PARIS, August 11, 1787.
DEAR SIR,--Mr. Ammonett sent me your favor of May 7, which you expected he would have brought. He furnished me with the name of the family to whose property he supposes himself entitled, and the name of the town where it lies. I have endeavored to have them searched out, but as yet neither family nor town is discovered. If they can be found, the estate will then have to be searched for; the laws for limitation of actions will form the next opposition to him, and probably the laws of forfeiture against the Protestants, who were the subject of the revocation of the edict of Nantes, which laws have never been repealed, nor probably ever will be, even should the future condition of Protestants here be mitigated. I shall proceed in the enquiry for him, and let him know the result.
Your son Thomas, at Edinburgh, has done me the favor to open a little correspondence with me. He has sometimes asked my advice as to the course of his studies, which I have given to him the more freely as he informed me he was not tied down to any particular plan by your instructions. He informed me in his last letter that you proposed he should come to Paris this fall, stay here the winter, and return to Virginia in the spring. I understand him as proposing to study the law, so that probably, on his return, you will place him at Williamsburg for that purpose. On this view of his destination I venture to propose to you another plan. The law may be studied as well in one place as another; because it is a study of books alone, at least till near the close of it. Books can be read equally well at Williamsburg, at London, or Paris. The study of the law is an affair of three years, the last of which should be spent in attending Mr. Wythe's lectures. Upon the plan he has now in expectation, his residence here six months as a traveller, must cost him two hundred guineas, and three years' study at Williamsburg, four hundred and fifty guineas more, making five hundred and fifty guineas in the whole. My proposition is that he shall pass his two first years of legal study in some one of the villages within an hour's walk of Paris, boarded with some good family, wherein he may learn to speak the language, which is not to be learned in any other way. By this means he will avoid the loss of time and money which would be the consequence of a residence in the town, and he will be nigh enough to come to dine, to make acquaintances, see good company, and examine the useful details of the city. With very great economy he may do this on one hundred guineas a year, but at his ease for one hundred and fifty guineas. At the end of two years I would propose him a journey through the southern parts of France, thence to Genoa, Leghorn, Florence, Rome, Naples, Venice, Milan, Turin, Geneva, Lyons and Paris. This will employ him seven months, and cost him three hundred and thirty guineas, if he goes alone, or two hundred and thirty guineas if he finds a companion. Then he should return to Virginia, and pass his third year of legal study in attending Mr. Wythe's lectures. This whole plan would take three years and seven months, and cost from seven hundred to seven hundred and fifty guineas, which would be one month longer, and one hundred and fifty or two hundred guineas dearer than the one proposed. The advantages of this would be his learning to speak French well, his acquiring a better acquaintance here with men and things, and his having travelled through the most interesting parts of Europe, advantages which he will forever think cheaply purchased for one hundred and fifty or two hundred guineas, even were a deduction of that sum to be made from the establishment you mean to give him. But in every case, whether you decide that he shall return to study in Virginia, or remain here for that purpose, I would recommend that he should not be tied down to quit Edinburgh this fall precisely, but only when he shall have finished his courses of lectures in those sciences with which he should not be unacquainted. I have taken the liberty of noting these to him. I perceive by his letters that he has a good genius, and everybody bears witness to his application, which is almost too great. It would be a pity, therefore, he should miss of giving them full encouragement. I must beg your pardon for thus intruding myself into a business belonging to yourself alone, and hope you will find its excuse in the motives from which it proceeds, friendship for yourself, Mrs. Randolph and your son. I wish to see you gratified, and to be gratified myself in seeing him act the advantageous part, which will naturally result from his talents, his merit, and the favorable ground from which he will start; a fear of seeing this endangered by a too early return to our own country where the example of his cotemporaries may soon possibly lead him from the regular pursuits his friends may chalk out for him, all these considerations have impelled me to take this liberty, and to rely for pardon on the assurance of the sincere attachment and respect with which I am, dear Sir, your affectionate friend and servant.