* Nor, I believe, do we differ as to the county courts. I acknolege the value of this institution, that it is in truth our principal Executive & Judiciary, and that it does much for little pecuniary reward. It is their self-appointment I wish to correct,

which I answered July 18. as before mentioned, with a full explanation of the state of the debt, the circumstances which had occasioned it's remaining in my hands, and the remittances proposed, yet the marriage of Miss Mazzei with Mr. Pini has, I supposed determined his agency. I shall be uneasy until I learn that the family is contented with this arrangement, and I will therefore sollicit an early line from you. Still later, he wrote to Appleton:

"MONTICELLO, July 13, 20.

"DEAR SIR,-My letters to you, within the last 12. months have been of May 28. 19. with the annual remittance to M. & Me. Pini, Sep. 3. informing you of a remittance thro' Mr. Vaughan of 300. D. for the wives of the two Raggis, and Feb. 15. 20. announcing a remittance of 400. D. for the same persons to pay their passage and expences to the US. Since the last of these your two of Jan. 15. & 21. have been received. I wonder much that the remittance of the 300. D. had not got to hand at the date of yours of Jan. 21. but that transaction having passed between Mr. Vaughan and our Proctor, I am not able to state the particulars of it's transmission. I hope however it is long since at hand. As to the 400. D. of Feb. last, Mr. Vaughan in a letter of Mar. 3. says 'the 400 D. have been received, and I purchased S. Girard's bill on Jas. Lafite and Co. Paris at 60. days to order of Thos. Appleton for 2135 90/100-equal to 403. D. which I have forwarded to him under cover to Bernard Henry, Gibraltar, by the Newburn, Capt. Cushing via Maderia, & duplicate by the Pleiades Capt. West direct to Gibraltar, under care of a friend. The 3d I shall send via New York. By the Pleiades I sent your letter to Mr. Appleton.' Since your information as to the post thro' Spain I much regret that this last remittance has gone by Gibraltar. Altho' I should have supposed opportunities from that to Leghorn by sea could not have been rare. However I shall caution Mr. Vaughan against it in future, and recommend London & Paris, perhaps also Marseilles where an opportunity to Leghorn direct does not occur.

"In mine of Feb. 15. I mentioned that I should make my annual remittance to M. & Me Pini in April or May. I am however to this date before it could be done. The extraordinary embarrassments produced by the sudden withdrawing of one half of our circulating medium has in a great measure suspended money transactions. 9. out

to find some means of breaking up a Cabal, when
When
such a one gets possession of the bench.
this takes place, it becomes the most afflicting of
tyrannies, because it's powers are so various, and
exercised on every thing most immediately around

of 10. of the banks of the different states have blown up; the adventurers calling themselves merchants, who had been trading on bank Those who stood the ordeal still credits, have been swept away. suspend their business, from caution, till the storm shall be over, so that from want of medium, and the want of purchasers at market, We had 18. month ago 6. property & produce are fallen one half. It is millions of Dollars in circulation in this state, of paper; we have but 3 millions now. Produce, say flour sold from 8. to 16. D. a barrel. now at 4. D. This extraordinary curtailment in the profits of the year has brought on a general distress, unknown before in the annals of our country. Before this explosion in our commerce, I had hoped myself to have been able in good time to remit the principal of my debt to M. & Me Pini, from the annual profits of my estate: but the fall in the price of produce, likely to continue some time yet, has induced me to give up that hope and to determine on the sale of property sufficient for that paiment. This I will certainly do as soon as the present suspension of These buying and selling ceases, and bidders at a fair price return into the market. At this time nothing can be sold at half price. difficulties have made me a little later than I had expected in the I have now placed in remittance of interest this year to M. & Me Pini. Mr. Vaughan's hands 444 D. with a request to vest it in a bill of Mr. Girard on Paris, (the most solid channel of remittance, and indulged to me as a favor,) and to send it via Paris or London, or both; so that I hope it will have a safe and speedy passage to you.

"P. S. June 30. 20. I had written thus far when your favor of May 18. came to hand. The remittance of 300. D. for the Raggis, mentioned in my letter from Poplar Forest, I find on enquiry was not carried into execution. The Proctor informs me that they soon after changed their minds, concluded to send for their wives, which requiring a larger sum, produced delay till the state of their accounts admitted it, this brought on winter and finally the remittance of 400. D. was made only in time for them to sail in spring. On the subject of what I owe to Mr. Mazzei's representatives. I had already made up my mind to clear it out as soon as possible. Like thousands of others, I had sustained some losses by being security for a friend who failed under the late general bankruptcies. This not admitting the delay of annual crops I had come to the resolution of selling some unprofitable property

us. And how many instances have you and I known of these monopolies of county administration! I know a county in which a particular family (a numerous one) got possession of the bench, and for a whole generation, never admitted a man on it who was not of it's clan or connection. I know a county now of 1500. militia, of which 60. are federalists. It's court is of 30. members of whom 20. are federalists (every third man of the sect) wherein there are large and populous districts, without a justice, because without a federalist for appointment, and the militia as disproportionably under federal officers; and there is no authority on earth which can break up this junto short of a general convention. The remaining 1440 free, fighting, & paying citizens are governed by men neither of their choice nor confidence & without a hope of relief. They are certainly excluded from the blessings of a free government for life, & indefinitely for ought the constitution has provided. This solecism may be called anything but republican, and ought undoubtedly to be corrected. I salute you with constant friendship and respect.

to pay at once and to make the sale sufficient to discharge the debt to M. & Me Pini. As yet however nothing can be sold. All confidence is suspended, and fear takes it's place. The grounds for example in Richmd of Mr. Mazzei which sold for 6432 D. could not now be sold for 1500 D. It will probably be another year before the fair prices of things are settled and proportioned to the reduction of circulating medium. I shall certainly take advantage of the first possibilities of disposing of property to disengage myself. It is this same state of commerce which has delayed to this date the remittance of this year's interest: I salute you with constant & affectionate friendship and respect,"

J. MSS.

TO JOSEPH DELAPLAINE
MONTICELLO, July 26, 1816.

DEAR SIR,-In compliance with the request of your letter of the 6th inst., with respect to Peyton Randolph, I have to observe that the difference of age between him and myself admitted my knowing little of his early life, except what I accidentally caught from occasional conversations. I was a student at college when he was already Attorney General at the bar, and a man of established years; and I had no intimacy with him until I went to the bar myself, when, I suppose, he must have been upwards of forty; from that time, and especially after I became a member of the legislature, until his death, our intimacy was cordial, and I was with him when he died. Under these circumstances, I have committed to writing as many incidents of his life as memory enabled me to do, and to give faith to the many and excellent qualities he possessed, I have mentioned those minor ones which he did not possess; considering true history, in which all will be believed, as preferable to unqualified panegyric, in which nothing is believed. I avoided, too, the mention of trivial incidents, which, by not distinguishing, disparage a character; but I have not been able to state early dates. Before forwarding this paper to you, I received a letter from Peyton Randolph, his great nephew, repeating the request you had made. I therefore put the paper under a blank cover, addressed to you, unsealed, and sent it to Peyton Randolph, that he might see what dates as well as what incidents might be collected, supplementary to mine,

and correct any which I had inexactly stated; circumstances may have been misremembered, but nothing, I think, of substance. This account of Peyton Randolph, therefore, you may expect to be forwarded by his nephew.

You requested me when here, to communicate to you the particulars of two transactions in which I was myself an agent, to wit: the coup de main of Arnold on Richmond, and Tarleton's on Charlottesville. I now enclose them, detailed with an exactness on which you may rely with an entire confidence. But, having an insuperable aversion to be drawn into controversy in the public papers, I must request not to be quoted either as to these or the account of Peyton Randolph. Accept the assurances of my esteem and respect.'

I BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF PEYTON RANDOLPH.

Peyton Randolph was the eldest son of Sir John Randolph, of Virginia, a barrister-at-law, and an eminent practitioner at the bar of the General Court. Peyton was educated at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, and thence went to England, and studied law at the Temple. At his return he intermarried with Elizabeth Harrison, sister of the afterwards Governor Harrison, entered into practice in the General Court, was afterwards appointed the King's Attorney-General for the colony, and became a representative in the House of Burgesses (then so called) for the city of Williamsburg.

Governor Dinwiddie having, about this period, introduced the exaction of a new fee on his signature of grants for lands, without the sanction of any law, the House of Burgesses remonstrated against it, and sent Peyton Randolph to England, as their agent, to oppose it before the king and council. The interest of the governor, as usual, prevailed against that of the colony, and his new exaction was confirmed by the king.

After Braddock's defeat on the Monongahela, in 1755, the incursions of the Indians on our frontiers spread panic and dismay through the whole country, insomuch that it was scarcely possible to procure men, either as regulars or militia, to go against them. To counteract this terror and to set a good example, a number of the wealthiest