A Neighbour of ours Captain Richard Beal is going this week to sail for England, and I do not know a more direct conveyance to you.1 the Communication between America and Holland is not half so frequent, as with England.

The last Letter which I had the pleasure to receive from you, was dated the 1 of December. Your Father has received two from you of a latter Date, but none Since December. From England I have had Letters to the 30 of March one in which your Brother informs me, that you had been exorcised with a Rhumatick complaint.2 I hope it did not amount to so severe and painfull a sickness as you experienced in Philadelphia. What a pang does it give to the Heart of an affectionate Mother, who knows too, by frequent experience how distressing the disorder is, to think of a Dear child labouring with pain & Sickness in a foreign Country, destitute of that fostering care and Maternal Solisitute, which would strive to raise the Drooping Head, and lift the pained Limb, and by every kind attention alleviate the languid hour. I hope you found Friends, kind and tender Friends, and that you did not experience what I have felt for you. I hope You will have Some less painfull inheritance than this to recollect your Parentage by, for I sufferd much previous to your Birth from this complaint, communicated it to you, and that without being myself relieved from it. it will always remain with us. you must obtain the best advise, and Gaurd yourself as well as you can, by care and precaution.

Our Friends here are all well. Quincy dinned with me on Sunday last, and kindly inquired after you. You will learn soon that mr King of the Senate is appointed Minister Plenipo to Saint James col Humphries to Spain,3 and mr C Gore of Boston commissoner on the part of the united states to adjust the claims on their part with Great Britain agreable to the Treaty. Mr Gore and Lady Saild a fortnight Since. mr Tudor is gone with them, in order to travell, an object he has long had at Heart. his curiosity will Doubtless lead him to visit Holland. if he should I am Sure both your Brother and you, will be disposed to shew him every attention not only as a Countryman, but from his own merrit, from Friendship and affection. I have ever entertaind a regard and attachment towards all those Gentlemen, who once formd a part of my Family, and who received their Education to the Law, from Your Father, but for none, who are now living, more than for mr Tudor.

The New Appointments will do honour to our Country, and what they lose in one Department they will gain in an other. these Gentleman are all personally known to you, but more so to your Brother. he will receive much pleasure and satisfaction from a free communication with them, and will find them bringing with them Sentiments more according with his own, and juster Ideas of Men & measures, than Some others of his Countrymen.

The Great Question respecting appropriations to carry the Treaty with Great Britain into Effect has finally been determined, after exciting the feelings and passions of the Nation, untill the people were about to rise “on Mass” quietly however, and constitutionally by petitioning their Representitives to make the appropriations, that the Faith and honour of their Country might not be stained. they were going from all parts of the union, not however from any partial Love or Affection for G Britain, but for our National honour

The Debates in Congress were long and the Majority whilst it continued so, discoverd a Rancour, and very unbecomeing bitterness. for a long time they flatterd themselves that the people were with them. You never have on any occasion seen so general an anxiety, during this warmth of the publick Mind. two Days before the vote was taken, Mr Ames whose Health has been so much on the Decline, as to oblige him to Silence During the whole session was finally compeld by the importance of the Subject, to hazard his Life: in a Manly Eloquent speach, which did honour both to his Head and his Heart, it was Heard with Silent attention, by a most crouded Audience. it flowed like a stream fed by an abundent 316 spring, and produced the effect which Lord Bolingbrooke says true Eloquence Does.4 it gives a Nobler superiority than power which every Dunce may use, or fraud that every Knave may employ. it contrasted with peculiar advantage with some of the Sophistical Harangues which Spouted forth like frothy water on some Gaudy Day, from some of the prateing Members of the opposition. Ames, like Lord Chatham in his last speach, by his particular situation interested all Hearts in his favour. they lookt upon him, as a Man Sacrificeing his last Breath, in support of the honour Faith and dignity of his Country.5 So great was the power of his plain and Manly eloquence & Pathos, that he melted his audience into Tears, and no American can read the speach without feeling the passions it was designd to move, and the Spirit it was designd to raise. “even Giles confessd, that whilst he was listning to it he forgot the Side he had espoused & the cause he had advocated”

I presume your Brother has returnd to the Hague. it is the Station he has appeard to be best pleasd with. I wish he may not have Staid too long in England, for the Peac of his Mind and the tranquility of his Heart. from some hints in his last Letters, Cupid has now bent his Bow, nor misd his aim.

I hope however my Dear Thomas you will be proof against his Shafts untill you return to your Native Land, and then chuse a wife whose habits tastes & sentiments are calculated for the Meridian of your own Country. may your choice be productive of happiness to yourself, and then it cannot fail to give pleasure to your ever affectionate / Mother

I have just received from my good friend Hall, a Letter of the 8th: instt: which is precious to me not only as it comes from him, but because it gives me the information that you were well. He delights in giving pleasure to his friends, and he knows very well how to do it; for his letter speaks of you, as you deserve, and that could not fail of giving the highest gratification to me.1

The violent storm that blew two days after that of my departure from London, had occasioned as he mentions some anxiety on my account.2 You had your share of it I readily believe, but I hope and trust you exercised and discovered the species of Fortitude, of which we have often conversed: not precisely what you mean by Philosophy, but a certain strength of mind, which improves and adorns even female sensibility without diminishing its force.

I know not to what philosophy I can reconcile, what I certainly cannot deny, an involuntary satisfaction which I felt upon being informed that my friends were anxious on my account. As I know that anxiety is an uneasy sentiment I ought to wish that it had not been felt by those I love, and especially that I had not been the cause; but it is a proof of regard, and a selfish feeling is gratified with the proof, without perhaps weighing sufficiently the uneasiness. I am 318 willing to believe too that the pleasure anticipated from the news of my safety, and the idea of your anxiety being relieved by it had a great share in forming my pleasant sensations, and I am sure that the greatest part of my pleasure arose from hearing that you, and all the family were so recently well.

I had in fact just got into a harbour where the vessel could lay safely at Anchor when that little hurricane came on; and although I could not get on shore, I could with the same degree of security hear the winds whistle and the tempests roar, as if I had been on the firmest ground. The rage of the winds had therefore no other operation upon me, than to keep me one day longer upon my voyage, and I hope that before this time you have received my letter announcing my arrival here three days after I left London.3

Mr: Hull told me that he would deliver the miniature, in a fortnight at latest after the time when I came away. If he has been as good as his word you have it ere now. I have a curiosity to know whether it meets your approbation. The likeness cannot I think be mistaken. Mr: Hull in his Execution wants a little assistance from the Graces, but in this instance, that deficiency, became a capital qualification.

I am at this moment looking at Mr: Birch’s young lady, and using all my little eloquence to sollicit a smile from her countenance. It has indeed become one of my favourite occupations. Hitherto she continues inexorable, and seems to tell me, that she knows her power and is sure to please me let her look how she will. So I shall resign the hope of a perpetual smile from the image, and comfort myself with the hope of an occasional one from the original.

Farewell. Remember me with respect and affection to your Pappa and Mamma, and to your Sisters.— I live yet in hope of hearing soon from you directly, and remain ever faithfully your’s