is yet to destroy millions and millions of inhabitants. There are three epochs in history signalized by the total extinction of national morality. The first was of the successors of Alexander, not omitting himself; the next the successors of the first Cæsar; the third our own age. This was begun by the partition of Poland, followed by that of the treaty of Pilnitz ; next the conflagration of Copenhagen; then the enormities of Bonaparte, partitioning the earth at his will, and devastating it with fire and sword.”

He thus describes the state of France and of the French people in the midst of that great struggle. We quote from a letter to Col. Humphreys, dated 18th March, 1789: "The change in this country since you left it, is such as you can form no idea of The frivolities of conversation have given way entirely to politics. Men, women and children talk nothing else; and all you know talk a great deal. The press groans with daily productions which in point of boldness makes an Englishman stare, who hitherto has thought himself the boldest of men. A complete revolution in this government has within the space of two years (for it began with the Notables of 1787,) been effected merely by the force of public opinion, aided indeed by the want of money, which the dissipations of the court had brought on. And this revolution has not cost a single life, unless

we charge it to a little riot lately in Bretagne, which began about the price of bread, became afterward political, and ended in the loss of four or five lives."

It may readily be supposed that Mr. Jefferson changed his opinion materially of the merits of this revolution, of its actors and of its results, before their career was concluded. Like many more, he regarded it at its comencement as a "spirit of grace," but before its termination, he detested it as a "goblin damned !"

CHAPTER IX.

THE CONVOCATION OF THE STATES-GENERAL OF FRANCE-JEFFerson's deSCRIPTION OF FRENCH PARTIES-JEFFERSON'S PLAN FOR THE SETTLEMENT OF THE KINGDOM HIS RETURN TO THE UNITED STATES-HIS RECEPTION AT MONTICELLO—HE IS INVITED BY WASHINGTON TO BECOME SECRETARY OF STATE-HE ACCEPTS THE OFFER-HIS VIEWS ON THE QUESTION OF PUBLIC CREDIT-HIS REPORTS ON THE COINAGE, WEIGHTS AND MEASURES -HIS LETTER TO THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF FRANCE ON THE DEATH OF FRANKLIN-HIS VIEWS ON THE UNITED STATES BANK.

As the thrilling events of the French Revolution progressed, Mr. Jefferson took a deeper interest in their effects and probable results. He was present

on the 5th of May, 1789, at the memorable convocation of the States-General which had been summoned by the unfortunate Louis XVI., and which had not been convened before for several centuries. To that assembly the whole French nation looked with intense emotions of mingled hope and fear. The higher orders were justly apprehensive that its deliberations and its acts might lead to the destruction of their ancient privileges, and to the enfranchisement of the people. The latter anticipated that this convocation would become a new era in the history of the nation; that it would be the birth

day of liberty; that the wrongs and despotism of the past would be overturned; that the great evils which centuries of kingly and princely pomp, extravagance, tyranny, corruption and pride had produced, would then be remedied and forever removed. Nor were they disappointed in the realization of many of their hopes.

On the opening of the States-General, when scenes of imposing religious solemnity and splendor adorned the vast cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, when the crumbling monarchy once more and for the last time displayed its ancient grandeur, and when the uprising people and their representatives for the first time assumed a portentous air of dignity and power-in that immense assemblage, when all the magnificence of the decrepit monarchy was combined with all the intellectual vigor and moral grandeur of the indignant nation, represented by the men whose names were destined very soon afterward to acquire a world-wide but a bloody and revolting celebrity-in that assemblage Jefferson mingled, and surveyed the proceedings with a scrutinizing eye. Robespierre and Danton were there, though then unknown to fame. Napoleon Bonaparte was also there, though still more insignificant and obscure. And he who had penned the great charter of a nation's freedom, which had already

been bought and secured by a nation's blood, looked on, and congratulated himself there that his own land had already happily passed through the crisis which was then just commencing in the country of his sojourn. His opinion of the state of parties in France may be inferred from the following letter, addressed to Mr. Jay: "1. The aristocrats, comprehending the higher members of the clergy, military, nobility, and the parliaments of the whole kingdom. This forms a head without a body. 2. The moderate royalists, who wish for a constitution nearly similar to that of England. 3. The republicans, who are willing to let their first magistracy be hereditary, but to make it very subordinate to the legislature, and to have that legislature consist of a single chamber. 4. The faction of Orleans. The second and third descriptions are composed of honest, wellmeaning men, differing in opinion only, but both wishing the establishment of as great a degree of liberty as can be preserved. They are considered as constituting the patriotic part of the Assembly, and they are supported by the soldiery of the army, the soldiery of the clergy, that is to say, the curés and

* During Mr. Jefferson's absence in Paris, the University in Iarvard conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. This title, like other literary and scientific titles, was worth something at that period of our country's history.