The Hon^ble Accountants Office Theodore Foster Esq^t Oct 18^th 1796 Providence Rhode Island D Sir I had the honour of receiving your letter of the 6^th inst on the subject of the Claims of the Administrator to the Estate of Peter Harris deceased, late a Soldier in the Rhode Island line, which I reported the 13^th of April 1793 as barred by the Acts of Limitation; — in a [undecipherable: summary] of which I have [undecipherable] herewith, enclosing herewith an Abstract by which you will see that the Act of the 22^d July 1783 required that a[n] Abstract of all Claims should be exhibited within a certain given period, and that the Act of the 27^th March 1792 suspended the operation of the Limitation only for two years ending on 27 March 1794. All Claims rendered under those Acts were entered on a Register kept for that purpose, of which a Copy was furnished immediately after the expiration thereof to the [undecipherable] of the Treasury exhibiting a particular Abstract of each Claim — That of Peter Harris was not entered thereon, neither could it either from M^r Lewis's letter of the 15^th of March, or 2^d of April 1794. The Construction of the Limitation Act has fixed an established rule in the Office which cannot be deviated from, short of an Act of Congress. I am &c W Simmons Acct