They also gave a description of Washington, which they declared was one of the greatest cities in the known world; the grandeur and magnificence of it surpassed that of Paris or London; it contained thirteen hundred spacious squares. But they did not mention that those squares contained no houses or inhabitants. These stories could not gain the belief of persons acquainted with the American nation and its capitol, but we were led to believe that the conduct on both sides deserved much censure, and that the burning of that capitol was a disgrace to both nations. Nothing very material occurred among the prisoners this month; they received their monthly pay as usual, but were more sickly, and the weather cold and tedious, but could not be compared with the November before. The prisoners, though far from being as comfortable as they ought to be, suffered much less, and were in a better condition to endure the hardships of a prison than the year before, now they were supplied with one pair of shoes and stockings, and allowed two and a half pence per day. They did not shrink at the approaching season so much as before. Mr. Williams returned to London at the end of the month; he had been with us all the month, distributing the several articles above mentioned. As the season advanced the hard weather increased, and the snow fell in great abundance in the beginning of December, and the prisoners, much chilled with the cold, applied for permission to keep fire, as had been permitted to the French prisoners, but were peremptorily refused and absolutely forbid. But to make the best of these evils of life, they applied themselves every man to some occupation; they endeavored to cherish and keep the mind alive if the body decayed, and to cultivate that nobler part of our being, they established a number of schools, and the young men and boys were instructed in them for nearly two years, and many of them, who were perfectly unacquainted with letters when they came to this prison, had acquired a tolerable education in the English branches of science. There has, from the earliest ages of antiquity, been frequent instances of men who have been weary of life, and had not the courage and fortitude to bear those ills which are incident to it, and have, therefore, by a sort of false heroism, attempted to avoid them by destroying their own life. The Stoic philosophy, which seemed to be a cultivated degree of insensibility, encouraged it, and called it heroism; but the act is cowardly, and a great offence against the laws of God and man. I have thought proper to premise these observations, before I related the melancholy instance of a young man, a native of the city of New York, by the name of John Taylor, who put an end to his life on the first of this month, by hanging himself, in prison No. 5.