Their first object was to make a show of my letter, as something very
criminal, and to carry the subject into the newspapers. I had, on a like
request, some time ago (but before the embargo), from the President of
the Board of Agriculture of London, of which I am also a member, to send
them some of the genuine May wheat of Virginia, forwarded to them two or
three barrels of it. General Washington, in his time, received from the
same Society the seed of the perennial succory, which Arthur Young had
carried over from France to England, and I have since received from a
member of it the seed of the famous turnip of Sweden, now so well known
here. I mention these things, to show the nature of the correspondence
which is carried on between societies instituted for the benevolent
purpose of communicating to all parts of the world whatever useful is
discovered in any one of them. These societies are always in peace,
however their nations may be at war. Like the republic of letters,
they form a great fraternity spreading over the whole earth, and their
correspondence is never interrupted by any civilized nation. Vaccination
has been a late and remarkable instance of the liberal diffusion of a
blessing newly discovered. It is really painful, it is mortifying, to be
obliged to note these things, which are known to every one who knows any
thing, and felt with approbation by every one who has any feeling.
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