To George Washington from John Sinclair, 6 February 1794
From John Sinclair
Whitehall [London]-–6th Febry 1794
Sir,
I had the honour of receiving your Excellency’s letter by Mr Lear, with whose appearance & conversation I am much pleased. He comes from a good school.1 By this vessel I have the pleasure of sending copies of several of our Agricultural surveys, one or two of the best; it would be worth while to reprint, & circulate in america. The whole Kingdom will be completed in about 6 months from the commencement of the inquiry.2 Excuse the shortness of this epistle, having such a mass of matter to attend to, & believe me, with sincere respect & esteem, your very faithful humble Servt
John Sinclair
N.B. We recognise the good sense and steady judgement of old England, in the conduct of her American descendants on a late trying occasion. I have perused with much pleasure Mr Jefferson’s paper upon the subject. My best Compts to Mr Adams & him.3
ALS, PHi: Gratz Collection. GW’s docket is erroneously dated “6th Feb. 1784.”
1. On Tobias Lear’s trip to Great Britain and for the letter of recommendation that he presented to Sinclair, see GW to Sinclair, 8 Nov. 1793. For Lear’s impression of Sinclair, see Lear to GW, 26–30 Jan. 1794.
2. For a list of the agricultural surveys and essays published by Sinclair and the British Board of Agriculture and sent to GW over the next few years, see , 89–95. On Sinclair’s plan to survey Great Britain, see his letter to GW of 15 Aug. 1793.
3. The subject of Thomas Jefferson’s paper has not been identified.