derate, nothing more friendly, than
your constancy in writing to me. Your last letter is dated the
26th November. What can I say from this remote corner in
return for the pleasure I experience at the receipt of your
letters? I have already described my sombre kind of life, but
I am sure you will rejoice to hear that my present quiet has
been productive of the essential good of restoring my health.
I now consider myself quite re-established; therefore, my good
Irving, dispel all your alarms on my account. I once thought
of visiting Ballstown, but, as a trial of the springs there
was my chief motive, I gave up the journey the moment I found
there was no medical occasion to undertake it. I do not admire
the manners of the American people. I have met with some whose
society was every thing one could desire, and at Boston and
New York such characters are, I believe, numerous, but these
are the exceptions. Politics run very high at this moment, but
the French faction have evidently the preponderance, and they
style themselves republicans! Was ever any thing more absurd?
A dreadful crash is not far off--I hope your friends have
withheld their confidence in their public stocks. There have
been many failures at New York, and the merchants there are in
a state of great confusion and dismay.

I returned recently from York, the capital of this province,
where I passed ten days with the governor, (Gore,) as generous
and as honest a being as ever existed. His lady is perfectly
well bred and very agreeable. I found ample recompense in
their society for the inconvenience of travelling over the
worst roads I ever met with. The governor was formerly
quartered with the 44th in Guernsey, and recollects vividly
the society of those days.

I seldom hear from James Brock, who dislikes writing to such a
degree, that he hazards the loss of a friend rather than
submit to the trouble; and what is strange, when he sets
about it he expresses himself happily, and is highly
entertaining.

Sir James Craig has triumphed completely over the French
faction in the Lower Province. By their conduct they have
fully exemplified the character of their ancestors. The moment
they found they could not intimidate by threats, they became
as obsequious as they had been violent. The house of assembly
pas