1. This is JA’s last letter from Jebb, who died on 2 March 1786, at the age of fifty. According to the London General Evening Post of 2–4 March, Jebb “fell a sacrifice to unremitting exertions for the best interests of mankind.” JA’s attendance at Jebb’s funeral was reported in the newspapers, including the London Chronicle of 9–11 March, and in a resolution of 10 March (Adams Papers description begins Manuscripts and other materials, 1639–1889, in the Adams Manuscript Trust collection given to the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1956 and enlarged by a few additions of family papers since then. Citations in the present edition are simply by date of the original document if the original is in the main chronological series of the Papers and therefore readily found in the microfilm edition of the Adams Papers (APM). description ends ), the Society for Constitutional Information thanked JA for the “mark of respect shewn by him to the Memory of their late Member, that real patriot and distinguished Assertor of the rights of Mankind, Doctor John Jebb, by Attending the voluntary Procession at his Funeral.”

2. Jebb enclosed Samuel Romilly’s anonymous Observations on a Late Publication, Intituled, Thoughts on Executive Justice: To Which is Added, a Letter Containing Remarks on the Same Work, London, 1786 (not found). It was a reply to Martin Madan’s anonymous Thoughts on Executive Justice, with Respect to Our Criminal Laws, Particularly on the Circuits, London, 1785. Madan argued for the strict enforcement of criminal laws, even those requiring the death penalty for minor thievery. Romilly believed, however, that the punishment should fit the magnitude of the crime. To support his argument he included “A Letter from a Gentleman Abroad to His Friend in England” (p. 137–162), which was in fact a 14 March 1785 letter from Benjamin Franklin to Benjamin Vaughan.

3. William Eden, M.P. for Heytesbury and later 1st Baron Auckland, accepted an appointment in early December to negotiate a commercial treaty with France, a task he completed in Sept. 1786. By accepting the appointment, Eden removed himself from the parliamentary opposition to the Pitt ministry, of which he had been a major figure since the fall of the Fox-North coalition. This may have been the “dark transaction” referred to by Jebb (Namier and Brooke, House of Commons description begins Sir Lewis Namier and John Brooke, eds., The House of Commons, 1754–1790, London, 1964; 3 vols. description ends ).