[BOSTON, ----, 1778.]

MY DEAR SIR

It was much longer than the usual time before your very acceptable
Letter of the 22 Decr came to my hand. I receivd it as a singular Favor
and felt the more thankful for it, because I knew that hardly anything
could induce you to write a Letter but the urgent Affairs of our
Country or the powerful feelings of private Friendship. I should have
written you an Answer sooner but the peevish nominal Saint who scrap'd
an Acquaintance with me at Baltimore the last Winter, has followd me
even to this place. I think he is the most impertinent & troublesome
Visitant I ever had. I am so thoroughly disgusted at the Creature that
I have taken every Method that could be devisd to prevent my being ever
plagud with him again. He seems at length to be about leaving me & he
may depend upon it I shall deny all his Visits for the future.

The Spirit of Avarice, I am sorry to be obligd to say it, prevails too
much in this Town; but it rages only among the few, because perhaps,
the few only are concernd at present in trade. The old substantial
Merchants have generally laid aside trade & left it to Strangers or
those who from nothing have raisd fortunes by privateering. The Body of
this Community suffer proportionably as much as the great continental
Publick. It must be confessd that the Charges of Trade are enormous,
and it is natural for men when they have at great Risque & Expence
imported Commodities which are wanted by every body, if they must
receive in payment for them what is valued by no body, to demand as
much of it as they please, especially if it is growing daily into less
Repute. This you know has been the Case. There is but one effectual
Remedy; & that is to lessen the Quantity of circulating paper Money.