On the 14th of Novr 29 I received the following confidential communication from Judge Washington.

He said he knew not how his case might terminate—that he had always had an aversion to the customs attending such cases and wished them to be dispensed with in regard to him—and added:

I left Mt Vernon in July, and after spending the intervening time in our mountainous country, I arrived at this place the day before yesterday. Your favor of the 7th inst. followed, but did not overtake me until within the last hour. 

     I left Mt Vernon in July and after spending the inter<ven>ing time in our mountainous Country, I arrived at this place the day before yesterday— Your favor of the 7th followed, but did not overtake me until well in the last hour.

I have Just recd a letter from Messrs A. C. Cazenove & Co. informing me of the arrival of our long looked for wine, ordered as long ago as March 1828— Murdoch & Co. write me that this parcel of "finest, old, high coloured, London particular" is selected from the choicest in their possession, and I have reason to believe that our most sanguine anticipations of its quality will be fully gratified.

     Having recd from the debtor legatees during the winter & this summer pretty respectable payments we are enabled to make a dividend of which I now notify the Creditor legatees. your dividend & share of Commissions, as well as mine, amounts to $772.10 for which I can send you a check on the Charlestown on recieving from you a letter stating your return to Audley from below. We leave this tomorrow for Bath. I wrote to cousin Carter about her dividend, which you no doubt will attend to. Believe me truly & affectly your

     On the other side is a refunding bond for you to execute together with at least one sufficient Surety.  Upon your forwarded the bond so executed (if by mail, the postage to be paid) to Mr William Brown, Cashier of the branch Valley bank of Virga. at Charlestown, Jefferson County, he will pay your draft for the sum stated in the Condition on the bond, viz $389.57.

     I am much gratified, my dear Sir, that you authorise me to anticipate the pleasure of having you, the other gentlemen, & the ladies of the fort to dine with me. Any day you may appoint will be convenient to us, & I hope it may suit you to come over before you remove to your encampment. Suppose you allow me to fix the day after tomorrow (tuesday), & if, in the mean time, you do not say otherwise, I will then expect you. I send Mrs M. a few apricots which she will do me the favor to accept— very sincerely & respectfully

     It is with regret & deep mortification that I feel myself compelled to decline your friendly & kind invitation to dine with you. In consequence of the attack in my breast the day I dined with Doct. Jackson, Mrs W. believes that a return of it would be the certain consequence of my going again. All my reasoning, & all my persuasions, fail to destroy, or even to allay, these apprehensions.

     Understanding this moment that your father in law is now with you, I must beg the favor of you to present my Compliments to him, & request that he will do me the favor to accompany you on thursday. respectfully &c.

I recd yesterday afternoon your favor of the 28th may. i do not recollect during the whole of my Judicial life that I was ever applied to for an injunction to stay waste. I confess that until I read your letter and examined the cases you refer to, I had supposed that, if it were a case of irrepable mischief, the plf had only to state an apparently good title, & to verify it by affadavit, to entitle him to the interposition of a court of equity. But the case of Storm vs. Mann and the one from 6 vez.

     The enclosed circular addressed t[o] the residuary legatees under the will of Genl Washigtn and the answer which accompanies it will explain to you the general nature of the Suit which Maj. Lewis & myself wish to engage in.

     Mr Small will oblige Mrs Washington by procuring for her such of the books mentioned in the enclosed lists as he may not have in his store, & encase the whole of Miss Austen’s novels cannot be obtained in Phila. he will please to import such as cannot– Mr Small will please import for her the Ladies Museum from Septr 1825. The books first mentioned will not be wanted for 3 or 4 weeks, which will afford Mr Small time in which to procure them.

     I recd yesterday a letter from our friend Mrs Blodget, in which she requests me to address you upon the subject of the office she is most anxious to procure for Mr Smith, her nephew, and Son in law, and to ask your patronage and assistance to promote her wishes.

     I hasten, my dear Sir, to answer your favor of the 20^th recd. yesterday.

     I have been frequently tempted to address you since I came to the City, but really I have had neither spirits or temper to render the employment a pleasant one. The conduct of certain men, in a certain place, has teased me more than I can easily describe to you, and the alternate hopes and fears which the accounts we have sometimes recd of the probable course which would be pursued there, have kept me in a state of excitement not the most pleasant in the world.

     Accept my sincere thanks, my dear Sir, for Your address, which I have read with great interest. It has given me a clearer idea of the delicate and arduous duties of the Chief Magistrate of a large City than I before possessed, and has gratified the partiality in your favor which led me to anticipate a wise and honourable discharge of those duties under your administration.

     You will please credit me with the sum mentioned in the within Certificate, & as I shall have considerable transactions with your bank, at least until the sum I have subscribed to the C. & O. Canal Co. shall be paid, you will oblige me by sending me a small bank book with the entries in it to this time. I am very respectfully dear Sir yr mo. ob. Servt

In consequence of your oblidging letter of the 6th inst. I now send you a check on the office Bank of Virginia at Norfolk for sixteen hundred dollars to be placed to my credit in the Branch bank of the U.S. at Washington and am very respectfully dear Sir yr mo. ob. Servt

     I yesterday recd a letter from Mr Thomas Williamson, Cashr of the Office Bank of Virginia at Norfolk informing me that he had deposited to my credit in that Bank Sixteen hundred dollars, subject to my order. Sums from the same Source have heretofore been negotiated through the Potomack bank; but as this mony is intended to go into your bank to meet the calls of the Canal Co., it will save trouble if you can negotiate my Check for the above sum so as to place it to my Credit on your books. Upon recieving permission I will forward you a check and am very respectfully Dr Sir Yr mo. ob.

There were so few cases of importance decided at my spring circuit, that I thought it would be best to wait for the fall Sessions, and to give you the whole in one letter. This task it is now my intention to perform. Some of the points decided are involved in much difficulty, upon which I shall be much pleased to see your observations.

Accept my dear sir, my thanks for your pamphlet containing a short notice of the life of the late Judge Peters, which I have read with great interest and feeling.

During a period of more than 26 yea<rs> that we were associated in Judicial labours, the harmony of our intercourse was never, to the best of my recollection, interrupted by one unkind expression or sentiment. <I> felt for him whilst living the most sincere friendship & re<sp>ect, the memory of which I can never cease to cherish. Believe me to be respectfully my dear sir yr mo. ob. servt

How goes it, my dear Judge? This inquiry I wd make in person, if I had not as much writing to do as will fully occupy my time ‘till my departure for Trenton. 

     If you can call upon me between this & wednesday it will confer a great pleasure upon yr friend.

     As the calls of the Chesapeak & Ohio Canal Co. will probably continue to be for monthly payments by the stock holders,¹ I am anxious, on account of my long & frequent absences from home, to make some provision by which the sums which shall be required of me may be paid without my immediate agency at the respective times designated. But I do not know how this is to be contrived; and if you will have the goodness to suggest a plan which may answer, you will much oblige me.

     I recd at the Springs your favor announcing the death of my venerable & beloved friend, Judge Peters. I was shocked on receiving the information, and yet I had endeavoured for more than twelve months to prepare myself for it. But he has descended to the tomb ripe in years, and full of those public & private virtues which embalm those we loved whilst living in the hearts of their survivors. I recd about the same time a letter upon the same melancholy subject from our friend Doct.