[Extract]

Sir ー It gives me great concern to be obliged to inform you that I have received his Majesty's commands for your returning home at the close of this year. In a letter I wrote to you not long ago, I mentioned that the world in general expected something essential to be done both by the fleet and army, and General Gage's return to England has made my resistance to your being recalled utterly ineffectual: the torrent has been too strong for me to be able to withstand it.

You may however be assured that I shall in every place, both public and private, do you the justice you deserve, and declare my opinion that it has been more owing to accident than to misconduct that the operations of the fleet during this summer have not carried that importance with them that the nation expected. I am [&c.]