This is a significantly flawed copy that features numerous errors and ends at III.247.

The MS is found within the papers of Wagnière.

The letter is incomplete as the beginning is missing. Voltaire writes that, while waiting for the Berlin package, there is a little joke with which d’Arnaud can feast on with Frederick II of Prussia; he ran very unfaithful copies. Voltaire asks for d’Arnaud’s opinion on this matter and adds that he should learn news from Catilina, a tragedy Voltaire would publish in 1752. He concludes by saying that he still has no news of the English packet, and adds that he awaits with impatience Frederick II of Prussia. In a postscript, Voltaire states that he will be in Cirey for the entirety of January and would be glad if d’Arnaud could write to him.

This copy of the letter is incomplete, ending with the phrase: ‘A peine a-t-on découvert avec le microscope’.

Points 5 and 6 of the argument are preserved, suggesting that there would have been at least two preceding pages. As the text does not finish at the end of the page, it appears that it represents a completed state.

The MS is in the hand of an unidentified copyist, and is incomplete. The copy contains three chapters in the following order: 33, 32, 31. These chapters concern religious matters (Calvinism, Jansenism, and ecclesiastical affairs), and their numbering corresponds to the first printed edition of the work (1751).

The first two paragraphs and the final eight paragraphs of the letter are missing from this copy.

The first part of the letter is missing.

The second half of the letter is missing.