To Benjamin Franklin from Antoine-Nicholas Servin, with Franklin’s Note for a Reply, 16 September 1782
From Antoine-Nicholas Servin,7 with Franklin’s Note for a Reply
ALS: Historical Society of Pennsylvania
a Dieppe 16 7bre. 1782
Monsieur Le Docteur
Je viens de faire imprimer a Basle un ouvrage Sur La Législation Criminelle Auquel le Celebre Monsieur Iselin a joint des observations de Sa façon.8 Je Vous prie de permettre Que mon Libraire Vous en adresse un Exemplaire par la poste. C’est un hommage Que je dois a un des plus Grands hommes d’etat et des Scavans Les plus distingués de l’univers. J’ose Esperer Que Vous ne le refuserez pas et que Vous y Verrez un gage de La haute Estime et du respect profond Avec lequel je Suis De votre Excellence Monsieur Le Docteur Le trés humble & trés obéissant Serviteur
Servin
avocat au parl. de Rouen
Endorsed: That I should be glad to see the Work mention’d, being curious of every Thing on that important Subject. That I shall esteem the Present propos’d as a great Honour, & be much oblig’d by it hoping it may [be] of Service to our new States in America &c. &c9
Notation: Servin 16. 7bre. 1782.
7. Servin (1746–1811) was a well-regarded lawyer at Rouen and the author of Histoire de la ville de Rouen … (2 vols., Rouen, 1775). His works on jurisprudence included the study mentioned in the present letter and Manuel de jurisprudence naturelle (Paris, 1784): Larousse; Quérard, France littéraire.
8. Though completed in 1778, De la législation criminelle (Basel, 1782) was twice refused publication and distribution in France because of its articles on incest and crimes against nature, among others. Servin’s friend Isaac Iselin (1728–1782), jurisconsult, co-founder of the Société helvétique, and author of several philosophical works, had the work published at Basel and appended his own Considérations générales sur les loix et sur les tribunaux: Quérard, France littéraire; Nouvelle biographie under Servin; Larousse under Iselin.
9. The letter BF sketched here, now missing, was dated Nov. 16: Servin to BF, Jan. 13, below.