I received your letter a few days past & ought immediately to have answered it; but when you reach my age you will find that when a man is engaged as I am at present, a thing postponed is very apt to slip the memory & to be longer neglected than it ought to be. I concur with you in the opinion that the clerk can be appointed only when the court is in session, & I suppose there would be an impropriety if indeed there would be a power to make the appointment at the August term. I wish most devoutly that the business was over.

I have received your favour of the 28th May, and according to your request have examined the two bills filed by Cresap & Tomlinson vs. McLean, and the Answer to Tomlinson's bill, the other answer I have not yet been able to procure.

     I thank you my dear Sir, for your letter of the 5th, recd today, and for your kind attention to my requests— I shall be much pleased to re[c]ieve the portrait & to pay Mr Kings bill for the frame, package &c.

I now sit down to report to you the few decisions made during my last circuit. The Court at Phila. continued only two or three weeks in consequence of the sickness of Mr Binny who was concerned in almost all the arguable causes. The only Cases decided which may be considered as containing important principles are the two following.

Your Letter of the 30th of May reached me this morning— I believe the general impression of the Judges has been, that all acts reqd to be done by the Court, are to be done in term— I have hitherto acted upon that construction of the Laws, though I confess myself not perfectly satisfied with it— I should distinguish between acts strictly judicial, & those which are ministerial.

I embrace the first moment of relief from more urgent business to perform my promise to report to you the substance of the decisions made during my last circuit which may be worthy of your notice.

     After an absence of three months, I returned home the day before yesterday, and now avail myself of the first leisure moment to request an answer to the letter I wrote you just previous to my departure respecting the yorkshire farm land. This is to Mr Turner and myself a very interesting Subject, as Mr Hooe declines making any payments until a survey is made and the number of acres ascertained. In short every thing respecting our contract with him is, & must continue unsettled and confused 'till that is done.

     If you will have a Copy of your reports folded up & directed to Mr Edmund J. Lee Alexa. & sent to Mr Robert Adams he will forward it by the first packet— I think a few copies would sell in Alexa. & Washington.

     The trunk with my note books is left with Mrs Wharfe for you. Believe me very sincerely yrs

I have received your letter and am very happy to be informed that you will devote a part of this summer to a perusal of the letters. I believe it will be proper to make some deductions for the purpose of avoiding repetition but several letters may be withdrawn or abridged without affecting the number of volumes.

I am closely engaged in preparing my corrections of the life, and have no doubt they will be in perfect readiness by the winter, should any printer be disposed to engage in the publication. This however is a business which we can not press. My present employment has brought to my recollection a letter which I think ought to be suppressed but which I forgot to mention to you in Washington.

     By order of the Standing Committee of the Bunker Hill Monument Association, I beg leave to inform you that you were this day elected an honorary member of that institution. Its object is, by the erection of a permanent monument, to commemorate an event highly interesting in its Consequences to the cause of American freedom. Should it, as is hoped, be agreeable to you to be thus united with the Assocation, a certificate of membership in due form will be forwarded to you.

I have lately recd a letter from Mr Wm Garrard Junr dated at Opelousas in Louisiana, in which he expresses a wish to obtain an appointment to a second Lieutenancy in the Marine Corps of the U.S. and requests the benefit of any influence which I may have in furthering his wishes. He desires particularly that I would write to you on the subject. This is an awkward undertaking as the young gentleman is a total Stranger to me.

     Forty four years back, you as well as myself under the command of Colo.

My dinner hour is the usual one, 5.

Is your dinner hour the usual one, 5? very sincerely yrs

     Mr Justice Washington presents his very sincere thanks to Mr Livingston for his “system of penal laws for the state of Louisiana” which he anticipates great satisfaction, and, he hopes, improvement, in perusing.

     I recd last night a letter from Mr S. G. Goodrich of Hartford enclosing one from you dated the 5th inst. He requests me to give to you our views as to a disposal of the Copy right of the life of Washington, naming the price for it in case we are willing to sell & also the price per Copy for the exclusive privilege of publish<ing> the work, it being stipulated that 3000 copies at least shall <be> printed in two years.

     In consequence of instructions from the Committee of Arrangements of the American Bible Society, I have the honour to inform you, that the next annual meeting of the Society will be held in this City, on Thursday, the twelfth day of May next. The Managers would rejoice to see you on that interesting occasion, & respectfully request to be honoured with your presence, as a Vice President of the Society.

     I recd some time since from the Chief Justice the Copies of the letters of Genl Washington, but too late in the Season to forward them to Phila. by water on account of the danger to be apprehended from the freezing of the rivers— I purpose taking them on with me in March, and it will be proper that we should, in the mean time, agree upon the terms of their publication.

     It affords me much pleasure, my dear William, to comply with your request to give you letters of introduction to Judges Brook & Dade. I should send you one also to Judge Coalter but I am inclined to think that he resides very remote from the other gentlemen, & that there is a Judge much nearer to them altho I cannot for my life recollect his name. You can call upon the gentlemen to whom I have written on your way to visit us.

In conformity with your wish expressed in your last letter I have deposited the boxes in the steam boat addressed to you to the care of Mr Herbert. The captain received them from me & assured me that he would put them in his room & deliver them safely at Alexandria.

I returned home two or three days ago, after an absence of more than 3 months, when I had the pleasure to recieve from the post office your very friendly and interesting letter of the 2d Septr— For your kind & affectionate wishes for my health I am sincerely grateful to you, as I am for some other expressions which I owe chiefly to your indulgence & partiality. my health is now, thank God, as good as it has been for some years past.

     I recd a few days ago, from Mr Woodward, your work containing "Letters on the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper" for which I beg you to accept my best thanks— in the perusal of it, I anticipate great satisfaction. and, I humbly trust, some religious improvement. I am with very great esteem Dear Sir your faithful & obliged Servt 

I have found the missing book. It had been brought out of my office into the house & placed on a settee where it was covered with a pile of newspapers. I had put some other book into one of the trunks & supposed it must be this.

     Please inform me if you have sent down the dozen pine apple cheeses, as Mr Adams has not informed me of their arrival. I shall be much disappointed if they do not get down in time to go by the next packet which will sail in a few days. Let me know the price of them & I will immediately deposit the money to your credit in the Bank of Pennsylva. I am Sir Yr mo. ob. Servt