Sr

My Lords Commissrs of the Admty having taken into Consideration the Petition you transmitted to me in your Letter of the 19th Inst signed by sixteen Rebel Prisoners confin'd in Forton Prison, wherein they pray to have the liberty to enter into the Service of His Majesty on board the Monarch; I am commanded by their Lordships to acquaint you that as the Petitioners are committed by a Magistrate for treason or Piracies, it is not in their power to order them to be discharg'd from their Confinement. I am &c.