contrary case your Majesty can be well instructed from my project, No. 12, of the last year. "As I have my enemies, and as the term of my parole is about to expire, I await the orders of your Majesty, and should be flattered, if it is your pleasure for me to come and render you an account in person. Mr.- who has the goodness to charge himself with this packet, which I have addressed to him, sealed with my arms, will also undertake to forward me your orders; I therefore pray you to withdraw me as soon as possible from the cruel uncertainty in which I am placed. Should you deign, Madam, to inform me that you⚫ are pleased with the services which I have had the happiness to render you, I will console myself for the misfortunes which I have suffered, as I drew my sword for you from personal attachment and ambition, but not for interest. My fortune, as you know, is not very considerable; but as I am philosopher enough to confine myself to my means, I shall be always rich. "I have the honour to be, 66 Madam, Of your Imperial Majesty The most faithful and So late as the month of July of the same year, we find Paul Jones still in Paris, and now in very bad health, but even yet occupied with Russia. His next and final letter is addressed to Baron Grimm, the literary correspondent of the Empress, who, a dozen years before, had celebrated his praises.* * In the original correspondence of Grimm we find the following passage, which does not appear in the much-abridged edition of his voluminous works published in England. This passage shows that both Mr. Sherburne and the present editor are mistaken in supposing that the bust of Paul Jones was originally taken at his own suggestion. The letter of Baron Grimm bears date January, 1780, at which time he says Paul Jones had been some weeks in 348 LETTER TO GRIMM. His former attempts having been so utterly unsuccessful, he discovers considerable address in trying his fortune in a new tack. The Empress, it may be premised, had long shown herself ambitious of being considered the munificent patroness of science and of scientific men, in whatever regarded the improvement of her country, and particularly of her navy. "Rear-Admiral Paul Jones to Baron Grimm. "PARIS, 9th July, 1791. 66 SIR,-M. Houdon has sent to your house the bust which you have done me the honour to accept.* Mademoiselle Paris. This cannot be correct, as it was among the very last days of December when he escaped from the Texel; the only error, however, is of a few weeks. "The intrepid Paul Jones," says the Baron, "has been here for some weeks. He has had the honour to be presented to the King. He has been applauded with transport at all the public places where he has shown himself, and particularly at the opera. It is a singularity worthy of remark, that this brave Corsair, who has given multiplied proofs of possessing a soul the most firm, and courage the most determined, is at the same time the most feeling and mild man in the world, and that he has made a great many verses full of elegance and softness, the sort of poetry which appears most congenial to his taste being the elegy and the pastoral. The Lodge of the Nine Sisters, of which he is a member, have employed M. Houdon to take his bust. This resemblance is a new masterpiece worthy of the chisel which appears destined to consecrate to immortality illustrious men of all kinds." * His own bust, "now decorated," he says, "with the order of St. Anne, on the American uniform, one reason why I wish to be authorized by the American States to wear that order." This is said in a letter to Mr. Jefferson, written soon after his final epistle to the Empress, and when he had formed the design of again entering the French fleet of evolution, if bodily indisposition, and the worse sickness of hope deferred, left him power to form any considerate or consistent plan of future conduct. There were five orders of knighthood in Russia, three of which were instituted by Peter the Great, and two, that of St. George and St. Vladimir, by the Empress Catherine the Second. The order of St. Anne was a Holstein, and not a Russian order. The Empress never conferred this order herself. She left it to the Grand Duke Paul, as Duke of Holstein, and from him Paul Jones received it. It was accordingly less valued than those of her own institution bestowed by herself. NEW-FASHIONED SHIPS. 349 Marchais has told me all the obliging things you have said regarding me. be "As it is my duty to interest myself in objects that may useful to Russia, I must inform you that I have met with a man here, whom I have known for fifteen years, who has invented a new construction of ships of war, which has small resemblance, either externally or internally, to our present war-ships, and which will, he says, possess the following advantages over them: 66 "I. The crew will be better sheltered during an engage ment. "II. The lodging-room of the crew will be more spacious; every individual may have a bed or a hammock, and there may be as much air as is wished for, night and day, in the sleeping apartments. "III. There will be less smoke during an engagement." The enumeration of all the rare qualities of this beau ideal of a war-ship might prove tedious; suffice it, that a ship of the new construction, of 54 guns, if well armed and commanded, might have faced one of the old make carrying 100 guns; that it would cost less both in artillery and timber, be a better sailer, go nearer the wind, and possess many other advantages. "For a long time," the Rear-Admiral states, “he had, in conjunction with his friend Dr. Franklin, tried to construct a ship combining the advantages of being a fast sailer, not driving to leeward, drawing little water, &c.; but they always encountered great obstacles. From the death of that great philosopher," he continues, "having rather too much time on my hands, (a very gentle hint,) I think I have surmounted the difficulties which baffled us and stopped our progress. The ship-builder of whom I have spoken has explained nothing to me in detail, and I can form no idea on the subject. He wishes to preserve his invention, and to draw emolument from it; and nothing can be more just, if on experiment his discovery holds. As this is a thing which ap 350 NEW-FASHIONED SHIPS. pears to me to deserve the attention of the Empress, I beg of you to acquaint her Majesty as soon as possible. This person wished to go to England to offer his discovery, where I think it would have been received; but, as I have some influence with him, I have persuaded him to remain here, and wait your reply. If he receive any encouragement, he will communicate his ideas more fully to me. But in every case I dedicate to the Empress, without any stipulation, all that my feeble genius has accomplished in naval architecture." The Rear-Admiral then relates his own supposed discovery, and, like a skilful orator, winds up, by pressing hard the main point of his argument. "Will not this, presuming it correct, be of great advantage to the infant marine of the Black Sea, and consequently to the prosperity of the Russian Empire?" It appears that Baron Grimm received an answer from the Empress in relation to this first application, though it can scarcely be called a satisfactory one. She says there was a prospect of a speedy peace; but if peace did not take place, she would let M. Paul Jones know her intentions respecting himself: and she tacitly reproves Grimm's interference by saying, that she would not choose him as the medium of her communications with Paul Jones, STYLE OF JONES'S LETTERS. 851 CHAPTER XIII. HE voluminous papers left by Paul Jones afford very scanty materials for his domestic history. From boyhood his place in society was completely isolated. His extensive correspondence, as it came into the hands of his relatives, is chiefly that of business, or of the ceremonial connected with business, and with the courtesies of acquaintanceship. His intercourse with society amounted to little more than the exchange of the customary offices of kindness and civility. He was early separated, by insurmountable circumstances, from his own relatives; he never afterwards found a fixed home, nor does his correspondence afford any trace of the kindly, genial, unbending, and cordial familiarity of confidential friendship. His letters consequently want the charm of a particular or individual interest. Few of them contain a single observation on men or manners, or even the expression of an opinion not merely professional. His journals, in like manner, are strictly confined to professional affairs, and contain little that can either extend the range of knowledge or gratify a liberal curiosity. With the fields of observation, whether in America, France, or Russia, that were presented to a mind so active |