the expectation that she may open the navigation from lake Erie to Patowmac. Detroit is a place of Consequence, but so strongly settled that I doubt whether any force need be kept there. The N. Yorkers will wish a force at Niagara or Oswego. I should yield to them as far as necessity requires; but the further north that post is the better for Virginia, were it even pushed to the intersection of the Cataraqui with the 45th degree. It might then leave a possibility of drawing the six nations to F. Pitt. Mr Thomson's counsel on this subject will probably be useful, the interests of Pennsylva & Virginia being united as to all these posts. We shall not begin to scramble for the trade till we have brought it to F. Pitt. To the Southward it would be our interest to have an agency kept up with the Overhill Cherokees, & Martin the agent. If S. Carola & Georgia would then be contented with one other agency, & could agree on it's situation it would be well. I had thought of the head of Mobile river because there is a very short portage from there to the waters of the Tenissee which would give us access to it, but Mr Reid thought it too distant from the inhabited country. I am to thank you for your care of my baggage which is come safely to hand. Mr Hopkinson had sent on under cover to me a draught from mr Morris for 233 Dollars for me, and for the amount of mr Hardy's bill. My part was intended for mr Jenifer. I hope you will have been so good as to dispose of both parts according to their destination. Boirod & Gaillard had also forwarded

by the stage some of the books you desired. I have not yet received their bill & will transmit it to you as soon as received. The stage having ceased to pass between Baltimore & Annapolis, possibly these books may remain at the former place. I believe there is sometimes too a stoppage at Susquehanna by a change of interest in the proprietors of the stage. Should this have happened, your enquiries must come that far. I have had the pleasure of seeing three balons here. The largest was of 8.f. diameter & ascended about 300 feet. I shall write to you again from this place & afterwards in the course of my Northern progress. I shall be obliged to you to continue your letters as long as they can reach Boston by the 15th of June. A particular detail of Congressional proceedings, and of the communications from or concerning your foreign ministers will be most acceptable. Hopkinson tells me he had mentioned in his letter to me that the office of Director or master of the mint would be acceptable. He was therefore uneasy when I told him that I had left a request with a friend to open my letters. But I satisfied him perfectly on that head, and that you would render him any service which the duties of your situation would permit. He is a man of genius, gentility & great merit, & at the same time poor & the father of a numerous family. He holds a little office here, more respectable than profitable, for he can but barely live. He is as capable of the office as any man I know & the appointment would give general pleasure, because he is generally esteemed.-Messrs.

Boirod & Gaillard will be glad to receive the Prospectus of the Encyclopedia. Foreseeing that if I turn over the leaf I shall plague you with another page full I will here bid you adieu.

TO CHARLES THOMSON.1

PHILADELA, May 21, 1784.

DEAR SIR,—I received your favor of the 16th last night. I was out when it was delivered, so knew not how it came, a circumstance no otherwise important than as I am at a loss how or where to inquire for the packet which should have accompanied it, containing the Commissions, Instructions, etc. I shall immediately, however, make the enquiry. I am

obliged to you for the order for the journal. I shall make use of it to procure those of 1779-1783, and part of 1784 which my set wants. My matter in the printing way is dropped. Aitken had formerly told me he would print it for £4 a sheet. He now asks £5 10s., which raises the price from £48 to £66; but what was a more effectual and inseparable bar was that he could not complete it under three weeks, a time I could not wait for it. Dunlap happened to be out of town, so I relinquished the plan. Perhaps

I may have a few copies struck off in Paris if there be an English Printer. If I do you shall assuredly have one. I shall take the liberty of adding some of your notes-those which were mendatory merely will have their effect on the body of the work. I left all the papers belonging to the Grand Committee in the

1 From Collections of the N. Y. Historical Society for 1878, p. 186.

hands of Mr. Blanchard.

Among these were the

papers relating to Vermont. My reason for not delivering them to you as I did the others was, that the Committee was to sit that morning. There are vessels arrived here which left London as late as the 14 of April. Nothing important, however, has yet been communicated from them. The principal interesting occurrence here is a very daring insult committed on Mr. Marbois by a Frenchman, who calls himself the Cheval. De Longchamps, but it is in fact, the nephew of the Minister's Steward's wife. He obliged him in his own defence to box in the street like a porter. He is demanded by the Minister to be delivered up by the Executive here to be sent to France for punishment. They are plodding over the case. Whether he be a citizen of America or not is not yet decided. I shall endeavor to make myself acquainted with the facts because it will probably be the cause of something disagreeable here, and perhaps on the other side of the water. I think there is a desire in the Executive to give every satisfaction they can, but whether it is in the syllables and letters of the Law that a Frenchman committing an outrage may be delivered up to his master for punishment is matter of dubiety. You will hear enough of it, as it comes to Congress, of course; so I will add no more than my respectful compliments to Mrs Thomson and assurances to yourself that I am, with much esteem, Dr Sir, your friend and servant.

P. S. I find your Letter came by post, but no packet with it. The arrival of so late a vessel is now contradicted.

TO JAMES MADISON.

MAD. MSS.

PHILADELPHIA, May 25, 1784.

DEAR SIR, printed here & therefore refer it till I shall cross the water when I will have a few copies struck off and send you one-The assembly of N. York have made Payne, the author of Common sense a present of a farm. Could you prevail on our assembly to do something for him. I think their quota of what ought to be given him would be 2000 guineas, or an inheritance with 100 guineas a year. It would be peculiarly magnanimous in them to do it; because it would shew that no particular & smaller passion has suppressed the grateful impressions which his services have made on our minds. * ** I am obliged to put a period here to my letter being desired to assist in a consultation on a very disagreeable affair. A Frenchman of obscure & worthless character having applied to Mr. Marbois to give him the Consular attestations to a falsehood and being refused, attacked him in the streets a day or two after and beat him much with his cane. The minister has taken up this daring insult & violation of the law of nations in the person of the Secretary to their embassy & demands him to be given up (being a subject of France) to be sent there for punishment. I doubt whether the laws of this state have provided either to punish him sufficiently here, or to surrender him to be punished by his own sovereign; and the of this state is so indecisive that no defects of law will be supplied by

I could not get my notes

1 The governor, John Dickinson.