I should have written you a long time ago, if I had completed the duties of my last circuit, so as to give you all the results. But I am as yet scarcely free from all the cases, which have been under advisement.

Yesterday my February Stated Court was opened. To that day I had adjourned the Circuit Court. Copies of the draft of the Decree in Le blanc's or White's Case had been delivered to each party. I found a reluctance on the Side of one party to do anything. It seems the whole of the Seven Comy to view appraise & value the property, & report the practicability of specifically dividing it, had signed the report; but only 6 had viewed it together.

I owe you an apology for my long silence & especially as I have two letters of yours unanswered. My Cirt. did not end until the latter part of June, & I have ever since been overwhelmed with pressing private or public concerns, which have obliged me to postpone all other business. In addition to my other labours I have been obliged to prepare a Discourse to be delivered this month before a Literary society (the P. B.

I was concerned to hear that you were indisposed by a rheumatic attack which had fixed its venom in your right hand. I hope it has departed from that indispensable part of your judicial machinery; & that, at all events your tongue may be clear of it. I have had a long & irksome spell of the Influenza, which has reduced me to almost a Skeleton; but I have completely recovered from the malady, tho still debilitated by its effects.

The storm which has been for some time threatening the Judges has at length burst on their heads & a most furious hurricane it is. The author is spoken of with as much confidence as if his name was subscribed to his essays. It is worth your while to read them. They are in the Enquirer under the signature of Hampden.

I did not recieve your Letter of the 22d Feby 'till yesterday. I am much obliged by your Attention to my Request relative to the Enquiries on Plaister of Paris. I find that taking an Airing, or indeed a Gallop, now & then on some of my old Hobby Horses, relieves me from the small & sometimes the great Maladies of the Mind. If I can make these Excursions useful to others, a double Purpose will be answered. The Account given by Mr L. Lewis is exactly as I expected. Your Land is not of the Quality calculated for Plaister.

I am happy in being able to remove [your] the uneasiness, expressed in your letter of the 9th, respecting what has been done. – Mr. Morgan is Satisfied. I explained fully to him what I long before had stated to him on the Subject. – I hope no censure will attach to Mr. Marshall but that I alone may be considered in fault. tho' I confess I cannot conceive of there being any thing dishonorable in the business.

Your two letters under the dates of Dec 22 & Dec. 27, came to hand in course of the mail. I have recently receivd two letters from the Chief Justice, in which he permits me to conclude the first vol, at the end of the 13th Chapter, terminating with the War of 1763, & to carry the Surplus to the 2d vol. He also desires me to strike out two or three long notes, which he designates & requests me to suggest to him such others as I think might be dispensed with. I write to him, next Mail, fully on the subject.