To Benjamin Franklin from Octavie Guichard Durey de Meinières, 31 August 1783
From Octavie Guichard Durey de Meinières9
ALS: American Philosophical Society
aux Pavillons de chaillot Ce 31 aoust 1783
Illustrioux Legislator of your Country, I Would be Very obliged to you, if you Would and Could give me, the book, of the Constitution, translated by M. de la Rochefoucault. Some body told me, that it is not Sold. I Should be lofty1 to have it of your hand, and gratefull to you for your Kindness, my dear Neighbour, loved and revered by your most humble Servant
Guichard DE Meinieres
Addressed: A Monsieur / Monsieur franklin / ministre plénipotenciaire des états / unis de l’amérique / a Passy
Notation: De mainieres.
9. A spirited member of Mme Helvétius’ circle and former translator of English works: XXXII, 297–8. For a study of some of her earlier correspondence see Marie-Laure Girou Swiderski, “De la ‘gazette’ au ‘commerce des âmes’: les lettres de la présidente de Meinières à la marquise de Lénoncourt,” in Femmes en toutes lettres: les épistolières du XVIIIe siècle, ed. Marie-France Silver and Marie-Laure Girou Swiderski, Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century (Oxford, 2000), no. 4, pp. 119–39, 254–6.
1. By which she means proud (fière).