rises under the weight while his comedies continue to be acted. it furnishes the most striking proof I have ever seen in my life of the injury which ridicule is capable of doing . . . ”