rides round the city, of between fifteen and twenty miles in circuit.  We have had such a winter, Madam, as makes me shiver yet, whenever I think of it.  All communications, almost, were cut off.  Dinners and suppers were suppressed, and the money laid out in feeding and warming the poor, whose labors were suspended by the rigor of the season.  Loaded carriages passed the Seine on the ice, and it was covered with thousands of people from morning till night, skating and sliding.  Such sights were never seen before, and they continued two months.  We have nothing new and excellent in your charming art of painting.  In fact, I do not feel an interest in any pencil but that of David.  But I must not hazard details on a subject wherein I am so ignorant, and you such a connoisseur.  Adieu, my dear Madam; permit me always the honor of esteeming and being esteemed by you, and of tendering you the homage of that respectful attachment with which I am, and shall ever be, Dear Madam, your most obedient, humble servant,

Th:  Jefferson.

LETTER CXCI.—­TO JAMES MADISON, March 15, 1789

TO JAMES MADISON.

Paris, March 15, 1789.

Dear Sir,

I wrote you last on the 12th of January; since which I have received yours of October the 17th, December the 8th and 12th.  That of October the 17th came to hand only February the 23rd.

How it happened to be four months on the way, I cannot tell, as I never knew by what hand it came.  Looking over my letter of January the 12th, I remark an error of the word ‘probable’ instead of’ improbable,’ which, doubtless, however, you had been able to correct.

Your thoughts on the subject of the declaration of rights, in the letter of October the 17th, I have weighed with great satisfaction.  Some of them had not occurred to me before, but were acknowledged just, in the moment they were presented to my mind.  In the arguments in favor of a declaration of rights, you omit one which has great weight with me; the legal check which it puts into the hands of the judiciary.  This is a body, which, if rendered independent and kept strictly to their own department, merits great confidence for their learning and integrity.  In fact, what degree of confidence would be too much, for a body composed of such men as Wythe, Blair, and Pendleton?  On characters like these, the ‘civium ardor prava jubentium’ would make no impression.  I am happy to find that, on the whole, you are a friend to this amendment.  The declaration of rights is, like all other human blessings, alloyed with some inconveniences, and not accomplishing fully its object.  But the good, in this instance, vastly overweighs the evil.  I cannot refrain from making short answers to the objections which your letter states to have been raised. 1.  That the rights in question are reserved, by the manner in which the federal powers are granted.  Answer.  A constitutive act,