Last Monday was the commencement of my stated February session. It was also the day to which the Circuit Court stood ajourned. All the Lawyers concerned in the Penn. causes were engaged in the State Courts. I sent Mr Caldwell to inquire if they had anything to do in the Circuit Court; & particularly in the Case of Conn. & Penn. The answer from Mr Binney & Mr Chauncey was, that "I need not keep the court open on that account; for if any arrangement preparatory to the April session should be agreed on, it might be consentibly settled." On friday my Son Richard, triumphantly, read to me a letter from Mr Webster, at Washington, announcing that the case of Penn. v. Cline had settled, by its reversal, all the controversy in relation to overplus &c. &c. I was busy, & did not attend minutely to its contents; but it appeared to me that our labours in the Chancery case were nugatory, & that if we decided as we intended, the Stone of Sysiphus would roll back on us. I told you that I would inform you of occurrences. It appears to me now, that the Manor people will not come into any agreement about valuation &c.; but will be passive; & appeal to our Lords & Masters the Supreme Courts; already having decided the leading question. Let me know what was really the decision in Penn. & Cline. If it be as represented, it appears nugatory for us to labour as we have done, in an opposite opinion. I have ajourned the Circuit Court to the 12th of March, on account of some business in which the Marshal's appearance is indispensable; & an application by a Defendant to take the benefit of the insolvent act of congress. Our Marshal has been piteously handled by Sickness; & has not been capable of leaving his house for several Months. The encarcerated sufferer is the famous Farrand, who has ruined many partners in extensive Bookselling, & himself with them. I always kept out of his Books. But now when he is out of his own Books, I thought it hard to give an order to produce them. But so it is in this age of Speculation, that people ruin themselves by dealing in the products of Land & Sea; &, soaring above such tangible wares, ruin themselves by trading in the products of the Brain.

This day brings into my mind so many old recollections, both painful & pleasant, that I will not interrupt them with terrestrial & inferior topics. I believe if your name had not been Washington, I should not have interrupted my cogitations by writing to you. I go to town tomorrow, to celebrate the Birth day. I remember an old advertisement of the Sons of St Patrick; "Saturday¹ the Birth day of St Patrick, falling out of a Sunday, the same will be celebrated on Monday next." I went to this celebration. To every toast, "And the Sons of St Patrick," was added, prositer honorem. One of them was, "Haman's fate to the Enemies of America." Addition—"And the Sons of St Patrick"! Yours very affectionately