  From the laws of macroscopic electrostatics of conductors (in particular the
existence of screening) taken for granted, one can deduce universal properties
for the thermal fluctuations in a classical Coulomb system at equilibrium. The
universality is especially apparent in the long-range correlations of the
electrical potentials and fields. The charge fluctuations are derived from the
field fluctuations. This is a convenient way for studying the surface charge
fluctuations on a conductor with boundaries. Explicit results are given for
simple geometries. The potentials and the fields have Gaussian fluctuations,
except for a short-distance cutoff.
