MY DEAR SIR

I receivd your favor of the 6th Instant, but not till the 25th.  The Post has been very irregular of late, & our Letters grow old before we receive them.  It is a Shame that the Mail has been catchd a second time in the same trap.  I inclosd to you a Warrant on Mr Appleton for the Amount of your Demand for boarding the Orphans of our late Friend Genl Warren.  I think I did not send the Letter by that Post.  But being uncertain I informd you in a subsequent Letter of my having sent the Warrant, and desired you to inform me whether it had come safely to hand.  I expect to hear from you in Answer to my last at least, & shall then conduct the Matter if necessary, as you have proposd.

Our Government, I perceive, is organizd on the Basis of the new Constitution.  I am affraid there is more Pomp & Parade than is consistent with those sober Republican Principles, upon which the Framers of it thought they had founded it.  Why should this new AEra be introducd with Entertainments expensive & tending to dissipate the Minds of the People?  Does it become us to lead the People to such publick Diversions as promote Superfluity of Dress & Ornament, when it is as much as they can bear to support the Expense of cloathing a naked Army?  Will Vanity & Levity ever be the Stability of Government, either in States, in Cities, or what, let me hint to you is of the last Importance, in Families?  Of what Kind are those Manners, by which, as we are truly informd in a late Speech, “not only the freedom but the very Existence of Republicks is greatly affected?” How fruitless is it, to recommend “the adapting the Laws in the most perfect Manner possible, to the Suppression of Idleness Dissipation & Extravagancy,” if such Recommendations are counteracted by the Example of Men of Religion, Influence & publick Station?  I meant to consider this Subject in the View of the mere Citizen.  But I have mentiond the sacred Word Religion.  I confess, I am surprizd to hear, that some particular Persons have been so unguarded as to give their Countenance to such kind of Amusements.  I wish Mr ——­ would recollect his former Ideas when his Friend Whitfield thunderd in the Pulpit against Assemblies & Balls.  I think he has disclaimd Diversions, in some Instances, which to me have always appeard innocent.  Has he changd his Opinions, or has the Tendency of things alterd?  Do certain Manners tend to quench the Spirit of Religion at one time & are they harmless at another?  Are Morals so vague as to be sanctified or dispens’d with by the Authority of different Men?  He does not believe this.  But I will not be severe, for I love my Friend.  Religion out of the Question for the present.  It was asked in the Reign of Charles the 2d of England, how shall we turn the Minds of the People from an Attention to their Liberties?  The Answer was, by making them extravagant, luxurious, effeminate.  Hutchinson advisd the Abridgment