Benjamin Franklin Papers - To Jonathan Williams, Jr. (unpublished)

Your Bill for £47 10s. Od. has been presented and is accepted.

In my last of Jan. 19. I promis’d to send you some philosophical Papers, which I now enclose. The three Pieces I wrote at Sea, will all be printed in our Transactions here; that on Chimneys is already done, and perhaps I may send you the Sheets with this. The others will be done soon; and printed Copies will be better for you than written ones by Ben.

I wonder with you that the Books are not arriv’d. Pray write and enquire about them.

When I put Dr. Jeffries’s Memoir into the hands of Mr. Gerry, I fancy’d he was going to Boston, or as a Member of Congress could send it free of Postage. But I see by the Newspapers that he stays at New York to be married, and perhaps that important Transaction has put the Packet out of his Mind. I am ever, Your affectionate Uncle

Verte s.v.p. I suppose you have learnt that the Agreement with your Uncle in London is at last sign’d and the Affair finally settled, on which I congratulate you. My Baggage is at length arrived, and we are now employ’d in unpacking &c. Enclos’d I send you 4 Papers, viz 1. Meteorological Imaginations. 2. Loose Thoughts on a universal Fluid 3 Letter to Abbé Soulaire 4 Description of a new Instrument useful in a Library.

You may show these to Mr. Bowdoin, and if he should think any of

them worth communicating to the Society, they are at his Disposition. None of them have been communicated to the Society here.

The Papers I wrote at Sea re printing here, and I shall soon be

able to send you Copies.

I write this in red, because my black Pen is too bad, and I cannot

see my Penknife