private fortune, during my public service, and of retiring with hands
as clean as they are empty. Pardon me these egoisms, which, if ever
excusable, are so when writing to a friend to whom our concerns are
not uninteresting. I shall always be glad to hear of your health and
happiness, and having been out of the way of hearing of any of our
cotemporaries of the _corps diplomatique_ at Paris, any details of their
subsequent history, which you will favor me with, will be thankfully
received. I pray you to make my friendly respects acceptable to Madame
la Comtesse Diodati, to assure M. Tronchin of my continued esteem,
and to accept yourself my affectionate salutations, and assurances of
constant attachment and respect.

Th: Jefferson.




LETTER XLII.--TO MR. BOWDOIN, April 2, 1807

TO MR. BOWDOIN.

Washington, April 2, 1807.

Dear Sir,

I wrote you on the 10th of July last; but neither your letter of October
the 20th nor that of November the 15th mentioning the receipt of it, I
fear it has miscarried. I therefore now enclose a duplicate. As that was
to go under cover of the Secretary of State's despatches by any vessel
going from our distant ports, I retained the polygraph therein mentioned