ngland. It treats of private matters, and expresses his
pleasure at the reception he had from the Earl of Buchan, Sir John
Sinclair, and others in England to whom General Washington had given him
letters. He tells him he was much obliged to him for the several
communications in his letters, and placed great reliance on them; that
the opportunities he derived from mixing with people in different walks,
high and low, and of different political sentiments, must have afforded
him an extensive range for observation and comparison; more so by far
than could fall to the lot of a stationary person always revolving in a
particular circle. The General then touches on our home affairs. [He was
still President, it will be remembered.] He says that to tell him the
British order in council of the 8th of June last respecting neutral
vessels had given much discontent in the United States; and that that of
the 6th of November had thrown the people into a flame, could hardly be
new to him. In reference to all the existing difficulties with England
he tells him that many measures had been moved in Congress, some of
which had passed into acts, and others were pending; that among the
former was a law for fortifying our principal seaports, and another for
raising an additional corps of eight hundred artillery-men for the
defence of them and other purposes; and that the bills pending were:
1st. One to complete our present military establishment; 2d. One to
raise an army of twenty-five thousand men in addition to it; and 3d. A
bill to organize, put in training, and hold in readiness at a minute's
warning a select corps of eighty thousand militia. He seemed to think
that the first and last would pass, but that the result of the second
could not be so well predicted. He mentions the appointment of Mr. Jay
as special minister to England in the hope of settling all our
difficulties in a temperate way by fair and firm negotiation, and that
he would sail in a few days, with Mr. John Trumbell as his private
Secretary; tells him also of Mr. Randolph's appointment as Secretary of
State, and that Mr. Bradford, of Pennsylvania, was made Attorney General
in Mr. Randolph's place. In conclusion, he alludes to "little Lincoln"
[Mr. Lear's son] and his "lottery tickets," which, "poor little fellow!"
he exclaims, will never be likely to build him a baby-house even; the
whole Washington lottery business having turned out a bed of thorns
rather than roses. He term