To Benjamin Franklin from Barthélemy-Pélage Georgelin du Cosquer with the Draft of Franklin’s Reply, 11 June 1778: résumé
From Barthélemy-Pélage Georgelin du Cosquer3 with the Draft of Franklin’s Reply
ALS and D4: American Philosophical Society
<Paris, June 11, 1778, in French: Your concern, as an ally, for a nation that cherishes and reveres you as much as your own does must make you groan at the number and length of lawsuits in France. My patriotic plan, modeled on the twenty-fifth article of the Pennsylvania constitution,5 to remedy these abuses will, I hope, have your support. The Lycurgus of the new Sparta, the oracle of politics as well as physics, would have the influence to assure me success. [The letter is endorsed “Cosquer Moyen de prevenir les Proces.”]>
[Franklin’s answer:] Personne, Monsieur, ne doit estre, et n’est éfféctivement plus attaché que moy aux français, et je ne puis que vous louer du desir que vous avez de leur estre utile; vous leur rendriez éfféctivement un signalé service en établissant chez eux un moyen de diminuer et d’abreger les procès que je regarde comme un des plus grands fleaux de la Société. Mais le peu de connoissance que j’ay de vos loix écrites et des dispositions de vostre nation a cet égard, ne me permet pas d’aprecier celuy que vous me Proposez; quoyque je ne mérite pas, Monsieur, la confiance que vous me témoignez, je sens combien elle m’honore et je vous prie de recevoir les asseurances de l’estime avéc laquelle je suis Monsieur Vostre tres humble et tres obeissant serviteur Passy ce [blank in MS]
3. He signs himself a correspondent of the Brittany Estates and the agricultural society. For his subsequent published works, which were numerous but had nothing to do with the subject he is discussing, see the catalogue of the Bibliothèque Nationale.
4. The undated draft, on a separate sheet, is in Le Veillard’s hand.
5. The article in the frame of government provides for trial by jury and recommends legislative supervision of the way jurors are chosen. His plan, outlined in an enclosed memorandum, is for arbitration and conciliation. He gives examples from Prussia and Brittany, and mentions that the judge in Pennsylvania merely gives the law on which the jury renders its verdict. If the French ministry sets up a system of arbiters in Paris, the provinces will soon follow suit.