It is now fair sunshine again, and very warm. Not a word yet from Howe's
fleet. The most general suspicion now is that it is gone to Charleston,
South Carolina. But it is a wild supposition. It may be right, however,
for he is a wild General.
We have been hammering to-day upon a mode of trial for the general
officers at Ti. Whether an inquiry will precede the court martial, and
whether the inquiry shall be made by a committee of Congress or by a
council of general officers, is not determined, but inquiry and trial
both, I conjecture, there will be.
If Howe is gone to Charleston, you will have a little quiet, and enjoy
your corn, and rye, and flax, and hay, and other good things, until
another summer. But what shall we do for sugar and wine and rum? Why,
truly, I believe we must leave them off. Loaf sugar is only four dollars
a pound here, and brown only a dollar for the meanest sort, and ten
shillings for that a little better. Everybody here is leaving off loaf
sugar, and most are laying aside brown. As to rum and wine, give me
cider and I would compound. New England rum is but forty shillings a
gallon. But if wine was ten dollars a bottle I would have one glass a
day in water while the hot weather continues, unless I could get cider.