grieve when it must
be all your fates to follow. I am happy that Mr. Ker understands my
circumstances and my last will, and that he will be so good and so
able to assist in settling it properly; I wish to follow his ideas
therein in case of any difficulty, and I am likewise perfectly
satisfied with all Mr. Ker's accounts with me. I write this letter
to you to go by the first ship in case I should not be able to
write later; I do not expect to be able to write to Robie Hepburn
nor to Mr. Ker; nothing I can tell now from this country can
entertain them; my mind is taken up with nothing but the
Friendship, which they know.... So soon as the weather is warmer I
intend to go to Quebec in order to obtain the best advice: I shall
not personally be so conveniently situated there, as here. I am
able yet to go out as far as a bank before the Door and to walk
through the rooms; indeed the arrangements and conveniences of this
house with the attendance and attention I receive are all in the
best manner I can possibly desire; ... it's enough to say that were
you here I think you would approve of them. Industry and neatness
prevail and everything nesessary [is] foreseen and provided for. No
wonder my wife and I agree so well now these thirty-five years as
she happens to be equal in every moral attribute which I pretend
to.... We are in friendship with everybody, because we do justice
impartially and really without vanity have assisted many persons in
forming farms and providing for the support of familys; although
thereby not in the way of enriching ourselves it affords perhaps as
much Satisfaction.

This place certainly thrives exceedingly; although we may by such
exertions be recommending ourselves to the Father of all things,
how poor they appear in my eyes having read lately the Newspapers.
Most unreasonable are some men in Parliament to find fault with the
ministry of Pitt and Dundass who have steered the Vessel of the
State so successfully through such dangerous times and threatening
appearances. Every Briton I think has reason to be proud of his
Country which is raised higher than ever before not only in
national Character but in its prospects of Commerce and Wealth by
the Peace [the brief Peace of Amiens signed in March, 1802]. What
prodigious honou