William Short to Nicholas Eveleigh, 7 November 1786

Among the many pleasures I have recieved at this place I count that which has been afforded me by your letter written the 10^th. of January last & delivered here not long since. It is the first line I have recieved from you since my departure from Virginia. I think I wrote you soon after my arrival at Paris, but I do not recollect it with very absolute precision in this moment. however my letter of May the 9^th. of May last will have informed you. Perhaps it may not be amiss to give you some account of that letter. It was to interest you in behalf of a Lady here of very great merit, & who does me the honor of an intimate friendship — don't suspect this friendship of any thing improper, since she is at least fifty years of age. She is very desirous to naturalise a great number of the American trees shrubs etc. at her beautiful country seat near Versailles—  By the advice of <...> M^r M^cQuinn, who was here we addressed this matter to a M^r Watson seedman near Charleston — I wrote to beg you would press the greatest punctuality on Watson (supposing you sometimes at Charleston) & even to advance him the money if necessary— I begged you at the same time to draw for the amount of it on M^r Thomson the Secretary of Congress to whom M^r Jefferson had written to desire he would pay your order for that sum, or the order of M^r Watson if he should draw for it. I send this letter by M^r M^cQuinn together with the last of the articles given me by the Countess de Tesse. M^r M^cQuinn left this place for L'Orient from whence he was to embark with a General Duplessis (to whom he had sold lands in Georgia) for America. I have since learnt by accident that at Lorient he changed his project, & went to Amsterdam. As Gen^l Duplessis continued his Voyage, I hope that M^r M^cQuinn forwarded my letter by him, & that they may have arrived before this. Not knowing his address at Amsterdam I cannot write to him on the Subject.

Your supposition that the scenes in which I am engaged are all new & filled with variety is very just— but whether I shall employ the time passed in them as judiciously as you imagine is not for me to determine— one thing only is certain, that I pursue a rule of conduct at present which I have always prescribed to myself— & which is to do whatever may tend to render me a better man, & a more useful member of society— supposing this the true road to "Happiness our being's end & aim" I have always pursued it from duty as well as inclination. It is under this point of view that I do not regret my voyage to Europe, although I foresee that it will be a fruitful germ of many uneasy moments. An uneasiness which must necessarily arise from having friends whom we love in a country w^h. we are never to see more. I shall find myself in this situation when I shall have returned to America, as the plan which I have marked out for myself hereafter will not permit my ever quitting that free & happy soil a second time.

You ask me about my return— although I cannot fix with precision the moment, yet it is not very far distant. I hope I shall have the pleasure of seeing you very soon after my arrival in America. What I would wish would be to land at one or the other extremity of the United States & travel through them. At present I think it will be most probably at the northern end on account of the greater convenience of a passage; but this will not preclude me from the pleasure of seeing you & your amiable lady in your philosophical & rural retreat. I envy your situation, or rather I envy those who are happy enough to be near you. Were I sufficiently rich you might count upon me as a neighbour with very great probability. when I say sufficiently rich I mean rich enough to marry & settle myself as I would chuse, that is as well as my neighbours— for I think equality of fortune as well as similarity of sentiment essential to good neighbourhood. And a good neighbourhood of one's friends living under the protection of the laws of a free government & unconnected with its strifes & bustles— each in his own farm in the bosom of his own little family— each pursuing the most useful of all human acts, that of agriculture on a rational system,— this is, or at least I feel this for me, the summit of terrestrial happiness. It is a lesson which I have learnt in a school where one would <...> think it— I have been confirmed in it Sir, in this Paris, the centre of Luxury & dissipation. I have seen as well what are the engagements of those whom fortune favors for a moment with her most benignant smiles here— I have been able to appreciate the pleasure of those who are most successful in their most favorite pursuits & I see they have no peace abroad or rest at home— The fear of losing what they possess of the favors of the day— their <...> of not overtaking what they pursue— & the folly of pursuing what they <...> that <...> is the <...> of the life of the most fortunate & most favored Parisians. Their degrees happiness depends on extraneous objects— The most rational among them _^^{has <...> are <...> indeed} after being tormented in this career— after having passed the prime of their life <...>ched on the thorns of ambition <...> & end their days where they <...> ought to have begun them— in the calm amusements of a country seat—

I have made some enquiries on the subject of French Authors on husbandry— I am assured there is nothing on the subject worthy the notice of an American farmer. I am very much disposed to subscribe to this opinion— & whatever I have read on the subject has been of the visionary kind— the <...> <...> of some head in a garret in Paris who never perhaps saw an experiment in the art. Their Society of Agriculture here will produce something in the end— & when they do, you shall be furnished with it. Their intention since I have been in France _^^has been almost entirely engrossed on the subject of Irish-potatoes— & lately a Parisian has written one of their best writers on rural æconomy has written a work, in which he attributes a thousand virtues to Indian corn meal, which we know it has not— our knowlege it founded on long & uniform experience— his on one or two imperfect experiments — with respect to the art of fattening cattle & sheep I must refer you absolutely to England— they excel this nation more in that than perhaps any other art.— I have lately seen an account of a work under taken by an Englishman whose name I forgot— He speaks of a M^r. Bakely a Farmer who fattens sheep to way 62^lb a quarter— & beaves in proportion. He is a grazier as well as a farmer & his researches on these subjects are very valuable. I have only seen a small extract from the work, but that has left with me a very favorable impression of it.— With respect to the seeds I have to not see any certainty of procuring them in the manner you mention; but should it be practicable during my stay here I shall make use of the opportunity with a great deal of pleasure. M^r Jefferson procured of a seed-merchant in Paris some seed of a Saint-faix of Malther, admirably adapted to your climate— He sent some to M^r. Izard I think, but certainly to some Gentleman in S^o Carolina— The seedmerchant was doubtful if it would ^{come up} succeed— but if it should I would advise you to endeavour to get a little of it. In the mean time should an opportunity offer I will send you some from here, as a very high account is given of it.— I have just cast my eye on the last paragraph of your letter where you mention what M^rs Eveliegh says of her niece— I am sorry not to have known she was in England when I was there about twelve months ago— — but I fear her beauty & her fortune design her for some more distinguished destiny. Resignation must be my cure for that as _^^for all other evils— I should find less difficulty in this resignation if she was not the niece of the amicable M^rs Eveliegh.— I hope she will be assured as well as yourself Sir of the most sincere attachment of 

                                                                                                                                                                       Yours