This Letter will not bear you so melancholy tidings, as from the close of my last, I apprehended. our Parent still lives; the ulcer which in my last, I informd you had broken upon her Lungs, and brought on the Symptoms of a speedy dissolution; she had Strength sufficient to Grapple with; all day on Sunday, we expected every moment would be her last, but she fell in to a quieter Sleep; and was revived with it; and has to the astonishment of her Friends Survived an other week. her cough has again become very troublesome, but she is not so distresst as she was: and may continue for some time to come she is loth we should think her better: tomorrow will be her Birth day; when she will commence her 86th year. since she was taken sick, she has seen & heard of 5 person in her Neighbourhood carried to their Graves; it has been very sickly here. mrs Bass who lived in our House was buried this week; she died of a mortification occasiond by a Rupture, which she had for several years, and not properly attended too. mr Seth Baxters wife, & Mrs Pray of a Lung fever, & two children—1

The weather has been so warm for three days, this week, that I could not but be anxious for my Philadelphia Friends: I fear the late intelligence will oblige Congress to sitt long. What can be done with that mad & I may say unjust Nation? if they force us into a war with them George will deserve a second time, to lose his Head; so sure as he provokes America into a war, so sure he will lose his crown. Heaven avert from us so distressing a calamity but there is a General Gloom and distress amongst the mercantile people.

our People commencd war—against the canker worm, the 2 day of March. we were the earliest in Town, and we have already slain our thousands. other people are but just begining, mr Black yesterday. I have sent to Town for an other Barrel of Tar—yet they use it more prudently than the last year. the Season is not so forward by a fortnight as the last year. the Roads have been so bad the frost just comeing out of the Ground, that Shaw is not yet come. I expect him in a few days—and have agreed to take Joy, and family. I shall want 5 cows. I can not hear of any under 20 dollors a peice I sent last week by a person going into the country after stock for cows & young cattle. he returnd without getting any with word that they were dearer there than round here. I shall want Pails Tubs pans hoops & the 115 whole Apparatus for a dairy a Cheese press excepted which I bought. I will send out the begining of April for my cows; Belcher Says we can keep them here, being well provided with salt & fresh Hay. we shall be obliged to purchase an other ox, for the other place, by Faxons movements, for he has bought on a match for that he had last fall; & a young Horse by which means he makes a Team up for his Son to work with.2 he is a sad, and I fear a dishonest Man. I shall be glad when we are rid of him; I have purchased 8 Barrels of cider: and I have engaged a Barrel of Rum, & a Barrel of molasses, a hundred of sugar as every article is rapidly rising in concequence of the detention of our vessels and the Ruin of our trade; some other articles I have omitted least I should plunge too deep; I have engaged an other load of Hay. tis a sad expensive thing to have to feed sheep 4 months with corn and English Hay. I make my Boys with one Man Tar for the most part; as soon as the frost is out, we shall finish breaking up the peice of ground for corn. I should like to know whether you design to Break up any New Ground at the other place, or plant over again part of what Faxon broke up last year. I long to have the places arrang’d Gardening will soon come on— I wish Brisler could send me some willow Trees— tell him I saw mrs Brisler & his Boy this week. both are well, and the Boy half grown a very fine child. I have been once only at my sisters for near Nine weeks. adieu my dearest Friend. Heaven preserve you in Health and return you in safety to your affectionate

I know not how to throw off, the Lassitude that hangs upon me.—weary of a daily round, which to me is more confined and more insipid than to any other. I would gladly go home: but at a time So critical as this, it would not be justifiable, to quit my Post if there were no particular Reasons against it. But as the Senate is nearly 116 divided in all great questions, and the President pro tem, has lately taken it in his head to Shift his Box, my retirement would give an entire new Complexion to the Government.1 This Circumstance however must not be repeated from me: but it is true.

Great Pains have been and Still are taken to inflame the Populace of Philadelphia and New York, and they have no Method to correct this heat by a Town Meeting and by the temperate Reasonings of the Soundest Part of the Community, as they have at Boston: the Consequence of which is that Clubb meets to countract Clubb, Merchants to undo what Merchants or pretended Merchants have done, and the public Opinion is a Chaos, a Proteus any Thing every Thing and nothing. Yet all Sides trumpet and dogmatize about the public opinion.

If the New England People Suffer themselves to be artfully drawn into a War, they will be Dupes indeed, for all the Men and most of the Money must be forced from them, and while others, will throw off the Burthen of British Debts, and obtain all the Advantages of Fur and Petry Trades and Western Lands, We have not the smallest Thing to hope, unless it be by Privateering, and such is now the tremendous Naval Superiority against Us that We shall loose more than gain by that.

A General Dearbourne from the Eastward and a Mr Lyman from North hampton discover a Disposition to go wrong.2 Whether the first wants Employment in an Army I know not. the last is a Pupil and Correspondent of Sullivan, certainly: probably of Jarvis and Austin. He has a false a Subtle and a malicious Countenance: This I know, from my Sight. That he is so in realty I have heard. But a Pettifogger a Tool to Sullivan is enough to decide a Character: and by Such Characters is this Country to be cursed with War, and an Additional Debt of hundreds of Millions, while they are every hour declaiming against Debts and Taxes.

Raynal prayed that rather than Men should always be Knaves and Fools, the Species might be annihilated. at present it seems in a fair Way to be so. I love them too well with all their faults to be glad to see their present rapid Progress towards destruction. All that I have and all that I am would I chearfully give to prevent it. but I see no means. Havock must have its perfect Work and then Eyes will begin to open.

It is some relief against Melancholly to laugh: and Libells themselves evil as they are have their Uses. The inclosed from New York may divert you and the more so because you are a stranger as well 117 as I to most of the Characters. The Patriots in New York should seem to be at least as pure Characters as those at Boston, if the Poem is not mere fiction.3

I have some hopes that your next Letter will inform me my Mother / is better. I am yours forever