Page:American History Told by Contemporaries, v2.djvu/251

No. 79] Newcomb, and that he would vote for Thayer, at May, if it was not for Thomas Newcomb. By this, the other side are alarmed ; the craft, they think, is in danger ; but I believe their fears are groundless, though I wish there was good reason for them.

Drank tea at Mr. Etter's. He says all the blame is laid to him, and that a certain man takes it very ill of him. By the way, I heard to-day that Major Miller and James Bracket, Jr. were heard, since March meeting, raving against Deacon Palmer, and said he was a knave, &c. Q. About this quarrel? I find the late choice has brought upon me a multiplicity of new cares. The schools are one great object of my attention. It is a thing of some difficulty to find out the best, most beneficial method of expending the school money. Captain Adams says, that each parish s proportion of the school money has not been settled since my father's day. Thomas Faxon says, it would be more profitable to the children, to have a number of women's schools about than to have a fixed grammar school. Q. Whether he has not a desire that his wife should keep one? Jona than Bass says the same. Q. His wife is a school- mistress. So that two points of examination occur ; the portion between the parishes, that is, the sum which this parish ought to have ; and whether a stand ing grammar school is preferable to a number of school-mistresses part of the year, and a grammar school part. Another great object is the poor ; persons are soliciting for the privilege of supplying the poor with wood, corn, meat, &c. The care of supplying at cash price, and in weight and measure, is something ; the care of considering and deciding the pretensions of the claimants is something.

A third, and the greatest, is the assessment ; here I am not so thorough ; I must inquire a great while before I shall know the polls and estates, real and personal, of all the inhabitants of the town or parish. The high ways, the districts to surveyors, and laying out new ways or altering old ones, are a fourth thing. Perambulations of lines are another thing. Dorchester, Milton, Stoughton, Bridgewater, Abington, Weymouth,— orders for services of many sorts to, &c.