DEAR SIR,-* **We have had about 4. weeks of winter weather, rather hard for our climate-many little snows which did not lay 24. hours & one 9.I. deep which remained several days. We have had but few thawing days during the time. It is generally feared here that your collegue F. Walker will be in great danger of losing his election. His competitor is indefatigable attending courts &c., and wherever he is, there is a general drunkenness observed, tho' we do not know that it proceeds from his purse.-Wilson Nicholas is attacked also in his election. The ground on which the attack is made is that he is a speculator. The explanations which this has produced, prove it a

serious crime in the eyes of the people. But as far as I hear he is only investing the profits of a first & only speculation.-Almost every carriage-owner has been taken in for a double tax: information through the newspapers not being actual, tho' legal, in a country where they are little read. This circumstance has made almost every man, so taken in, a personal enemy to the tax. I escaped the penalty only by sending an express over the country to search out the officer the day before the forfeiture would have been incurred. We presume you will return to Orange after the close of the session & hope the pleasure of seeing mrs. Madison & yourself here. I have past my winter almost alone, mr & mrs Randolph being at Varina. Present my best respects to mrs Madison, & accept them affectionately yourself.

MONTICELLO, IN VIRGINIA, Feb. 6, 1795. DEAR SIR,-Your several favors on the affairs of Geneva found me here, in the month of December last. It is now more than a year that I have withdrawn myself from public affairs, which I never liked in my life, but was drawn into by emergencies which threatened our country with slavery, but ended in establishing it free. I have returned, with infinite appetite, to the enjoyment of my farm, my family & my books, and had determined to meddle in nothing beyond their limits. Your proposition, however, for transplanting the college of Geneva to my own coun