[Extract]

My Dear Child I trouble you with the inclosed Copy of my Letter the 18th Inst by the Swallow Packet because we are told She is gone to Boston with dispatches from Lord William . . .

My hands are so very full of employments & my mind so much engaged, as will not admit of my writing so fully as I had intended by this conveyance ー let it Suffice that I tell you our people after talking of various offensive & defensive plans without bringing any thing to maturity except trifles in the first Class from whence they can never reap either honor or profit, are now upon the exploded Scheme of Stopping up the Channels called Lawford's & the Ship in order to keep out Ships of War, a Scheme which I formerly opposed with great Success & which I Shall still contend against although I have little ground to hope for Success, because they have revived a motion in a Committee which was reprobated in a Congress ー the former may consist of 30 or 40 ー the latter contained near 200 Members. ー the measure in my Idea proposes too much or too little if they Stop the Bar effectually this Town & the most valuable part of the Country will be ruined ー if they fail we Shall incur a vast fruitless expence & be exposed to ridicule & censure through future ages ー & in neither case can we ward off the vengeance of Great Britain if She is foolishly determined to hurt herself by punishing us for Such foolish conduct ー the Door which we Shall Shut will be a Sufficient punishment to us, but there is another through which She may enter & increase our calamity ー I wish for the happy time when every avenue Shall be again opened to our mutual advantage ー . . .

[P: S:] My Compliments to Mr and Mrs Deans & tell the old Lady that her favorite Lord William is making Machines on board the Tamar poor Lord William His Administration of Government has afforded him no Satisfaction in this Colony.