My Lords

His Majesty having been pleased by Warrant under His Sign Manual to appoint places of Confinement at Portsmouth & at Plymouth pursuant to the late Act of Parliament "to empower His Majesty to secure & detain Persons charged with or suspected of the Crime of High Treason committed in any of His Majesty's Colonies or Plantations in America, or on the High Seas, or the Crime of Piracy" I am now to signify to your Ldps His Majesty's Commands that All Persons subject to the Provisions of the said Act of Parliament, who have from time to time been brought into the different ports of Great Britain & have been directed to be detained in safe Custody till farther signification of His Majesty's Pleasure; also that all others subject to the said Provisions, who may hereafter be brought into any Port of Great Britain, [be] forthwith carried before a [person] having proper Authority in [this] behalf in order to their being committed Jo one of the Places of Confinement abovementioned. ー I am &ca