My dearest Friend,--I closed a long letter to you only two days ago, but
as no opportunity is omitted by me, I embrace this, as Colonel Fleury
was kind enough to write me on purpose, from Newport, to inform me of
it, and to promise a careful attention to it. Yet I feel doubtful of its
safety. The enemy seems to be collecting a prodigious force into these
seas, and is bent upon the destruction of our allies. We are not a
little anxious for them, and cannot but wonder that they are not yet
reinforced. Graves's fleet, Arbuthnot's, and Rodney's, all here; with
such a superiority, can it be matter of surprise if M. de Ternay should
fall a sacrifice? My own mind, I own, is full of apprehension; yet I
trust we shall not be delivered over to the vengeance of a nation more
wicked and perverse than our own. We daily experience the correcting and
the defending arm. The inclosed papers will give you the particulars of
an infernal plot, and the providential discovery of it. For, however the
belief of a particular Providence may be exploded by the modern wits,
and the infidelity of too many of the rising generation deride the idea,
yet the virtuous mind will look up and acknowledge the great First
Cause, without whose notice not even a sparrow falls to the ground.
I am anxious to hear from you. Your last letter, which I have received,
was dated June 17th. I have written you repeatedly, that my trunk was
not put on board the _Alliance_; that poor vessel was the sport of more
than winds and waves. The conduct with regard to her is considered as
very extraordinary. She came to Boston, as you have no doubt heard.
Landais is suspended. The man must be new-made before he can be entitled
to command. I hope Captain Sampson arrived safe. He carried the resolve
of Congress which you wanted.
You tell me to send you prices current. I will aim at it. Corn is now
thirty pounds, rye twenty-seven, per bushel. Flour from a hundred and
forty to a hundred and thirty per hundred. Beef, eight dollars per
pound; mutton, nine; lamb, six, seven, and eight. Butter, twelve dollars
per pound; cheese, ten. Sheep's wool, thirty dollars per pound; flax,
twenty. West India articles: sugar, from a hundred and seventy to two
hundred pounds per hundred; molasses, forty-eight dollars per gallon;
tea, ninety; coffee, twelve; cotton-wool, thirty per pound. Exchange
from seventy to seventy-five for hard money. Bills at fifty. Money
scarce; plenty of goods; _enormous_ taxes. Our State affairs are thus.
Hancock will be Governor, by a _very great_ majority; the Senate will
have to choose the Lieutenant-governor. Our constitution is read with
great admiration in New York, and pronounced by the Royal Governor the
best republican form he ever saw, but with sincere hopes that it might
not be accepted. How will it be administered? is now the important
question.
The report of the day is that three thousand troops are arrived at New
York from England.
Adieu!
Most affectionately yours.