Since the date of my last July 11th I have received an Authentic account of Your appointment as Minister Plenipo. to the Court of Portugal.1 it was the last nomination which the President made, before the rising of Congress, and took place after your Father came home, without its ever being hinted to him. the appointment was agreed to as mr otis informs me, unanimously by the Senate. this is an additional proof of the confidence which Your Country reposes in You; and of the approbation of the President, who has thus honourd, and promoted You.

You will feel it a new incentive to discharge with fidelity the important trusts committed to You and to continue to deserve well of Your Country. I suppose mr King carried out Your commission and instructions.

The engagements You made in London will lead You no Doubt to go theither, on Your Way to Portugal this new appointment my Dear Son has filld my Mind with a thousand anxieties on Your account. Will the Parents of the Young Lady think it adviseable for their Daughter, at so early an Age, without any knowledge or experience of the World, to be introduced into the Manners Luxeries dissapations and amusements of a foreign Court,? placed in an elevated Station, with examples before her Eyes of a Stile of living altogether incompatable with her future views and prospects in America? She has no Doubt been reard and Fosterd under the Eyes of kind and indulgent Parents, who have given her a Virtuous Education, taught her to Love the Domestic virtues, and at the Same time accomplishd her in Musick Dancing French &c I conceive the Young Lady to be accomplishd both in Mind and person not unfit to grace a Court, but the Question is thus accomplishd: is there not great Danger of her contracting such inclinations, and habits as to endanger her Youth and inexperience, as to unfit her for the discharge 357 of those Domestic Duties, which cement the union of Hearts, and give it its Sweetest pleasures.

You know upon what an unstable foundation all the honours and promotion, in our Country rests. You know how inaddequate the allowence to an American Minister is, when compared with those of other Countries, of the same Rank, and You know, what Your prospects are when you return to America. if you were to bring Me Home a Daughter, she would be comeing to the Land of her Fathers Nativity, and would probably form no higher expectations than you might find the means of gratifying. She would assimilate herself to our Manners to our customs and our habits, which she would find so similar to those in which it is probable she has been Educated, that the Change might not be painfull to her. but who can answer for her after having been introduced into the dissipations of a foreign Court?

You have seen sufficient of the world to think soberly of these things, and to say with Ulysses

and o may you add

What the Changes may be in this Country at the approaching Election is more than I am able say one thing I can say with certainty, that you can neither hope or expect to find at the Head of the Government any Man who will do so much to promote you, as the President of the United States has Done. I sometimes think that your early promotion is in Some measure oweing to that Idea, as well as a desire to reward those abilities which have distinguishd Your late Mission—

our Country appears all tranquility. Providence is loading the Earth with Bounties a more plentifull Season was never known. may our Hearts be filled with Gratitude. we have Health in our borders, and peace in our dwellings.

I inclose You a scrip of the last weeks Paper that you may see, the Treaty is like to be complied with by the British so far as respects the Evacuation of the Forts.3

I heard from N York a fortnight Since. they were all well. Charles expected Dayly to be a Father4

Not a line of a later Date from my Dear Thomas than 1 of last December. my Heart sinks like a stone when I think of him, poor Dear soul, so sick, so far from Home. your last letter of May 12 informd me that you heard from him 28 April.5 this was a consolation to your anxious and ever affectionate / Mother

I hope my amiable friend has before this received my letters of the 9th: of last month, and of the 6th of the present; and that all her doubts, if doubts she really had, whether she still retained all her Empire over my affections have vanished into thin air. Though there was a letter which must have reached her very shortly after the impatient anxiety which she expresses in her letter of July 24th: it is possible that I might have indulged yet more frequently than I have, the inclination which I always feel to converse with her, but for the repeated hints of her aversion to writing contained in her preceding letters.— Yes! let me freely own, that I have more than once sat myself down to my table, and taken up the pen to give you my sentiments “warm from the soul and faithful to its fires.”1 But the reflection has occurred, that you hated writing, and that even the assurance of my constant attachment might lose its charm in the painful sensation of an obligation to return an answer. So that I was consulting your pleasure even when I sacrificed that of writing to you. But indeed for my satisfaction the oftener we write the better for nothing can exceed the delight that a letter from you gives me, so long as we are absent from each other, and if it were really a painful task for me to write to others it would be an enjoyment to write to you.

I have mentioned to you in my last Letter that I expect to remain 359 here some months longer; perhaps till the next spring; but of all the sorts of gratification that I can derive from my new destination the most delicious is, that it gives me the hope of terminating sooner than I could otherwise have expected the vile embarassments which made our separation absolutely necessary.— It is the promise of decent support and Independence for us both that I value, and if you find it necessary to suppress some of the little attachments to splendor that lurk at your heart, perhaps imperceptibly to yourself, at least we can both console ourselves with the reflection that the deductions from present pomp will all be added to the securities of future comfort.

My orders to remove may possibly come suddenly, and earlier than I now expect them. I shall have no other inducement to take the way of England, but that of meeting you. I shall hope therefore that it will not require a long time for your preparations to bear me company. I must not stay an hour longer than will be necessary.

Let me again my dear friend recommend to you to fortify your mind for circumstances inevitably attached to our connection. The hardships of traveling, by sea or by land are formidable to you, in the delicate life to which you have always been accustomed. Yet you must be prepared to undergo them.— The modes of life, the manners and customs of the people where you may have occasion to reside, will be entirely different from those which you have been used to: perhaps many of them will appear unpleasant to you. For your own happiness, endeavour to acquire the faculty not merely of acquiescence, in unavoidable inconveniences, but even of a cheerful conformity to things which must be endured, and above all establish as an invariable rule for your conversation, to express no general or national reflections.— You will forgive me for this intimation. I have often experienced, and in many different countries that nothing is more natural, and nothing more offensive than reflections applying to nations or numerous classes of people; and I know your heart is so good that I would not have the misconception of any thing said by you ever give dissatisfaction to any one.

I understand that you have been during part of the Summer at Clapham, and I am persuaded, you have employed your time to advantage. It would give me pleasure to have from you a detail of every thing interesting to yourself in your situation.— Write to me with perfect confidence, as I have given you the example. Your progress upon the Harp I am persuaded is great, and as you are in the habit of reflecting, I have no doubt you will not be inattentive to the 360 qualities, the exercise of which will be necessary or useful in the prospects, which I ardently hope will soon be realized.

Do not think I am sitting myself up for a Mentor, but give me your advice and opinions with equal freedom in return. Remember me affectionately to all the family, and be assured of the invariable and inexpressible attachment of your friend.