they would this summer and fall reach the point, at which, it is my intention they should stop, at least till I should be better able than at present to add to them, and after a fair examination found upon an actual account of my expenditures, I am persuaded that a plan I have contemplated for the next and succeeding years would bring my expenses of every kind within the compass of four thousand dollars yearly, exclusive of the interest of my country establishment. To this limit, I have been resolved to reduce them, even though it should be necessary to leave that establishment for a few years.
In the meantime, my lands now in a course of sale & settlement would accelerate the extinguishment of my debt, and in the end leave me a handsome lean property. It was also allowable for me to take into view, collaterally, the expectations of my wife; which have been of late partly realized. She is now entitled to a property of between two and three thousand pounds (as I compute) by descent from her mother; and her father is understood to possess a large estate. I feel all the delicacy of this allusion; but the occasion I have will plead my excuse. And that venerable father, I am sure, will pardon. He knows well all the nicety of my past conduct.
Viewing the matter in these different aspects, I trust the opinion of candid men will be, that there has been no impropriety in my conduct; especially when it is taken into the calculation that my country establishment, though costly, promises, by progressive rise of property on this island, and the felicity of its situation, to become more and more valuable.
