TABLE of the Degrees of Heat observed on FARENHEIT'S Thermometer, from August 4th to September 4th, 1797. ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS Mayor Lewis of Fredericksburg to General Lafayette, And Lafayette's Reply to the Mayor's Address of Welcome. [Editor of Magazine of American History: The perusal of your interesting article on Lafayette's visit to America in 1824, in the December issue of your Magazine, reminds me that I have in my possession the original of the autographic welcome to Lafayette by Mayor Lewis, of Fredericksburg, Virginia, and also the original of the response of Lafayette to the Mayor's words of welcome. These it will give me pleasure to place at your disposal for the pages of the Magazine. WILLIAM ALEXANDER SMITH.] General La Fayette In the name of upwards of 4000 of my fellow citizens of the towns of Fredericksburg and Falmouth I bid you a cordial welcome to this section of Virginia. Not very remote from one of the most important scenes of your heroic achievments in the cause of our beloved country, the inhabitants of this district feel a long and fondly cherished veneration for your illustrious name, and tender you the expression of their affectionate regards and high consideration with unfeigned sincerity and delight. The presence of the friend and companion of Washington excites the tenderest emotions and associations among a people whose town enjoys the distinguished honor of having been the residence of the Father of his country during the days of his childhood and youth, a people among whom also the gallant Mercer lived, and the veteran Weedon died. Our limited population and facilities will not admit of the pageantry of a splendid reception to our generous benefactor. We cannot vie with our sister cities in the erection of triumphal arches, the display of military parades and other magnificent exhibitions-but in feelings of unmingled gratitude and love towards your venerable person we cannot yield to any, and are happy in the assurance that this is the offering which will prove most grateful to one who having done so much to break the fetters of tyranny from the human mind has evinced how highly he can estimate its free and unbiassed sentiments. In the various manifestations of public homage and exultation which have everywhere greeted your arrival on our shores. We have however truly sympathized-we have rejoiced to see that the national feeling has so cordially responded to the voice of duty and obligation, and that in the unweried and reiterated efforts made to honor your illustrious presence, it has been strikingly evinced that the nation considers itself as owing you a debt which can never be repaid. Numbering ourselves among those who most deeply feel the weight of obligation imposed on us by your chivalric and magnanimous devotion to the honor and interests of America we again beg you to accept the tender of our most respectful salutations and cordial welcome to our land. Lafayette's Reply to the Mayor. I cordially rejoice, Sir, in the happy opportunity to revist this district where the United citizens of Fredericksburg and Falmouth, in addition to the obligations they had formerly confered upon me, are pleased to welcome my arrival with new and highly valued testimonies of their friendship. At this place, Sir, which recalls to our recollection several among the most honorable names of the Revolutionary war, I did many years ago salute the first residence of our paternal chief, and received the blessing of his venerable mother, and of his dear sister. Here now like at Mont Vernon, we are left to mourn for departed friends and parents. An imense Washington monument has already been located on the whole basis of American independence, as indeed to our own revolution we may proudly beget the emancipation of those new and vast southern republics, in behalf of which, at every step of my progress through the United States I have found the unanimous spirit of the people most warmly interested. With a profound sense of your flattering and affectionate reception in this city, with a lively satisfaction for the great improvments I have the pleasure to witness, I beg you, Sir, and ask of you gentlemen, to accept my devoted wishes and respectful acknowledgments. Interesting Letters of General Knox and Henry Clay. From the Collection of Hon. T. Romeyn Beek, M.D., of Albany, now in possession of Mrs Pierre Van Cortlandt. General Knox to Mr. Walker. West Point Dear Sir, In the proportions of pay mentioned in yesterday's orders, the Sergeant of Artillery are rated at the same, as a Sergeant of Infantry whereas a Sergeant of Artillery's monthly pay is ten dollars. The same with respect to the Sergeants of sappers and miners. There is no mention of any proportion of the artillery artificers, some of the most meritorious men in the service, enlisted for the War and unpaid as much as any other part of the Army. Although their pay is twenty dollars per month for the privates and twenty five for the Sergeants, yet probably they might be contented with the same proportion, at present as the artillery. I pray you to mention these matters to His Excellency and let me know the result We have this moment heard of the melancholy catastrophe which occurred at Richmond, and the whole city participates in the distress which it must have occasioned with you. How many hearts are wrung with distress by the horrible events which are evolved in one short hour! My poor friend Col. Clay, by whose side I write you this letter, is among the number who are penetrated with grief by this sad misfortune. He has just learnt that his unhappy child, the pride of his life, has perished in the flames. The accounts which have as yet reached us, left you when all was consternation, and of course are less satisfactory those could be desired. The object of this letter therefore is to interest you so far as to collect & transmit to me the particulars connected with her destruction. The afflicted bosom sometimes derives partial relief from dwelling on the sorrowful detail of circumstances attending the death of the object whose loss it deplores. Yr friend H. Clay. NOTES LADIES' HIGH HATS in 1831-It is amusing to note how history repeats itself. The following in the New York Mirror of February 12, 1831, will be read with a smile: "The women! They come to the theater with hats on their heads big enough to overshadow a little German principality. Nobody that has the misfortune to sit behind one of these need ever expect to see the stage, or, indeed, anything else but feathers, and bows, and unpronounceable fripperies. If they would only keep this prodigious concatenation of incongruous matter still, it would be something; one might occasionally get a peep by moving from side to side, or dodging under the disk of the prodigious luminary. But this seems quite impossible-the majestic object is perpetually in motion-shaking, and nidging, and nodding this way and that, so that all attempts to avoid it are as futile as those of some unfortunate mariner trying to get round Cape Hatteras in a gale. I have had such trials of skill with these hats as would amaze you, but all in vain. They form a perpetual screen between me and the stage, of which I have not had a full view since the invention of these unbecoming, unladylike appendages. "LAURENCE LONESOME" "BOSTON FOLKS ARE FULL OF NOTIONS-These proverbial sayings have more truth in them than is commonly imagined. They contain short rules for clearing up doubts and perplexities which would otherwise require a lengthy process of investigation. VOL. XIX.-No. 1.-6 When the Indian chiefs lately paid us a visit, all ranks of people were seized with a notion of gazing at them, though the sight of an Indian can be no novelty in this country. Observing an uncommon gathering in the street, people running out of houses and shops, without hats, I eagerly inquired the cause (supposing there was a fire or some terrible calamity), when, behold, two Indians were taking a walk. In this manner they were harassed daily, till I believe the poor fellows were heartily glad to take their departure. What was the reason? Why, Boston folks are full of notions. A new bonnet arrives from Londonthe ladies flock to pay homage to it with all the zeal of enthusiasm. Is it because nobody here has ingenuity enough to construct a handsome bonnet? No; but because Boston ladies are full of notions. Notwithstanding the laws of the town. forbid expensive mourning dresses, and common sense, as well as common prudence, remonstrates against the waste of so much property as is thrown away in funeral and mourning equipages, yet people have a notion of appearing on such occasions in all the pomp of parade, and of decorating themselves with all the elegance of dressing for a ball. Why is this? Boston folks are full of notions. But of all the notions, none is so contemptible as that of imitation. Our firstrate beaux and belles ape foreigners, while they in turn are aped by the grades below. When returned from church, the first question is, how was Miss Such A One dressed? The color of her gown, |