Among later works, after his return to Naples, was a solid volume--not to be forgotten in the History of International Law--on the Duties of Neutrals, where a difficult subject is treated with such mastery, that, more than half a century later, D’Hautefeuille, in his elaborate treatise, copies from it at length. Galiani was the predecessor of this French writer in the extreme assertion of neutral rights. Other works were left at his death in manuscript, some grave and some humorous; also letters without number. The letters preserved from Italian _savans_ filled eight large volumes; those from _savans_, ministers, and sovereigns abroad filled fourteen. His Parisian correspondence did not see the light till 1818, although some of the letters may be found in the contemporary correspondence of Grimm. In his Parisian letters, which are addressed chiefly to that clever individuality, Madame d’Épinay, the Neapolitan abbé shows not only the brilliancy and nimbleness of his talent, but the universality of his knowledge and the boldness of his speculations. Here are a few words from a letter dated at Naples, 12th October, 1776, in which he brings forward the idea of “races,” so important in our day, with an illustration from Russia:-- “_All depends upon races._ The first, the most noble of races, comes naturally from the North of Asia. The Russians are the nearest to it, and this is the reason why they have made more progress in fifty years than can be got out of the Portuguese in five hundred.”[490] Belonging to the Latin race, Galiani was entitled to speak thus freely. In another letter to Madame d’Épinay, dated at Naples, 18th May, 1776, he had already foretold the success of our Revolution. Few prophets have been more explicit than he was in the following passage:-- “Livy said of his age, which so strongly resembled ours, ‘_Ad hæc tempora ventum est, quibus nec vitia nostra nec remedia pati possumus_,’--‘We are in an age when the remedies hurt at least as much as the vices.’[491] Do you know how matters stand? _The epoch has come of the total downfall of Europe, and of transmigration to America._ Everything here is falling into rottenness,--religion, laws, arts, sciences,--and everything is going to be rebuilt anew in America. This is no joke; nor is it an idea drawn from the English quarrels; I have said, announced, preached it, for more than twenty years, and I have always seen my prophecies fulfilled. _Do not buy your house, then, in the Chaussée d’Antin; you must buy it in Philadelphia._ My trouble is, that there are no abbeys in America.”[492] This letter was written some months before the Declaration of Independence.