At the request of Mr. James Gourlay of this City, we have been induced to address you on the subject of the property purchased by William J. Caldwell in Buffalo in 1817.

It has been represented to us that Mr. Caldwell soon after the close of the late war, at the solicitation of his friends in Albany, went to Buffalo, selected a lot of land belonging to you, took an article for it, expended as we understand near $10,000 in buildings upon upon the lot; and by the unforeseen changes which took place in that country, by the stagnation of business, occasioned by the scarcity of money; and by the consequent depreciation of every species of property; he failed to fulfil his engagements with you, became totally insolvent, and the loss has fallen upon his father in Law, Mr. Gourlay. Our wish, therefore, Sir, in writing to you at this time, is that you will extend to Mr. Gourlay all the favour which a case of this character will allow of, and thus give him an opportunity of deriving out of that property some partial indemnity for the losses he has sustained, and relieve him and his family from some portion of the embarrassments in which the failure of Mr. Caldwell has involved them.