1800 August 18, to Mayor & Committee for introducing water into the City of Philadelphia

              Gentlemen



In compliance with a resolve of your body, & at the pressing solicitation of your members, I paid a visit to Soho-



You had good reason to believe that a fair representation of the progress of the works had not been made to you- & you wished for your own satisfaction, & to appease the popular clamour, to obtain correct information- You deputed me to visit Soho, & I cheerfully obeyed,- tho I expected that the expedition would not be relished by the Engineer- what has been the result?  I accomplished my mission- & reported to you an honest state of facts- but in the discharge of this duty, at your last meeting, I found myself insulted by your Engineer in a manner at once indecorous, approbrious, & unmerited- and, let me tell you gentlemen, in a stile which, considering the occasion, I think you ought not to have permitted.



I do not pretend to say what degree of respect is due to you, from your Engineer, but I presume it to be a novelty in the annals of deliberative bodies- for an Agent, not only to take an active part in their discussions- but to brow beat a member while in the very act of reporting the issue of a duty imposed on him by that body- The patient sufferance of such conduct appears to me to be a direct dereliction of your dignity-



So long as a faithful discharge of muy duty to the public rendered my services availing, I felt