before another court, that he may be judged, not according to the law of the land, but by the discretion of his judges, is he not disfranchised of his most precious right, the benefit of the laws of his country, in common with his fellow citizens?  I think you will find, in investigating this subject, that every solid argument is against the extraordinary court, and that every one in its favor is specious only.  It is a transfer from a judicature of learning and integrity, to one, the greatness of which is both illiterate and unprincipled.  Yet such is the force of prejudice with some, and of the want of reflection in others, that many of our constitutions have copied this absurdity, without suspecting it to be one.  I am glad to hear that our new constitution is pretty sure of being accepted by States enough to secure the good it contains, and to meet with such opposition in some others, as to give us hopes it will be accommodated to them, by the amendment of its most glaring faults, particularly the want of a declaration of rights.

The long expected edict for the Protestants at length appears here.  Its analysis is this.  It is an acknowledgment (hitherto withheld by the laws) that Protestants can beget children, and that they can die, and be offensive unless buried.  It does not give them permission to think, to speak, or to worship.  It enumerates the humiliations to which they shall remain subject, and the burthens to which they shall continue to be unjustly exposed.  What are we to think of the condition of the human mind in a country, where such a wretched thing as this has thrown the State into convulsions, and how must we bless our own situation in a country, the most illiterate peasant of which is a Solon, compared with the authors of this law.  There is modesty often, which does itself injury; our countrymen possess this.  They do not know their own superiority.  You see it; you are young, you have time and talents to correct them.  Study the subject while in Europe, in all the instances which will present themselves to you, and profit your countrymen of them, by making them to know and value themselves.

Adieu, my dear Sir, and be assured of the esteem with which I am your friend and servant,

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER CXXIV.—­TO THE COMMISSIONERS OF THE TREASURY, Feb. 7, 1788

TO THE COMMISSIONERS OF THE TREASURY.

Paris, February 7, 1788.

Gentlemen,

Your favors of November the 10th and 13th, and December the 5th, have been duly received.  Commodore Jones left this place for Copenhagen, the 5th instant, to carry into execution the resolution of Congress, of October the 25th.  Whatever monies that court shall be willing to allow, shall be remitted to your bankers, either in Amsterdam or Paris, as shall be found most beneficial, allowing previously to be withdrawn Commodore Jones’s proportion, which will be necessary for his subsistence.  I desired him to endeavor to prevail on the Danish minister, to have the money paid in Amsterdam or Paris, by their banker in either of those cities, if they have one.