addressed notifications to our Merchants through the Newspapers. And it may be worth enquiry whether something of the sort was not done by Mr. Onis, perhaps prior to his reception as public Minister.

It is to be regretted that any difficulties should have arisen with Portugal, the only recognized Nation, beside ourselves on this Hemisphere, and particularly that the most enlightened and esteemed foreigner among us should be the pivot on which they turn. It is not the less necessary however, to make these considerations, as you are making them, subordinate to the rights of our Country and the honor of its Govt As far as these will permit, conciliation can in no case be more properly intermingled.

May not the event at Pernambuco, if not caused by actual oppression, tend to give at the present moment an unfavorable turn to the sentiment of European Sovereigns in relation to the revolutionary Scene in S. America? The struggle of the Spanish part of it having the appearance of shaking off a foreign yoke, appeals merely to the interest & sympathy of those Sovereigns. That in the Brazils, may be viewed by them as an attack on a domestic throne; and as adding an example in the New World, to those which have inspired so much alarm in the Old.

TO JAMES MONROE.

MAD. MSS.

MONTPELLIER, Nov' 29, 1817.

DEAR SIR,-Your favor of the 24th has just been rec I am fully aware of the load of business on your hands preparatory to the meeting of Congress. The course you mean to take in relation to Roads & Canals, appears to be best adapted to the posture in which you find the case. A reluctance has generally been felt to include amendments to the Constitution among Executive recommendations to Congs but it seems to be called for on the present occasion as preferable to arresting their deliberations, by a notice though the result will be negatived, or to meeting the result with an unexpected negative. For myself, I had not supposed that my view of the Constitution could have been unknown, and I felt with great force the delicacy of giving intimations of it, to be used as a bar or a clog to a depending measure.

The expediency of vesting in Congs a power as to roads & Canals I have never doubted, and there has never been a moment when such a proposition to the States was so likely to be approved. A general power to establish Seminaries, being less obvious and affecting more the equilibrium of influence between the National & State Govts is a more critical experiment. The feelings awakened by the proposed University within the Congres

1 See Hamilton's corresponding opinion in his Arg. for the Bank power, published in his works in 3 vols.-(Madison's Note.)

sional District, are a proof of the opposition which may be looked for. I should consider it as at least essential that the two propositions whatever may be the modification of the latter shd be so distinct, that the rejection of the one by the States should not be inconsistent with the adoption of the other.

It is very grateful to have such an overflowing Treasury, especially when every other nation is on the brink, if not in the abyss of bankruptcy. A natural effect is, the prevailing desire that the taxes may be reduced, particularly the internal taxes which are most seen & felt. May it not however deserve consideration whether the Still tax which is a moralizing as well as a very easy, productive tax wd not be advantageously retained, even at the expence of revenue from foreign trade. Why not press on the Whisky drinkers rather than the Tea & Coffee drinkers, or the drinkers of the lighter kinds of Wine. The question will depend much I am aware on the public opinion and on the expence of collecting a solitary internal tax, both of which points will be better understood in the Cabinet than they can be by the fireside, and in the result there I shall rest with perfect confidence. I make the same remark with respect to the influence which the disbanding at this moment of a conspicuous portion of our fiscal strength may have on the calculations of any other power, particularly Spain.

Health & prosperity.

TO JAMES MONROE.

MAD. MSS.

Dec 9, 1817.

DEAR SIR,-The mail of Saturday brought me the Copy of your message. It is a fine landscape of our situation; and cannot fail to give pleasure at home, and command respect abroad. The recommendation of a repeal of taxes, is happily shaped: so also the introduction of the subject of Amending the Constitution. The only questions which occur relate to the proposed suppression of the establishment at Amelia Island, not within our territorial claim; and to the latitude of the principle on which the right of a Civilized people is asserted over the lands of a savage one. I take for granted that the first point was well considered. And the latter may be susceptible of qualifying explanations. I observe you say nothing of a remodelling of the Judiciary. Perhaps you may have in reserve a special message, or you may think it best to let the subject originate in Congress; or it may not appear to you in the light it does to me. I have long thought a systematic change in that Dep proper; and should have pressed it more when in office, but for the circumstance, that it involved a personal accommodation where I might be supposed to feel an interest biasing my judgment, and diminishing the attention paid to my opinion.

DEAR SIR, I recd two days ago your favor of

1 Now the Secretary of State.

the 15 with the written & printed accompaniments. I am glad to find that your personal interviews with Mr. Bentham afforded an entertainment which may have been some recompence for the trouble which I contributed to give you in relation to him.1 The celebrity which this Philosophic politician has acquired abroad as well as in his own Country, does not permit one to doubt the extent of his capacity or of his researches; and there is still less room to question the philanthropy which adorns his character. It is unfortunate that he has not added to his merits a style and manner of conveying his ideas which would do more justice to their

Jeremy Bentham sent a long letter of forty-one pages to Madison, October 30, 1811, offering to draw up "a complete body of law; in one word, a pannomian, or as much of it as the life and health of a man, whose age wanted little of four and sixty, might allow of" for the United States or for any of the states. This letter was not answered till Adams went to London as minister, when Madison gave him a reply to deliver to Bentham dated May 8, 1816, in which he politely expressed doubt of the feasibility of the scheme. In the course of the letter he said: "With respect to the unwritten law, it may not be improper to observe, that the extent of it has been not a little abridged, in this Country, by successive events. A certain portion of it was dropped by our emigrant forefathers as contrary to their principles, or inapplicable to their new situation. The Colonial Statutes had a further effect in amending and diminishing the mass. The revolution from Colonies to Independent States, capped off other portions. And the changes which have been constantly going on since this last event, have everywhere made, and are daily making further reductions." Under date of June, 1817, Bentham wrote a circular letter to the Governor of each of the states enclosing a copy of his letter of Oct. 30, 1811, to Madison. All the correspondence was published in London in 1817, under the title, Papers Relative to Codification and Public Instruction: Including Correspondence with the Russian Emperor, and Divers Constituted Authorities in the American United States.