Yours of the 6 8th and 10th came to me by the last Post. I too sometimes get dissapointed but I always lay the Charge to the post where I know it ought to fall, but not usually writing untill after thursday post arrives here. I have not the advantage of the office here unless I wait for the next Week, and a storm will sometimes, as last week, prevent my getting my letters to Town, but my conscience acquits me of Sins of omission. in that respect, I can seldom find more to say than one Letter contains. upon some subjects I think much more than I write. I think what is Duty, to others and what is Duty to ourselves. I contemplate unpleasent concequences to our Country if Your decision should be the same with the P——s for as you observe, whatever may be the views and designs of Party, the chief of the Electors will do their Duty, or I know little of the Country in which I live. Shakspears says, [“]some are born great, some atchive greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them” You write me fully assured that the P is unalterably determind to retire. this is an event not yet contemplated by the people at large. We must be attentive to their feelings and to their voice. no Successor, can expect such support as the P. has had. the first Ministers have retired, and a Man without intrigue, without party Spirit, with an honest mind and a judicious Head, with an unspotted Character may be difficult to find as V P. this will still render the first Station more difficult. You know what is before You. the whips and Scorpions, the Thorns without Roses, the Dangers anxieties and weight of Empire.

and can You acquire influence sufficent as the Poet further describes

This is the bright and desireable light of the picture. this tho a hard and arduous Task, would be a flattering and a Glorious Reward, and Such a reward as all good Men will unite in giving to Washington, and such a Reward as I pray his Successor may Merrit and obtain. Should Providence allot the task to my Friend, but think not that I am alone anxious for the part he will be calld to act, tho by far the most important, I am anxious for the proper discharge of that Share which will devolve upon me. Whether I have patience prudence discretion sufficent to fill a station so unexceptionably as the Worthy Lady who now holds it, I fear I have not. as Second I have had the happiness of stearing clear of censure as far as I know. if the contemplation did not make me feel very Serious, I should say that I have been so used to a freedom of sentim[ent] that I know not how to place so many gaurds about me, as will be indispensable, 181 to look at every word before I utter it, and to impose a silence upon my self, when I long to talk. here in this retired Village, I live beloved by My Neighbours, and as I assume no state, and practise no pagentry, unenvy’d I sit calm and easy, mixing very little with the World.

You need not be apprehensive least I should shew your Letters or divulge what is committed to me. all rests within my own Breast. not the least lisp has escaped me to any one. for tho I love Sociabity, I never did or will betray a trust.

affectionatly Yours

By the present opportunity, I send you a few pamphets which may give you some entertainment in the perusal, and newspapers from which you will collect the current intelligence.1 For my own part I have been here so long in idleness that I have almost entirely doff’d the world aside and bad it pass.— You will observe in the papers a pretended preliminary convention for a pacification between France and the Empire, and a subsequent acknowledgment that the paper was a mere forgery to affect the price of stocks, which purpose it answered very efficaciously.2 In truth all the real appearances at present indicate another campaign, though negotiations are certainly carrying on in secret. There is one symptom of a continuance to the war, which is more powerful than all the rest; it is that neither of the parties is yet totally disabled.

I shall send you some further articles by Scott, that is by some of my friends who are going with him who will furnish me with a safer opportunity for conveyance than the present.3

I have recently made a little excursion to Cambridge, for the purpose of seeing the Colleges, and was much entertained by my tour.4 I found it also useful to my health, which without being positively bad, has not been good for some weeks past.— The first month or six weeks after my arrival here was to me a period of considerable 182 anxiety and occupation. Since then it has been a time of almost total fainéantise: neither of these situations is particularly conducive to health.

Mrs: Hallowell as you are doubtless informed before this time is dead. Her Daughter is yet very amiable, though I have seen her but two or three times since I have been here.5

Mrs: Copley and her pretty daughters are well. Her Son went out to Boston in November: they have yet no account of his arrival, and are very anxious to hear from him.6

Mrs: Church intends to go out to America in the Spring. Her Husband is to follow her the next year, proposing to make their final settlement there. As he has only seven or eight thousand Sterling a year income, he says he cannot afford to live in England7

I hope to write you more largely by the next opportunity. But at present without having any thing to do, I find it extremely difficult to snatch so much as a quarter of an hour to write ever so short a Letter. Perhaps I may tell you the reason of this at a future day; or perhaps you may guess at it without being told.8 In the mean time I remain with unabated affection and duty, your Son.