Our worthy mutual Friend, Dr. Ingenhouz, has imparted to me, your long wished for Release from your, alltho’ honorable, yet too laborious public Station, most gloriously filled these 50 Years; not only to the Salvation of your own native Country from wicked Abuse of your faithfull Loyalty, and Attachment to your Mother Country, from its selfish and tyrannical oppression, and intended Bondage: but to the Benefit of all Mankind, by establishing and maintaining a sacred Asylum to distressed Industry to persecuted Merit, and to rational legal Liberty all the World over. Give me Leave, dear Sir! as an old Friend and Admirer of yours, to congratulate with You, on the approaching Return of your peaceable domestic Felicity, and the well deserved Applause of your for ever obliged Constituents, and their remotest Posterity.

The friendly Invitation you have given to Dr. Ingenhouz, to come over to Philadelphia, and to join you in your Labors, and those of your Academy, to promote usefull Knowledge, Arts and Sciences, has been a very tempting one. Had it pleased Heaven to prolong the Life of the late Empress Queen, he might have obtained her Leave, to absent himself for some Years, and still to hold the Pension of £500   per Annum bestowed upon him. But, at present, this Well deserved Reward, would drop at once; as it has allready been courtailed of its fifth Part. This good Doctor’s eager and indefatigable Pursuite of natural Knowledge, on expensive and numerous Experiments, consumes not only his Pension, but even his own patrimonial Income, which alone, I make no Doubt, would enable him, to go as far in his Discoveries, under your Encouragement and Assistance, in America as he does here; having no Children to provide for, and his Wife being remarkable for her Good Management and Frugality. Those many Ties, which fasten the Dr. to this Capital, would, in Regard to myself, be so many Motives, of embracing your Offer, with Joy and Gratitude. I wish, Not only to leave Vienna, where I have no Manner of Engagement; and where there is not the least Room, for usefully exerting what few Talents I may be possessed of, for the Service of my Fellow Creatures: but even Europe, after all the Injuries received, from those I have most liberally Assisted. My adverse Fortune has taught me, to live within very narrow Bounds. Should my Labors not prove sufficient for my Support, I could add £50 per Annum from England. Perhaps my Wife might recover so much strength, as to enable her to come over also, and to join me in my peaceable asylum in any of your temperate Provinces. If so, her Income of about £250 per Annum, added to mine, would greatly contribute to our mutual Ease.

If my Company therefore, as a Fellow-Passenger from Europe to Philadelphia, and under your Protection is not inconvenient, or disagreable to you please to inform me of the Time and Place of your shipping off; and I will make all the Haste I can, to join your Excellency in good Time.

I have translated your Instructions to those who think of settling in N. America, into the german Language, and apply’d for Leave to print it. But, the Censure would not permit its Publication. There being an excellent printing office at Philadelphia, in the german Language, directed by Mr. Heiner I should most willingly furnish him, not only with this, but also, many other interesting Translations, for the Benefit, both of the American States and for the Inhabitants of Europe, which might obtain a ready Sale at Hamburg, for all Germany and Switzerland. Such as Mr. Adams Letters of An American Farmer; and what Performances of yours and of your Academicians, might be intrusted to my Translation, into german french and italian. I would also translate some excellent french Publications into English for the Use of the Americans; such as Mr. Polier’s Treatise du Gouvernement des Moeurs; or what other works you would be pleased to point out to me. Thus would the Remainder of my Days not be lost, as they as here in a forced State of Inactivity; but, as Was my whole Life, in profitable, useful Action and Instruction. Happy if guided by your Knowledge and Experience, and animated by my Love of Man Kind, I can be made instrumental, in any Degree, in promoting and diffusing of Truth, Virtue, and Happiness!

With this my fixed Resolution founded on such Principles, I humbly beg Leave, to crave the Continuance of your Kindness and Friendship to Sir! Your Excellency’s Most sincerily devoted humble Servant