THE CONSERVATIVE REFORMER 165 



suit. To-day it is M. Demeunier who seeks help in 

 preparing his articles on political economy for the 

 "Encyclopedic Methodique? To-morrow it is M. Soules 

 who is writing in four volumes a history of the Ameri- 

 can war and comes for advice. Counsel on still more 

 pressing subjects was soon called for. The four years 

 of Jefferson's sojourn in Paris were of surpassing 

 interest, for they ended in the outbreak of the great 

 Revolution. Jefferson's intimacy with Lafayette 

 brought him much into the society of the men with 

 w r hom he most sympathized, the reasonable and mod- 

 erate reformers, such as Barnave, Rabant de Saint 

 Etienne, Duport, Mounier, and others, who were often 

 gathered around his hospitable dinner table. When 

 the States General were assembled, he used to go every 

 day to Versailles to watch the proceedings. On the 

 9th of July, 1789, the British ambassador, the Duke 

 of Dorset, wrote to Mr. Pitt that " Mr. Jefferson, the 

 American minister at this court, has been a great deal 

 consulted by the principal leaders of the Tiers Etat ; 

 and I have great reason to think that it was owing to 

 his advice that that order called itself L'Assembl'ee 

 Nationale" However this may be, there is no doubt 

 that his advice was often sought. The most notable 

 instance was when the Archbishop of Bordeaux, as 

 chairman of a committee of the assembly for sketch- 

 ing the plan of a constitution for France, went so far 

 as to invite him " to attend and assist at their delibera- 

 tions." But Jefferson did not regard such action as 

 becoming in a foreign minister, and accordingly he 

 declined the invitation. In September, 1789, before 

 the furious phase of the Revolution had begun, he 

 returned to America. 



