Preston Boston 30 Sepr 1775
Sir
I have received by the Pacquet your Letters of the 13th and 15th instant together with the Inclosures therein mentioned. And by the Store Ship which arrived the 29th your Letters of the 17th 18th and 21st instant and Duplicates of your Dispatches by the Pacquet. My time is so much taken up at present that I cannot reply so fully as I wish to do, and shall therefore only speak to those points that require dispatch, until another opportunity. In all cases of Seizures where the Cargo or Hull cannot be libelled with a tolerable Prospect of being condemned, it is best to allow the Vessel to be unladen and the Cargo sold for the Owners, reserving a preference of the whole or any part for the Kings Service. In some Cases I have taken Bond, but principally where known disaffected people have been proprietors; so that your having a Bond for the Salt is as much as at present can be done. With respect to the Vessel, I think it best to let her remain where she is, unless the property in her is changed to more friendly people, or that you find she cannot legally be prevented from navigating. And now I am on the subject of Captures, I must acquaint you that although Government is sending out great reinforcements to the Fleet, I have not yet received more enlarged operating powers than I was before possessed of, so that the Acts of Parliament must be your general Guide where a special Order from me does not direct otherwise, and also except in urgent and very flagrant Cases.
I approve of your precautions and of the Orders given for the Security of the Yard, and desire you will cause them to be punctually observed without respect of persons. This is a time when the utmost precision is necessary and the most exact Discipline should be enforced.
Too much praise cannot be given to your diligence in equipping the Somerset, and the attention you have at the same time bestowed on the Kings Yard, which from your Report is indeed in bad condition, and it can never be otherwise when its Government is lodged in three persons generally unequal to the Task separately or collectively, and always invested with very abridged powers. I shall therefore depend on your putting every thing in the best Order possible before Winter and in seein.e: as much justice done to the King as you can.
It is surely defeating the intention of the Legislature of Great Britain to suffer Emigrants from New England since the Rebellion to enjoy the Priviledges of the other inhabitants of Nova Scotia, and their Assembly might I think have obliged all such to be residents a year or two, and to have given some proof of their Loyalty, before they should be capable of carrying on any Commerce by Sea. And it is also to be wished Registers were not so indiscriminately granted, but it is difficult to say how or where the line could be drawn.
As you wish for another Ship, and perhaps Mr O'Brien may go that way, I have sent you the Fowey to be hove down, repaired, new sheathed and fitted again with all possible Dispatch.
I am glad the Savage is sailed for Newfoundland.
The arrival of the Mercury obliges me to detain the Fowey a few days longer, so that [you will] receive this by the Pacquet; and I will if possible write to you again by Captain Montagu. I am &c.