I wrote to you a few Days since, and sent you 4 philosophical Papers, which I permitted your communicating to Mr. Bowdoin. As they are chiefly speculative and hypothetical, and, (except the Description of the long Arm, a new Instrument for taking down Books from high Shelves) contain little of practical Utility. I apprehend he will not think them worth laying before the Society. I sent the Pacquet by Mr. Allen, whom you may remember to have seen in France, so you will receive them free of Postage tho’ a little later; for I cannot frank as you suppose, and I pay for all Letters that come to me, except those from the Secretaries of Congress. I thank you however for your Pacquet containing your Dispute with Mercator in which I think you have the Advantage, both in Temper, and Strength of Argument, tho’ it seems to me, that instead of discussing when we ceas’d to be British Subjects you should have deny’d our ever having been such. We were Subjects to the King of G. Britain, as were also the Irish, the Jersey and Guernsey People, and the Hanoverians; but we were American Subjects, as they were Irish, Jersey, and Hanoverian Subjects. None are British Subjects but those under the Parliament of Britain. Your affectionate Uncle